High dissociatives, nature versus nurture?

Non-pathological dissociative experiences are common among the general population, and anyone may experience them to some degree. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the degree of dissociative experiences such as fantasy proneness, imagination, and absorption in fine arts undergraduates prior to beginning their artistic studies, and at the end of their studies at the faculty of fine arts. Moreover, education undergraduates were used as a comparison group. The sample consisted of 440 undergraduates (204 fine arts, and 236 education undergraduates; 224 first-year undergraduates, and 216 fourth-year undergraduates), who were administered three dissociative experiences tests: Dissociative Ability Scale, Dissociative Experiences Scale, and Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation. The working hypotheses were substantiated with dissociative experiences being a distinctive personality trait of fine arts undergraduates. We have found a grade level difference between first-year and fourth-year fine arts undergraduates, although the study does not examine the nature of the change itself. The results are discussed in the light of previous studies, and new lines of research proposed.

The Early Years – Intervention and Prevention (Vol. 25, No. 11, Full Issue)

For the month of November 2021, APBN questions the argument of nature versus nurture and the importance of early intervention. In Features, we have a special contribution by Dr. Salam Soliman on how we can heal childhood trauma through dyadic relationship-based interventions. In Columns, we dive into Italy's contagion data with Dr. Galileo Violini and consider if there is a connection between Italy's R-value and vaccination rate. Finally, in Spotlights, we have an interview with Ruby E Dewi from MediLux Biosciences to share about the prevalence of tuberculosis in Asia and how the company's novel dye would be a gamechanger for tuberculosis diagnosis.

CHRONOPOLITICS AS A POLITICAL ONTOLOGY OF TIME (BIOPOLITICAL ASPECT)

The work of the 7th round table «Philosophy: Hermeneutics of Concepts» is devoted to bio- and chronopolitics. Biopolitics as a powerful organization of the population’s life in the forms of medicalization, normalization and regulation has a direct impact on the biological life of the human. However, this does not mean that bio-power solves the problem of «nature versus nurture» exclusively in favor of human nature. Bio-power also seeks to design the human environment. Biopolitical tools of influence on social time can be designated by the concept of chronopolitics. Chronopolitics, being an integral part of the whole biopolitical impact on a person, appears in the forms of permanent intensification of time; metaphysical interpretation of time, which has political and legal consequences; interpretation of history, in the hermeneutic circle of which the rewriting of the past implies the goal of forming an affective post-memory, which allows us to reconstruct the present and to form trends corresponding to the image of the future bio-power. Chronopolitics accelerates social time and, by contributing to the formation of mega-machine structures that meet the teleology of bio-power, carries increasing risks for human civilization.

Resilience to Stress: Lessons from Rodents about Nature versus Nurture

Individual differences in human temperament influence how we respond to stress and can confer vulnerability (or resilience) to emotional disorders. For example, high levels of behavioral inhibition in children predict increased risk of mood and anxiety disorders in later life. The biological underpinnings of temperament are unknown, although improved understanding can offer insight into the pathogenesis of emotional disorders. Our laboratory has used a rat model of temperamental differences to study neurodevelopmental factors that lead to a highly inhibited, stress vulnerable phenotype. Selective breeding for high versus low behavioral response to novelty created two rat strains that exhibit dramatic behavior differences over multiple domains relevant to emotional disorders. Low novelty responder (bLR) rats exhibit high levels of behavioral inhibition, passive stress coping, anhedonia, decreased sociability and vulnerability to chronic stress compared to high novelty responders (bHRs). On the other hand, bHRs exhibit high levels of behavioral dis-inhibition, active coping, and aggression. This review article summarizes our work with the bHR/bLR model showing the developmental emergence of the bHR/bLR phenotypes, the role the environment plays in shaping it, and the involvement of epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation that mediate differences in emotionality and stress reactivity.