Emotional responding in depression: distinctions in the time course of emotion.

The current studies were designed to investigate if the emotion context insensitivity hypothesis (ECI; Rottenberg & Gotlib, 2004) is applicable across the time course of emotion. Recent affective science research has pointed to the importance of considering anticipation and maintenance of emotion. In the current studies, we assessed emotion responses among college students with depression symptoms in anticipation of, during, and after an emotional picture using the emotion modulated startle paradigm. People with and without depression symptoms did not differ in blink magnitude in anticipation of emotional pictures suggesting that some anticipatory processes may not be impaired by depression symptoms. In contrast, individuals with depression symptoms did not exhibit blink magnitudes that varied by valence, either during viewing or after the pictures were removed from view. These findings suggest that ECI is relevant not only for those diagnosed with major depressive disorder, but also for people with depression symptoms that may not cross the diagnostic threshold. These data also point to the importance of considering the time course of emotion to better understand emotional deficits in individuals with differing levels of depression symptoms. Identifying where emotion goes awry across the time course of emotion can help inform treatment development.

Working models of attachment to parents and partners: implications for emotional behavior between partners.

This study examined whether working models of attachment are associated with observed positive emotion, sadness, and anger during marital conflict. Individuals (n = 176) from a longitudinal study of families participated in the current cross-sectional study. Narrative interviews assessed the unique and combined contribution of attachment representations based on parents (adult attachment) and partner (couple attachment). The influence of partner's attachment, depression symptoms, and sex of participant was also examined. Hierarchical linear models demonstrated that one's couple attachment security predicts one's observed positive emotion, whereas the partner's couple attachment security predicts one's observed negative emotion. Partner's depression symptoms moderated the effects of partner's couple attachment. Adult attachment was not related to observed emotional behavior between partners. These findings have important clinical implications for individual, couple, and family therapy.

Adult attachment, couple attachment, and children's adaptation to school: an integrated attachment template and family risk model.

Most attachment theorists assume that parenting style is the central mechanism linking the quality of parents' attachment with their parents and adaptation in their children. Outside the attachment tradition, family risk models assume that many family factors affect children's adaptation, chief among them being couple relationship quality. The present study tests an integrated model that considers both theoretical and empirical links between attachment theory and family risk research. Seventy-three fathers and mothers whose first child was about to make the transition to elementary school were administered the Adult Attachment Interview and a new Couple Attachment Interview. The parents were also observed in separate visits during kindergarten year in interaction with each other and with their child. At the end of first grade, we obtained children's academic achievement test results and teachers' checklist observations of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Structural equations revealed that a family risk model that includes information from working models of attachment and observations of couple interaction predicts substantial variation in children's adaptation to elementary school.

Impact of motivational salience on affect modulated startle at early and late probe times.

This study systematically manipulated both picture content and noise probe time in order to evaluate the effects of motivational salience (as distinguished from affective valence) on both early and late modulation of the startle response. Specifically, modulation was compared for erotic versus action/adventure scenes, and for direct threat versus victim scenes, at early (300 and 800 ms) and late (3500 ms) probe times -- all relative to neutral. Blink inhibition was observed at all probe times during presentation of erotic pictures, and blink potentiation was evident at all times during presentation of direct threat pictures. Patterns of blink modulation were less consistent for action and victim picture contents. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that under conditions of high motivational salience, affective startle modulation indexes the activation of appetitive-approach and defensive motivational states, even at early stages of picture processing.

Generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation predict change in anxiety and depression among college students.

Negative mood regulation (NMR) expectancies, or the beliefs held by individuals that, when faced with various manifestations of stress and negative affect, they can successfully cope with such mood states, have proven to be a most useful construct in the context of better understanding self-regulatory processes. In the present prospective study, we examined the predictive utility of NMR expectancies with respect to its ability to predict residual change in both depressive and anxiety symptoms over an 8-week timeframe in a sample of 322 college students. Initial correlational analyses revealed that, as anticipated, NMR expectancies were negatively correlated with depressive and anxiety symptomatology, as well as with maladaptive coping style. Conversely, NMR expectancies were positively associated with self-reported adaptive coping. A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, even when controlling for age, sex, baseline levels of affective distress (depression or anxiety), and coping styles, NMR expectancies predicted change in both depressive and anxiety symptomatology. Implications of the findings pertinent to theory building and testing are discussed.

Listeriosis in second trimester of pregnancy: case report from India.

Although Listeria monocytogenes infection occurs in sporadic and epidemic forms throughout the world, there are certain countries (especially Asian countries) that have reported only a few cases or failed to report even a single case. During her third visit at 17(+5) weeks of gestation, a 22-year-old primigravida presented with the complaint of an acute painful abdomen, leaking per vaginum and low-grade fever for the 2 preceding days. On ultrasonography, a single live fetus with no amniotic fluid was seen and the pregnancy was therefore terminated. L. monocytogenes was isolated from a high vaginal swab.