Yu-na Wang

Anticipatory and consummatory components of the experience of pleasure in schizophrenia: Cross-cultural validation and extension

This study examined anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in schizophrenia patients with and without negative symptoms. Negative symptom patients experienced less anticipatory pleasure than non-negative symptom patients; only one facet of consummatory pleasure was unaffected in negative schizophrenia. Greater pleasure deficits were correlated with more severe positive and negative symptoms.

The Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS): Exploration and Confirmation of Factor Structure in a Healthy Chinese Sample

Background The Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) is a measure specifically designed to capture the anticipatory and consummatory facets of pleasure. However, few studies have examined the structure of the measure in non-Western samples. The current study aimed to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the TEPS in a Chinese sample. Methods We administered the Chinese version of the TEPS to 2275 healthy Chinese college students. They were randomly split into two sub-samples. The first sub-sample was used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the structure of the TEPS in a Chinese sample. The second sub-sample was used as a validation sample for the identified structure from the EFA and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was adopted. Results Results of the EFA suggested a four-factor model (consummatory contextual, consummatory abstract, anticipatory contextual, and anticipatory abstract factors) instead of the original two-factor model (consummatory and anticipatory factors) ascertained from Western samples in the United States. The CFA results confirmed these results in the second sub-sample. Internal consistency and test-retest stability of the TEPS factors were good. Conclusions The TEPS has four factors among Chinese participants. Possible reasons for cultural difference and potential applications of the TEPS for cross-cultural comparison are discussed.

Experience of Pleasure and Emotional Expression in Individuals with Schizotypal Personality Features

Difficulties in feeling pleasure and expressing emotions are one of the key features of schizophrenia spectrum conditions, and are significant contributors to constricted interpersonal interactions. The current study examined the experience of pleasure and emotional expression in college students who demonstrated high and low levels of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) traits on self-report questionnaires. One hundred and seventeen subjects with SPD traits and 116 comparison controls were recruited to participate. Cluster analyses conducted in the SPD group identified negative SPD and positive SPD subgroups. The negative SPD group exhibited deficient emotional expression and anticipatory pleasure, but showed intact consummatory pleasure. The positive SPD group reported significantly greater levels of anticipatory, consummatory and total pleasure compared to the control group. Both SPD groups reported significantly more problems in everyday memory and greater levels of depressive and anxiety-related symptoms.

Coping flexibility in college students with depressive symptoms

BackgroundThe current study explored the prevalence of depressed mood among Chinese undergraduate students and examined the coping patterns and degree of flexibility of flexibility of such patterns associated with such mood.MethodsA set of questionnaire assessing coping patterns, coping flexibility, and depressive symptoms were administered to 428 students (234 men and 194 women).ResultsA total of 266 participants both completed the entire set of questionnaires and reported a frequency of two or more stressful life events (the criterion needed to calculate variance in perceived controllability). Findings showed that higher levels of depressive symptoms were significantly associated with higher levels of both event frequency (r = .368, p < .001) and event impact (r = .245, p < .001) and lower levels of perceived controllability (r = -.261, p < .001), coping effectiveness (r = -.375, p < .001), and ratio of strategy to situation fit (r = -.108, p < .05). Depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with cognitive flexibility (variance of perceived controllability; r = .031, p = .527), Gender was not a significant moderator of any of the reported associations.ConclusionsFindings indicate that Chinese university students with depressive symptoms reported experiencing a greater number of negative events than did non-depressed university students. In addition, undergraduates with depressive symptoms were more likely than other undergraduates to utilize maladaptive coping methods. Such findings highlight the potential importance of interventions aimed at helping undergraduate students with a lower coping flexibility develop skills to cope with stressful life events.

Molecular cloning and expression characterization of ApoC-I in the orange-spotted grouper

Endogenous yolk nutrients are crucial for embryo and larval development in fish, but developmental behavior of the genes that control yolk utilization remains unknown. Apolipoproteins have been shown to play important roles in lipid transport and uptake through the circulation system. In this study, EcApoC-I, the first cloned ApoC-I in teleosts, has been screened from pituitary cDNA library of female orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides), and the deduced amino acid sequence shows 43.5% identity to one zebrafish (Danio rerio) hypothetical protein similar to ApoC-I, and 21.2%, 21.7%, 22.5%, 20%, and 22.5% identities to Apo C-I of human (Homo sapiens), house mouse (Mus musculus), common tree shrew (Tupaia glis), dog (Canis lupus familiaris) and hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), respectively. Although the sequence identity is low, amphipathic α-helices with the potential to bind to lipid were predicted to exist in the EcApoC-I. RT-PCR analysis revealed that it was first transcribed in gastrula embryos and maintained a relatively stable expression level during the following embryogenesis. During embryonic and early larval development, a very high level of EcApoC-I expression was in the yolk syncytial layer, indicating that it plays a significant role in yolk degradation and transfers nutrition to the embryo and early larva. By the day 7 after hatching, EcApoC-I transcripts were observed in brain. In adult, EcApoC-I mRNA was detected abundantly in brain and gonad. In transitional gonads, the EcApoC-I expression is restricted to the germ cells. The data suggested that EcApoC-I might play an important role in brain and gonad morphogenesis and growth.

Coping flexibility in young adults: comparison between subjects with and without schizotypal personality features.

The current study examined characteristics of coping patterns adopted by college students in mainland China. In particular, it examined the coping strategies adopted by subjects with schizotypal personality (SPD) features compared to those without SPD features, and compared the relative effectiveness of their coping. Four types of coping flexibility were identified among the college sample (n=427), including active-inflexible, passive-inflexible, active-inconsistent, and passive-inconsistent styles. The passive-inconsistent style was related to the worst outcomes. When comparing subjects with SPD features with those without SPD features, subjects with SPD features endorsed significantly more emotion-focused strategies in uncontrollable situations than those without SPD features. The SPD group experienced higher levels of trait anxiety, depression, paranoid ideation and general health problems. The SPD group also generally perceived more, less controllable stress than the non-SPD group and randomly used all four categories of coping strategies.

Contribution of specific cognitive dysfunction to people with schizotypal personality

The current study aimed to determine whether there is a specific neurocognitive deficit in individuals with schizotypal personality features. One hundred and fifty-nine healthy participants and 62 schizotypal individuals completed a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests. The cognitive functions captured by the battery could be reduced to 6 factors. Significant difference was found between participants with schizotypal features and healthy controls in allocation, verbal memory and marginally in working memory. Schizotypal traits tended to correlate with some of the cognitive factors, especially allocation, verbal memory and working memory.

Semantic processing impairment in individuals with schizotypal personality disorder features: A preliminary event-related potential study

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine semantic processing features in individuals with and without schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) features. METHODS An implicit semantic task was used to examine the automatic spreading semantic activation process which is relatively free from the influence of attention. An explicit semantic task was used to examine the controlled semantic processing which requires high involvement of attention. Individuals with stable SPD features (n=17) were those who scored higher than 36 on the schizotypal personality questionnaire (SPQ) at two time points. Individuals with unstable SPD features (n=15) were defined as participants who scored higher than 36 at the baseline time point but lower than 36 at the second time point. Their performances in the two semantic tasks were then compared to 17 individuals without SPD features (scoring below 36 at both time points). Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded when participants were performing the two tasks. RESULTS Behavioral data, early ERP components and N400s were analyzed in each experiment. No between-group difference was observed in the implicit semantic task. In the explicit semantic task, the differences involved only the N400 component. When compared to the group without SPD features, participants with stable and unstable SPD features showed enhanced N400 effects (difference wave), while there was no difference between the two groups with SPD features. Moreover, the larger N400 effects were found to be due to less negative N400 amplitudes to related target words. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that individuals with SPD features were impaired in processing of context-related stimuli. The inhibition function to contextually unrelated materials in participants with SPD features appeared intact.

Social functioning in Chinese college students with and without schizotypal personality traits: an exploratory study of the Chinese version of the First Episode Social Functioning Scale.

Objectives The First Episode Social Functioning Scale (FESFS) was designed to measure social functioning of young individuals with schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to validate a Chinese version of the FESFS in a sample of young Chinese adults. Method The FESFS was translated to Chinese prior to being administered to 1576 college students. The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the scale were examined. Results Two items were deleted after item analysis and the internal consistency of the whole scale was .89. A six-factor structure was derived by exploratory factor analysis. The factors were interpersonal, family and friends, school, living skills, intimacy, and balance. Estimates of the structural equation model supported this structure, with Goodness of Fit Chi-Square χ2 = 1097.53 (p<0.0001), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.058, and the comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.93. Scale validity was supported by significant correlations between social functioning factors scores and schizophrenia personality questionnaire (SPQ) scores. Individuals with schizotypal personality features presented poorer social functioning than those without schizotypal personality features. Conclusions The Chinese revised version of the FESFS was found to have good psychometric properties and could be used in the future to examine social functioning in Chinese college students.

Neurological abnormalities and neurocognitive functions in healthy elder people: a structural equation modeling analysis.

Background/AimsNeurological abnormalities have been reported in normal aging population. However, most of them were limited to extrapyramidal signs and soft signs such as motor coordination and sensory integration have received much less attention. Very little is known about the relationship between neurological soft signs and neurocognitive function in healthy elder people. The current study aimed to examine the underlying relationships between neurological soft signs and neurocognition in a group of healthy elderly.MethodsOne hundred and eighty healthy elderly participated in the current study. Neurological soft signs were evaluated with the subscales of Cambridge Neurological Inventory. A set of neurocognitive tests was also administered to all the participants. Structural equation modeling was adopted to examine the underlying relationship between neurological soft signs and neurocognition.ResultsNo significant differences were found between the male and female elder people in neurocognitive function performances and neurological soft signs. The model fitted well in the elderly and indicated the moderate associations between neurological soft signs and neurocognition, specifically verbal memory, visual memory and working memory.ConclusionsThe neurological soft signs are more or less statistically equivalent to capture the similar information done by conventional neurocognitive function tests in the elderly. The implication of these findings may serve as a potential neurological marker for the early detection of pathological aging diseases or related mental status such as mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimers disease.