Personal characteristics of World War Two survivor offspring related to the presence of indirect intrusions.

Background: A substantial proportion of clinical World War Two survivor offspring reports intrusions about war events they did not experience themselves. Objective: To help identify factors that contribute to the development of such indirect intrusions (i.e. intrusions about non-self-experienced traumatic events), we examined the personal characteristics of survivor offspring that were related to the presence of indirect intrusions. To explore the specificity of these relationships, we compared characteristics related to the presence of indirect and direct intrusions (i.e. intrusions about self-experienced traumatic events). Methods: Participants (N = 98) were post-war offspring of World War Two survivors in treatment in one of two clinics specialized in mental health services for war victims. We assessed the presence of indirect and direct intrusions as well as the following personal characteristics: gender, education level, trait dissociation, affect intensity, attentional control, mental imagery, fantasy proneness, and current psychopathology. Results: Reports of indirect intrusions were more frequent in individuals high in fantasy proneness, trait dissociation, and current psychopathology. Reports of direct intrusions were more frequent in women, individuals scoring high on trait dissociation, affect intensity, and current psychopathology. Fantasy proneness was a unique correlate of indirect intrusions. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the idea that intrusions are the result of (re)constructive processes affected by several factors including personal characteristics. HIGHLIGHTS: Offspring of World War Two survivors often experience indirect intrusions.We examined personal characteristics related to indirect and direct intrusions.Fantasy proneness was the best predictor of indirect intrusions.Gender was the best predictor of direct intrusions.

Antecedentes: Una proporción sustancial de los descendientes sobrevivientes clínicos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial reportan intrusiones sobre eventos de guerra que no experimentaron ellos mismos.Objetivo: Para ayudar a identificar los factores que contribuyen al desarrollo de tales intrusiones indirectas (es decir, intrusiones sobre eventos traumáticos no-auto-experimentados) examinamos las características personales de los hijos sobrevivientes que estaban relacionadas con la presencia de intrusiones indirectas. Para explorar la especificidad de estas relaciones, comparamos las características relacionadas con la presencia de intrusiones indirectas y directas (es decir, intrusiones sobre eventos traumáticos auto-experimentados).Métodos: Los participantes (N = 98) fueron hijos de sobrevivientes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial que estaban en tratamiento en alguna de las dos clínicas especializadas en servicios de salud mental para víctimas de guerra. Se evaluó la presencia de intrusiones indirectas y directas, así como las siguientes características personales: sexo, nivel educativo, disociación de rasgos, intensidad afectiva, control atencional, imaginería mental, propensión a la fantasía y psicopatología actual.Resultados: Los informes de intrusiones indirectas fueron más frecuentes en individuos con alta propensión a la fantasía, disociación de rasgos y psicopatología actual. Los informes de intrusiones directas fueron más frecuentes en mujeres, individuos con puntajes altos en disociación de rasgos, intensidad afectiva y psicopatología actual. La propensión a la fantasía fue un correlato único de las intrusiones indirectas.Conclusiones: Estos hallazgos son consistentes con la idea de que las intrusiones son el resultado de procesos (re)constructivos afectados por varios factores, incluidas las características personales.

Spider phobia in children: disgust and fear before and after treatment.

Fear of spiders, disgust sensitivity, and spiders' disgust-evoking status were assessed in a group of spider phobic girls (n = 22) who applied for treatment, in a group of non-phobic girls (n = 21), and in the parents of both groups of children. The phobic girls were tested both before and after behavioural treatment which consisted of 1.5 hr eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and 1.5 hr exposure in vivo. Findings support the idea that disgust is an important aspect of spider phobia: (a) spider phobic girls exhibited higher levels of disgust sensitivity and considered spiders per se as more disgusting than non-phobic girls; (b) there was a parallel decline of spider fear and spiders' disgust-evoking status as a result of treatment; and (c) spiders' disgust-evoking status was relatively strong in mothers of spider phobic girls. The latter finding may indicate, that the acquisition of spider fear is facilitated by specific parental disgust reactions when confronted with spiders.

The gene cluster containing the LCAT gene is conserved between human and pig.

A pooled DNA probe from P1 artificial chromosome clones (PACs) containing the human lecithin:cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT) gene cluster was used in fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments assigning the genes to pig chromosome 6p13. In addition, probes derived from the coding regions in the human gene cluster were used in long range mapping experiments to show that the overall structures of the human and porcine LCAT gene clusters are identical. Both the linear order and the close physical distance of five apparently unrelated genes have been maintained throughout 90 million years of divergent evolution between human and pig. The extremely dense clustering of the genes in the LCAT gene cluster suggests that this gene organization has biological significance. The conservation of the gene cluster between human and pig supports this suggestion.

UCS inflation and human aversive autonomic conditioning.

Fifty students participated in a differential conditioning paradigm. In the first part of the experiment, one neutral slide (CS+) was paired with a tone (UCS) and another neutral slide (CS-) was never followed by a tone. During the subsequent inflation phase, unsignalled UCSs gradually increased in strength for the inflation group while they were kept constant for the control group. During extinction trials, the inflation group initially showed relatively stronger UCS expectancies on the CS+ trials than the control group. In contrast to what was predicted, the UCS inflation procedure did not result in stronger conditioning effects of the skin conductance response compared to the control procedure. The effectiveness of the UCS inflation procedure was not related to trait anxiety.

Startle responses of spider phobics to masked stimuli: a pilot study.

The present study tested the hypothesis that briefly flashed and backwardly masked phobic stimuli potentiate startle reflexes in phobic subjects. Spider phobic (n = 17) and normal control (n = 12) subjects were exposed to short (30 ms) and backwardly masked presentations of phobic slides (i.e., spiders) and neutral slides (i.e., flowers, mushrooms, snakes). On half the trials, eyeblink startle reflexes were elicited with auditory probes following presentation of the slides. In spite of the degraded stimulus conditions, there were some indications that phobics exhibited a startle pattern different from control subjects. More specifically, phobic subjects tended to react with larger startles during the second block of spider trials than control subjects. No such group differences were found for the neutral trials. As the eyeblink startle reflex is closely linked to the thalamo-amygdala pathway, the present findings provide some preliminary support for the idea that the preattentive processing of phobic cues is located at the subcortical level.