Visceral hypersensitivity is one of the most important mechanisms of functional gastrointestinal diseases. Our previous studies have shown that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation (REMSD) decreases visceral sensitivity in rats, but the mechanisms involved in this effect, have not yet been clarified. In this study, we investigated the role of the CNS and peripheral endocannabinoids in vis...

Hippocampal θ (3-12 Hz) oscillations are implicated in learning and memory, but their functional role remains unclear. We studied the effect of the phase of local θ oscillation on hippocampal responses to a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) and subsequent learning of classical trace eyeblink conditioning in adult rabbits. High-amplitude, regular hippocampal θ-band responses (that predict good l...

To identify variables that affect immediate early gene (IEG) expression in the auditory telencephalon of songbirds, we developed a conditioning paradigm that trained adult male canaries to associate song with a mild shock. Learning of the association was measured by a bird's fear and avoidance responses. Birds exposed to paired song and shock were compared to yoked controls exposed to each stim...

In a previous study (Lotze et al., 2007) we described dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation in healthy subjects during retaliation in a competitive reaction time task. Interestingly, the less callous the subjects were, the more they responded with ventral mPFC-activation when watching the opponent suffering. In this study we used this paradigm to investigate behavioral and neural re...

This study examined the cardiac concomitants of feedback processing in a time production task derived from [Mittner et al., J. Cogn. Neurosci. 9 (1997) 788]. Participants performed the time production task (i.e. 1-s intervals) under two conditions. In the experimental condition, feedback informed them that the produced interval was within or outside the acceptable range (too long or too short)....

INTRODUCTION Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduces depression, anxiety, and pain for people suffering from a variety of illnesses, and there is a growing need to understand the neurobiological networks implicated in self-reported psychological change as a result of training. Combining complementary and alternative treatments such as MBSR with other therapies is helpful; however, the...

Adrienne Rich’s poem “The Ninth Symphony of Beethoven Understood at Last as a Sexual Message” has become fixture in musicological accounts and the ever since its introduction to discipline an influential essay by Susan McClary. But though work been cited numerous books articles intervening decades, it remained yoked McClary’s text, with critics rarely considering on own terms. This paper consid...

The illusion of control consists of overestimating the influence that our behavior exerts over uncontrollable outcomes. Available evidence suggests that an important factor in development of this illusion is the personal involvement of participants who are trying to obtain the outcome. The dominant view assumes that this is due to social motivations and self-esteem protection. We propose that t...