Recognizing emotion in faces: developmental effects of child abuse and neglect

The contributions to the recognition of emotional signals of (a) experience and learning versus (b) internal predispositions are difficult to investigate because children are virtually always exposed to complex emotional experiences from birth. The recognition of emotion among physically abused and physically neglected preschoolers was assessed in order to examine the effects of atypical experience on emotional development. In Experiment 1, children matched a facial expression to an emotional situation. Neglected children had more difficulty discriminating emotional expressions than did control or physically abused children. Physically abused children displayed a response bias for angry facial expressions. In Experiment 2, children rated the similarity of facial expressions. Control children viewed discrete emotions as dissimilar, neglected children saw fewer distinctions between emotions, and physically abused children showed the most variance across emotions. These results suggest that to the extent that children's experience with the world varies, so too will their interpretation and understanding of emotional signals.     

Referees, editors, and publication practices: Improving the reliability and usefulness of the peer review system

The documented low levels of reliability of the peer review process present a serious challenge to editors who must often base their publication decisions on conflicting referee recommendations. The purpose of this article is to discuss this process and examine ways to produce a more reliable and useful peer review system. The author is a Senior Research Scientist & Biostatistician, Child Study Center and Department of Psychiatry in the Yale University School of Medicine. Note: The main points of this report were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 9, 1996.     

Organization, development and function of complex brain networks

Recent research has revealed general principles in the structural and functional organization of complex networks which are shared by various natural, social and technological systems. This review examines these principles as applied to the organization, development and function of complex brain networks. Specifically, we examine the structural properties of large-scale anatomical and functional brain networks and discuss how they might arise in the course of network growth and rewiring. Moreover, we examine the relationship between the structural substrate of neuroanatomy and more dynamic functional and effective connectivity patterns that underlie human cognition. We suggest that network analysis offers new fundamental insights into global and integrative aspects of brain function, including the origin of flexible and coherent cognitive states within the neural architecture.     

Maltreatment, competency deficits, and risk for academic and behavioral maladjustment

Maltreatment was predicted to negatively affect children's academic and behavioral adjustment through the creation of deficits in academic engagement, social competencies, ego resiliency, and ego control. Teachers' comprehensive evaluations, school records, and camp counselors' ratings were obtained for 229 socioeconomically disadvantaged children (ages 5-12 years), 146 of whom had been maltreated. Maltreated children showed less academic engagement, more social skills deficits, and lower ego resiliency than nonmaltreated comparison children. Maltreated children manifested multiple forms of academic risk and showed more externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. The effects of maltreatment on academic maladjustment were partially mediated by academic engagement, whereas maltreatment's effects on behavior problems were mediated fully by social competencies and ego resiliency.     

Diagnosing Autism using ICD-10 criteria: A comparison of neural networks and standard multivariate procedures

In a sample of 976 consecutive cases derived from the recent world-wide Field Trial of Autism and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders, we tested the accuracy of the 15 ICD-10 criteria for the diagnosis of Autism, by comparing neural network models (NN) to more conventional multivariate competitors, namely, linear and quadratic discriminant function analyses and logistic regression. NNs were less accurate than competitors, both in terms of cross-validation results as well as in levels of shrinkage from training to test conditions. The clinical research implications of these results are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Violent Fantasy and Alcohol Misuse in Aggressive Behaviours

Alcohol misuse and cognitions supportive of violent behaviour have been linked with higher likelihood of engaging in aggressive actions. The present study investigated the interactive effects of alcohol abuse and violent fantasy on aggressive behaviour. A community sample of 279 adults recruited from South East Queensland completed the Aggression Questionnaire, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, Scheduled of Imagined Violence, and the Marlowe‐Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Controlling for age, gender, and social desirability response, participants who acknowledged fantasies about violence and higher levels of alcohol consumption reported higher levels of aggression. Importantly, the interactive effects of alcohol and fantasy indicated that the contribution of violent fantasies was greatest among individuals with high levels of alcohol use compared with individuals with low alcohol use. The current findings, in conjunction with recent experimental evidence, highlight potential concerns regarding the additive effects of alcohol and violent fantasy.     

Effects of maternal negativity and of early and recent recurrent depressive disorder on children's false belief understanding

Research has shown that children of depressed mothers are at risk for problems in a variety of developmental domains; however, little is known about the effects of maternal depression on children's emerging understanding of false beliefs. In this study, 3 false belief tasks were administered to 5-year-old children whose mothers had either met criteria for major depressive disorder within the first 20 months of the child's life (n = 91) or had never been depressed (n = 50). Significant difficulties in performance were found among the children of depressed mothers, especially those whose mothers had experienced early and recent recurrent depressive disorder. Regardless of diagnostic status, children whose mothers exhibited negativity during problem-solving tasks administered at an earlier developmental period also were less likely to demonstrate false belief understanding. These effects remained even after child verbal ability was controlled.