Cerebral blood flow in striatal regions is associated with apathy in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Striatal dysfunction has been proposed as a pathomechanism for negative symptoms in schizophrenia. There is consensus that negative symptoms can be grouped into 2 dimensions: apathy and diminished expression. Recent studies suggest that different neural mechanisms underlie these dimensions, but the relationship between regional resting-state cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and negative symptom dimensions has not been investigated. METHODS: This study included 29 patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls. We measured rCBF in the striatum using arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI. We assessed negative symptoms using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale. RESULTS: In the ventral and dorsal striatum, rCBF was not different between patients with schizophrenia and controls. However, we did find a positive association between the severity of apathy and increased rCBF in the ventral and dorsal striatum in patients with schizophrenia. This effect was not present for diminished expression. LIMITATIONS: All patients were taking atypical antipsychotics, so an effect of antipsychotic medication on rCBF could not be excluded, although we did not find a significant association between rCBF and chlorpromazine equivalents. CONCLUSION: The main finding of this study was a specific association between increased striatal rCBF and the negative symptom dimension of apathy. Our results further support the separate assessment of apathy and diminished expression when investigating the neural basis of negative symptoms. The ASL technique can provide a direct and quantitative approach to investigating the role of rCBF changes in the pathophysiology of negative symptoms.

Delivery Route and the Outcome of Newborn Hearing Screening of Full-Term Neonates Born in a Public Maternal-Infant Hospital in the South of Brazil.

Introduction The newborn hearing screening (NHS) is the most effective strategy for detecting newborns and infants suspected to have hearing loss. Objective To verify possible associations between the route of delivery and the results of the NHS conducted at 3 independent times (24, 36, and 36 hours with a facilitator auricular maneuver [FAM]) in the lives of full-term newborns. Methods A descriptive, observational, prospective study performed with a sample of 462 newborns, with a gestational age ≥ 37 weeks, without risk indicators of hearing loss. The NHS was conducted as a routine element of the facilities, two times: at 24 and 36 hours of life. In the presence of a "failure" in the last test, a new one was immediately performed, following the FAM. Statistic analyses were carried out on the program SPSS version 21.0 (IBM Inc., Armonk, NY, USA). Results Of the 462 newborns assessed, 304 (65.80%) were born by vaginal delivery. There was a statistical significance of "pass" in the NHS for the 24-hour evaluation ( p ≤ 0.001 for a vaginal delivery and p = 0.002 for a cesarean delivery), with the prevalence of the "pass" index being higher when the baby's lifespan was greater. A statistically significant difference was not observed when the NHS results were compared by taking into account the babies' routes of delivery and the different times of life. Conclusion These findings show that full-term babies who were born by cesarean did not show more "failure" in the NHS results, contradicting the hypothesis of the study. Furthermore, to reduce the false-negative rates, regardless of the route of delivery, this assessment should be conducted after the first 24 hours of the newborns' life.

Cross-cultural Validation of the 5-Factor Structure of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Negative symptoms are currently viewed as having a 2-dimensional structure, with factors reflecting diminished expression (EXP) and motivation and pleasure (MAP). However, several factor-analytic studies suggest that the consensus around a 2-dimensional model is premature. The current study investigated and cross-culturally validated the factorial structure of BNSS-rated negative symptoms across a range of cultures and languages. METHOD: Participants included individuals diagnosed with a psychotic disorder who had been rated on the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) from 5 cross-cultural samples, with a total N = 1691. First, exploratory factor analysis was used to extract up to 6 factors from the data. Next, confirmatory factor analysis evaluated the fit of 5 models: (1) a 1-factor model, 2) a 2-factor model with factors of MAP and EXP, 3) a 3-factor model with inner world, external, and alogia factors; 4) a 5-factor model with separate factors for blunted affect, alogia, anhedonia, avolition, and asociality, and 5) a hierarchical model with 2 second-order factors reflecting EXP and MAP, as well as 5 first-order factors reflecting the 5 aforementioned domains. RESULTS: Models with 4 factors or less were mediocre fits to the data. The 5-factor, 6-factor, and the hierarchical second-order 5-factor models provided excellent fit with an edge to the 5-factor model. The 5-factor structure demonstrated invariance across study samples. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the validity of the 5-factor structure of BNSS-rated negative symptoms across diverse cultures and languages. These findings have important implications for the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of negative symptoms.

Prácticas innovadoras en la enseñanza de Psicología del Desarrollo / Práticas inovadoras no ensino da psicologia do desenvolvimento / Innovative practices in the teaching of developmental psychology

RESUMO Este artigo objetiva descrever estratégias de ensino e aprendizagem inovadoras empregadas nas disciplinas de Psicologia do Desenvolvimento I e II do curso de Psicologia de uma universidade federal do sul do Brasil, como parte de um projeto vinculado ao Programa de Iniciação à Docência (PID) dessa universidade. Atividades e técnicas diversificadas e adaptadas aos diferentes conteúdos têm sido propostas para garantir a participação e o engajamento dos discentes, tais como observação, criação de jogos educativos, desenvolvimento de mapas conceituais, análise de materiais audiovisuais e artísticos, criação narrativa e discussão de casos. A realização dessas atividades e técnicas tem se mostrado eficaz na promoção da integração teórico-prática, considerando a realidade dos estudantes, e na construção de um raciocínio psicológico para a compreensão dos múltiplos fenômenos associados ao desenvolvimento humano.

RESUMEN En este artículo se tiene por objetivo describir estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje innovadoras empleadas en las asignaturas de Psicología del Desarrollo I y II del curso de Psicología de una universidad federal del sur de Brasil, como parte de un proyecto vinculado al Programa de Iniciación a la Docencia (PID) de esa universidad. Actividades y técnicas diversificadas y adaptadas a los distintos contenidos han sido propuestas para garantizar la participación y el compromiso de los discentes, tales como observación, creación de juegos educativos, desarrollo de mapas conceptuales, análisis de materiales audiovisuales y artísticos, creación narrativa y discusión de casos. La realización de esas actividades y técnicas se ha mostrado eficaz en la promoción de la integración teórico-práctica, considerando la realidad de los estudiantes, y en la construcción de un raciocinio psicológico para la comprensión de los múltiples fenómenos asociados al desarrollo humano.

ABSTRACT This article aims to describe innovative teaching and learning strategies used in the disciplines of Developmental Psychology I and II of the Psychology course at a federal university in southern Brazil, as part of a project linked to the Programa de Iniciação à Docência (PID)2 of that university. Diversified activities and techniques adapted to the different contents have been proposed to ensure the participation and engagement of students, such as observation, creation of educational games, development of conceptual maps, analysis of audiovisual and artistic materials, narrative creation and discussion of cases. Carrying out these activities and techniques has proven to be effective in promoting theoretical-practical integration, considering the students' reality, and in building psychological reasoning for understanding the multiple phenomena associated with human development.

Investigating the association of ventral and dorsal striatal dysfunction during reward anticipation with negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals.

BACKGROUND: Negative symptoms are a core feature of schizophrenia and also found in healthy individuals in subclinical forms. According to the current literature the two negative symptom domains, apathy and diminished expression may have different underlying neural mechanisms. Previous observations suggest that striatal dysfunction is associated with apathy in schizophrenia. However, it is unclear whether apathy is specifically related to ventral or dorsal striatal alterations. Here, we investigated striatal dysfunction during reward anticipation in patients with schizophrenia and a non-clinical population, to determine whether it is associated with apathy. METHODS: Chronic schizophrenia patients (n = 16) and healthy controls (n = 23) underwent an event- related functional MRI, while performing a variant of the Monetary Incentive Delay Task. The two negative symptom domains were assessed in both groups using the Brief Negative Symptoms Scale. RESULTS: In schizophrenia patients, we saw a strong negative correlation between apathy and ventral and dorsal striatal activation during reward anticipation. In contrast, there was no correlation with diminished expression. In healthy controls, apathy was not correlated with ventral or dorsal striatal activation during reward anticipation. CONCLUSION: This study replicates our previous findings of a correlation between ventral striatal activity and apathy but not diminished expression in chronic schizophrenia patients. The association between apathy and reduced dorsal striatal activity during reward anticipation suggests that impaired action-outcome selection is involved in the pathophysiology of motivational deficits in schizophrenia.

Perfil de psicoterapeutas pais-bebê de Porto Alegre: formação e atuação profissional / Profile of parent-infant psychotherapists of Porto Alegre: training and professional actuation / Perfil de psicoterapeutas padres-bebés de Porto Alegre: formación y actuación profesional

A psicoterapia pais-bebê é uma modalidade terapêutica que enfoca a relação da díade/tríade pai-mãe/bebê, geralmente embasada no referencial teórico psicanalítico. No Brasil, são escassas as pesquisas sobre o tema. Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar o perfil de profissionais que atuam como psicoterapeutas pais-bebê em Porto Alegre e as características e especificidades deste campo de atuação. Trata-se de estudo qualitativo, de caráter exploratório-descritivo. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista semiestruturada realizada presencialmente. Participaram do estudo 10 psicoterapeutas do sexo feminino, selecionadas por conveniência. Utilizou-se a Análise de Conteúdo proposta por Laurence Bardin para a análise dos dados. A possibilidade de intervir precocemente foi descrita como a principal motivação para a inserção na área, que ocorreu sem uma formação acadêmica estruturada. Possuir conhecimentos sobre desenvolvimento infantil, constituição de vínculos e dinâmica familiar foi citado como imprescindível para a atuação profissional. Quanto às características pessoais e técnicas, foram mencionadas a necessidade de identificação com a técnica e com o trabalho com bebês e de possuir formação sólida, pautada em estudo teórico, supervisão e análise pessoal. A importância da experiência prática e da observação de bebês enquanto ferramentas de aprendizagem também foi destacada, e constatou-se a necessidade de ampliar a visibilidade desse campo de atuação entre profissionais e público em geral.(AU)

The parent-infant psychotherapy is a therapeutic approach that focus on the father-mother/baby dyad/triad, usually based on the psychoanalytic theoretical framework. In Brazil, research on this theme is scarce. This study aimed to investigate the profile of parent-infant psychotherapists that work in Porto Alegre and the characteristics and specificities of their field of actuation. This is a qualitative study, with a descriptive and exploratory design. Data were collected by semi-structured in person interviews. A total of 10 female psychotherapists, selected by convenience, participated in the study. Content Analysis proposed by Laurence Bardin was used for data analysis. The possibility of early intervention was described as the main motivation for the choice of this field, which occurred without a formal training. Knowledge about child development, bonding and family dynamics stood out as essential for professional performance. Regarding personal and technical characteristics, the need for identification with this technique and with working with babies and a solid training, based on theoretical study, supervision and personal analysis, were mentioned. The importance of the practical experience and of the infant observation as learning tools was also highlighted, and the need to increase the visibility of this practical field among professionals and the general public was observed.(AU)

La psicoterapia padres-bebé es una modalidad terapéutica que se enfoca en la relación de la díada/tríada padre-madre/bebé, generalmente basada en el referencial teórico psicoanalítico. En Brasil, pocas son las investigaciones sobre el tema. Este estudio analizó el perfil de profesionales que actúan como psicoterapeutas padres-bebé en Porto Alegre (Brasil) y las características y especificidades de este ámbito de actuación. Este es un estudio cualitativo, de naturaleza exploratoria descriptiva. Para la recopilación de datos se realizó una entrevista semiestructurada de modo presencial. Se entrevistaron a 10 psicoterapeutas mujeres, elegidas por conveniencia. Se aplicó el Análisis de Contenido propuesto por Laurence Bardin para analizar los datos. La posibilidad de intervenir precozmente se describió como la principal motivación para la selección del área, que ocurrió sin una formación académica estructurada. Poseer conocimientos sobre desarrollo infantil, constitución de vínculos y dinámica familiar se destacó como imprescindible para la actuación profesional. Respecto a las características personales y técnicas, se mencionaron la necesidad de identificación con dicha técnica y con el trabajo con bebés, y tener una sólida formación, regida por estudios teóricos, supervisión y análisis personal. Además, se destacó la importancia de la experiencia práctica y de la observación de bebés como herramienta de aprendizaje, y se constató la necesidad de ampliar la visibilidad de este campo de actuación entre los profesionales y el público en general.(AU)