Psicologia

This paper aims to introduce the laboratory of experimental psychology as a truth-spot, as well as to investigate the social networks formed at the laboratory, in the initial implementation of the psychology degree at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). We interviewed five professors from UFMG in consideration of two principles: a) that a laboratory is a generator of facts/truths and b) that a laboratory is a support structure for the formation of academic communities. These interviews revealed the social supports provided by the laboratory for the psychology degree at UFMG. We interpreted the interviews by means of historical information from the national context at the time, relating both to the establishment of the psychology degree and to discussions on higher education. We found that the laboratory of experimental psychology played an important role in the formation of the university’s psychology department, in the establishment of a degree in that discipline, and ...

Given the psychological, physiological and nutritional demands of elite sport judo, it is not surprising that many athletes struggle to optimize training. Overtraining is the result of an imbalance between stress and recovery,
as result of short recovery time and psychosocial events. The aim of this study is knowledge about the psychological indicators of overtraining in elite judo athletes during pre- and post-competition periods.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the epilepsy treatment gap in Campinas and São José do Rio Preto, two cities in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. METHOD: The treatment gap was estimated using the formula n1-n2/n1x100, where n1 was calculated using 1.86% prevalence and represented the number of individuals with epilepsy, while n2 represented the number of people who could be treated with an adult standard dose for a year utilizing the antiepileptic drugs supplied by the public health system. RESULTS: Our estimates revealed that in 2001, approximately 50% of the population with epilepsy was treated with the recommended antiepileptic medication. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that a relevant percentage of patients with epilepsy are not untreated. Further epidemiological studies are needed to investigate the reasons for this treatment gap so that interventions can reduce this gap and improve the quality of life of patients with epilepsy.

G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) are enzymes involved in agonist-dependent regulation of G protein-coupled receptors. In the present work, we characterized, by immunohistochemistry, the presence of GRKs 2, 3 and 5 in the chick retina, a tissue whose structure and neurochemistry are well known. These enzymes are expressed in specific cell types and regions of the retina. Immunoreactivity for GRK2 was found over photoreceptor inner segments, cell bodies of horizontal, amacrine and ganglion cells. Labeling for this enzyme was also observed over the two plexiform layers. Immunoreactivity for GRK3 was found in cell bodies of amacrine and ganglion cells. In plexiform layers, specific GRK3 immunoreactivity was observed only at the inner plexiform layer, where three bands of high labeling were detected. In contrast to GRK2 and 3, intense immunoreactivity for GRK5 was observed only over Müller cells. Occasionally, labeled amacrine cell bodies were also observed. These results suggest that GRKs 2, 3 and 5 are expressed and involved in the physiology of specific cells types of the retina. They also suggest that receptor-GRK specificity may be determined by the co-expression of the receptor and the kinase within individual cell populations in this tissue.

The role of dopamine in the retina has been studied for the last 30 years and there is now increasing evidence that dopamine is used as a developmental signal in the embryonic retina. Dopamine is the main catecholamine found in the retina of most species, being synthesized from the L-amino acid tyrosine. Its effects are mediated by G protein coupled receptors constituting the D(1) (D(1) and D(5)) and D(2) (D(2), D(3) and D(4)) receptor subfamilies that can be coupled to adenylyl cyclase in opposite manners. Dopamine-mediated cyclic AMP (cAMP) accumulation, via D(1)-like receptors, is observed very early during retina ontogeny, before synaptogenesis and, in some species, before the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the enzyme that characterizes the neuronal dopaminergic phenotype. D(2)-like receptors appear in the tissue days after D(1)-like activity is detected. In the embryonic avian retina, before the tissue is capable of synthesizing its own dopamine via TH, dopamine synthesis is observed from L-DOPA supplied to the neuroretina from retina pigmented epithelium which results in dopaminergic communication in the embryonic tissue before TH expression. Müller cells, the main glia type found in the retina, seem to actively contribute to dopaminergic activity in the retinal tissue. Understanding the dopaminergic role during retina development may contribute to novel strategies approaching certain visual dysfunctions such as those found in ocular albinism.

The monitoring of local vascular kinetics after injection of autologous radiolabelled low-density lipoprotein (LDL) allows characterization of human atherosclerotic lesions as to the presence of foam cells and the quality of endothelial coverage. The following evidence exists: (1) dynamic imaging reveals two types of visual LDL accumulation in the vascular bed, one increasing, becoming visible sometimes only as late as after 24 h, and the other one appearing very early on, but decreasing with time; (2) the accumulation of iodine-123 LDL or iodine-131 LDL in the vascular bed shows three major types of local kinetic curves, which correlate with scintigraphic findings; (3) the accumulation of radiolabelled LDL in the vascular bed of humans in vivo is similar to its uptake in de- and re-endothelialized vessels of experimental animals using 125I-LDL; (4) morphological control in endarteriectomy samples confirms the hypothesis that this promising new approach may for the first time allow the in vivo monitoring of preclinical lesions in humans.