Respiratory pumping in Aplysia fasciata as part of an integrated defensive response to increases and decreases in seawater concentration

Respiratory pumping in Aplysia is a well-characterized behaviour controlled by identified neurones, but its function is unknown. To gain insight into the function of this behaviour, respiratory pumping and oxygen consumption were examined under identical conditions, in Aplysia fasciata Poiret and in A. depilans Gmelin. A. fasciata is found in less turbulent environments than is A. depilans, suggesting that control of respiratory pumping may differ in the two species. Rates of respiratory pumping and oxygen consumption were poorly correlated. The basal rate of respiratory pumping was similar in both species and was not significantly dependent on animal mass, but the resting rate of oxygen consumption was higher in A. depilans than in A. fasciata and was an inverse function of animal mass in both species. Brief, moderate hypercapnia led to an increase in oxygen consumption in both Aplysia species. In A. fasciata, the increase was much greater. Increase in oxygen consumed was not accompanied by changes in the rate of respiratory pumping. Longer, more severe periods of hypercapnia led to decreases in oxygen consumption in both Aplysia species, and an increase in the rate of respiratory pumping. Decreased oxygen consumption was more gradual in A. fasciata. Severe hypoxia produced a decrease in the rate of oxygen consumed, and an increase in the rate of respiratory pumping.

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Separate Effects of a Classical Conditioning Procedure on Respiratory Pumping, Swimming, and Inking in Aplysia fasciata

Learning & Memory ◽

10.1101/lm.6.1.21 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 21-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Miriam Levy ◽

Abraham J. Susswein

Keyword(s):

Classical Conditioning ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Conditioning Procedure ◽

Defensive Responses ◽

Defensive Behaviors ◽

Respiratory Pumping ◽

Noxious Stimuli ◽

Aplysia Fasciata ◽

Open Versus ◽

Classical Conditioning Procedure

We examined whether swimming and inking, two defensive responses in Aplysia fasciata, are facilitated by a classical conditioning procedure that has been shown to facilitate a third defensive response, respiratory pumping. Training consisted of pairing a head shock (UCS) with a modified seawater (85%, 120%, or pH 7.0 seawater—CSs). Animals were tested by re-exposing them to the same altered seawater 1 hr after the training. For all three altered seawaters, only respiratory pumping is specifically increased by conditioning. Swimming is sensitized by shock, and inking is unaffected by training, indicating that the conditioning procedure is likely to affect a neural site that differentially controls respiratory pumping. Additional observations also indicate that the three defensive responses are differentially regulated. First, different noxious stimuli preferentially elicit different defensive responses. Second, the three defensive responses are differentially affected by shock. Inking is elicited only immediately following shock, whereas swimming and respiratory pumping are facilitated for a period of time following the shock. Third, swimming and respiratory pumping are differentially affected by noxious stimuli that are delivered in open versus closed environments. These data confirm that neural pathways exist that allowAplysia to modulate separately each of the three defensive behaviors that were examined.

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Empathy Does Not Amplify Vicarious Threat Learning

10.31234/osf.io/pfy4v ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Lane Williams ◽

Christopher C Conway

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Defensive Response ◽

Conditioned Stimuli ◽

Defensive Reaction ◽

Direct Exposure ◽

Conditioned Responses ◽

Clinically Significant ◽

Stimulus Materials ◽

Dispositional Empathy

Clinically significant fears and phobias can be acquired vicariously. Witnessing a demonstrator’s defensive reaction to potentially dangerous objects and situations can instill conditioned threat responses in the observer. The present study concentrates on individual differences in this social learning process. Specifically, we hypothesized that dispositional empathy modulates vicarious threat conditioning. We examined university students’ (N = 150) conditioned threat responding after they observed strangers undergo Pavlovian threat conditioning. There was evidence of a substantial conditioned defensive response (Cohen’s d = 0.66), as indexed by elevated skin conductance reactions during participants’ direct exposure to the vicariously conditioned stimuli. Contrary to expectations, indices of dispositional empathy were weakly related to the size of conditioned responses (median r = .04). Our results confirm that vicarious threat learning can be evaluated experimentally, but they do not support the hypothesis that empathy amplifies this process. The preregistration, stimulus materials, data, and analysis code for this study are available at https://osf.io/h6hm2.

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Decreased defensive reactivity to interoceptive threat after successful exposure-based psychotherapy in patients with panic disorder

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-021-01298-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Christoph Benke ◽

Manuela G. Alius ◽

Alfons O. Hamm ◽

Christiane A. Pané-Farré

Keyword(s):

Panic Disorder ◽

Primary Diagnosis ◽

Symptom Improvement ◽

Defensive Response ◽

Wait List ◽

Eyeblink Response ◽

Waiting Period ◽

Startle Eyeblink ◽

Defensive Responses ◽

Clinically Significant

AbstractPanic disorder (PD) is characterized by a dysfunctional defensive responding to panic-related body symptoms that is assumed to contribute to the persistence of panic symptomatology. The present study aimed at examining whether this dysfunctional defensive reactivity to panic-related body symptoms would no longer be present following successful cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) but would persist when patients show insufficient symptom improvement. Therefore, in the present study, effects of CBT on reported symptoms and defensive response mobilization during interoceptive challenge were investigated using hyperventilation as a respiratory symptom provocation procedure. Changes in defensive mobilization to body symptoms in the course of CBT were investigated in patients with a primary diagnosis of PD with or without agoraphobia by applying a highly standardized hyperventilation task prior to and after a manual-based CBT (n = 38) or a waiting period (wait-list controls: n = 20). Defensive activation was indexed by the potentiation of the amygdala-dependent startle eyeblink response. All patients showed a pronounced defensive response mobilization to body symptoms at baseline. After treatment, no startle reflex potentiation was found in those patients who showed a clinically significant improvement. However, wait-list controls and treatment non-responders continued to show increased defensive responses to actually innocuous body symptoms after the treatment/waiting period. The present results indicate that the elimination of defensive reactivity to actually innocuous body symptoms might be a neurobiological correlate and indicator of successful CBT in patients with PD, which may help to monitor and optimize CBT outcomes.

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De l'Automatisme des Lambeaux Cardiaques et des Rapports Entre la Structure et Les Fonctions du Cœur Chez Aplysia Fasciata

Archives Internationales de Physiologie ◽

10.3109/13813453709144306 ◽

1937 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 189-204 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Jullien

Keyword(s):

Aplysia Fasciata

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PROSPECT FOR HELP FROM IDEAS IN INDUSTRY

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.84.2.a96a ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 84 (2) ◽

pp. A96-A96

Author(s):

Student

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Continuous Improvement ◽

Defensive Response ◽

American Health Care

We are wasting our time with the theory of bad apples [in medicine] and our defensive response to it in health care today, and we can best begin by freeing ourselves from the fear, accusation, defensiveness, and naivete of an empty search for improvement through inspection and discipline. The theory of continuous improvement proved better in Japan; it is proving itself again in American industries willing to embrace it, and it holds some badly needed answers for American health care.

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Social Desirability Related to Social Class among Adults

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1992.70.3.808 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 70 (3) ◽

pp. 808-810 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mirja Kalliopuska

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Social Status ◽

Social Desirability ◽

Intellectual Functioning ◽

Response Style ◽

Social Classes ◽

Defensive Response ◽

Academic Education ◽

Social Desirability Scale

The hypothesis tested was that adults of higher social status complete the Crowne and Marlowe Social Desirability Scale more honestly and less defensively than adults belonging to lower social classes. 341 parents of 215 different families were tested during home interviews. The hypothesis was verified among women, but not among men. These results suggest that social status is associated with defensive response style, perhaps reflecting at the same time academic education and cognitive-intellectual functioning.

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Murine cathelicidin: as a host defensive response against Leishmania major infection

Journal of Parasitic Diseases ◽

10.1007/s12639-020-01238-0 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 633-638 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Arash Asadi ◽

Amir Tavakoli Kareshk ◽

Iraj Sharifi ◽

Nima Firouzeh

Keyword(s):

Leishmania Major ◽

Defensive Response ◽

Major Infection

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