1. Bottom ®shing using towed nets and dredges is one of the most widespread sources of physical disturbance to the continental shelf seas throughout the world. Previous studies suggest that degradation and ecosystem changes have occurred in intensively ®shed areas. Nevertheless, to date it has been dicult to attribute habitat and benthic community changes to ®shing e€ort at a spatial scale tha...

Since the first descriptions of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), abnormalities in socio-emotional behaviours have been described as amongst the most characteristic clinical features of this condition. Current evidence in this area suggests that individuals with ASD experience difficulties in the perception and expression of emotions within the social domain. The causes for thes...

The case of a 67-year-old right-handed Chinese man with Central Pontine Myelinolysis [CPM] is described to illustrate the resulting cognitive and emotional disturbances. A comparison of the data in this report with that in published studies suggests that ethnicity does not seem to have much effect on the symptoms of CPM. Possible underlying neural-pathological mechanisms are discussed. This cas...

BACKGROUND Although negative affect has been frequently implicated in the formation of cognitive and perceptual disturbances ranging from odd perceptions and beliefs to delusions and hallucinations it represents only one of the many aspects of emotional disturbances that may contribute to psychopathology. Surprisingly, no past research has examined in a psychiatric sample whether levels of cogn...

The studies of emotion function and emotional disorders complement one another. In this article, the authors outline relations between the social functions of emotion and four psychological disorders. The authors first present a social-functional account of emotion and argue that emotions help coordinate social interactions through their informative, evocative, and incentive functions. They the...

Substantial progress within recent years has led to a better understanding of the impact of stress on emotional memory. These effects are of relevance for understanding and treating psychopathology. The present selective review describes how emotional memory is modulated through stress hormones. Acute as well as chronic effects are discussed and information from rodent models is compared to hum...

The authors have studied cognitive functions and influencing factors in 64 patients with chronic low back pain. All patients have been examined using neurologic, neuroorthopedic, pathopsychological and neuropsychological methods. Patients have been divided into 2 groups according to their age: group 1 (aged 30-50 years) and group 2 (aged 51-60 years). Healthy controls were matched to patients f...