Predicting the stalking of celebrities from measures of persistent pursuit and threat directed toward celebrities, sensation seeking and celebrity worship.

The stalking of celebrities is a serious issue for thousands of celebrities worldwide who are occasionally confronted by fans who merit the label "fanatic." We administered measures of obnoxious celebrity stalking, celebrity worship, persistent pursuit of celebrities, threat directed toward celebrities, boredom susceptibility, disinhibition, experience seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, relationship styles, and anger to 596 college students from the U.S.

Adolescent nicotine administration impacts working memory and reversal learning but not cognitive flexibility.

There has been increased interest in early exposure to nicotine through tobacco products and vaping specifically as it relates to addiction, yet fewer studies have focused on whether behavioral effects resulting from early nicotine exposure may persist into adulthood. Our experiments tested the hypothesis that exposure to nicotine during adolescence would impair selective aspects of behavioral cognition in rodents in adulthood. Male and female adolescent rats received either nicotine (0.

Selective phosphodiesterase inhibitors improve performance on the ED/ID cognitive task in rats.

A number of selective phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors have been demonstrated to improve learning in several rodent models of cognition. Given that schizophrenia is associated with impairments in frontal lobe-dependent cognitive functions (e.g.

Environmental enrichment ameliorates phencyclidine-induced cognitive deficits.

Recent work has suggested that environmental enrichment during development can enhance aspects of learning and memory, however its effects on executive function and cognitive flexibility have not been well studied. The goal of this research was to evaluate whether environmental enrichment (EE) that included wheel running would improve cognitive performance in young male Long Evans rats that received subchronic administration of either phencyclidine (PCP) or saline. We used a sensitive extradimensional/intradimensional (ED/ID) test of cognitive flexibility similar to that used in humans and nonhuman primates for assessing executive function.

RG3487, a novel nicotinic α7 receptor partial agonist, improves cognition and sensorimotor gating in rodents.

Neuronal nicotinic α7 acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChRs) are expressed primarily in the brain and are implicated in modulating many cognitive functions (e.g., attention, working and episodic memory).

Emerging role of sertindole in the management of schizophrenia.

The atypical antipsychotic sertindole is a phenylindole-derived compound that has affinity for and functions as an antagonist at a number of receptor systems, including dopamine D2 receptors, 5-HT(2A) and 5-HT(2C) receptors, and α-1-noradrenergic receptors. Although previous data suggested that sertindole was well tolerated and had good efficacy against both positive and negative symptom clusters, reports of QT prolongation with sertindole prompted its voluntary removal from the market in 1998. After further safety analyses, it recently regained approval and was reintroduced to the European market for the treatment of schizophrenia, where its role in therapy among available atypicals remains unclear.

AM 251 differentially effects food-maintained responding depending on food palatability.

Ligands functioning as antagonists and inverse agonists at the cannabinoid CB(1)-receptor (e.g., AM 251, AM 281, and rimonabant (previously identified as SR141716)) have been demonstrated to have effects on satiety, consumption of, and the motivation to work for, or obtain food.

Selective nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists: potential therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders with cognitive dysfunction.

Cognitive impairment is one of the most functionally debilitating aspects of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, despite treatment with available pharmacotherapies. There is emerging evidence that nicotine improves cognitive function in humans and nonhuman species and this has sparked interest in the development of novel nicotinic treatments for cognitive dysfunction. The examination of selective alpha7 and alpha4beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonists suggests that both receptor subtypes mediate improvement in attention, learning and working memory.

Reversal of subchronic PCP-induced deficits in attentional set shifting in rats by sertindole and a 5-HT6 receptor antagonist: comparison among antipsychotics.

Currently accepted treatments for schizophrenia can effectively control positive symptoms but have limited impact on cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. The purpose of these experiments was to address this unmet need by characterizing the effects of classical and second-generation antipsychotics on cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia. An additional aim was to characterize the part(s) of the pharmacological profile of drugs that were important to reverse deficits.

Double dissociation of attentional resources: prefrontal versus cingulate cortices.

Efficient attention to our environment facilitates the decisions that need to be executed in daily life. Filtering critical from noncritical information may require the neural organization of multiple brain regions. Combining lesion techniques and the rodent version of the Wisconsin card sorting task in humans, we show at least two types of attentional processing systems reside in the cingulate and prefrontal cortices depending on task demands requiring shifts of attention within or between sets of meaningful cues, respectively.

Naltrexone reverses age-induced cognitive deficits in rats.

We evaluated young (3-4 months) and aged (22-24 months) male Sprague-Dawley rats in an attentional set-shifting procedure that assessed reversal, intradimensional shift (IDS), and extradimensional shift (EDS) discrimination learning tasks within one test session. These aspects of discrimination learning are sensitive to damage to distinct regions of frontal cortex. Compared to young animals, aged rats were significantly impaired on the EDS task and did not demonstrate significant impairment on the reversal or IDS tasks.

PDE10A inhibition reverses subchronic PCP-induced deficits in attentional set-shifting in rats.

Persistent suppression of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor function produces enduring structural changes in neocortical and limbic regions in a pattern similar to changes reported in schizophrenia. This similarity suggests that chronic NMDA receptor antagonism in animals may represent a useful model of neurobiological and related cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with impairments in frontal lobe-dependent cognitive functions, including working memory and attentional shifting.

Self-Administration of cocaine-opioid combinations by rhesus monkeys: evaluation of the role of mu receptor efficacy using labor supply analysis.

Cocaine and heroin often are abused by self-administering the drugs in combination as a "speedball". We evaluated the extent to which intrinsic efficacy at the mu-opioid receptor influences combined cocaine-opioid self-administration and used the behavioral economic model termed "labor supply" to quantitatively evaluate the reinforcing effects of cocaine-opioid combinations. Rhesus monkeys (n = 8) were trained under a progressive-ratio schedule of i.

Central blockade of muscarinic cholinergic receptors disrupts affective and attentional set-shifting.

Impairments in multiple aspects of attentional and executive function follow damage to cholinergic neurons in the central nervous system. Affective and attentional set-shifting represent two aspects of executive function controlled by different sectors of the prefrontal cortex. The involvement of cholinergic neural mechanisms in these aspects of executive function has not been specified.

Suppression of cocaine- and food-maintained behavior by the D2-like receptor partial agonist terguride in squirrel monkeys.

Rationale: The D2-like receptor partial agonist terguride has a profile of behavioral effects in rats that suggests potential benefit as a pharmacotherapy for cocaine addiction.

Objectives: The present study investigated the effects of terguride on cocaine- and food-maintained behavior in squirrel monkeys.

Methods: Squirrel monkeys were trained to respond on a second-order schedule (FI 10 min, FR 10 or 30:S) of either i.

Self-administration of cocaine, alfentanil, and nalbuphine under progressive-ratio schedules: consumer demand and labor supply analyses of relative reinforcing effectiveness.

Progressive-ratio (PR) schedules of intravenous (i.v.) drug self-administration are useful for establishing the relationships between reinforcing effectiveness and pharmacological actions of abused drugs.