Assessment of Callous-Unemotional Traits in 6 to 12 Year-Old Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder by Parent Ratings

The factorial structure of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick 2004) has been inconsistent across previous studies using different rater versions (self-report, parent, teacher) and versions in different languages applied to both clinical and nonreferred samples predominantly of adolescents. The present study examined the factorial structure of the parent-report version of the ICU in a clinical sample of boys aged 6–12 years with Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder (n?=?131) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results from the CFA supported previous findings, but even the preferred model with three independent factors (Callousness, Uncaring, and Unemotional) showed inadequate model fit. Subsequent EFA revealed a three-factor model consisting of two new subscales (Callousness/Lack of Guilt or Remorse, Unconcerned about Performance) and the original subscale Unemotional. Internal consistencies of the three subscales and total score were satisfactory, and intercorrelations of the subscales were weak, except for a moderate correlation between the subscales Callousness/Lack of Guilt or Remorse and Unconcerned about Performance. The corresponding subscales of the original and new versions were highly correlated. As expected, the ICU subscale Callousness/Lack of Guilt or Remorse showed associations with other measures of aggressive and oppositional behavior. The other two ICU subscales were not associated with aggression or oppositional/antisocial behavior, but Unconcerned about Performance correlated with a measure of attention problems and Unemotional correlated with the internalizing problem withdrawn. The implications of these findings are discussed, especially as a callous unemotional specifier for the diagnosis of Conduct Disorder is included in DSM-5.     

Individual Differences in How Work and Nonwork Life Domains Contribute to Life Satisfaction: Using Factor Mixture Modeling for Classification

This study used factor mixture modeling to investigate individual differences in how life satisfaction is construed. Referring to the cognitive regulation of well-being we aimed to identify individuals for whom work and nonwork life domains contribute differently to overall life satisfaction. In a sample of 1,704 working adults two subgroups with different response patterns were identified. In the first subgroup work and nonwork life domains contributed equally to overall life satisfaction. In the second subgroup satisfaction with nonwork rather than work-related life domains were important sources of life satisfaction. Furthermore, participants in the second group processed negative affect from the work domain in ways that enabled them to maintain high levels of life satisfaction. We examined the external validity of class assignment and replicated our findings in a second sample. How factor mixture modeling can be used to uncover cognitive mechanisms that operate in evaluations of life satisfaction is discussed.     

Haft- und Therapieerfahrungen der Berliner Sicherungsverwahrten

The current reformation of preventive detention follows legal requirements and is not primarily derived from the treatment needs of inmates. Therefore, a fresh look at those persons who will be subjected to this new treatment is important before any legal provisions are put into practice. What are the individual life and delinquency experiences of inmates, how often, in which way and with which goal was treatment attempted? This article will expand on the current situation in the realization of the new legal standards and will describe first results on core delinquency data of a population study of 76 inmates with preventive detention in Berlin and 44 inmates in other federal states of Germany.     

Intact emotion–cognition interaction in schizophrenia patients and first-degree relatives: Evidence from an emotional antisaccade task

Schizophrenia patients have deficits in cognitive control as well as in a number of emotional domains. The antisaccade task is a measure of cognitive control that requires the inhibition of a reflex-like eye movement to a peripheral stimulus. Antisaccade performance has been shown to be modulated by the emotional content of the peripheral stimuli, with emotional stimuli leading to higher error rates than neutral stimuli, reflecting an implicit emotion processing effect. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact on antisaccade performance of threat-related emotional facial stimuli in schizophrenia patients, first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Fifteen patients, 22 relatives and 26 controls, matched for gender, age and verbal intelligence, carried out an antisaccade task with pictures of faces displaying disgusted, fearful and neutral expressions as peripheral stimuli. We observed higher antisaccade error rates in schizophrenia patients compared to first-degree relatives and controls. Relatives and controls did not differ significantly from each other. Antisaccade error rate was influenced by the emotional nature of the stimuli: participants had higher antisaccade error rates in response to fearful faces compared to neutral and disgusted faces. As this emotional influence on cognitive control did not differ between groups we conclude that implicit processing of emotional faces is intact in patients with schizophrenia and those at risk for the illness.     

Inter-individual and intra-individual variability of the N2 component: On reliability and signal-to-noise ratio

The nogo N2 component, an anterior negative peak supposed to be generated in the anterior cingulate cortex, has been used as an indicator of conflict monitoring and response conflict in basic and clinical research. Here, we investigate the reliability and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of inter-individual differences of the N2 amplitudes as well as of intra-individual standard deviations of N2 amplitudes. Effects of the number of nogo epochs, type of summary measure (peak vs. average amplitude), and filter cut-offs (1–12 Hz vs. 1–30 Hz) are investigated. A sample of N = 32 participants, performed a go/nogo task. Excellent Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (?.90) were obtained for the fronto-central average N2 amplitude at 40 nogo epochs and for the peak N2 amplitude at 60 nogo epochs. The SNR was higher for the average nogo N2 amplitude compared to the peak N2 amplitude. Split-half reliability coefficients of the intra-individual standard deviation of the nogo N2 amplitudes were at least moderate. Based on these results we provide suggestions for a reliable N2 measurement. Moreover, although intra-individual variability has often been conceived as noise the present findings support the idea that intra-individual N2 variability incorporates systematic variance.     

Self-control mediates the link between perfectionism and stress

The relationship between perfectionism and stress is well-established. Recent research has focused on identifying the mediators of this link. Starting from a multidimensional perspective on perfectionism, we investigated the role of self-control and found it to be a mediator between perfectionism and stress in a sample of university freshmen. Further, perfectionistic concerns (i.e., discrepancy; Slaney et al. 2001) were positively correlated with stress, whereas perfectionistic strivings (i.e., high standards; Slaney et al. 2001) were negatively correlated with stress. Practical implications regarding overcoming maladaptive perfectionism are discussed.     

Distinct roles for dorsal CA3 and CA1 in memory for sequential nonspatial events

Previous studies have suggested that dorsal hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1 are both involved in representing sequences of events that compose unique episodes. However, it is uncertain whether the contribution of CA3 is restricted to spatial information, and it is unclear whether CA1 encodes order per se or contributes by an active maintenance of memories of sequential events. Here, we developed a new behavioral task that examines memory for the order of sequential nonspatial events presented as trial-unique odor pairings. When the interval between odors within a studied pair was brief (3 sec), bilateral dorsal CA3 lesions severely disrupted memory for their order, whereas dorsal CA1 lesions did not affect performance. However, when the inter-item interval was extended to 10 sec, CA1 lesions, as well as CA3 lesions, severely disrupted performance. These findings suggest that the role of CA3 in sequence memory is not limited to spatial information, but rather appears to be a fundamental property of CA3 function. In contrast, CA1 becomes involved when memories for events must be held or sequenced over long intervals. Thus, CA3 and CA1 are both involved in memory for sequential nonspatial events that compose unique experiences, and these areas play different roles that are distinguished by the duration of time that must be bridged between key events.Episodic memory involves the ability to encode and retrieve the order of events in individual experiences (Tulving 1983). Recent evidence in both animals and humans indicates that the hippocampus plays a critical role in this capacity. In animals, damage to the hippocampus impairs memory for the order of associated elements that compose an episode (Fortin et al. 2002; Kesner et al. 2002), and hippocampal neuronal activity reflects processing of the order of events in both spatial (Dragoi and Buzsáki 2006; Foster and Wilson 2007) and nonspatial episodes (Manns et al. 2007). In humans, hippocampal activation has also been related to memory for the order of elements (Kumaran and Maguire 2006; Lehn et al. 2009; Ross et al. 2009).Within the hippocampal circuitry, contributions of the CA3 and CA1 fields are probably most extensively studied, but this work has not yet clarified the distinct roles of these areas in sequence memory. Computational models suggest that the recurrent connections of CA3 cells operate as an attractor network that computes associations between elements (Norman and O''Reilly 2003; Rolls 2007) and is suitable for representing sequences of events in episodic memories (Jensen and Lisman 1996; Levy 1996; Lisman 1999). Studies on the effects of selective damage within the hippocampus have shown that CA3 is critical for remembering sequences of spatial locations (Hunsaker et al. 2008a), but not sequences of nonspatial events (Hoge and Kesner 2007). It is, therefore, uncertain whether CA3 is critical for sequence memory per se, rather than other aspects of spatial processing. Other observations suggest that CA1 may be involved in memory for the order of both spatial (Hunsaker et al. 2008a) and nonspatial stimuli (Hoge and Kesner 2007; Manns et al. 2007). However, it is not clear whether the contribution of CA1 involves integrating sequential elements of a memory or instead participates by active maintenance of event memories that underlies bridging sequential events in an episode (Kesner et al. 2005).To shed light on these issues, we compared the effects of selective damage to CA3 and CA1 on memory for the order of nonspatial events that occurred in unique episodes. We designed a task, based on the delayed-nonmatching-to-sample test, wherein subjects were required to remember the order of two sequentially presented stimuli in trial–unique-paired associations (Fig. 1).Open in a separate windowFigure 1.Test of memory for the order of stimuli in trial-unique odor pairs. At study, animals were presented with 10 odor-paired associates and odors in a pair were presented one at a time. At test, animals were presented with the same 10 odor pairs and were required to distinguish pairs where the odors within a pair were presented in the same order as during study (“old”) from pairs where the odors were presented in the reverse order (“new”). Old and new order test pairs were presented in a pseudorandom order. The first odor in each test pair acted as a cue to the ordering of the odors within a test pair; the animal was required to place its nose over the cup, but no digging response was required or rewarded. When the second cup was presented, the animal could dig to retrieve a reward if the order was new. If the order was old, the animal was required to approach an empty cup in the back of the home cage to obtain reward.