Previous studies found an elevation of the dopamine D3 receptor (DRD3) mRNA as determined in peripheral lymphocytes in schizophrenic patients. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis of elevated DRD3 mRNA in schizophrenia compared to bipolar disorder. Twenty-four patients, 13 schizophrenic and 11 bipolar, were included according to DSM-IV criteria. Psychometric measures were conducted using the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale and Young Mania Rating Scale. mRNA was isolated from lymphocytes of venous blood samples and DRD3 mRNA was quantified using real-time reverse transcription PCR. We found a decrease in DRD3 mRNA in 13 schizophrenic (p = 0.009) and 11 bipolar (p = 0.023) patients as compared to controls. Medication history and severity of positive symptoms did not significantly influence DRD3 expression. Higher levels of DRD3 mRNA were correlated with negative schizophrenic symptoms. Interestingly, after treatment of patients with antipsychotics, DRD3 mRNA levels increased to similar levels as those of healthy controls. Bipolar patients, however, showed a slower increase in DRD3 mRNA levels after 3 weeks of therapy. Our findings suggest that the expression of DRD3 mRNA is reduced in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, supporting the hypothesis of distorted homeostasis of dopamine receptor subtypes in psychotic disorder. The observed diminution was not specific for schizophrenia but also for bipolar disorder requiring further analysis of the regulatory factors involved in dopamine receptor subtype expression.
We analyze the way children and youngsters perceive the role of family in the use and acquisition of the heritage language (HL), through two complementary means: drawings produced by children and students participating in a discussion forum. Our study reveals: (1) the convergence of perceptions that children and adolescents have about family involvement and its roles in the maintenance of the HL, in terms of affective, cognitive, and interactional support; and (2) the affective, cognitive, and interactional scaffolding family provides for HL development. The analysis guides the proposition of several means of fostering the family's engagement in HL education, going beyond traditional roles and encouraging participative and deliberative actions within the curriculum, the programs, and the classroom.
The present study focuses on the negotiation of the languages of communication in language-learning activities involving multilingual learners. Its overall purpose is to throw light on the conditions that surround the creation and the maintenance of multilingual communicative spaces, as well as on the tensions and forces (both communicative and acquisitional) that influence language management in those spaces. Two different corpora, multilingual chats in Romance languages and informal conversations in Spanish L3, are analysed in order to identify the pragmatic functions accomplished by a language switch. Findings suggest that languages which are not part of the learning/communication contract can play mediation and remediation roles, and that the negotiation sequences that lead to their temporary inclusion (and the subsequent modification of the contract) or to their exclusion from the communicative situation can have a significant influence on the development of learners’ multilingual competence, understood as the ability to use two or more languages for the purposes of communication and to take part in intercultural interaction, regardless of their proficiency in the languages involved.
Social representations have a deep impact on how societal multilingualism, individual plurilingualism, and plurisemiotic resources are described, reported, and accepted. Traditionally, two perceptions of the relationship between languages in plurilingual minds have been prevalent: the juxtaposed and the interdependent representation. A third perspective has recently emerged, reporting more dynamic and plurisemiotic communicative practices. We will analyze the most frequent patterns children use to represent their linguistic resources through visual narratives and how these representations fit into those perspectives. Our analysis evinces the dominance of more traditional representations of plurilingual resources as the sum of features from several clearly separated languages. However, some productions already point out at more supple and flexible possibilities of arranging linguistic resources. Finally, we provide some clues about the development of linguistic curricula designed for plurilingual children engaged in Heritage Language classes, and we discuss epistemological issues regarding the analysis of multimodal plurilingualism and complex plurilingual practices.
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