A Prevalence Study on Internalizing Problems Among Primary School Children in Hong Kong

Studies in Hong Kong indicated that there is a tendency for young children to use internalizing as a means to cope with their daily difficulties. Mother–child relationship has been seen as a factor affecting a child’s adaptive coping skills. In this study, we explored the prevalence of internalizing problems among primary school children in Hong Kong, as well as the mother–child relationship that contribute to children’s internalizing problems. Data used to assess the internalizing behavior among 1598 primary school children were collected from their mothers. The estimated prevalence of internalizing problem was 11.4%. This prevalence was based on the cutoff point for internalizing disorders according to the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The CBCL internalizing score was significantly correlated with mother–child relationship as measured using the Parent–Child Relationship Questionnaire (PCRQ). Results from the PCRQ indicated that children’s internalizing problems were positively correlated with mother’s use of verbal punishment and rejection as well as their possessiveness and protection on their children. On the other hand, a nurturing and intimate relationship between mother and child was an important factor contributing to the development of mentally healthy children. Implications of this study and suggestions for further research were discussed.     

Yohimbine impairs extinction of cocaine-conditioned place preference in an alpha2-adrenergic receptor independent process

Extinction, a form of learning that has the ability to reshape learned behavior based on new experiences, has been heavily studied utilizing fear learning paradigms. Mechanisms underlying extinction of positive-valence associations, such as drug self-administration and place preference, are poorly understood yet may have important relevance to addiction treatment. Data suggest a major role for the noradrenergic system in extinction of fear-based learning. Employing both pharmacological and genetic approaches, we investigated the role of the alpha(2)-adrenergic receptor (alpha(2)-AR) in extinction of cocaine-conditioned place preference (CPP) and glutamatergic transmission in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). We found that pre-extinction systemic treatment with the alpha(2)-AR antagonist yohimbine impaired cocaine CPP extinction in C57BL/6J mice, an effect that was not mimicked by the more selective alpha(2)-AR antagonist, atipamezole. Moreover, alpha(2A)-AR knockout mice exhibited similar cocaine CPP extinction and exacerbated extinction impairing effects of yohimbine. Using acute brain slices and electrophysiological approaches, we found that yohimbine produces a slowly evolving depression of glutamatergic transmission in the BNST that was not mimicked by atipamezole. Further, this action was extant in slices from alpha(2A)-AR knockout mice. Our data strongly suggest that extinction-modifying effects of yohimbine are unlikely to be due to actions at alpha(2A)-ARs.     

Who is buying bioethics research?

Growing ties to private industry have prompted many to question the impartiality of academic bioethicists who receive financial support from for-profit corporations in exchange for ethics-related services and research. To the extent that corporate sponsors may view bioethics as little more than a way to strengthen public relations or avoid potential controversy, close ties to industry may pose serious threats to professional independence. New sources of support from private industry may also divert bioethicists from pursuing topics of greater social importance, such as the needs of medically underserved communities. To inform ongoing debates about the financing of bioethics and its transparency to those concerned about potential sources of bias, we examined funding disclosures appearing in original research reports in major bioethics journals. Reviewing research published over a 15-year period, we found little evidence that for-profit corporations are influencing bioethics research directly. Instead, we found evidence that a great number of organizations, both public and private, support bioethics research. These findings suggest that worries about the cooption of bioethics research by a few interested stakeholders are greatly overstated and undersupported by available data.     

Contexts and control operations used in accessing list-specific, generalized, and semantic memories

The human ability to focus memory retrieval operations on a particular list, episode or memory structure has not been fully appreciated or documented. In Experiment 1-3, we make it increasingly difficult for participants to switch between a less recent list (multiple study opportunities), and a more recent list (single study opportunity). Task performance was good, although there was a cost associated with switching. In Experiment 4, list-specific learning experiences were used to create a generalized memory as a step towards semantic memory. List-specific memories intruded during attempts to retrieve the generalized memory and the generalized memory enhanced list-specific performance. The generalized memory also intruded in a free-association task. We propose that a hierarchy of contexts and control operations underlie the human ability to access different memory structures and that there is no sharp discontinuity in the control operations needed to access list-specific, generalized, and semantic memories.     

The somatotopy of speech: Phonation and articulation in the human motor cortex

A sizable literature on the neuroimaging of speech production has reliably shown activations in the orofacial region of the primary motor cortex. These activations have invariably been interpreted as reflecting “mouth” functioning and thus articulation. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare an overt speech task with tongue movement, lip movement, and vowel phonation. The results showed that the strongest motor activation for speech was the somatotopic larynx area of the motor cortex, thus reflecting the significant contribution of phonation to speech production. In order to analyze further the phonatory component of speech, we performed a voxel-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of syllable-singing (11 studies) and compared the results with a previously-published meta-analysis of oral reading (11 studies), showing again a strong overlap in the larynx motor area. Overall, these findings highlight the under-recognized presence of phonation in imaging studies of speech production, and support the role of the larynx motor cortex in mediating the “melodicity” of speech.     

Engaging the consumer: The opposing forces of regulatory nonfit versus fit

Higgins and Scholer (Higgins, E. T., and Scholer, A. A. (2009). Engaging the consumer: The science and art of the value creation process. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19(2), 100-114) propose that while opposing forces do not create value, value is created when people engage in the act of countering these forces. To the extent that feeling wrong from regulatory nonfit may be perceived as an opposing force, their hypothesis can be extended to understanding regulatory nonfit effects. More specifically, while regulatory nonfit does not create value, the experience of regulatory nonfit may signal that something “feels wrong”. Consumers may be prompted to counter this feeling wrong experience when they are involved in the decision making process, and this intervention in turn leads to value creation.     

Race-based perceptual asymmetries underlying face processing in infancy

Adults process other-race faces differently than own-race faces. For instance, a single other-race face in an array of own-race faces attracts Caucasians’ attention, but a single own-race face among other-race faces does not. This perceptual asymmetry has been explained by the presence of an other-race feature in other-race faces and its absence in own-race faces; this difference is thought to underlie race-based differences in face processing. We examined the developmental origins of this mechanism in two groups of Caucasian 9-month-olds. Infants in the experimental group exhibited a preference for a pattern containing a single Asian face among seven Caucasian faces over a pattern containing a single Caucasian face among seven Asian faces. This preference was not driven by the majority of elements in the images, because a control group of infants failed to exhibit a preference between homogeneous patterns containing eight Caucasian versus eight Asian faces. The results demonstrate that an other-race face among own-race faces attracts infants’ attention but not vice versa. This perceptual asymmetry suggests that the other-race feature is available to Caucasians by 9 months of age, thereby indicating that mechanisms of specialization in face processing originate early in life.     

Factors of the psychopathic personality inventory: criterion-related validity and relationship to the BIS/BAS and five-factor models of personality

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that includes interpersonal-affective and antisocial deviance features. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) contains two underlying factors (fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality) that may differentially tap these two sets of features. In a mixed-gender sample of undergraduates and prisoners, we found that PPI fearless dominance was related to low Behavioral Inhibition System activity, high Behavioral Activation System (BAS) activity, expert prototype psychopathy scores, and primary psychopathy. Impulsive antisociality was related to high BAS activity and all psychopathy measures. High Extraversion and Openness and low Neuroticism and Agreeableness predicted fearless dominance, whereas high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted impulsive antisociality. Although low levels of Agreeableness predicted both PPI factors, their differential relations with other five-factor model traits highlight differences in the way psychopathy manifests itself. Consistent with movements toward assessing personality disorder using the five-factor model, the authors report regression-based equations for the clinical assessment of these psychopathy dimensions using the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R).     

Facial identity and facial expression matching in 5–12‐year‐old children and adults

Facial identity and facial expression matching tasks were completed by 5–12‐year‐old children and adults using stimuli extracted from the same set of normalized faces. Configural and feature processing were examined using speed and accuracy of responding and facial feature selection, respectively. Facial identity matching was slower than face expression matching for all age groups. Large age effects were found on both speed and accuracy of responding and feature use in both identity and expression matching tasks. Eye region preference was found on the facial identity task and mouth region preference on the facial expression task. Use of mouth region information for facial expression matching increased with age, whereas use of eye region information for facial identity matching peaked early. The feature use information suggests that the specific use of primary facial features to arrive at identity and emotion matching judgments matures across middle childhood. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.