Postpartum depression (PPD) is a prevalent disorder. Studying the factors related to PPD will help to identify families at risk and provide preventive interventions. This can in turn improve the developmental trajectories for the children. Several previous studies have investigated risk factors for PPD. However, few studies have focused on cognitive vulnerability factors. The first aim of the ...

Newborns and infants are highly depending on successfully communicating their needs; e.g., through crying and facial expressions. Although there is a growing interest in the mechanisms of and possible influences on the recognition of facial expressions in infants, heretofore there exists no validated database of emotional infant faces. In the present article we introduce a standardized and freely ...

Background and objectives:<br>There are a range of mechanistic explanations on the formation and maintenance of delusions. Within the Bayesian brain hypothesis, particularly within the framework of predictive coding models, delusions are seen as an aberrant inference process characterized by either a failure in sensory attenuation or an aberrant weighting of prior experience. Testing of these ...

This study aims to investigate whether change in sleep duration and insomnia symptoms in the postpartum period is related to change in body mass index from before to 2 years after pregnancy. This study is based on self-report data from a Norwegian cohort, the AHUS Birth Cohort Study. Data were collected at 8 weeks (T1) and 2 years (T2) postpartum. Data from 812 women were analyzed. The results ...

Background: The literature on the effects of nocebo on pain is sparse. The present experimental study investigated whether suggestions of nocebo hyperalgesia modified the startle response and whether increased startle contributed to the nocebo hyperalgesic effect. Methods: A design with four groups was employed; the participants were randomized into either a placebo group, a natural history group, ...

When a prolonged observation of groups of rats in a seminatural environment is used as testing procedure, different behavioral patterns are shown compared with what observed in a pair housed in a small cage. Males and females copulate simultaneously, they show a promiscuously and random copulatory pattern. Females remain completely receptive from the first lordosis displayed in the period of behavioral ...

<b>Objectives:</b> We outline a two-stage heuristic account for the pathogenesis of the positive symptoms of psychosis. <b>Methods:</b> A narrative review on the empirical evidence of the liberal acceptance (LA) account of positive symptoms is presented. <b>Hypothesis:</b> At the heart of our theory is the idea that psychosis is characterized by a lowered decision threshold, which results in ...

<p><i>Background:</i> The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on verbal memory function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. <p><i>Methods:</i> We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in which tDCS was applied in six 30-minute sessions for 10 days. tDCS was delivered to the left temporal cortex with 2-mA intensity. ...

The role of the default-mode network (DMN) in the emergence of mind wandering and task-unrelated thought has been studied extensively. In parallel work, mind wandering has been associated with neuromodulation via the locus coeruleus (LC) norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. Here we propose a neural model that links the two systems in an integrative framework. The model attempts to explain how dynamic ...

This discussant’s response to the collected articles on the consumer behavior of sharing draws on a 1983–99 record of research on the psychology of ownership and property. The major recommendations here are: (1) that sharing be defined as the simultaneous or sequential use of an object (e.g., car), a space (e.g., living room), or an intangible (e.g., identity) by more than one individual; (2) that ...