Psychiatry

Liquid Fear Antagonist

Alcohol reduces the connection between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, so the fear and smart centres don’t communicate as much.

Research people did an experiment, as they often claim to do. It was a suspiciously small sample of participants, as it often is. The difference here was the humanoid laboratory rats being drunk on almost half a litre of alcohol. In fMRI, there was reduced amygdala to prefrontal cortex activity during alcohol intoxication. This suggests reduced connectivity.

Specifically, the decreased amygdala to orbitofrontal cortex interaction messes up the processing and behavioural inhibition around emotional stimuli.

References

  1. Gorka, S. M., Fitzgerald, D. A., King, A. C., & Phan, K. L. (2013). Alcohol attenuates amygdala-frontal connectivity during processing social signals in heavy social drinkers: a preliminary pharmaco-fMRI study. Psychopharmacology, 229(1), 141–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-013-3090-0
  2. Rolls, E. T., Cheng, W., & Feng, J. (2020). The orbitofrontal cortex: reward, emotion and depression. Brain communications, 2(2), fcaa196. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcaa196

Xerox In Biology

Circular definitions are a trap. It’s good to avoid traps.

Hence, in simple terms, here are some useful explanations.

Genes are the computer coding for people, because we all know people are actually robots. (Click. Whirr. This is a joke.)

A genotype is the total computer code print-out for a person. It’s relevant to inheritable diseases. A disease is a state of poor health, by the way. It has to be significantly abnormal enough for it to be classed as diagnosable, given these things are based on artificial cut-offs. They can be somewhat arbitrary, but generally there’s a reasonable basis underneath them.

A phenotype is the outside casing of the computer product, which is distinct from its wiring inside. It represents how matters surface in the material world.

A phenocopy is a materialised appearance of things that doesn’t actually have the relevant genotype. That is, it looks like that computer coding output, but the computer coding is different from what it’s expected to be. It resembles a syndrome but without the genetic basis for it.

The phenocopy situation can occur in Huntington’s disease, where the autosomal dominant CAG-repeater mutation isn’t apparent but similar clinical manifestations arise.

References

  1. Moore RC, Xiang F, Monaghan J, Han D, Zhang Z, Edström L, Anvret M, Prusiner SB. Huntington disease phenocopy is a familial prion disease. Am J Hum Genet. 2001 Dec;69(6):1385-8. doi: 10.1086/324414. Epub 2001 Oct 9. PMID: 11593450; PMCID: PMC1235549.

Luria’s Test

Fist, slap, slice! Or fist, cut, slap! Fist, cut, slice?!

It can be tricky to recall the order of Luria’s 3-step test for frontal lobe function.

Here’s a business-minded way to remember it.

GIVE MONEY NOW!

Give

Make a fist.

This represents the aggression of forcing someone to give you something.

Money

Make the slicing motion.

This emulates the handshake of a business deal.

Now!

Slap the hand with the palm facing down.

This is like being a demanding gangster and banging on a table to intimidate your enemy.

References

  1. PsychDB (2021). Luria Sequence (Luria’s Test). [online] PsychDB. Available at: https://www.psychdb.com/neurology/neuro-exam/luria.

Parenting Styles

There are 4 theoretical parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved.

Authoritative: the dream. Warm and boundaried.

Authoritarian: overly controlling. Too much discipline.

Permissive: too enabling. Laissez-faire.

Uninvolved: neglectful. Too much freedom.

2 of the above have similar-sounding names. Just as people confuse psychology with psychiatry and optometry with ophthalmology, there must be a way to demystify this likeness. There is!

Here’s how you remember which one is good and which one is bad.

Authoritative: positive.

Authoritarian: barbarian.

Bibliography

  1. Sanvictores T, Mendez MD. Types of Parenting Styles and Effects On Children. [Updated 2022 Sep 18]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/#

There’s A Fancier Name For Fake Niceness

A particular breed of falsified collegiality is siding with the foe of a foe. This has a convenient name: pseudo-altruism.

Pseudo-altruism is a pattern of behavior used by people who have a problem in coping satisfactorily with repressed rage. Observed in both individual and group psychotherapy, it allows the discharge of unacceptable impulses through professed concern about others. This model involves the interaction of at least three people. One individual, A, unable to acknowledge his rage toward a second person, B, comes to the assistance of a third party, C, whom he is convinced has been injured by B. A attacks B or encourages C to do so. In this way A, who experiences difficulty in discharging aggression directly, finds an acceptable means of doing so. He convinces himself that his aggression is warranted by B’s behavior and that he acted solely out of concern for C’s welfare. The pseudo-altruistic pattern thus includes denial, rationalization, and at times projective identification.

Edelson SR. Pseudo-altruism. Psychiatr Q. 1981 Summer;53(2):106-9. doi: 10.1007/BF01064894. PMID: 7330125.

References

  1. Edelson SR. Pseudo-altruism. Psychiatr Q. 1981 Summer;53(2):106-9. doi: 10.1007/BF01064894. PMID: 7330125.