Physiology & behavior
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Physiology & behavior · Jun 2013
Comparative StudyComparison of cough reflex test against instrumental assessment of aspiration.
Silent aspiration is associated with pneumonia and mortality, and is poorly identified by traditional clinical swallowing evaluation (CSE). The aim of this study was to validate cough reflex testing (CRT) for identification of silent aspiration against aspiration confirmed by instrumental assessment. ⋯ CRT results are significantly associated with aspiration response on instrumental assessment. Lower concentrations of citric acid provide a better predictive measure of silent aspiration.
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Physiology & behavior · Jun 2013
HPA regulation and dating couples' behaviors during conflict: gender-specific associations and cross-partner interactions.
The way romantic partners behave during conflict is known to relate to stress responses, including activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis; however, little attention has been paid to interactive effects of partners' behaviors, or to behavior outside of marital relationships. This study examined relations between unmarried partners' negative and positive behaviors during discussion of conflict and their HPA responses, including both main effects and cross-partner interactions. Emerging adult opposite-sex couples (n=199) participated in a 15-minute conflict discussion and afterward rated their behavior on 3 dimensions: conflictual, holding back, and supportive. ⋯ Women's conflictual behavior only predicted problematic cortisol responses if their partner was highly conflictual or holding back; at lower levels of these partner behaviors, the opposite was true. This work demonstrates similar costs of negative reciprocity and demand-withdraw and benefits of supportive conflict dynamics in dating couples as found in marital research, but associations with HPA are gender-specific. Cross-partner interactions suggest that behavior during discussion of conflict should not be categorized as helpful or harmful without considering the other partner's behavior.
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Physiology & behavior · Jun 2013
The effect of cocaine on rotarod performance in male C57BL/6J mice.
There is surprisingly little research examining the effect of cocaine on motor learning. Given that changes in motor activity can confound behavioral assays of learning and memory a direct assessment of cocaine on motor learning seems warranted. The present study was conducted to examine the effect of cocaine on motor learning using an accelerating rotarod test in adult male C57BL/6J mice. ⋯ Animals that received cocaine injections exhibited significantly longer latencies to fall on days 3-6 compared to those mice receiving saline. This enhanced performance was lost when cocaine-injected animals were switched to saline on day 7. It is hypothesized that the performance enhancing effects of cocaine are due to the increased stamina and/or psychomotor stimulation and not the result of enhanced motor learning as the increment in performance was lost when the drug was discontinued.