It is hypothesised that the empirical correlation between facial expression and affective experience varies as a function of the correlational design used to compute the coefficients. Predictions about the rank order of five designs were derived based on two assumptions. Female subjects were placed into one of three alcohol conditions (no ethanol, low dose, high dose) and were exposed to 30 slides containing jokes or cartoons. The degree of rated funniness and overt behaviour were intercorrelated using five different designs to analyse the same set of data. The results show that within-subject analyses yielded higher coefficients than between-subjects analyses. Aggregation of data increased the coefficients for within-subject analyses, but not for between-subject analyses. A cheerful mood was associated with hyper-expressiveness, i.e. the occurrence of smiling and laughter at relatively low levels of perceived funniness. It was demonstrated that low correlations between facial expression and affe...

Will the real relationship between facial expression and affective experience please stand up: The case of exhilaration

It is hypothesised that the empirical correlation between facial expression and affective experience varies as a function of the correlational design used to compute the coefficients. Predictions about the rank order of five designs were derived based on two assumptions. Female subjects were placed into one of three alcohol conditions (no ethanol, low dose, high dose) and were exposed to 30 slides containing jokes or cartoons. The degree of rated funniness and overt behaviour were intercorrelated using five different designs to analyse the same set of data. The results show that within-subject analyses yielded higher coefficients than between-subjects analyses. Aggregation of data increased the coefficients for within-subject analyses, but not for between-subject analyses. A cheerful mood was associated with hyper-expressiveness, i.e. the occurrence of smiling and laughter at relatively low levels of perceived funniness. It was demonstrated that low correlations between facial expression and affective experience may be based on several method artefacts.

Reprint: Will the real relationship between facial expression and affective experience please stand up: The case of exhilaration

The increasing use of radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography (PET) has come to the attention of regulatory bodies. In order to help authorities in all aspects, the EANM has formed a task group for licensing PET radiopharmaceuticals; this group has surveyed the use of these compounds in Europe by a questionnaire. The number of PET centres that responded to the questionnaire was 26, which included more than 90% of the larger European PET centres. The survey showed that 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose is by far the most important PET radiopharmaceutical with more than 200 applications per week, followed by [15O]water, [15O]carbonmonoxide, [13N]ammonia, [11C]-l-methionine, andl-6-[18F]fluoro-DOPA. More than 25 other PET radiopharmaceuticals are in regular use, however, at rather low application frequencies. The data were used by the European Pharmacopoeia Commission for its priority rating for requesting the formulation of monographs. Since it is likely that group registrations will be issued by authorities for the PET radiopharmaceuticals, relevant data on toxicity and dosimetry for the formulation of summaries of product characteristics have been collected by the task group as well.

PET radiopharmaceuticals in Europe: Current use and data relevant for the formulation of summaries of product characteristics (SPCs)

Handschwingen von nestjungen und erwachsenen Elstern aus verschiedenen Landschaften SW-Niedersachsens wurden mit Hilfe der Atomabsorptionstechnik auf die Schwermetalle Blei, Cadmium, Eisen, Kupfer und Zink analysiert. Adulte Elstern wiesen im Vergleich zu juvenilen hohere Blei- (etwa 13fach) und Cadmiumwerte in vergleichbaren Handschwingen auf. Dagegen lies sich bei jungen Elstern ein signifikant hoherer Zink- und Kupfergehalt sowie der Tendenz nach auch mehr Eisen nachweisen. Die Belastung von Landschaftsteilen mit Schwermetallen last sich mit Ausnahme von Eisen fur die Elemente Blei, Cadmium, Kupfer und Zink durch die Metallgehalte in Federn ermitteln. Die Elster erfullt die Anforderungen an einen Biomonitor fur die Kontaminierung von Nahrungsnetzen oder -ketten durch diese Schwermetalle. Eine Standardisierung der Probennahme ist aber dabei Voraussetzung, da auch Federn aus dem Grosgefieder unterschiedliche Schwermetallgehalte aufweisen.

Schwermetalle in Federn von Elstern (Pica pica)

Based on previous observations that sensory suggestibility might be related to cholinergic drug effects, and that individual susceptibility to nicotine as defined by response differences to various doses is lower in males, nonsmokers, and highly suggestible subjects, the present study investigated whether nicotine serum blood levels, cardiovascular responses, and sensory suggestibility show differences according to gender and smoking habit, and whether differences in nicotine susceptibility measured by a discrimination task by subjective ratings on activation can be reproduced in the direction predicted by the previous data. In a doubleblind threefold cross-over design 48 subjects divided according to smoking habit, gender, and sensory suggestibility were tested in balanced order under the influence of an oral dose of 0, 0.014, or 0.028 mg/kg body weight of nicotine. Results revealed higher serum levels of nicotine in males and smokers, a dose-dependent increase in heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, partly interacting with gender or smoking habit (females and nonsmokers showing larger increase with the low doses), and a change in suggestibility in the expected direction (decrease with the low dose, increase with the large one only in female nonsmokers). A fourfold interaction among dose, smoking habit, gender, and suggestibility for the discrimination task partly reproduced the observations of higher nicotine susceptibility in females and nonsmokers, whereas suggestibility did not seem to reveal the expected changes. Also, on a subjective level larger doses were necessary to make male smokers feel activated, while the other groups showed the biphasic response pattern to the two nicotine doses. In conclusion, the data justify further research on the concept of nicotine susceptibility defined by biphasic effects of nicotine on vigilance.

The influence of nicotine on performance, mood, and physiological parameters as related to smoking habit, gender, and suggestibility

Allgemeine und spezielle Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, herausgeg. von W. Forth, D. Henschler und W. Rummel, 400 Abb., 605 S., Preis DM 78,–, Wissenschaftsverlag, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim, Wien, Zürich 1975

J. Knabe

Papers

Allgemeine und spezielle Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, herausgeg. von W. Forth, D. Henschler und W. Rummel, 400 Abb., 605 S., Preis DM 78,–, Wissenschaftsverlag, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim, Wien, Zürich 1975