Motivation For Action Research Articles

Effect of memantine and CNQX in the acquisition, expression and reinstatement of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference

The present study evaluates the effect of memantine, a non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor antagonist and CNQX, an alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA)/kainate receptor antagonist on the rewarding effects of cocaine in mice, using the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. Cocaine-induced CPP was studied pairing this drug with different memantine or CNQX doses during either the acquisition or the expression phase of the procedure. Once CPP was established, and the preference extinguished, reinstatement was induced by a priming dose of cocaine. Both antagonists, which in themselves do not present motivational actions on the preference shown by the animals, abolished the acquisition and expression of the cocaine-induced CPP. Neither of the antagonists precipitated reinstatement of the preference induced by cocaine but memantine blocked the cocaine-primed reinstatement. Our results suggest that cocaine-induced CPP and reinstatement is largely dependent on glutamate neurotransmission, and confer a putative role for memantine among the tools useful for cocaine management and treatment.

Changes of erythrocytes corpuscular volume in HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy

Summary Erythrocytes mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was assessed in HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. The only noticeable cause of macrocytosis was the applied therapy, especially using thymidine analogues that inhibit viral reverse transcriptase. Erythrocytes volume depended on the degree of patient's adherence to therapeutic regime. RBCs volume normalization preceded detectable HIV viraemia. Authors suggest that therapy should be started with thymidine analogues (azidothymidine, stavudine), especially in potentially non-compliant patients. Such strategy could improve patients' adherence to therapy, enable introduce earlier motivational actions and help avoid unnecessary modifications of therapeutic regimens.

Baclofen decreases feeding in non-human primates

This study examined how the GABA b agonist baclofen (0.5–5.6 mg/kg, p.o.), reported to increase food intake in rodents, affected the appetitive and consummatory aspects of feeding of non-human primates. Baboons had access to food 24 h each day, but they had to complete a two-phase operant procedure in order to eat. Responding on one lever during a 30-min appetitive phase was required before animals could start a consumption phase, where responding on another lever led to food delivery, i.e., a meal. Responding during the appetitive phase resulted in presentations of food-related stimuli only. Baclofen increased the latency to the first meal and decreased both appetitive and consummatory behavior. At the largest dose, baclofen induced emesis, indicating that the effects were due to malaise rather than a specific motivational action. In contrast, the positive control diazepam (GABA a agonist, 1.0–2.0 mg/kg, i.m.) decreased the latency to the first meal and increased both appetitive ( P < 0.07) and consummatory behavior. Although the baclofen-induced decrease in appetitive behavior replicates data obtained in rodents, the baclofen-induced decreases in consummatory behavior do not. The findings suggest that the effects of large doses of baclofen in non-human primates may, in part, be due to non-specific behavioral disruptions.

The 'balance intervention' for promoting caloric compensatory behaviours in response to overeating: a formative evaluation

To help people prevent weight gain, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre initiated the 'balance intervention', which promotes moderation of food intake and/or increased physical activity in response to occasions of overeating. The aim of this study was to determine whether intervention materials were appreciated, encouraged information seeking and increased motivation and caloric compensatory behaviours. A three-group randomized trial with pre-intervention measures (n = 963, response 86%) and post-intervention measures (n = 857) using electronic questionnaires was conducted among participants aged 25-40 years, recruited from an Internet research panel. The first group received a printed brochure and electronic newsletters (print group), the second group was exposed to radio advertisements (radio group) and the third group was the control group. Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the impact of the materials on self-reported prevalence of overeating, attitudes, perceived behavioural control, intentions and compensatory behaviours. At follow-up, we found significantly more positive attitudes, intentions and dietary action in the print and radio groups. However, participants who received the radio advertisement had a significantly lower perceived behavioural control. No effects were found on the prevalence of overeating. The results indicate that the intervention materials have potential for increasing people's attitudes, motivation and self-reported behaviour actions, with a possible negative side-effect on perceived behavioural control.

Development and Use of a Motivational Action Plan for Dietary Behavior Change Using a Patient-centered Counseling Approach

Development and Use of a Motivational Action Plan for Dietary Behavior Change Using a Patient-centered Counseling Approach

Both Kappa and Mu Opioid Agonists Inhibit Glutamatergic Input to Ventral Tegmental Area Neurons

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays a critical role in motivation and reinforcement. Kappa and mu opioid receptor (KOP-R and MOP-R) agonists microinjected into the VTA produce powerful and largely opposing motivational actions. Glutamate transmission within the VTA contributes to these motivational effects. Therefore information about opioid control of glutamate release onto VTA neurons is important. To address this issue, we performed whole cell patch-clamp recordings in VTA slices and measured excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs). There are several classes of neuron in the VTA: principal, secondary, and tertiary. The KOP-R agonist (trans)-3,4-dichloro-N-methyl-N-[2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-cyclohexyl] benzeneacetamide methane-sulfonate hydrate (U69593; 1 microM) produced a small reduction in EPSC amplitude in principal neurons (14%) and a significantly larger inhibition in secondary (47%) and tertiary (33%) neurons. The MOP-R agonist [D-Ala2, N-Me-Phe4, Gly-ol5]-enkephalin (DAMGO; 3 microM) inhibited glutamate release in principal (42%), secondary (45%), and tertiary neurons (35%). Unlike principal and tertiary neurons, in secondary neurons, the magnitude of the U69593 EPSC inhibition was positively correlated with that produced by DAMGO. Finally, DAMGO did not occlude the U69593 effect in principal neurons, suggesting that some glutamatergic terminals are independently controlled by KOP and MOP receptor activation. These findings show that MOP-R and KOP-R agonists regulate excitatory input onto each VTA cell type.

Effectiveness of Vocational Problem-Solving Skills on Motivation and Job-Seeking Action Steps

Most research on employment interventions focuses on job acquisition as the sole outcome measure, despite the fact that there are many intermediate steps to obtaining work. This article examines the impact of a vocational problem solving skills (VPSS) intervention to increase motivation and action step activities that lead to employment. Over a 1-year period between 1995 and 1996, a sample of 109 methadone maintained treatment clients were randomly assigned to either a 10-session vocational problem solving intervention (N = 62) or a time and attention control condition (N = 47). The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and a Vocational Motivational Assessment Checklist (VMAC) were administered upon enrollment in the study and at 6 months postbaseline. The VMAC was completed on a biweekly basis over the 12-week intervention period. The VMAC measures both the behavioral actions to obtain employment (e.g., reading want ads, completing job applications) and client perceived motivation to obtain a job. There were no differences by condition in the level of motivation to secure employment and the number of job seeking activities during the intervention period. However, motivation to work and number of action steps did predict obtaining employment for the sample as a whole at the 6-month follow-up. Although the intervention did not increase motivation and job seeking activities, information regarding reasonable outcomes for this population of chronically unemployed persons was identified. Also, practical and methodological implications are discussed.

Ecological Landscape Planning: A gaming approach in education

An understanding of the complex problems of land-use competition requires an appreciation of natural processes, cultural values, economic imperatives and political agendas. This integrated understanding is an important component of the study programme for higher education students seeking a professional qualification in landscape architecture. A repertoire of game templates is introduced as an initial step in formulating a conceptual framework for the curriculum/games designer to explore the potential of play in ecological landscape planning. The concepts of social action space, permissible action space and motivational action space are used to investigate the qualities of each template for further game design development. The abstraction of these concepts may assist the designer to move beyond the usability of games into viewing their value as a learning method.

Louis Sander and Contemporary Psychoanalysis An Introduction

Louis Sander's bold and ambitious theoretical synthesis deserves careful attention from psychoanalysts of all persuasions. Sander's cutting-edge approach draws on infant observation research, nonlinear dynamic systems theories, and current biology, physics, and other “hard” sciences. He is rethinking the psychoanalytic approach to psychic structure, motivation, and therapeutic action. In so doing, he updates Freud's project of linking psychoanalysis with scientific paradigms, but without reductionism, epistemological naivete, or an implicit antipsychological attitude. Sander emphasizes the dynamic relationships between elements in systems. His method draws parallels between the different levels of the functioning of natural systems, starting with the basic “biological” level of cells and organs and moving toward the psychic and interpersonal phenomena that are of greatest interest to psychoanalysts. In this way, he opens a window for a broad and inclusive “relational metapsychology.”

A place for emotion in critical study

We might reasonably expect considerable differences in the way Oatley and Scheff treat emotion, coming as they do from different disciplines; however, there is remarkable similarity not only in their approaches, but also in their conclusions. Both works seem to have as their unspoken grail the making of a contribution toward the solution of the problem of agency, referred to variously as motivation or human action. Whether this project was intentional or not, taken together, these authors have reduced a daunt ing task to something believably manageable. In some respects the possibility of agency is the paradigmatic conun drum. It involves consideration of many philosophical problems central to a variety of disciplines and requires facility in each of them. For instance, we must consider the agent, embodiment, action, free will, knowledge, social understanding, purposiveness, and language along with a plethora of other related issues. Neither Scheff nor Oatley openly discusses any of these philosophical problems. This speaks well of their focused style, but it remains for others to show how their respective accounts of action are related to these philosophical problems. Scheff, for his part, explicitly claims to be offering a "new kind of sociology" based on an "underlying conception of human nature quite different from those current in the social sciences," and Oatley is un abashedly Aristotelian. So, without Scheff s full blown view of human nature, we cannot say whether the traditional rendering of these philosophi cal questions applies to his account, and if Oatley is strictly Aristotelian, we, more or less, already know the position he is likely to take in response

Reinstatement of heroin and cocaine self-administration behavior in the rat by intracerebral application of morphine in the ventral tegmental area

In rats trained to self-administer heroin or cocaine intravenously, non-contingent priming injections of heroin or cocaine, respectively, reinstated responding after a period of extinction. In rats similarly trained to self-administer heroin or cocaine intravenously, morphine sulphate was applied centrally to sites in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the periventricular grey (PVG) and the caudate nucleus following a period of extinction. Self-administration behavior was reinstated by morphine application to sites in the region of the VTA, but not to other sites, in both heroin and cocaine-trained animals. This priming effect of morphine was blocked or attenuated by prior administration of naltrexone, given intraperitoneally. Morphine in the VTA is known to activate mesolimbic dopamine neurons, suggesting that dopamine activity in this system may underline the priming effects of both opiates and stimulants. Furthermore, the fact that the mesolimbic system is implicated in the positive motivational actions of both drug groups, suggests that morphine reinstates drug-taking behavior in these animals by activating appetitive motivational systems of the brain.

Blockade of testosterone-maintained intermale fighting in albino laboratory mice by an aromatization inhibitor

An experiment was conducted to investigate the aromatization-blocking action of a synthetic steroid 4-androsten-3,6,17-trione (AA). Castrated aggressive male TO strain mice were injected for 17 days with either 25 μg testosterone or 1 μg estradiol-17β. In addition 25 μg, 100 μg or 250 μg of 4-androsten-3,6,17-trione were given. Testosterone mediated fighting was effectively blocked by the two higher doses of the compound whereas estradiol-mediated fighting was not. The anti-aromatization compound had no effect on its own either by altering behavior or by maintaining the weights of sex accessory glands. These results lend support to the hypothesis that testosterone may be converted to estrogenic metabolites before it has a substantial motivational action on fighting behavior in this species.

The First Henry Ford: A Study in Personality and Business Leadership

Henry Ford built a car for the American everyman--putting the market, the method, the policy together where others failed. The Ford method (Fordizatsia in Russia), introducing the concept of mass production, the assembly line, lower prices for an ever-widening market, was to assume the stature of an industrial philosophy. Ford built a billion-dollar enterprise, yet in refusing to break with the Model T design from its introduction in 1908 to its withdrawal in 1927, by assuming despotic control of the Ford Motor Company, he effectively destroyed his own creation.In this book Anne Jardim traces the progression from success to failure by cautiously yet rigorously examining the personality of Henry It was Henry Ford who shaped the company, Miss Jardim remarks, and it is surely valid to examine what shaped Henry Ford. She notes the crucial influence of conflicts in Ford's early history on his style of business leadership, on the precipitation, definition, attempted resolution of the problems facing his company. The issue of individual personality in business leadership is implicit in the unanswered questions of Ford's biographers, company histories, in the incomplete evaluations reached by organizational theorists on the structure functioning of the Ford Motor Company: Why as a self-proclaimed advocate of progress did Ford persist in standardized production of the Model T refuse to make any fundamental improvement in the car long after its market appeal faded? Why did he change from a capable mechanic who commanded the loyalty best efforts of his subordinates to a vindictive, arrogant, deeply suspicious man surrounded by yes men who bent reality to the Ford model? And what did the Model T symbolize for Ford? The book makes sense of such puzzling shifts inconsistent behavior in Ford's turbulent career as Miss Jardim observes Ford's fixation on the automobile, the adaptation of his vision to reality, the consequences once the perfect car had reached the people.The public Henry Ford had diverse interests singular opinions, the book describes his Peace Ship, senatorial nomination thoughts of running for president, his constant preoccupation with the farmer development of the tractor, the launching of his journal, the Dearborn Independent, coinciding with a long vicious anti-Semitic campaign, his battles with the unions, with Wall Street, with the New Deal--any authority that challenged his own. Underlying all of these elements the author finds a consistent pattern of motivation action. Her analysis of this pattern sheds light on the Ford Motor Company's growth its decline, its managerial structure its strategy; her study defines a style of leadership, which, although unique, may well apply to the behavior of other men the course of other large organizations.