0000000000372545
AUTHOR
Tobias Sommer
Dopamine Related Genes Differentially Affect Declarative Long-Term Memory in Healthy Humans
In humans, monetary reward can promote behavioral performance including response times, accuracy, and subsequent recognition memory. Recent studies have shown that the dopaminergic system plays an essential role here, but the link to interindividual differences remains unclear. To further investigate this issue, we focused on previously described polymorphisms of genes affecting dopaminergic neurotransmission: DAT1 40 base pair (bp), DAT1 30 bp, DRD4 48 bp, and cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CNR1). Specifically, 669 healthy humans participated in a delayed recognition memory paradigm on two consecutive days. On the first day, male vs. female faces served as cues predicting an immediate moneta…
Where There is Smoke There is Fear-Impaired Contextual Inhibition of Conditioned Fear in Smokers
The odds-ratio of smoking is elevated in populations with neuropsychiatric diseases, in particular in the highly prevalent diagnoses of post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders. Yet, the association between smoking and a key dimensional phenotype of these disorders—maladaptive deficits in fear learning and fear inhibition—is unclear. We therefore investigated acquisition and memory of fear and fear inhibition in healthy smoking and non-smoking participants (N=349, 22% smokers). We employed a well validated paradigm of context-dependent fear and safety learning (day 1) including a memory retrieval on day 2. During fear learning, a geometrical shape was associated with an aversive electric…
Diagnostische Arbeit mit dem Befundbogen der Konfliktachse der OPD-KJ: Empirische Ergebnisse an stationären und ambulanten Patient_innen
Zusammenfassung. In der Kinder- und Jugendlichenpsychiatrie und -psychotherapie findet die Operationalisierte Psychodynamische Diagnostik (OPD-KJ) in den letzten Jahren zunehmend Anwendung. Dieser Beitrag stellt die Konfliktachse der OPD-KJ vor, die eine Operationalisierung von sieben psychodynamischen Konflikten und den jeweils zugeordneten Verarbeitungsmodi enthält. Er beschreibt empirische Ergebnisse zum Vergleich der Konfliktachsenratings und des Strukturratings in einer ambulanten und einer stationären Gruppe von Kindern und Jugendlichen (gesamt N = 186, 12.7 Jahre, 54 % weiblich). Die Befunde zeigen an der Gesamtgruppe, dass die diagnosespezifischen Geschlechtsunterschiede verschwind…
Sex differences in conditioned stimulus discrimination during context-dependent fear learning and its retrieval in humans: the role of biological sex, contraceptives and menstrual cycle phases
BACKGROUND: Anxiety disorders are more prevalent in women than in men. Despite this sexual dimorphism most experimental studies are conducted in male participants and studies focusing on sex differences are sparse. In addition the role of hormonal contraceptives and menstrual cycle phase in fear conditioning and extinction processes remain largely unknown. METHODS: We investigated sex differences in context-dependent fear acquisition and extinction (day 1) and their retrieval/expression (day 2). Skin conductance responses (SCRs) fear and unconditioned stimulus expectancy ratings were obtained. RESULTS: We included 377 individuals (261 women) in our study. Robust sex differences were observe…
Memory detection using fMRI - does the encoding context matter?
Recent research revealed that the presentation of crime related details during the Concealed Information Test (CIT) reliably activates a network of bilateral inferior frontal, right medial frontal and right temporal-parietal brain regions. However, the ecological validity of these findings as well as the influence of the encoding context are still unclear. To tackle these questions, three different groups of subjects participated in the current study. Two groups of guilty subjects encoded critical details either only by planning (guilty intention group) or by really enacting (guilty action group) a complex, realistic mock crime. In addition, a group of informed innocent subjects encoded hal…