The role of Funktionswandel in metamorphopsia

Patients with metamorphopsia perceive objects or faces as being distorted and/or different in size. In most cases, recognition is not impaired. The stimulus specificity, particularly in the case of face perception, has led to the suggestion that metamorphopsia is a deficit at the entry level of category‐specific recognition systems; in this case, the face processing system. An explanation in terms of a visuosensory deficit (i.e. Funktionswandel) that affects the perception of specific stimulus categories has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, we report two patients (MZ and CM) who experienced hemi‐metamorphopsia for faces after a stroke in the posterior part of the brain. Despite the distortions, they could still match and recognize faces. We carried out a detailed evaluation of their visual‐sensory status and found that both MZ and CM had specific problems with discriminating and estimating sizes and shapes, especially in the contralesional visual field. It was concluded that these cases, metamorphopsia was not due to a higher‐order perception impairment specific for faces, but rather of a specific impairment in shape perception in the contralesional visual field that proportionally affects the perception of faces.     

Promoting Science-based Approaches to Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Proactively Engaging the Three Systems of the Interactive Systems Framework

In the field of teen pregnancy prevention many efficacious prevention programs are available but adoption of these programs is slow at the community level. In this article, we present a multi-site, capacity-building effort called the Promoting Science-based Approaches to Teen Pregnancy Prevention project (PSBA) as a case example of a proactive application of the Interactive System Framework (ISF) for dissemination and implementation. The ISF is a multi-system model leading to dissemination and implementation of science-based prevention programming through the work of three interactive systems: The "Prevention Delivery," "Prevention Support," and "Prevention Synthesis & Translation" Systems. This article describes the proactive use of the ISF to conceptualize and bolster the PSBA program's goal of assisting local prevention partners in the use of science-based approaches (SBA) to prevent teen pregnancy. PSBA uses all three systems of the ISF to facilitate practice improvements and offers valuable research opportunities to investigate factors related to dissemination and implementation processes across these systems. Describing our application of this framework highlights the feasibility of actively using the ISF to build prevention infrastructure and to guide large-scale prevention promotion strategies in the area of teen pregnancy prevention. The program's ongoing evaluation is presented as an example of early efforts to develop an evidence base around the ISF. Research implications are discussed.     

The self-regulation of automatic associations and behavioral impulses

The distinction between automatic processes and controlled processes is a central organizational theme across areas of psychology. However, this dichotomy conceals important differences among qualitatively different processes that independently contribute to ongoing behavior. The Quadruple process model is a multinomial model that provides quantitative estimates of 4 distinct processes in a single task: the likelihood that an automatic response tendency is activated; the likelihood that a contextually appropriate response can be determined; the likelihood that automatic response tendencies are overcome when necessary; and the likelihood that in the absence of other information, behavior is driven by a general response bias. The model integrates dual-process models from many domains of inquiry and offers a generalized, more nuanced framework of impulse regulation across these domains. The model offers insights into many central questions surrounding the operation and the interaction of automatic and controlled processes. Applications of the model to empirical and theoretical concerns in a variety of areas of psychology are discussed.     

Timed excitatory conditioning under zero and negative contingencies

Rats (rattus norvegicus) anticipated the arrival of a food pellet unconditioned stimulus (US) even when the conditioned stimulus (CS) signaled no overall change or a substantial decrease in the overall rate of US occurrence. Pellet USs were scheduled probabilistically in the intertrial interval at either an equivalent rate (Experiment 1) or a four times higher rate (Experiments 2 and 3) than in the CS, which included one fixed-time target US. Conditioning has been said to involve learning "whether" (contingency) the CS signals a change in the US, and if so, "when" (contiguity) the US is scheduled to arrive. Our results suggest that "when" trumps "whether," challenging the received view that a positive CS-US contingency is necessary for successful conditioning.     

Neurodevelopmental impairment: Predictors of its impact on the families of extremely low birth weight infants at 18 months

Effects on a family of a child with chronic illness have been described. The Impact on Family Scale (IOF) was developed to measure these effects. The impact of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants with neurodevelopmental impairment on families is unknown. This study determined IOF scores for families of ELBW infants with increasing degree of impairment at 18 months and identified factors that increase vulnerability to impact. A total of 3,849 ELBW infant survivors born at the 16 centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network between January 1993 and February 2001 were assessed at 18 to 22 months. Infants were divided into four groups by degree of impairment. IOF scores were analyzed by impairment group. Multivariate analyses assessed effects of impairment, social/demographic factors, unmet service needs, and resource utilization on the IOF. A total of 1,624 (42.2%) infants had moderate/severe impairment. Increasing severity of impairment was associated with higher IOF scores. Severity of impairment contributed 6% of variance to the IOF scores. Twenty‐one percent of variance was contributed by additional medical needs, low socioeconomic status (SES), and lack of social support. Although increasing severity of impairment impacts families of ELBW infants, significantly more impact is contributed by additional medical needs, low SES, and lack of social support.     

Pilot Evaluation of a Tablet-Based Application to Improve Quality of Care in Child Mental Health Treatment

Mental health systems need scalable solutions that can reduce the efficacy–effectiveness gap and improve mental health outcomes in community mental health service settings. Two major challenges to delivery of high-quality care are providers’ fidelity to evidence-based treatment models and children’s and caregivers’ engagement in the treatment process. We developed a novel, tablet-based application designed to enhance via technology the quality of delivery of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). We piloted its use in four community mental health service organizations using a blocked randomized controlled trial to examine the feasibility of implementing tablet-facilitated TF-CBT versus standard TF-CBT with 13 providers and 27 families. Provider fidelity and child engagement in treatment were observationally measured via session audio recording. Parent and child perceptions of the tablet application were assessed using structured interviews and mixed-method analyses. Providers actively and appropriately used tablet TF-CBT to facilitate treatment activities. Providers and families expressed high satisfaction with its use, demonstrating acceptability of this approach. Youth and caregivers in both conditions reported high alliance with their providers. Overall, we found that tablet-facilitated treatment is accepted by providers and families and may be integrated into mental health treatment with minimal training. Further study is needed to examine the extent to which technology-based applications may enhance the reach, quality, and clinical outcomes of mental health treatment delivered to children and families.     

Infant mental health home visiting in the context of an infant—toddler court team: Changes in parental responsiveness and reflective functioning

This article describes an infant–toddler court team in Michigan, the community-based participatory research approach to the implementation evaluation, and the resulting changes in parenting. Like other court teams, Michigan's Baby Court is led by a science-informed jurist, and all service providers are knowledgeable about the developmental needs of young children and engage in collaborative communication throughout the case. Relationship-based treatment in the form of infant mental health home-visiting was provided to families. Sixteen parents participated in pre- and posttest evaluation visits to assess changes in parents’ reflective functioning and interactions with their child. Findings suggest improvements in parents’ responsiveness, positive affect, and reflective functioning, with moderate effects. Higher risk parents demonstrated significant changes in reflective functioning, as compared to those at lower risk. These findings add to and support the limited literature on the effectiveness of infant–toddler court teams, which include relationship-based and trauma-informed services.     

Mutation at the TrkB PLC{gamma}-docking site affects hippocampal LTP and associative learning in conscious mice

Previous in vitro studies have characterized the electrophysiological properties and molecular events associated with long-term potentiation (LTP), but as yet there are no in vivo data from molecular-level dissection that directly identify LTP as the biological substrate for learning and memory. Understanding whether the molecular pathways required for learning are also those generating LTP when measured directly on the relevant circuit of a learning animal is clearly important, although so far has proved technically difficult. Here, for the first time, we combine highly defined genetic mouse models with behavior and in vivo recordings. We recorded the activity-dependent changes taking place at the CA3-CA1 synapses during the acquisition and extinction of a simple form of an associative learning task in mice carrying point mutations on specific docking sites of TrkB receptors (trkB(SHC), trkB(PLC)). The learning task consisted of a classical eyeblink conditioning using a trace paradigm. The conditioned stimulus (CS) consisted of a tone and was followed by a periorbital electrical shock as an unconditioned stimulus (US). The US started 500 msec after the end of the CS. We show that a single pulse presented to the Schaffer collateral-commissural pathway during the CS-US interval evoked a monosynaptic field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) at the CA1 pyramidal cells, with a slope linearly related to learning evolution in controls and trkB(SHC) mutants, but the relationship was impaired in trkB(PLC) mice. These data support a link between the PLCgamma-docking site downstream of TrkB and the activity-dependent synaptic changes evoked at the CA3-CA1 synapses during associative learning in conscious mice, and indicate that TrkB PLCgamma-site-activated molecular pathway(s) underlie both associative learning and LTP triggered at the CA3-CA1 synapse.