<p> A Systemic Family Constellation is a phenomenological systemic group process that promotes healing and transformation in individuals through the use of representatives who stand in for family members, so that entanglements with the ancestors can be revealed and brought to reconciliation. Family Constellations were created by German psychotherapist and former priest, Bert Hellinger, who spent 16 years as a missionary and educator with the Zulu peoples of South Africa. Hellinger suggests that individuals become entangled with the fate of the ancestors. This study proposes that epigenetics can explain the heritability of ancestral experiences. </p><p> This study explores the role of epigenetics in the transgenerational transmission of the effects of trauma, experiences, and behaviors of the ancestors as observed in Systemic Family Constellations. It employs a multiparadigmatic model of research and performs a systematic review of existing literature on epigenetics from the fields of biology, genetics, medicine and psychology, and demonstrates that some epigenetic changes can be inherited for as many as four generations&mdash;and possibly iv more, without any changes in the underlying DNA. A systematic review of existing literature has become a viable research method in the fields of medicine and the social sciences in recent years, and is used here to explore epigenetic changes in genomic expression that are transmitted transgenerationally. This study recommends that epigenetics be added as a scientific explanation to the existing metaphysical theories of how constellations work, that include: (a) the knowing field, (b) morphic fields and morphic resonance, and (c) indigenous ways of knowing. </p><p> Some of the examples of epigenetic inheritance presented in this study, include the epigenetic effects of major traumas, such as the bombing of the World Trade Center, the Holocaust, and the Dutch Hunger Winter, as well as the effects of mothering on the stress responses of their offspring, the effects of feast or famine in utero that can potentially result in schizophrenia, and the effects of child sex abuse on mental health in adulthood and on same sex orientation&mdash;as well as potential evolutionary changes.</p>

Previous genetic research has identified many human genes with allelic variation that are associated with differences in hormone synthesis. Still other non-genetic biological research has shown that increased levels of hormones are predictive of onset of puberty and that pubertal maturation is one of the strongest predictors of sexual activity onset. Studies informed by evolutionary theory have also shown that family context, such as the presence or absence of the biological father in early childhood, can predict pubertal maturation and, indirectly, subsequent sexual activity. This study was unique in that no research to date had attempted to use genetic markers as direct predictors of pubertal maturation and subsequent onset of sexual behavior in adolescents. Two genes of particular interest included the androgen receptor (AR) gene and the cytochrome P450c17-alpha gene (CYP17). Saliva samples (for genetic marker identification), pubertal status, and sexual behavior measures were gathered bi-annually from 248 post-menarcheal females over 2--3 years. Hierarchical linear modeling and growth curve analyses revealed that the A1/A1 allele of the CYP17 gene was predictive of the presence of a biological father, which predicted age at menarche. Later ages at menarche predicted lower onset level of sexual development and earlier ages at menarche predicted higher onset levels of sexual development; however, lower onset levels of sexual development predicted faster rates of sexual development. These findings show that genetic markers can be used to help identify variation in timing of pubertal development. Also, these results provide additional insight into understanding the differences in rates of sexual development among girls and suggest that there are mediating factors that may be buffering girls with higher onset levels of sexual development from progressing through sexual stages faster.

It has been suggested that emotion regulatory extremes may play a role in psychopathology and physical health. In a study whose primary aim was to shed light on the response-dampening end of the regulatory continuum, measures of autonomic and scalp-recorded electrical activity were taken while 60 female undergraduates engaged in effortful inhibition of responses to disgusting, happy, and neutral images. Resting data were collected followed by passive viewing of a first set of affective images. For a second set of images, instructions were provided either to suppress one's outward expressions of emotion (Suppress), to reappraise the meaning of the stimuli to reduce emotional experience (Reappraise), or to simply view the pictures carefully (Control). There was very little support for the prediction that the Suppress group would show greater autonomic arousal compared to the other two groups, possibly due to insufficient statistical power. Modest support was found for the prediction that Suppress participants would show greater activation than the Control group in the frontal and anterior temporal regions, a finding that was limited to the disgusting images. Although greater activation was expected for the Suppress compared to the Reappraise group, there was no such difference for these disgusting images. For neutral pictures, Reappraise participants unexpectedly showed greater anterior activation compared to Suppress and Control participants. Independent of stimulus valence, Reappraise participants evidenced a shift towards greater relative right-sided activation at the frontal pole compared to the other two groups. Finally, individual differences in resting prefrontal asymmetry predicted the ability to inhibit positive affect, a relationship that was moderated by group assignment. Left-sided activation in the midfrontal region was associated with greater decreases in zygomatic ("smile") activity in Reappraise participants. For Suppress participants, on the other hand, left-sided activation in this same region was associated with greater increases in zygomatic activity. No such effects were found for disgusting or neutral pictures. This study suggests that the frontal regions are relevant to effortful affective inhibition. Furthermore, the strategies that are selected to effect such inhibition may be differentially effective in the context of stable individual differences in affective style.

Sleep complaints are common in people who develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD-related information processing abnormalities evident during wakefulness might continue into sleep. A group of Vietnam veterans with and without PTSD (patients and combat-controls) were studied to examine psychophysiological responses to auditory stimuli during stage 2 NREM sleep. Three stimuli (500 ms) categories were presented in an oddball paradigm: pure tones (standard, 60% probability of occurring); trauma-related (i.e., combat sounds) and affectively neutral, environmental stimuli (20% each). The effects of stimulus presentation on evoked K-complexes, heart rate (HR), and cortical activity (power spectra ratio of fast to slow EEG activity, and beta-band power) were examined; the impact of evoking a K-complex (KC+ and KC- trials) on these last two measures was also examined. Significantly fewer K-complexes were elicited in patients; there were no within group differences in the proportion of K-complexes elicited between tone and trauma stimuli. Patients unexpectedly produced significantly more K-complexes to neutral stimuli. Examination of the N550 component of the evoked K-complex revealed significantly longer latencies in the control group, who also had longer latency for trauma stimuli relative to tone and neutral stimuli. There were no findings on N550 amplitude. Cortical arousal results ran contrary to predictions. Rather, controls demonstrated modest increases in overall cortical activity post-stimulus, while patients demonstrated decreases that were even more pronounced for KC+ trials. Beta activity was marginally higher in controls, and for KC+ trials for both groups. The smallest beta power increase was to trauma stimuli for both groups; in controls, beta activity increased most to neutral stimuli. Tonic heart rate was found to be (marginally) elevated in patients. There was no impact on initial HR decelerations, but analysis of the ensuing HR acceleration revealed a main effect of K-complex type (greater HR increases for K+ trials) and stimulus type (significantly higher increases to neutral stimuli), Results suggest sleep-related information processing is altered in PTSD and conflicting evidence for cortical and autonomic hyperarousal during sleep in PTSD, although further research is necessary to establish the generalizability to other populations (such as acute PTSD or other anxiety disorders).

To investigate the basic neural circuitry underlying emotion, three brain imaging studies were performed using positron emission tomography and 15O-water. In each study subjects viewed pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Study #1 examined the neural correlates of pleasant and unpleasant emotion in 12 healthy women. Compared to viewing neutral stimuli, viewing pleasant and unpleasant pictures were each associated with activation of thalamus, hypothalamus, midbrain and medial prefrontal cortex. Viewing pleasant pictures was also associated with activation of the head of the caudate nucleus and viewing unpleasant pictures was associated with activation of left medial temporal structures (amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus), bilateral extrastriate visual cortex, bilateral temporal poles and cerebellum. Study #2 examined the neural substrates of emotional valence, arousal and attention. Six healthy men were studied in twelve scan conditions generated from a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial design: 3 levels of valence (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral), 2 levels of arousal (high and low) and 2 levels of attention (easy and difficult distraction tasks). Subtraction of the low arousal pleasant and unpleasant conditions from the high arousal pleasant and unpleasant conditions revealed activation in the dorso-medial region of the thalamus and the medial prefrontal cortex. Activation of the medial prefrontal cortex was greater during the low distraction compared to the high distraction conditions. These results suggest that the thalamus and medial prefrontal cortex are activated as a function of the intensity of emotional arousal independent of valence. Study #3 examined the neural substrates of the experiential component of emotion using a selective attention paradigm. Ten healthy men viewed IAPS pictures as they attended either to their subjective emotional responses or the spatial location of the depicted scene. During attention to subjective emotional responses increased neural activity was elicited in rostral anterior cingulate cortex (BA32) and medial prefrontal cortex, right temporal pole, insula and ventral cingulate. Under the same stimulus conditions when subjects attended to spatial aspects of the pictures activation was observed in parieto-occipital cortex bilaterally. The findings indicate that the rostral anterior cingulate cortex participates in representing subjective emotional responses.

The present study examined the relationships between quantitative volume estimates of mesial temporal lobe structures based on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the memory and emotional functioning of individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Twenty individuals identified as having TLE and 24 control participants were administered a test battery that included an experimental recognition memory test incorporating both verbal and nonverbal stimuli, an experimental test of emotional functioning that measured both subjective report and skin conductance response (SCR) to emotionally salient stimuli, and a battery of standardized tests and questionnaires assessing attention, personality, and emotion perception. Patients also completed standardized measures assessing intellectual function, memory, and quality of life. The patient group demonstrated deficits on tests of memory, attention, and emotion perception. Patients also demonstrated reduced SCR, however this result was found in response to both emotional and nonemotional stimuli and so is not necessarily indicative of deficits in emotional arousal. Inconsistent with expectations, patients reported normal experiential states of arousal in response to emotionally salient stimuli. MRI data were used to measure left- and right-hemisphere volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala in the patient group, and these volumes were used as predictors of performance on behavioral measures in multiple regression analyses. Consistent with predictions, reduced amygdala volume predicted lower arousal ratings to positive emotional stimuli. However, a similar relationship was not found for arousal ratings of negative stimuli. Other predicted relationships were not demonstrated. Amygdala volume did not show a relationship with SCR, and hippocampal volume did not show a relationship with memory performance. Additional hypotheses regarding the lateralization of hippocampal and amygdala function were not supported. Results of standardized tests suggested some potential relationships between hippocampal volume and attention, and between amygdala volume and psychological characteristics, although further research would be needed to establish the degree to which these results could be generalized to a larger population. Study findings support the continued development of NM morphometric techniques to predict patterns of strengths and weaknesses demonstrated by individuals with TLE.

Few studies have been undertaken to explore whether REM EMG suppression is exhibited in facial muscles other than the mentalis. The present study is an investigation of facial muscle activity during REM sleep in ten vivid dreamers. Sustained facial muscle activity (FMA) was observed during paradoxical sleep in six of the ten subjects. The FMAs observed ranged from a minimum criterion of 6 seconds to sustained FMA "bouts" of up to 59.5 seconds in duration. The FMAs observed had voltages which ranged from a minimum criterion of 4.0 v to maximum bursts of 78 v. Across the 6 subjects who exhibited FMAs, there was a total of 19 events. EMG activity was usually observed in the corrugator, although it was sometimes observed in the zygomatic, frontalis, and masseter. The potential relevance of sustained facial muscle activity to emotion experienced during REM is discussed.

Published maps of the postcentral gyrus (SI) of macaque monkeys and other primates have been incomplete in that there has been little study on the double representation of the face. The present study was undertaken to describe trigeminal representation in SI and the thalamus in 4 Old World monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Microelectrode recording procedures were used to electrophysiologically characterize the facial areas. The somatotopic pattern of the connections of the ventroposterior nucleus with the representation of the face in SI, in particular the lower jaw, were investigated using the retrograde tracers Texas Red and Fluorescein. These tracers were injected after the facial fields within the cortex had been defined electrophysiologically. Injection in a cortical location representing the upper head area and the primary face area led to the labeling of neurons in the ventroposterior lateral nucleus (VPL) and ventroposterior medial nucleus (VPM). We conclude that there are two distinct facial areas in SI and that the upper head area is closely associated with the area subserved by the upper cervical dermatomes at the thalamic level. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

No description available.

In Lesch-Nyhan disease, concentrations of hypoxanthine are elevated especially in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid; dopamine and its metabolites are reduced in the caudate and putamen. Hence we investigated the possibility that hypoxanthine has direct effects on dopamine neurons. / Hypoxanthine, adenine or allopurinol was delivered unilaterally into the rat brain. Behavioural effects were monitored by apomorphine-induced rotation; ipsilateral turning was time and dose-dependent. Turning was competitively blocked by a non-specific DA antagonist, suggesting that dopamine neurons were altered. In hypoxanthine treated animals, a D1 antagonist specifically blocked rotation; catalepsy occurred after caffeine administration. / After two or three weeks treatment all groups had elevated purine levels in the caudate nuclei, while catecholamine levels were variably altered.