Change in the social context of physical activity across adolescence and its association with moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity

We examined whether changes in social context (i.e., frequency with which youth engage in physical activity [PA] alone, with teammates, with friends, with siblings, or with parents/grandparents) is associated with change in moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) across Grades 5–8 and Grades 8–11 (N = 938). Data were self-reported annually. Across Grades 5–8, the frequency of PA in all social contexts declined over time, and changes in the frequency of PA alone, with teammates, with siblings, and in diversity of PA companion types were positively associated with change in MVPA. Across Grades 8–11, the frequency of PA with siblings, friends, and parents/grandparents declined over time, and changes in the frequency of PA alone, with teammates, with friends, with parents/grandparents, and in diversity of PA companion types were positively associated with change in MVPA. PA social contexts vary in how they associate with change in MVPA in youth over time.     

The vocational well-being of workers with childhood onset of disability: Life satisfaction and perceived workplace discrimination

Workers with disabilities are understudied, and workers with childhood onset of disability have been excluded from many of the studies on disability and work that do exist. This research compares the effects of childhood and adult onset of disability in a nationally representative sample of workers with disabilities. Educational disruptions due to disability status in childhood are negatively associated with life satisfaction and positively associated with perceived discrimination. Although age is associated with increased life satisfaction and decreased perceptions of discrimination for workers with adult disability onset, age is unrelated to these outcomes for workers with childhood disability onset. Receiving workplace accommodations is positively associated with satisfaction and negatively associated with discrimination for both groups, however, these relationships are stronger in magnitude for the childhood disability onset group. Organizational environments, both in education and in the workplace, play a critical role in the vocational well-being of workers with childhood disability onset.     

Parental antecedents of sex-role orientation in college men and women

Parental modeling and reinforcement antecedents of masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated sex-role orientation were tested for 228 college men and women using self and parent versions of the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Parent Behavior Form. Parent scale differences indicated that psychological androgyny is associated with high levels of masculinity and femininity in both parents, with high levels of warmth and involvement, particularly with the same-sex parent, and, in females, with maternal cognitive/achievement encouragement. Sex typing occurred where both parents modeled traditional sex-role attributes and, for females, with extreme closeness with father in the absence of maternal cognitive/intellectual encouragement. An undifferentiated sex-role orientation was associated with low emotional and cognitive involvement with father in males and with an undifferentiated but emotionally involved mother in females. Finally, cross-sex typing in both sexes was associated with parental rejection, low feminity in both parents, and an absence of warmth or cognitive encouragement from either parent. These findings confirm and expand those of an earlier study for androgynous subjects, but differ markedly for cross-sex-typed subjects.     

Executive Function and Emotional,Behavioral, and Social Competence Problems in Children with Epilepsy

Many researchers have reported elevated rates of emotional, behavioral, and social competence problems (EBSP) in children with epilepsy. Although executive function has been found to be associated with EBSP in children with typical development, almost no research has looked at the individual components of executive function as potential predictors of EBSP in children with epilepsy. This is surprising given the deficits in executive function in children with epilepsy. We investigated EBSP and executive function in 42 children with epilepsy, aged 6.0 to 18.1 years and found, as expected, that EBSP were associated with executive function in these children even after epilepsy-related variables, such as seizure type, were accounted for. However, different components of executive function were related to different emotional, behavioral, and social competence problems in these children. Shifting of mental sets was a significant predictor of emotional, behavioral, and social competence problems whereas inhibition was a significant predictor of behavioral problems. This suggests that different executive function profiles in children with epilepsy may place them at-risk for developing different types of emotional, behavioral, and social competence problems. These results may help researchers and clinicians develop new techniques to identify and treat emotional, behavioral, and social competence problems in children with epilepsy.     

The longitudinal and concurrent role of neuroticism for partner relationships

Neurotic characteristics of spouses have often been associated with dissatisfaction with the partner relationship. This article addresses the question whether the link between dissatisfaction with the relationship and neuroticism appears during the partner relationship, or whether it is present before the person enters the relationship. Utilizing data from a Swedish longitudinal project, satisfaction with the partner relationship was linked with neuroticism both in adolescence and in adulthood. Adolescent neuroticism was measured at age 15 with the High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ), and adult neuroticism was measured at age 37 with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-I). Results showed that a lower degree of satisfaction in partner relationships in mid-life was linked with higher concurrent neuroticism scores. Opposing most of the previous studies, this association appeared for both men and women. Higher neuroticism in adolescence was, however, not significantly associated with satisfaction in partner relationships in mid-life.     

Duration discrimination of empty and filled intervals marked by auditory and visual signals

Experiments 1 and 2 compared, with a single-stimulus procedure, the discrimination of filled and empty intervals in both auditory and visual modalities. In Experiment 1, in which intervals were about 250 msec, the discrimination was superior with empty intervals in both modalities. In Experiment 2, with intervals lasting about 50 msec, empty intervals showed superior performance with visual signals only. In Experiment 3, for the auditory modality at 250 msec, the discrimination was easier with empty intervals than with filled intervals with both the forced-choice (FC) and the single stimulus (SS) modes of presentation, and the discrimination was easier with the FC than with the SS method. Experiment 4, however, showed that at 50 and 250 msec, with a FC-adaptive procedure, there were no differences between filled and empty intervals in the auditory mode; the differences observed with the visual mode in Experiments 1 and 2 remained significant. Finally, Experiment 5 compared differential thresholds for four marker-type conditions, filled and empty intervals in the auditory and visual modes, for durations ranging from .125 to 4 sec. The results showed (1) that the differential threshold differences among marker types are important for short durations but decrease with longer durations, and (2) that a generalized Weber’s law generally holds for these conditions. The results as a whole are discussed in terms of timing mechanisms.     

Risk factors for infant attrition and low engagement in experiments and free-play

Forty-three 2-month-old infants participated with their mothers in a laboratory study of factors associated with variations in infants' attrition and levels of attention/engagement in a cognitive-perceptual experiment, and in free-play with their mothers. Increased risk of attrition from the experiment was strongly associated with analgesic medication having been administered during labor and with more restricted maternal perceptions of infants' capacities. Attrition rates and levels of engagement varied independently, showing different patterns of association with explanatory variables. Infants' levels of engagement in the experiment and in free-play were correlated across settings and low levels were associated with a lack of maternal identification with the foetus during early pregnancy and more limited maternal perceptions of their infants' capacities, but were not associated with analgesic medication during labor.     

Developmental trajectories for spatial frames of reference in Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder associated with severe visuocognitive impairment. Individuals with WS also report difficulties with everyday wayfinding. To study the development of body-, environment-, and object-based spatial frames of reference in WS, we tested 45 children and adults with WS on a search task in which the participant and a spatial array are moved with respect to each other. Although individuals with WS showed a marked delay, like young controls they demonstrated independent, additive use of body- and environment-based frames of reference. Crucially, object-based (intrinsic) representations based on local landmarks within the array were only marginally used even by adults with WS, whereas in typical development these emerge at 5 years. Deficits in landmark use are consistent with wayfinding difficulties in WS, and may also contribute to problems with basic localization, since in typical development landmark-based representations supplement those based on the body and on self-motion. Difficulties with inhibition or mental rotation may be further components in the impaired ability to use the correct reference frame in WS.     

48例颅内动脉瘤破裂出血急性期治疗效果分析

总结我科收治的48例颅内动脉瘤破裂出血急性期患者治疗体会。回顾性分析2011年8月～2013年10月我科收治的48例56个颅内动脉瘤破裂出血急性期临床资料,介入栓塞30例（36个动脉瘤）,手术夹闭18例（20个动脉瘤）。结果介入栓塞组恢复良好14例、轻度残疾6例、重度残疾8例,死亡2例,手术夹闭组恢复良好10例、轻度残疾6例、重度残疾2例。两组 Hunt-Hess 分级3级以下患者预后无显著性差异。血管内栓塞和手术夹闭均为颅内动脉瘤破裂出血急性期的有效治疗手段,Hunt-Hess 分级3级以下者两种治疗方式均可得到满意疗效,4级以上者血管内栓塞是挽救患者生命的重要措施,但预后较差。     

The contribution of metamemory deficits to schizophrenia

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with schizophrenia display knowledge corruption; that is, they hold false information with strong conviction. This aberration in metamemory is thought to stem from poor memory accuracy in conjunction with impaired discrimination of correct and incorrect judgments in terms of confidence. Thirty-one participants with schizophrenia, along with 61 healthy control participants and 48 control participants with other psychiatric conditions, participated in a computerized source memory task. Whereas no differences in memory accuracy were observed between the group with schizophrenia and the group with other psychiatric diagnoses, knowledge corruption was specifically impaired in those with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia participants showed a significantly decreased confidence gap: They were more confident in errors and less confident in correct responses relative to those in the control groups. Knowledge corruption is theorized to be a potential risk factor for the emergence of delusions.     

Word identification in adults with mild mental retardation: does IQ influence reading achievement?

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between word identification and intelligence in adults with mild mental retardation (IQ < 80). METHOD: A standardized evaluation was administered to 67 adults with mild mental retardation. The evaluation included a psychiatric interview, the WAIS-R, and a 2-h interview with a speech therapist and reading tests. RESULTS: Causes of mental retardation were diverse in the sample, and IQ scores ranged from 43 to 79 (mean score = 64). All subjects exhibited reading impairment, including 69% with severe impairment. No subject with an IQ score under 65 was able to perform adequately in the word identification tasks. Word identification was correlated with total and verbal IQ, but not with performance IQ. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that, in contrast to subjects with normal intelligence, IQ score is correlated with reading in subjects with mild mental retardation. Finally, remediation should be preferentially implemented for subjects with IQ score greater than 65.     

Possibilities and limits of the diagnosis of specific learning disorders with neurophysiologic methods of study

EEG correlation analyses were conducted with children with and without specific learning weaknesses. Reduced left parietal correlation was found in children with dyslectic problems, and in children with adjustment and concentration problems, reduced bioelectric correlation. The frequent evidence of brain injury criteria suggests a link with general affectations of correlation but not specifically with cerebral correlation affections. It would appear to be appropriate to employ computer-assisted EEG correlation analysis, together with frequency analysis and the examination of evoked potentials in objective neurometric diagnosis where children with learning weaknesses are involved.     

Neuropsychological profile in patients with schizotypal personality disorder or schizophrenia

Neuropsychological impairments have been consistently reported in patients with schizophrenia. As little is known whether subjects with schizotypal personality disorder exhibit neurocognitive dysfunction similar to that in schizophrenia, we assessed the neuropsychological profile of 15 subjects with schizotypal personality disorder and compared it with that for 15 patients with schizophrenia and for 15 psychiatrically normal volunteers. All participants were administered a standard neuropsychological battery assessing language ability, spatial ability, visuomotor function, verbal memory, visual memory, auditory attention, visual attention, and executive function. Performance on most of the cognitive domains was impaired in patients with schizotypal personality disorder but less than patients with schizophrenia. Specifically, impairment in verbal memory and visuomotor ability in patients with schizotypal personality disorder and patients with schizophrenia were comparable, while patients with schizophrenia performed worse on the test of executive function than did patients with schizotypal personality disorder. As a whole, cognitive deficits in patients with schizotypal personality disorder were qualitatively similar to, but quantitatively milder than, those for patients with schizophrenia. The results suggest that cognitive abilities related to frontotemporal lobe function are disturbed across these schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.     

Attention problems and executive functions in children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

This study addressed the incidence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) subtypes in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele and shunted hydrocephalus (SBH) as well as differences in executive functions among these subtypes. Parent rating scales revealed that 31% of the group with SBH could be identified with AD/HD, mostly the Inattentive type (23%). The group with SBH differed from normal controls on cognitive measures of executive functions, but subtype differences were not significant. Multivariate tests showed that children with SBH were rated with greater difficulties on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) compared to controls; those with SBH and any subtype of ADHD differed from those with SBH and no ADHD; and those with ADHD (Combined Type) differed significantly from those with ADHD (Predominantly Inattentive Type). Subtype differences on univariate tests in the latter comparison were significant on the BRIEF Inhibit scale, showing more disinhibition in those with SBH and ADHD (Combined Type), but no significant differences were apparent on the BRIEF Sustain, Shift, and Initiate scales. The results show that the incidence of ADHD in children with SBH exceeds the population rate, is represented by problems with inattention rather than with impulsivity and hyperactivity; and that as with non-brain injured individuals, subtype differences in cognitive function remain to more clearly delineated.     

Amygdalectomy and responsiveness to novelty in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): generality and individual consistency of effects

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with bilateral ibotenic acid-produced lesions of the amygdala were compared with controls in several novel situations, including exposures to metal objects, toy animals, and a person. Early in testing, the monkeys with lesions showed reduced inhibitions on responsiveness compared with controls. With continuing exposures, differences between groups diminished sharply as inhibitions waned in the controls. This outcome is consistent with the hypothesis that the amygdala mediates caution in initial reactions to ambiguous or threatening novel situations, which, in the absence of adverse consequences, diminishes with repetition. Consistency of individual responsiveness across different situations, including pairing with other monkeys, was substantial in lesioned and normal monkeys, suggesting that stable qualities of temperament influenced the results in both groups.     

Content mazes and filled pauses in narrative language samples of children with specific language impairment

Linguistic nonfluencies known as mazes (filled pauses, repetitions, revisions, and abandoned utterances) have been used to draw inferences about processing difficulties associated with the production of language. In children with normal language development (NL), maze frequency in general increases with linguistic complexity, being greater in narrative than conversational contexts and in longer utterances. The same tendency has been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI). However, the frequency of mazes produced by children with NL and SLI has not been compared directly at equivalent utterance lengths in narration. This study compared the frequency of filled pauses and content mazes in narrative language samples of school-age children with SLI. The children with SLI used significantly more content mazes than the children with NL, but fewer filled pauses. Unlike content mazes, the frequency of filled pauses remained stable across samples of different utterance lengths among children with SLI. This indicates that filled pauses and content mazes have different origins and should not be analyzed or interpreted in the same way.     

母亲依恋风格与孤独症谱系障碍儿童母子依恋:母亲教养方式的中介作用

早期依恋对孤独症谱系障碍（Autism Spectrum Disorders,简称ASD）儿童的心理健康、人际关系以及未来的社会融合有重要影响。本研究采用问卷调查法,对从北京、青岛、郑州、武汉、无锡和赤峰市等地28所融合幼儿园中筛选出来的210名ASD儿童及其母亲进行施测,考察母亲的依恋风格对ASD儿童母子依恋的影响,以及母亲教养方式在其中的中介作用。研究发现：（1）总体而言,ASD儿童与母亲之间的依恋关系总体状况良好;轻度ASD儿童的母子依恋水平显著高于中度、重度ASD儿童;（2）母亲依恋回避、依恋焦虑与ASD儿童母子依恋均呈显著负相关;母亲关爱、鼓励自主与ASD儿童母子依恋均呈显著正相关,母亲控制与ASD儿童母子依恋呈显著负相关;母亲依恋回避、依恋焦虑与母亲关爱均呈显著负相关,与母亲控制均呈显著正相关;（3）母亲关爱在母亲依恋回避与ASD儿童母子依恋之间起部分中介作用,母亲关爱、母亲控制在母亲依恋焦虑与ASD儿童母子依恋之间起完全中介作用。     

Associations Between Family Environment, Parenting Practices, and Executive Functioning of Children with and Without ADHD

We examined the relationships between executive functioning, family environment, and parenting practices in children diagnosed with ADHD as compared to children without ADHD. Participants were parents (N = 134) of 6- to 12-year-old ADHD and non-ADHD-diagnosed children. Compared to the control group, parents of children diagnosed with ADHD reported their children as exhibiting greater problems with behavioral control and metacognitive abilities, and described their family environments as less organized and higher in family conflict. Family environment and parenting practices were not correlated with behavioral control or metacognitive abilities in children with ADHD. In children without ADHD, higher levels of family cohesion, organization, and expressiveness, and lower levels of family conflict, were significantly correlated with greater behavioral control. Higher levels of family cohesion and organization were significantly and positively associated with regulation of metacognitive abilities in children without ADHD. In general, aspects of the family environment and parental limit setting appear to be associated with the development of executive functions in children not diagnosed with ADHD; however, family environment and parenting practices were not associated with executive functions in children diagnosed with ADHD.     

Differences in familism values and caregiving outcomes among Korean, Korean American, and White American dementia caregivers.

Recent theories have suggested that burden and distress among dementia caregivers may be higher in American culture, which emphasizes individualism, and lower in cultures with higher levels of familism. However, immigrants may experience higher levels of burden because of acculturation with attendant values, conflicts and stresses. Forty-four Korean caregivers and 32 Korean American caregivers were compared with 54 White American caregivers on sociodemographic variables, familism, burden, anxiety, and depression. Familism was highest in Korean caregivers and lowest in Whites, with Korean Americans in the middle. Koreans and Korean Americans reported higher levels of burden. Koreans showed higher levels of depression and of anxiety than White American caregivers, with Koreans and Korean Americans higher than Whites on anxiety. These results suggest a need for greater specificity in theories about familism values, with attention to the specific meaning of familism in different cultures.     

Clinical and cisternographic differential diagnosis between presenile dementia and Hakim syndrome

The authors compared with regard clinical and the radionuclide cisternography examination 27 patients with Hakim-Syndrome and 11 with Alzheimer-Disease. In all cases, dementia was a stable symptom. Patients with Hakim-Syndrome have an early gait disturbance, ataxia and epileptic seizures. Only in case of patients with Alzheimer-Disease we found aphasia, apraxia and psychotic disorders. 24 hours after the injection radionuclide cisternography showed ventricular retention and absence of parasagital accumulation only in patients with Hakim-Syndrome. Lighter changes (mixed cisternographic pattern) were found in patients with Alzheimer-Disease as well.