J.F. Orlebeke

Left-handedness in twins: genes or environment?

Twin family data can cast light on the longstanding problem about the influences of genes and environment on the etiology of left-handedness. Therefore, hand preference was assessed in 1700 adolescent twin pairs and their parents. Left-handedness (LH) appeared not significantly enhanced among twins compared to the general population. In addition the following observations were made: (1) Significant more LH in first born twins than in second born twins. (2) Significant higher left-handedness association in MZmm pairs compared to DZmm pairs and not or may be marginally so in MZff versus DZff pairs. These results, combined with the observations that (a) left-handed fathers increase the probability of LH in sons but not in daughters; (b) LH in mothers increases LH prevalence in both sons and daughters to the same degree; and (c) very low birth weight, corrected for the effect of gestational age, increases LH prevalence in first born twins only, make an environmental explanation more likely. The possibility that exposure to prenatal male hormones - to which low birth weight and high birth stress children are more vulnerable - might be a crucial condition for the etiology of LH, is discussed.

Genetic influences on respiratory sinus arrhythmia across different task conditions

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) has been shown to be a sensitive index of vagal cardiac control. We studied the genetic and nongenetic influences on individual differences in RSA in a sample of 160 adolescent twins. RSA was measured during rest and across two different tasks. Results show that heritability is task dependent. The amount of genetic variance is the same, however, during rest and task conditions. Because nonshared environmental variance decreases during tasks, heritability is larger for RSA measured under more stressful conditions than for RSA as measured during rest. Multivariate models assessed the continuity of the genetic and environmental influences and show genetic influences to be the same across different conditions, while environmental influences are different. More specifically, a one-factor model is found for genetic influences and a second-order autoregressive model for the environmental factors.

Dietary effects on mood and performance

Of 20 young students recruited at a college for nutrition, 10 followed a diet for a period of 3 weeks and 10 were assigned to a control condition. One subject in the control group dropped out. The diet consisted of approximately 70 g protein and 25 g carbohydrate at breakfast and 10 g protein and 100 g carbohydrate at dinner. In between, a protein luncheon was consumed. On the last day of the 3-week period repeated measurements of mood and performance were made, i.e. after breakfast and after dinner. Consequently, the same measurements were made 2 months later to serve as covariates in the analyses to control for base-line differences of the two groups. It was predicted that, in the morning, the performance and the vigour of the diet group would improve whereas, in the evening, performance would become worse and subjects would feel more sleepy. However, the diet group was found to have a higher anger score in the morning (probably due to the unattractive nature of the diet) and a tendency to have a higher fatigue score in the evening compared with the controls. In addition, the diet group performed better in the morning on finger tapping, compared with the control group. With respect to memory scanning, the diet group performed more slowly in the morning in comparison with the control group. From these conflicting results, it was concluded that dietary composition had no effect on mood and behaviour.

Aerobic fitness and the physiological stress response: A critical evaluation

Aerobically fit persons need less sympathetic activation to perform the same absolute workload than less fit persons. This led to the idea that aerobic fitness might reduce the physiological activation during psychological stress as well. Several experiments showed inconsistent results with regard to this supposed effect of fitness. The comparability of the results is hampered by the differences in operationalization of aerobic fitness and by the confusion of the terms aerobic fitness, training and habitual physical exercise. The expectancy of an effect of fitness on the physiological stress response is based on the assumption that this response resembles the response to exercise. The tenability of this assumption was examined for cardiac, vascular and hormonal responses respectively. It was concluded that the two types of responses only superficially have similarity. So a simple analogy between the stress and the exercise response does not allow a reliable prediction concerning the effect of fitness on the stress response. There are however other reasons to expect an effect. Especially the effect of fitness on adrenoceptor sensitivity suggests that the most important effect of fitness might be found in the vascular part of the stress response. It is argued that the measurement of complete response patterns, instead of isolated parameters, is a prerequisite for progress in this field. Future studies should address the question what the relative contribution of psychological and physiological factors is to the effect of fitness on the physiological stress response.

Effects of paroxetine and maprotiline on mood, perceptual-motor skills and eye movements in healthy volunteers.

Sixteen healthy young volunteers (seven females, nine males) received repeated doses of either 30 mg paroxetine, 100 mg maprotiline or placebo in a double-blind crossover study. Each of the three treatments lasted 1 week separated by 2 weeks of no treatment. Treatment order was counterbalanced. Subjects were tested before each treatment period, and after 1 and 7 days of treatment. Measurements were made of mood, perceptual-motor skills, and eye movements including pupil size when subjects were watching a traffic film.

Residual effects of lormetazepam on mood and performance in healthy elderly volunteers

Summary45 subjects aged over 65 years were randomly assigned to treatment with lormetazepam 0.5 mg or 1 mg or placebo. Mood and performance were measured with a battery of computerized tests. Subjects were tested before and after 1 and 8 nights of treatment. Pre- and post-treatment scores were analysed by a multivariate covariance technique, the pre-treatment score serving as covariate.The single and repeated doses of lormetazepam resulted in impairment of performance in a memory task, and the repeated dose administration impaired performance of a perceptual task. The single administration of a low dose gave an improvement in fine motor control. No change was found in the mood states of the subjects.

HGM1: A research-oriented portable heart rate and galvanic skin response monitor

A convenient portable recording device, HGM1, which allows digital field recording of skin conductance and heart rate data with laboratory levels of precision, is described. Examples of individual data are provided from a study of orienting response habituation, and from students participating in a study of examination anxiety, recorded while they sat scheduled class examinations. These illustrate the potential value of the device in field studies.

Preception (UCR diminution) in normal and neurotic subjects

Three groups of subjects, viz. low trait anxious (LA), high trait anxious (HA) and neurotic patients (PAT) recieved a series of warned unpleasant auditory stimuli. The expectation that the warned stimuli would evoke smaller accelerative heart rate responses than the unwarned ones was not confirmed. On the contrary, the responses to the warned stimuli stimuli were larger than to the unwarned stimuli. Evidence was provided for the idea that homeostatic mechanisms were, at least in part, responsible for this result, though the possibility that even homeostatic heart rate changes can have psychologically relevant effects on central structures was not excluded. Neither the responses during the ISI nor the responses to the unpleasant stimuli (UCS) differed between groups although the response in the IS was in the predicted direction, i.e. a stronger initial acceleration in the LA group as compared to the HA and PAT groups. It was further suggested that the difficulty separating homeostatic effects from changes in sensitivity of the organism makes the operationalization of preception in terms of UCR amplitude of heart rate questionable.