Maternal Relationship Insecurity and Depressive Symptoms as Moderators of Home Visiting Impacts on Child Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which maternal relationship insecurity and severe depressive symptoms moderate home visiting impacts on developmental and behavioral outcomes in 2-year old children. In an experimental trial of the Healthy Families Alaska home visiting program, families (N = 249) were randomly assigned to home visiting (n = 126) or community services as usual (n = 123). Maternal severe depressive symptoms (CES-D ≥ 24) and relationship insecurity were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the Attachment Style Questionnaire at baseline. Child cognitive and psychomotor development and behavior problems were measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the Child Behavior Checklist at follow-up. The results revealed that home visiting significantly impacted three outcomes—child cognitive development, internalizing behavior, and externalizing behavior. Home visiting impacts were limited to subgroups defined by maternal depressive symptoms and relationship insecurity. Home visiting improved cognitive development (B = 6.02, p < .03), and decreased internalizing behavior (B = ?3.83, p = .02) and externalizing behavior problems (B = ?3.74, p = .03) in children of mothers with either severe depressive symptoms or high levels of discomfort with trust at baseline, but not both. Family engagement in home visiting seems to play a role in mediating these moderating effects. These findings reflect the importance of screening for maternal relationship insecurity and depressive symptoms to distinguish family subgroups likely to benefit from home visiting from those for whom an enhanced service model might be needed.     

Generalization of Habituation and Intrinsic Sensitization in the Leech

Using the shortening reflex of the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis we examined stimulus generalization of habituation learning. Preparations received mechanosensory stimulus at two positions on the leech body wall, one site used to carry out habituation training and a second novel site to test for generalization of habituation. After training, the specific mechanosensory neurons activated by each stimulus were assessed using intracellular recordings. As expected, the closer the two sites were to each other, the greater the degree of generalization of habituation at the novel site and the more sensory cells were shared. However, a form of behavioral facilitation was observed at the trained site that resembled behavioral sensitization, but differed from the standard sensitization process in several respects. (1) Facilitation was induced by stimulation of the novel site before habituation training at the trained site, although the stimulus intensity at the novel site was equivalent to the training stimuli and was not the strong, noxious stimuli that normally induce sensitization. (2) The magnitude of the facilitating effect was proportional to the proximity of the novel and trained stimulation sites. (3) Although behavior at the trained site was facilitated, behavior at the novel site was habituated, indicating that the induced behavioral facilitation did not generalize throughout the animal, as normally occurs during sensitization, but was limited to a single stimulus–response pathway.     

Children as Earwitnesses: Memory for Emotional Auditory Events

We examined the influence of age and emotionality of auditory stimuli on long‐term memory for environmental sound events. Sixty children aged 7–11 years were presented with two environmental sound events: an emotional car crash and a neutral event, someone brushing their teeth. The sound events comprised six individual environmental sounds, and the participants passively listened to the sound events through a headset. After a two‐week delay, participants performed a cued recall task and a recognition task. Independent of age, children were notably poor at recalling the sound events. Children recalled and recognized significantly more sounds from the emotional sound event than the neutral sound event. Additionally, the older children performed the recall task better than the younger children. The present findings confirm and expand the previously reported superiority of emotional material in memory.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel duplex antimicrobial silver films deposited by magnetron sputtering

Novel duplex silver films, exhibiting antimicrobial behaviour, have been produced by magnetron sputtering and studied using high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. These films were grown under deposition conditions in which the gas composition, process pressure and input power were varied. It was determined that biologically active films had a nanocrystalline structure consisting of loosely held particles with a grain size of the order of 15nm. The importance of oxygen in the sputtering environment and the resultant microstructure are discussed to explain the unique antimicrobial properties of these silver films.     

Associative, bidirectional changes in neural signaling utilizing NMDA receptor- and endocannabinoid-dependent mechanisms

Persistent, bidirectional changes in synaptic signaling (that is, potentiation and depression of the synapse) can be induced by the precise timing of individual pre- and postsynaptic action potentials. However, far less attention has been paid to the ability of paired trains of action potentials to elicit persistent potentiation or depression. We examined plasticity following the pairing of spike trains in the touch mechanosensory neuron (T cell) and S interneuron (S cell) in the medicinal leech. Long-term potentiation (LTP) of T to S signaling was elicited when the T-cell spike train preceded the S-cell train. An interval 0 to +1 sec between the T- and S-cell spike trains was required to elicit long-term potentiation (LTP), and this potentiation was NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-dependent. Long-term depression (LTD) was elicited when S-cell activity preceded T-cell activity and the interval between the two spike trains was -0.2 sec to -10 sec. This surprisingly broad temporal window involved two distinct cellular mechanisms; an NMDAR-mediated LTD (NMDAR-LTD) when the pairing interval was relatively brief (<-1 sec) and an endocannabinoid-mediated LTD (eCB-LTD) when longer pairing intervals were used (-1 to -10 sec). This eCB-LTD also required activation of a presynaptic transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV)-like receptor, presynaptic Ca(2+) release from intracellular stores and activation of voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels (VGCCs). These findings demonstrate that the pairing of spike trains elicits timing-dependent forms of LTP and LTD that are supported by a complex set of cellular mechanisms involving NMDARs and endocannabinoid activation of TRPV-like receptors.     

Psychotherapy and the medical model: The hypocrisy of health insurance

Psychotherapists manifest a severe discrepancy between practice and preachment when they espouse rejection of a medical model of human problems and psychotherapyand accept health insurance for their work. When psychotherapists accept health insurance they classify their actions and their client's problems as medical or quasi-medical entities, confuse the literal and metaphoric definitions of illness and treatment, and support the medical model. Acceptance of health insurance may serve numerous functions including: symbolic legitimization of psychotherapists; monetary gain; and the obfuscation of moral/social issues. Accepting health insurance while criticizing the medical view is hypocritical and interferes with understanding human problems.