intellectual vanities… about close to everything

We all know people who are tense and nervous and can’t relax. They may have been wired differently since childhood.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lsmp/healthadvice/Shyness/circleanxiety.jpg

New research by the HealthEmotions Research Institute and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) indicates that the brains of those suffering from anxiety and severe shyness in social situations consistently respond more strongly to stress, and show signs of being anxious even in situations that others find safe.

Dr. Ned Kalin, chairman of the UW Department of Psychiatry and HealthEmotions Research Institute, in collaboration with graduate student Andrew Fox and others, has published a new study on anxious brains in the online journal PLoS One.

The study looked at brain activity, anxious behaviour, and stress hormones in adolescent rhesus monkeys, which have long been used as a model to understand anxious temperament in human children. Anxious temperament is important because it is an early predictor of the later risk to develop anxiety, depression, and drug abuse related to self medicating.

The researchers found that those individuals with the most anxious temperaments showed higher activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that regulates emotion and triggers reactions to anxiety, such as the fight or flight response. These anxious monkeys had more metabolic activity in the amygdala in both secure and threatening situations.

“The brain machinery underlying the stress response seems to be always on in these individuals,” said Kalin, “even in situations that others perceive as safe and secure.”

Rhesus monkeys were graded on their anxious temperament, then exposed to situations that ranged from being secure at home with their cage-mates, to being alone, to being confronted by an unfamiliar person. This unknown person stood in front of the monkey presenting her facial profile to the monkey while avoiding any eye contact.

The adolescent monkeys received an injection of FDG, a radioactive substance similar to glucose that lights up the active parts of the brain when the monkeys are imaged with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Whether in a secure environment or a more uncertain and possibly scary one, the nervous monkeys had more brain activity in the amygdala and surrounding “stress response” parts of the brain. The increased amygdala activity corresponded to higher levels of “freezing” behaviour, fewer vocalizations and higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the anxious monkeys.

When the monkeys were retested a year and a half later, the results were the same: the anxious monkeys still were more stressed out than their calmer peers when judged by the behavioural and physiological measures.

“We’re looking for better ways to diagnose and treat mental illness,” explains Kalin, about his ongoing work at HealthEmotions. “We’re trying to understand how the brain influences mood, reactions to stress and physical health.”

Psychiatrists have long known that an anxious temperament in childhood is a risk factor for developing anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse. These new findings in young rhesus monkeys point to a brain mechanism that is present early in life that predisposes to this disposition.

The current research suggests that the reason is it is hard for some one with an anxious temperament to “calm down” is because they are wired in a way that tends to keep them tense and anxious.

PLoS ONE 3(7): e2570. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002570

Trait-Like Brain Activity during Adolescence Predicts Anxious Temperament in Primates.

Fox AS, Shelton SE, Oakes TR, Davidson RJ, Kalin NH (200

Early theorists (Freud and Darwin) speculated that extremely shy children, or those with anxious temperament, were likely to have anxiety problems as adults. More recent studies demonstrate that these children have heightened responses to potentially threatening situations reacting with intense defensive responses that are characterized by behavioral inhibition (BI) (inhibited motor behavior and decreased vocalizations) and physiological arousal. Confirming the earlier impressions, data now demonstrate that children with this disposition are at increased risk to develop anxiety, depression, and comorbid substance abuse. Additional key features of anxious temperament are that it appears at a young age, it is a stable characteristic of individuals, and even in non-threatening environments it is associated with increased psychic anxiety and somatic tension. To understand the neural underpinnings of anxious temperament, we performed imaging studies with 18-fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) high-resolution Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in young rhesus monkeys. Rhesus monkeys were used because they provide a well validated model of anxious temperament for studies that cannot be performed in human children. Imaging the same animal in stressful and secure contexts, we examined the relation between regional metabolic brain activity and a trait-like measure of anxious temperament that encompasses measures of BI and pituitary-adrenal reactivity. Regardless of context, results demonstrated a trait-like pattern of brain activity (amygdala, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, hippocampus, and periaqueductal gray) that is predictive of individual phenotypic differences. Importantly, individuals with extreme anxious temperament also displayed increased activity of this circuit when assessed in the security of their home environment. These findings suggest that increased activity of this circuit early in life mediates the childhood temperamental risk to develop anxiety and depression. In addition, the findings provide an explanation for why individuals with anxious temperament have difficulty relaxing in environments that others perceive as non-stressful.

New research appearing in the May issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that being put in a low-power role may impair a person’s basic cognitive functioning and thus, their ability to get ahead.

In their article, Pamela Smith of Radboud University Nijmegen, and colleagues Nils B. Jostmann of VU University Amsterdam, Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Wilco W. van Dijk of VU University Amsterdam, focus on a set of cognitive processes called executive functions. Executive functions help people maintain and pursue their goals in difficult, distracting situations. The researchers found that lacking power impaired people’s ability to keep track of ever-changing information, to parse out irrelevant information, and to successfully plan ahead to achieve their goals.

In one experiment, the participants completed a Stroop task, a common psychological test designed to exercise executive functions. Participants who had earlier been randomly assigned to a low-power group made more errors in the Stroop task than those who had been assigned to a high-power group. Smith and colleagues also found that these results were not due to low-power people being less motivated or putting in less effort. Instead, those lacking in power had difficulty maintaining a focus on their current goal.

In another experiment, participants were asked to move an arrangement of disks from a start position to a final position in as few moves as possible, known to researchers as the Tower-of-Hanoi task. This task tests the more complex ability of planning. In some trials there was a catch: participants had to move the first disk in a direction that was opposite to its final position. Low power participants made more errors and required more moves on these trials, demonstrating poor planning.

Smith and colleagues believe their results have “direct implications for management and organizations.” In high-risk industries such as health care, a single employee error can have fatal consequences. Empowering these employees could reduce the likelihood of such errors. Additionally, their work illustrates how hierarchies perpetuate themselves. By randomly assigning individuals to high and low-power conditions, they demonstrate that simply lacking power can automatically lead to performance that reinforces one’s low standing, sending the powerless towards a destiny of dispossession.

Galinsky, A. D., Magee, J. C., Gruenfeld, D. H, Whitson, J., & Liljenquist, K. A.

Social power reduces the strength of the situation: Implications for creativity, conformity, and dissonance.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (in press).

Abstract
Although power is often conceptualized as the capacity to influence others, the current research explores whether power psychologically protects people from influence. In contrast to classic social psychological research demonstrating the strength of the situation in directing attitudes, expressions, and intentions, five experiments (using experiential primes, semantic primes, and role manipulations of power) demonstrate that the powerful (a) generate creative ideas that are less influenced by salient examples, (b) express attitudes that conform less to the expressed opinions of others, (c) are more influenced by their own social value orientation relative to the reputation of a negotiating partner, and (d) perceive greater choice in making counterattitudinal statements. This last experiment illustrates that power is not always psychologically liberating; it can create internal conflict, arousing dissonance, and thereby lead to attitude change. Across the experiments, high-power participants were immune to the typical press of situations, with intrapsychic processes having greater sway than situational or interpersonal ones on their creative and attitudinal expressions.

People searching the Internet for information about suicide methods are most likely to come across sites that encourage suicide rather than sites offering help and support, finds a study in the British Medical Journal. Media reporting of suicide and its portrayal on television are known to influence suicidal behaviour, particularly the choice of method used, but little is known about the influence of the internet.

Recent reports in the popular press have highlighted the existence and possible influence of internet sites that promote suicide and web forums that may encourage suicide in young people.

But despite these recent controversies, the ease with which these sites may be found on the internet has not been systematically documented nor the kind of information they contain been described.

Researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester set out to replicate a typical search that might be undertaken by a person looking for instructions and information about methods of suicide using the four most popular search engines–Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask–and 12 simple search terms.

They analysed the first ten sites from each search, giving a total of 480 hits.

Altogether 240 different sites were found and just under half of these provided some information about methods of suicide. Almost a fifth of hits (90) were for dedicated suicide sites, of which half were judged to be encouraging, promoting, or facilitating suicide.

Sixty-two (13%) sites focused on suicide prevention or offered support and 59 (12%) sites actively discouraged suicide.

Almost all dedicated suicide and factual information sites provided information about methods of suicide. But, a fifth (21%) of support and prevention sites and over half (55%) of academic or policy sites, and all news reports of suicides also provided information about methods.

Overall, Google and Yahoo retrieved the highest number of dedicated suicide sites, whereas MSN had the highest number of prevention or support sites and academic or policy sites.

In addition, the three most frequently occurring sites were all pro-suicide, whereas the information site Wikipedia was fourth. All top four sites evaluated methods of suicide including detailed information about speed, certainty, and the likely amount of pain associated with each method.

However, there is currently no regulation of suicide sites in the UK because they are not illegal.

Self-regulation by internet providers and use of filtering software by parents to block sites are the main approaches to reducing potential harm from suicide sites. However, efforts to remove some of the most detailed technical descriptions of suicide methods may be easily circumvented, say the authors.

They conclude that service providers might pursue website optimisation strategies to maximise the likelihood that sites aimed at preventing suicide are preferentially sourced by people seeking information about suicide methods rather than potentially harmful sites.

BMJ. 2008 Apr 12;336(7648):800-2.

Suicide and the internet.

Biddle L, Donovan J, Hawton K, Kapur N, Gunnell D.

no abstract

see also:

Chat Room Users Urged Suicide - The Cyber Crowd

Attitudes Towards Sexual Relationships Can Be Judged From Photos Of Your Face

Suitors can tell a young person’s attitude to sexual relationships by the look on their face, according to new research which gives deeper insight into mate attractiveness.

The Durham University-led study of 700 heterosexual participants also found that young men and women look for complete opposites when it comes to relationships with the other sex.

Men generally prefer women who they perceive are open to short-term sexual relationships whilst women are usually interested in men who appear to have potential to be long-term relationship material.

The scientists say the research shows people can use their perceptions to make more informed partner selection depending on the type of relationship they are pursuing. The study is a significant step in further understanding the evolution of partner choice, according to the research team from Durham, St Andrews and Aberdeen Universities.

Participants were asked to judge the attractiveness and attitudes to sex of the opposite sex from their facial photographs. These perceptual judgements were then compared with the actual attitudes and behaviours of the individuals in the photographs, which had been determined through a detailed questionnaire. The people in the photographs were all in their early 20s.

The experiments found that the men and women taking part could generally judge from photographs who would be more interested in a short-term sexual relationship. In the first study sample of 153 participants, 72 per cent of people correctly identified the attitudes from photographs more than half of the time. However, further questioning showed that the participants were not always confident in their judgements.

The research, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, also found that women who were open to short-term sexual relationships were usually seen by others as more attractive — although researchers can not determine precisely why without further investigation. The men who were most open to casual sex were generally perceived as being more masculine-looking, with facial features including squarer jaws, larger nose and smaller eyes. These findings support previous research carried out by the Durham team which found that women see masculine men as more likely to be unfaithful and as worse parents.

Lead author Dr Lynda Boothroyd from Durham University’s Psychology Department said: “Our results suggest that although some people can judge the sexual strategy of others simply from looking at their face, people are not always sure about their judgements possibly because the cues are very subtle. Yet preferences for different types of face were actually quite strong.

“This shows that these initial impressions may be part of how we assess potential mates — or potential rivals — when we first meet them. These will then give way over time to more in depth knowledge of that person, as you get to know them better, and may change with age”.

Dr Ben Jones, from the University of Aberdeen’s Face Research Lab, said “Lots of previous studies have shown that people can judge a lot about a person from their face, including things like health and even some personality traits like introversion, but this really is the first study to show that people are also sensitive to subtle facial signals about the type of romantic relationships that others might enjoy.”

Professor David Perrett from the University of St Andrews cautioned: “While faces do hold cues to sexual attitudes, men should not presume any kind of relationship is wanted from appearance alone since women’s choice is what matters. Indeed most women found promiscuous-looking guys unattractive for both short and long-term relationships”.

In the study, participants were shown pairs of photographs or ‘averaged’ facial images of men and women in their early 20s with two opposing attitudes to relationships. The participants were asked to choose the face that they felt would be more open to short-term sexual relationships, one-night stands and the idea of sex without love. They were also asked which face they thought was the most attractive for a long- or short-term relationship, who was more masculine or feminine, and who they thought was generally attractive.

Evolution & Human Behavior DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.12.009 Corrected Proof, 27 March 2008

Facial correlates of sociosexuality

Lynda G. Boothroyd, Benedict C. Jones, D. Michael Burt, Lisa M. DeBruine, David I. Perrett

The research, conducted by University of Wisconsin’s Kathleen Dolan, examined the National Election Study (NES) data, which provided information about voters’ reactions to female candidates and whether gender affinity was related to the election booth decision. The findings provided interesting results.

While the research looked at gender affinity, and such other issues as the desire for gender-specific representation on certain political issues, and the political party affiliation of both the candidate and the voter, the research did not find an overwhelming or consistent gender gap supporting female candidates. Instead, information about the candidate herself, and her position on significant issues seemed to be more important to the voters’ choice.

“As the number of women who seek elective office increases, we have increased our understanding of the sometimes complex dynamics that their candidacies raise,” concludes the author in the article. “While women support female candidates, they are evaluated in the same way that all candidates are evaluated, through the lens of personal and political considerations that take many forms. Sometimes this leads to situations in which women are more likely to support female candidates than are men, but even in these situations, candidate sex may be only one of several important considerations.”

Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1, 79-89 (200 DOI: 10.1177/1065912907307518

Is There a “Gender Affinity Effect” in American Politics?: Information, Affect, and Candidate Sex in U.S. House Elections

Kathleen Dolan

A common assumption people make about American elections is that women voters will be the most likely source of support for female candidates, a phenomenon referred to as the “gender affinity effect.” Using National Election Study (NES) data from 1990 to 2000, this project expands our understanding of forms that this affinity effect can take by examining two underutilized measures of reactions to candidates: information and candidate affect scores. The author also considers the impact of political party on women’s and men’s attitudes toward female candidates and examines whether any gender affinity effect in reactions to female candidates is related to people’s voting decisions.

A fascinating new paper from the Journal of Consumer Research investigates the seven-year war on music downloading that unfolded among corporate music executives and music downloaders. Markus Giesler (York University) uses a performance-ethnography approach, studying the music marketplace as a cultural stage on which consumers and producers interact as dramatic players to reach their conflicting goals.

As a record producer during Napster’s emergence in the late ’90s, Giesler had first hand experience dealing with several issues: How does market evolution change price-value relationships for music? Will this fundamentally new way of music consumption herald the end of the music market? Was there a common pattern of historical transformation at work that, once revealed, could be used to better understand other instances of market evolution?

To answer these questions, he sought to identify both the fundamental cultural tensions that drive the performances of downloaders and producers on the market stage, and the dramatic plot structure that integrates the war on music downloading into a historical narrative of market evolution.

“These findings yield some novel theoretical insights for the study of market system dynamics,” Giesler says. “This study has argued for more attention to the idea that markets are staged compromises between sharing and owning.”

Giesler argues that, between 1999 and 2006, the music market moved through a process of structural change that involved much unusual drama. The drama unfolded over an enduring cultural tension: the conflict between utilitarian and possessive ideals as they applied to music as a cultural resource. These ideals influenced the behavior and statements of music consumers and producers.

Giesler then divides this dramatic conflict into four historical acts: In the first act, a breach was made visible by the violation of market norms (the emergence of Napster). The second act was a crisis or extension of the breach, during which each of the antagonists took a more radical stance towards the other camp and the breach widened publicly (the expansion of music downloading). The corporate response led to the third act, the application of redressive mechanisms to restore normalcy (the music industry’s anti-downloading campaign and the prosecution of individual downloaders). The fourth act was a reintegration (the commercialization of downloading through Apple’s iTunes and other corporate players).

“The profound implication here is that marketplace dramas can take place in every market–from music to organic food. The cast changes every time, but the story is more or less the same. These findings not only can be used to understand and predict other instances of market evolution; they also reveal the stuff that heroes are made of and the reasons why some of them fail,” Giesler explains.

Giesler points out that managers, consumers, and public policy makers can use the idea of marketplace drama to better understand and manage similar market conflicts. For example, the idea of markets as dramatically acquired compromises between sharing and owning informs the ongoing war between the Youtube community and the motion picture industry. Marketplace drama can also be used to better understand and explain the commercial cooptation and ideological reclaiming of market countercultures such as the organic food movement.

 Markus Giesler: 

“Conflict and Compromise: Drama in Marketplace Evolution.” 

http://www.markus-giesler.com/ 

How do markets change? Findings from a 7-year longitudinal processual investigation of consumer performances in the war on music downloading suggest markets in the cultural creative sphere (those organizing the exchange of intellectual
goods such as music, movies, software, and the written word) evolve through stages of perpetual structural instability. Each stage addresses an enduring cultural tension between countervailing utilitarian and possessive ideals. Grounded anthropology and consumer behavior, I illustrate this historical dynamic through process of marketplace drama, a fourfold sequence of performed conflict opposing groups of consumers and producers. Implications for theorizing onmarket system dynamics and the consumption of performance are offered.

… at least when health prospects are concerned. In a study to examine the impact of desired body weight on the number of unhealthy days subjects report over one month, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that the desire to weigh less was a more accurate predictor of physically and mentally unhealthy days, than body mass index (BMI). In addition, the desire to lose weight was more predictive of unhealthy days among Whites than among African-Americans or Hispanics, and among women than among men.

After controlling for actual BMI and age, the researchers found that men who wished to lose 1 percent, 10 percent, and 20 percent of their body weight, respectively, reported 0.1, 0.9 and 2.7 more unhealthy days per month than those who were happy with their weight. Among women, the corresponding increase in numbers of reported unhealthy days was 0.1, 1.6 and 4.3. Persons who were happy with their weight experienced fewer physically unhealthy days (3.0 vs 3.7) and mentally unhealthy days (2.6 vs 3.6) compared with persons unhappy with their weight.

“Our data suggest that some of the obesity epidemic may be partially attributable to social constructs that surround ideal body types,” said Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, Mailman School of Public Health assistant professor of Health Policy and Management. “Younger persons, Whites, and women are disproportionately affected by negative body image concerns, and these groups unduly suffer from BMI-associated morbidity and mortality.”

Approximately 66% of the more than 150,000 U.S. adults studied wanted to lose weight, and about 26% were satisfied with their current weight. With respect to BMI, 41% of normal weight people, 20% of overweight people, and 5% of obese people were happy with their weight. Older persons were also more likely to feel positively about their weight than were younger persons. However, in all models, perceived difference was a stronger predictor than was BMI of mentally and physically unhealthy days.

The researchers emphasize that there is a large body of evidence suggesting that social stress adversely affects mental health as well as physical health. “Our findings confirmed that there was a positive relationship between a person’s actual weight and his or her desired weight and health, be it physical or mental,” observed Dr. Muennig.

Obesity is one of the greatest public health threats. Over 7 million quality-adjusted life years are lost annually as a result of excess body weight in the United States alone. There is evidence that discrimination against heavy people is pervasive, occurring in social settings, the workplace, and the home. These processes are likely internalized, leading to a negative body image that also may serve as a source of chronic stress.

“The data add support to our hypothesis that the psychological stress that accompanies a negative body image explains some of the morbidity commonly associated with being obese. Our finding that the desire to lose weight was a much stronger predictor of unhealthy days than was BMI further suggests that perceived difference plays a greater role in generating disease,” said Dr. Muennig.

Am J Public Health. 2008 Jan 30 [Epub ahead of print]

I Think Therefore I Am: Perceived Ideal Weight as a Determinant of Health.

Muennig P, Jia H, Lee R, Lubetkin E.

Columbia University.

Objectives. We examined whether stress related to negative body image perception and the desire to lose weight explained some of the body mass index-health gradient. Methods. We used 2003 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to examine the impact of desired body weight, independent of actual body mass index, on the amount of physically and mentally unhealthy days by race, ethnicity, and gender. Results. The difference between actual and desired body weight was a stronger predictor than was body mass index (BMI) of mental and physical health. When we controlled for BMI and age, men who wished to lose 1%, 10%, and 20% of their body weight respectively suffered a net increase of 0.1, 0.9, and 2.7 unhealthy days per month relative to those who were happy with their weight. For women, the corresponding numbers were 0.1, 1.6, and 4.3 unhealthy days per month. The desire to lose weight was more predictive of unhealthy days among women than among men and among Whites than among Blacks or Hispanics. Conclusions. Our results raise the possibility that some of the health effects of the obesity epidemic are related to the way we see our bodies.

A cellular protein that helps guide immune cells to the gut has been newly identified as a target of HIV when the virus begins its assault on the body’s immune system, according to researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The identification of this new receptor opens up new avenues of investigation that may help further elucidate the complex mechanisms of the pathogenesis of HIV infection,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., chief of the Institute’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation (LIR) and senior author of the new study.

Several other immune cell receptors bind to HIV. Most important among these, the CD4 molecule, identified as an HIV receptor in 1984, functions as the principal receptor for HIV. The CCR5 and CXCR4 molecules, discovered in 1996, serve as co-receptors that HIV uses to enter its target cells. In the new study, which appears online Feb. 10, 2008 in Nature Immunology, NIAID scientists identify a cell adhesion molecule known as integrin alpha 4 beta 7 as another potentially important receptor for HIV.

Early in the course of HIV infection, the virus rapidly invades and replicates in gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), the immune cells of the gut. Once seeded with HIV, the gut is rapidly depleted of CD4+ T cells, the main target of HIV, triggering the process that ultimately leads to AIDS.

“In the very early days of infection, it is in the GALT where most of the damage caused by HIV occurs,” says Elena Martinelli, Ph.D., a lead author of the paper and a fellow in Dr. Fauci’s laboratory. “The gut is where the virus really takes hold. We found that integrin alpha 4 beta 7, whose natural function is to direct T cells to the GALT, is also a receptor for HIV. It is very unlikely that this is a coincidence.”

Dr. Martinelli, along with Claudia Cicala, Ph.D., James Arthos, Ph.D., and their colleagues found that the gp120 protein, part of the HIV envelope, binds to integrin alpha 4 beta 7 on CD4+ T cells, which promotes the formation of a stable junction, or synapse, between neighboring cells.

“A synapse is a junction that allows two cells to adhere in a stable way,” says Dr. Arthos. “Many viruses have found a way to trick cells into forming these stable junctions. Now it appears that HIV can also trigger synapse formation.”

Specifically, a short piece of the HIV gp120 protein in a region known as the V2 loop recognizes the alpha 4 chain of the integrin molecule on host cells. This stretch of the V2 loop is similar to part of the naturally occurring molecules that bind integrin alpha 4 beta 7. Thus, it appears that HIV is mimicking the natural molecular partners, or ligands, that normally bind to the receptor. The authors note, however, that some HIV isolates react more strongly to integrin alpha 4 beta 7 than others.

“The ability of a particular virus to bind to integrin alpha 4 beta 7 may determine whether it will have a major impact in targeting the gut lymphoid tissue,” says Dr. Fauci. “This finding could be a significant determinant in the pathogenic mechanisms that lead to AIDS.”

As part of the natural homing process, integrin alpha 4 beta 7 binds to its natural ligands and activates a protein known as LFA-1. According to Dr. Arthos, HIV can co-opt this process by mimicking the cells’ alpha 4 beta 7 receptor natural ligands. When HIV gp120 protein binds to the alpha 4 beta 7 receptor it facilitates the formation of a synapse. Thus, HIV tricks an infected cell into binding to an uninfected cell, enabling HIV to readily gain access to the uninfected cell.

“While this study provides important new information concerning the various mechanisms by which HIV debilitates the human immune system, it also raises new questions and challenges that our laboratory and others will pursue,” notes Dr. Cicala.

Nat Immunol. 2008 Feb 10 [Epub ahead of print]

HIV-1 envelope protein binds to and signals through integrin alpha(4)beta(7), the gut mucosal homing receptor for peripheral T cells.

 

Arthos J, Cicala C, Martinelli E, Macleod K, Van Ryk D, Wei D, Xiao Z, Veenstra TD, Conrad TP, Lempicki RA, McLaughlin S, Pascuccio M, Gopaul R, McNally J, Cruz CC, Censoplano N, Chung E, Reitano KN, Kottilil S, Goode DJ, Fauci AS.

[1] Laboratory of Immunoregulation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. [2] These authors contributed equally to this work.

Infection with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) results in the dissemination of virus to gut-associated lymphoid tissue. Subsequently, HIV-1 mediates massive depletion of gut CD4(+) T cells, which contributes to HIV-1-induced immune dysfunction. The migration of lymphocytes to gut-associated lymphoid tissue is mediated by integrin alpha(4)beta(7). We demonstrate here that the HIV-1 envelope protein gp120 bound to an activated form of alpha(4)beta(7). This interaction was mediated by a tripeptide in the V2 loop of gp120, a peptide motif that mimics structures presented by the natural ligands of alpha(4)beta(7). On CD4(+) T cells, engagement of alpha(4)beta(7) by gp120 resulted in rapid activation of LFA-1, the central integrin involved in the establishment of virological synapses, which facilitate efficient cell-to-cell spreading of HIV-1.

Diversity of integrins

17 INTEGRIN-ALPHA chains and 8 INTEGRIN-BETA chains have been identified. The association of an INTEGRIN-ALPHA chain and INTEGRIN-BETA chain leads to 25 different integrins.
There are classified in:

• VLA
• Cytoadhesins
• Leu-cam

(1)	α1β1	Alpha1/beta1 is a receptor for collagen-I, collagen-IV and laminin (E1 region). It is expressed on activated T cells, monocytes, smooth muscle cells and melanoma cells. This integrin is also known as VLA-1 (very late activation antigen 1).
(2)	α2β1	Alpha2/beta1 is a receptor for collagen-I to -VI, laminin and possibly fibronectin. It is expressed on B and T lymphocytes, platelets, fibroblasts, endothelial cells and melanoma cells. This integrin is also known as VLA-2 (very late activation antigen 2), GPIa-IIa (glycoprotein Ia-IIa on platelets) and ECMRII (extracellular matrix receptor II).
(3)	α3β1	Alpha3/beta1 is a receptor for epiligrin, laminin (E3 fragment), nidogen/entactin, fibronectin and collagen-1. It is expressed on B lymphocytes, kidney glomerulus and most cultured cell lines. This integrin is also known as VLA-3 (very late activation atigen 3), VCA-2 (very common antigen 2), ECMRI (extracellular matrix receptor I) and Gapb-3 (galactoprotein b3).
(4)	α4β1	Alpha4/beta1 is a receptor for fibronectin containing the CS-1 region, which is situated within the IIICS region, and VCAM-1 (vascular cellular adhesion molecule 1). It is present on lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, NK cells and thymocytes. This integrin plays a role in the invasion of inflammated tissues, and has also been implicated in skeletal myogenesis, neural crest migration and proliferation, lymphocyte maturation and morphogenesis of the placenta and heart. VCAM-1 is an adhesion molecule which is present on cytokine-activated endothelial cells, while fibronectin is part of the extracellular matrix. Alpha4/beta1 is thus involved in both cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesion. This integrin is also known as VLA-4 (very late activation antigen 4) and LPAM-2 (lymphocyte Peyer’s patch HEV adhesion molecule 2 (mouse)).
(5)	α5β1	Alpha5/beta1 is a receptor for fibronectin. It is expressed on memory T cells, monocytes, platelets and fibroblasts. This integrin is also known as VLA-5 (very late activation antigen 5), FNR (fibronectin receptor), GPIc-IIa (glycoprotein Ic-IIa on platelets) and ECMRVI (extracellular matrix receptor VI).
(6)	αVβ1	AlphaV/beta1 is a receptor for fibronectin.
(7)	α6β1	The alpha6/beta1 integrin is expressed on platelets, lymphocytes, monocytes, thymocytes and epithelial cells, on which it functions as a laminin receptor for laminin-1, laminin-2 and laminin-4 in vivo. It is also a receptor for laminin-5, but not in vivo. For laminin-1, the binding site has been localized in the E8 domain of this extracellular matrix molecule. This receptor is also known as VLA-6 (very late activation antigen 6) and GPIc-IIa (glycoprotein Ic-IIa on platelets).
(	α7β1	The alpha7/beta1 integrin is expressed on skeletal and cardiac muscle at specific stages during muscle development. It is a receptor for laminin-1 and binds to its E8 domain. This integrin is also found localized in focal contacts when melanoma cells attach to laminin-1, while normal melanocytes do not express this integrin. Since alpha7/beta1 is developmentally regulated in muscle cells, it is thought that this integrin has a role in their development. The expression of the three known splice variants is in addition developmentally regulated. Expression of alpha7B precedes the xpression of alpha7A and alpha7C. Alpha7/beta1 is also a trophoblast specific laminin receptor on which it may serve a specific function during the early postimplantation period. This integrin is also known as VLA-7 (very late activation antigen 7).
(9)	α8β1	Alpha8/beta1 is a receptor for fibronectin.
(10)	α9β1
(11)	αDβ2
(12)	αLβ2	AlphaL/beta2 is a receptor for ICAM-1 to 3 (intercellular adhesion molecule 1 to 3). This integrin is only present on leukocytes and plays an important role in interactions between members of this family (eg. B cell to T cell). AlphaL/beta2 is also involved in the interactions between cytotoxic cells and their target cells. On top of this, alphaL/beta2 is crucial for the invasion of leukocytes in tissues. ICAM-1 is expressed on leukocytes and other cells, amongst them are endothelial cells, but only after they have been activated by cytokines for example which are produced in immune reactions and inflammated tissues. ICAM-2 is present on a lot of cells and does not change after cytokine activation. ICAM-3 is primarily expressed on resting lymphocytes and plays a role in the onset of immune reactions. AlphaL/beta2 is normally not activated, but adhesion is induced by activation of the leukocyte, for example by PAF (platelet activating factor) which is produced in inflammated tissues. This integrin is also known as LFA-1 (leukocyte function associated antigen 1).
(13)	αMβ2	AlphaM/beta2 is a receptor for iC3b (inactivated form of C3b), factor X (coagulation factor X), fibrinogen and ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule 1). It is expressed on monocytes, macrophages, NK cells and granulocytes. Alpha-M/beta-2 is important in adherence of monocytes and neutrophils to vascular endothelium, as well as in subsequent extravasation. It also plays a role in phagocytosis of complement coated particles. This integrin is also known as Mac-1 (macrophage receptor 1) and iC3b receptor 3 (CR3).
(14)	αXβ2	alphaX/beta2 is a receptor for fibrinogen. It is found on monocytes, macrophages, granulocytes, NK cells and activated lymphocytes. This integrin is also known as p150 and iC3b receptor 4 (CR4).
(15)	αVβ3	AlphaV/beta3 is a receptor for fibrinogen, fibronectin, von Willebrand’s factor, vitronectin, Thrombospondin (Tsp), osteopontin and bone sialoprotein 1 (Bsp1). It is expressed on endothelial cells, some B cells, platelets and monocytes. alphaVb-beta3 mediates platelet aggregation and endothelial cell adhesion to ECM proteins. This integrin is also known as VNR (vitronectin receptor).
(16)	α-IIbβ3	Alpha-IIb/beta3 is a receptor for fibrinogen, fibronectin, von Willebrand’s factor and vitronectin. It is expressed on platelets. This integrin is also known as GPIIb-IIIa (glycoprotein IIb-IIIa on platelets).
(17)	αRβ3
(1	α6β4	The alpha6/beta4 integrin is expressed on different cell types. They are expressed on immature thymocytes, on squamous epithedlia, on subsets of endothelial cells, on Schwann cells and also on fibroblasts in the peripheral nervous system. In stratified epithelia like the skin, alpha6/beta4 is concentrated in dense structures which are called hemidesmosomes. These dense structures are involved in the attachment of basal cells to the underlying basement membranes. This is achieved by connection of the intermediate filaments to the extracellular matrix via this integrin. All the other integrins use actin filaments for this purpose instead of intermediate filaments. The ligands for the alpha6/beta4 integrin are laminin-1 and laminin-5. The afffinity for laminin-5 however is much stronger. In hemidesmosomes it is found attached to laminin-5. The different alpha6 splice variants do not influence the ligand specificities of the integrin. From studies with knockout mice it was found that in the absense of the integrin (beta4 knockout or alpha6 knockout) no hemidesmosomes were present, suggesting that the integrin is neccesary for the formation or initiation of hemidesmosomes. these mice showed severe blistering of the skin and died soon after birth.
(19)	αVβ5	AlphaV/beta5 is a receptor for vitronectin. It is expressed on hepatoma cells, fibroblasts and carcinoma cells. This integrin is also known as alphaV/betaS and alphaV/beta3B.
(20)	αVβ6	AlphaV/beta6 is a receptor for fibronectin. It is expressed on carcinoma cells.
(21)	αVβ8
(22)	α4β7	The alpha4/beta7 integrin is a receptor for MadCAM, fibronectin and VCAM-1. This integrin is only found on leukocytes which are directed to the Peyer’s patches of the gut. MadCAM which is an addressin, is only found on Peyer’s patch endothelium. The alpha4/beta7 integrin is also known as LPAM-1.
(23)	αIELβ7	This integrin is also known as M290 IELb (mouse intraepithelial lymphocyte antigen recognized by monoclonal antibody M290).

 

Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.

Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but new research reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes. (Credit: Image courtesy of Stanford University)

In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the researchers.

Co-author Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford associate professor of psychology who is black, said she was shocked by the results, particularly since they involved subjects born after Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. “This was actually some of the most depressing work I have done,” she said. “This shook me up. You have suspicions when you do the work—intuitions—you have a hunch. But it was hard to prepare for how strong [the black-ape association] was—how we were able to pick it up every time.”

The research took place over six years at Stanford and Penn State under Eberhardt’s supervision. It involved mostly white male undergraduates. In a series of studies that subliminally flashed black or white male faces on a screen for a fraction of a second to “prime” the students, researchers found subjects could identify blurry ape drawings much faster after they were primed with black faces than with white faces.

The researchers consistently discovered a black-ape association even if the young adults said they knew nothing about its historical connotations. The connection was made only with African American faces; the paper’s third study failed to find an ape association with other non-white groups, such as Asians. Despite such race-specific findings, the researchers stressed that dehumanization and animal imagery have been used for centuries to justify violence against many oppressed groups.

“Despite widespread opposition to racism, bias remains with us,” Eberhardt said. “African Americans are still dehumanized; we’re still associated with apes in this country. That association can lead people to endorse the beating of black suspects by police officers, and I think it has lots of other consequences that we have yet to uncover.”

Historical background

Scientific racism in the United States was graphically promoted in a mid-19th-century book by Josiah C. Nott and George Robins Gliddon titled Types of Mankind, which used misleading illustrations to suggest that “Negroes” ranked between “Greeks” and chimpanzees. “When we have a history like that in this country, I don’t know how much of that goes away completely, especially to the extent that we are still dealing with severe racial inequality, which fuels and maintains those associations in ways that people are unaware,” Eberhardt said.

Although such grotesque characterizations of African Americans have largely disappeared from mainstream U.S. society, Eberhardt noted that science education could be partly responsible for reinforcing the view that blacks are less evolved than whites. An iconic 1970 illustration, “March of Progress,” published in the Time-Life book Early Man, depicts evolution beginning with a chimpanzee and ending with a white man. “It’s a legacy of our past that the endpoint of evolution is a white man,” Eberhardt said. “I don’t think it’s intentional, but when people learn about human evolution, they walk away with a notion that people of African descent are closer to apes than people of European descent. When people think of a civilized person, a white man comes to mind.”

Consequences of socially endorsed violence

In the paper’s fifth study, the researchers subliminally primed 115 white male undergraduates with words associated with either apes (such as “monkey,” “chimp,” “gorilla”) or big cats (such as “lion,” “tiger,” “panther”). The latter was used as a control because both images are associated with violence and Africa, Eberhardt said. The subjects then watched a two-minute video clip, similar to the television program COPS, depicting several police officers violently beating a man of undetermined race. A mugshot of either a white or a black man was shown at the beginning of the clip to indicate who was being beaten, with a description conveying that, although described by his family as “a loving husband and father,” the suspect had a serious criminal record and may have been high on drugs at the time of his arrest.

The students were then asked to rate how justified the beating was. Participants who believed the suspect was white were no more likely to condone the beating when they were primed with either ape or big cat words, Eberhardt said. But those who thought the suspect was black were more likely to justify the beating if they had been primed with ape words than with big cat words. “Taken together, this suggests that implicit knowledge of a Black-ape association led to marked differences in participants’ judgments of Black criminal suspects,” the researchers write.

According to the paper’s authors, this link has devastating consequences for African Americans because it “alters visual perception and attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against black suspects.” For example, the paper’s sixth study showed that in hundreds of news stories from 1979 to 1999 in the Philadelphia Inquirer, African Americans convicted of capital crimes were about four times more likely than whites convicted of capital crimes to be described with ape-relevant language, such as “barbaric,” “beast,” “brute,” “savage” and “wild.” “Those who are implicitly portrayed as more ape-like in these articles are more likely to be executed by the state than those who are not,” the researchers write.

The way forward

Despite the paper’s findings, Eberhardt said she is optimistic about the future. “This work isn’t arguing that there hasn’t been any progress made or that we are living in the same society that existed in the 19th century,” she said. “We have made a lot of progress on race issues, but we should recognize that racial bias isn’t dead. We still need to be aware of that and aware of all the different ways [racism] can affect us, despite our intentions and motivations to be egalitarian. We still have work to do.”

For Eberhardt, two stories of race exist in America. “One is about the disappearance of bias—that it’s no longer with us,” she said. “But the other is about the transformation of bias. It’s not the egregious bias anymore, but it’s modern bias, subtle bias.” With both of these stories, she said, there is an understanding that society has moved beyond the historic battles centered around race. “We want to argue, with this work, that there is one old race battle that we’re still fighting,” she said. “That is the battle for blacks to be recognized as fully human.”

J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008 Feb;94(2):292-306.
Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences.
Goff PA, Eberhardt JL, Williams MJ, Jackson MC.

Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University.

Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association influences study participants’ basic cognitive processes and significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice contexts. Specifically, this Black-ape association alters visual perception and attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against Black suspects. In an archival study of actual criminal cases, the authors show that news articles written about Blacks who are convicted of capital crimes are more likely to contain ape-relevant language than news articles written about White convicts. Moreover, those who are implicitly portrayed as more apelike in these articles are more likely to be executed by the state than those who are not. The authors argue that examining the subtle persistence of specific historical representations such as these may not only enhance contemporary research on dehumanization, stereotyping, and implicit processes but also highlight common forms of discrimination that previously have gone unrecognized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).