A DIVORCED Negro woman of about 40, complaining of violent spasms of sneezing and a compression sensation in the chest, was referred to me for diagnosis and to determine whether a causal relationship existed between her condition and the substances with which she worked. The claimant stated that she began sneezing on the first day that she worked with a gunpowder mixture. Occasionally the attac...

The discriminative stimulus effects of dopamine (DA) D3/D2 receptor agonists are thought to be mediated by D2 receptors. To maintain responding, access to food is often restricted, which can alter neurochemical and behavioral effects of drugs acting on DA systems. This study established stimulus control with quinpirole in free-feeding rats and tested the ability of agonists to mimic and antagon...

A comparative study of the effect of pilocarpine, a muscarinic receptor agonist, on grooming, scored during 45 min via a time-sampling procedure, was carried out on two sublines of male rats selectively bred for high-(HY) and low-yawning (LY) frequency. In one condition, we introduced rats in a novel cage and observed them immediately after receiving an I.P. injection of pilocarpine (0.5-3.75 m...

On the basis of observational and experimental evidence, several authors have proposed that contagious yawn is linked to our capacity for empathy, thus presenting a powerful tool to explore the root of empathy in animal evolution. The evidence for the occurrence of contagious yawning and its link to empathy, however, is meagre outside primates and only recently domestic dogs have demonstrated t...

People empathize with fictional displays of behaviour, including those of cartoons and computer animations, even though the stimuli are obviously artificial. However, the extent to which other animals also may respond empathetically to animations has yet to be determined. Animations provide a potentially useful tool for exploring non-human behaviour, cognition and empathy because computer-gener...

Erectile dysfunction is a serious and common complication of diabetes mellitus. The proposed mechanisms for erectile dysfunction in diabetes include central and autonomic neuropathy, endothelial dysfunction, and smooth muscle dysfunction. The paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus is known to be involved in centrally mediated penile erection. This study was designed to examine the ro...