What Causes Internalising Traits and Autistic Traits to Co-occur in Adolescence? A Community-Based Twin Study

Autism shows a high degree of comorbidity with anxiety disorders. Adolescence is a time of increased stress and vulnerability to internalising problems. This study addresses for the first time the degree of genetic and environmental overlap between autistic traits (total measure and subscales) and internalising traits in a community-based adolescent twin sample. Parents of 12-14-year-old twins (N?=?3,232 pairs; 3,460 males, 3,004 females) reported on the twins’ internalising and autistic traits. Autistic trait subscales were created using principal component analysis. Bivariate twin model-fitting was conducted. Autistic and internalising traits correlated moderately (r?=?0.30). Genetic influences on individual traits were substantial but genetic overlap between traits was moderate (genetic correlation: males?=?0.30, females?=?0.12). Shared environmental influences were low for internalising traits and moderate for autistic traits, and showed considerable overlap (shared environmental correlation: males?=?0.53, females?=?1). Nonshared environmental influences were moderate for internalising traits and low for autistic traits and showed low overlap. A multiple component solution was found for autistic traits and of the derived subscales, autistic-like ‘Social Unease’ showed the most phenotypic and genetic overlap with internalising traits.     

Changing dominance in mixed profession groups: putting theory into practice

An extended professional identity theory is proposed to enhance interprofessional collaboration. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether comparative feedback on interprofessional interaction can decrease the degree of profession-based dominance and general dominance in mixed profession groups. This observational study comprised a randomized double-blind pretest-posttest control group design with 19 mixed profession groups (10 intervention and nine control groups, each with three dental and three dental hygiene students). All groups received reflective feedback during two consecutive two hour team development meetings. Intervention groups also received comparative feedback. Profession-based dominance concerned the sum of three observation items (conversational turn-taking, dominance and contributing ideas) with a three-point scale: ?1 = dental dominance, 0 = no dominance, +1 = dental hygiene dominance. Polychoric correlations confirmed positive associations with the latent trait and an unidimensional underlying structure. Observation items were internally consistent (α > .70). General dominance concerned the sum of absolute values of observation items with a minimum value of zero (no dominance) and the maximum value of three (strong dominance). A two-way factorial ANOVA was performed. The results revealed a significant interaction effect with regard to general dominance, F(1,17) = 6.630, p = 0.020 and large effect size (partial eta squared = 0.28). Comparative feedback on interprofessional interaction decreases general dominance in mixed profession groups.     

Health-Related Quality of Life in a Low-Socioeconomic Status Public Rental-Flat Population in Singapore

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a well-established measure of health and general well-being. Socioeconomic status (SES) can affect HRQoL. We sought to determine whether there were differences in HRQoL between low versus higher area-SES flat communities in Singapore. Residents in two integrated public housing precincts comprising of rental-flat blocks (low area-SES neighborhood) and neighboring owner-occupied blocks (higher area-SES neighborhood) were asked to rate their self-perceived HRQoL using the EuroQol Group five dimensions (EQ-5D) instrument. The EQ-5D assesses HRQoL in five domains (mobility, self-care, usual activities, anxiety/mood and pain) and with a global visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS). We evaluated differences in HRQoL between the rental and owner-occupied neighborhoods, and factors associated with anxiety/depression in the rental-flat neighborhood using multivariate logistic regression. The participation rate was 89.1% (634/711). In the owner-occupied neighborhood, 56.7% (216/381) were in full health, compared with 54.2% (137/253) in the rental-flat population (OR = 0.90, 95%CI = 0.66–1.24, p = 0.568). Across the five domains, staying in a rental-flat neighborhood was independently associated with anxiety/depression (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.79, 95%CI = 1.10–2.92, p = 0.019). In the rental-flat population, having anxiety/depression was independently associated with minority ethnicity, problems with self –care, pain/discomfort, difficulty with healthcare costs, and not being on subsidized primary care (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference on the EQ-VAS between the two neighborhoods (p = 0.627). Staying in a low area-SES neighborhood was associated with more mental health problems. In the rental-flat population, self-reported anxiety/depression was associated with minority ethnicity, physical health problems, and financial disadvantage in healthcare.     

Virtual reality and the new psychophysics

Virtual reality (VR) promises methodological rigour with the extra benefit of allowing us to study the context-dependent behaviour of individuals in their natural environment. Pan and Hamilton (2018, Br. J. Psychol.) provide a useful overview of methodological recommendations for using VR. Here, we highlight some other aspects of the use of VR. Our first argument is that VR can be useful by virtue of its differences from the normal perceptual environment. That is, by virtue of its relative non-realism and poverty of its perceptual elements, it can actually offer increased clarity with respect to the features of interest for the researcher. Our second argument is that VR exerts its measurable influence more by eliciting an acceptance of the virtual world (i.e., ‘suspension of disbelief’) rather than by eliciting a true belief of the realism of the VR environment. We conclude by providing a novel suggestion for combining neuroimaging methods with embodied VR that relies on the suspension of disbelief.     

Instrumentalist analyses of the functions of ethics concept-principles: a proposal for synergetic empirical and conceptual enrichment

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - Bioethics has made a compelling case for the role of experience and empirical research in ethics. This may explain why the movement for empirical ethics has...     

The role of cognitive flexibility and vocabulary abilities of younger and older users in searching for information on the web

The present study investigated the role of cognitive flexibility and vocabulary abilities in explaining age‐related differences in information searching with a search engine. Nineteen older and 20 younger participants had to carry out nine searches and to complete a battery of cognitive tests. Older participants obtained poorer search performance with fewer correct answers, and lower task completion speed. They interacted little with the system, and showed specific difficulties in getting out of impasses and reformulating unfruitful requests. Regression analyses suggested that age differences in the number of requests were moderated by differences in cognitive flexibility and that the older participants did not leverage their increased vocabulary in producing new keywords. The findings suggest that the age‐related decline in cognitive flexibility plays a role in the age‐related differences observed in searching for information, especially in the way users get out of impasses. The results have implications for designing search engine tools. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dissociated roles for the lateral and medial septum in elemental and contextual fear conditioning

Extensive evidence indicates that the septum plays a predominant role in fear learning, yet the direction of this control is still a matter of debate. Increasing data suggest that the medial (MS) and lateral septum (LS) would be differentially required in fear conditioning depending on whether a discrete conditional stimulus (CS) predicts, or not, the occurrence of an aversive unconditional stimulus (US). Here, using a tone CS-US pairing (predictive discrete CS, context in background) or unpairing (context in foreground) conditioning procedure, we show, in mice, that pretraining inactivation of the LS totally disrupted tone fear conditioning, which, otherwise, was spared by inactivation of the MS. Inactivating the LS also reduced foreground contextual fear conditioning, while sparing the higher level of conditioned freezing to the foreground (CS-US unpairing) than to the background context (CS-US pairing). In contrast, inactivation of the MS totally abolished this training-dependent level of contextual freezing. Interestingly, inactivation of the MS enhanced background contextual conditioning under the pairing condition, whereas it reduced foreground contextual conditioning under the unpairing condition. Hence, the present findings reveal a functional dissociation between the LS and the MS in Pavlovian fear conditioning depending on the predictive value of the discrete CS. While the requirement of the LS is crucial for the appropriate processing of the tone CS-US association, the MS is crucial for an appropriate processing of contextual cues as foreground or background information.     

De l’opportunité d’une nouvelle loi sur la fin de vie ?

This paper deals with the end of life issue. It advocates for putting the legislation about end of life a part from bioethics laws and addresses some legal problems.     

Geographical offender profiling: Dragnet's applicability on a Brazilian sample

Even though geographical offender profiling is already widely used and researched in countries such as England, Canada, and United States, it is still severely overlooked in Brazil, as there are no researches on the subject using a Brazilian sample. Therefore, the present paper aims to start filling this gap by analysing the applicability of the geographical offender profiling and Dragnet on a sample of Brazilian serial killers. In order to achieve this objective, the authors collected data through police records on 15 serial killers that were active between June 2009 and June 2015, in the city of Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil. As a result, the circle hypothesis was confirmed, considering that 66.7% of the sample fell into the marauder category. Interestingly, the Dragnet's result accurately informed the area that contained the offender's base in the same cases in which the offender acted according to the marauder model. Also, other important correlations were found such as the influence of age, intelligence, resourcefulness, and method of approach on the distance travelled to commit a murder. Those results show that the geographical offender profiling can be effectively applied in Brazil and thus is a valid investigative tool to aid police officers in serial crimes investigations.     

Depressive symptoms in outpatients with heart failure: Importance of inflammatory biomarkers,disease severity and personality

Objective: Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in heart failure (HF) patients, however the underlying etiology of depression in HF patients remains yet unclear. Hence, the goal is to examine the relative importance of inflammation, disease severity and personality as predictors of depression in HF patients. Design: Depressive symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, depression subscale) were assessed at baseline and one-year follow-up in 268 HF patients (75.6% men; mean age?=?66.7?±?8.7). Markers of inflammation (TNFα, sTNFr1, sTNFr2, IL-6 and IL-10), disease severity (e.g. New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification) and personality (Type D personality, loneliness) were assessed at baseline. Results: At baseline, NYHA class, body mass index, educational level, Type D personality and loneliness were significantly associated with depression. Higher NYHA class (B?=?2.25; SE?=?.83), higher educational level (B?=?1.41; SE?=?.48), Type D personality (B?=?2.56; SE?=?.60) and loneliness (B?=?.19; SE?=?.05) were also independently associated with higher depression levels at one-year follow-up (all p-values?<?.005). Inflammation, brain natriuretic peptide and left ventricular ejection fraction were not related to depression over time. Conclusions: Personality factors, but not inflammation, were independent concomitants of depressive symptoms in patients with HF. Gaining more insight into the etiology of depression in HF patients is important in order to identify potential targets for novel interventions.