Your love lifts me higher! The energizing quality of secure relationships

Three studies tested and confirmed the hypothesis that secure attachment relationships lead to feelings of security and energy, as well as willingness to explore. In Study 1, priming a secure attachment relationship increased felt security and energy. In Studies 2 and 3, felt energy mediated the effect of (primed) secure attachment relationships on willingness to explore. In Study 3, the effect of (primed) secure attachment relationships on felt energy and willingness to explore was independent of general positive affect. Secure attachments energize partners, thus enabling exploration.     

"Heartwarming memories: Nostalgia maintains physiological comfort": Correction to Zhou et al. (2012)

Reports an error in "Heartwarming Memories: Nostalgia Maintains Physiological Comfort" by Xinyue Zhou, Tim Wildschut, Constantine Sedikides, Xiaoxi Chen and Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets (Emotion, Advanced Online Publication, Mar 5, 2012, np). In the article, the last sentence was incorrect. The corrected sentence is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-05385-001.) Nostalgia, a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, is a predominantly positive and social emotion. Recent evidence suggests that nostalgia maintains psychological comfort. Here, we propose, and document in five methodologically diverse studies, a broader homeostatic function for nostalgia that also encompasses the maintenance of physiological comfort. We show that nostalgia-an emotion with a strong connotation of warmth-is triggered by coldness. Participants reported stronger nostalgia on colder (vs. warmer) days and in a cold (vs. neutral or warm) room. Nostalgia, in turn, modulates the interoceptive feeling of temperature. Higher levels of music-evoked nostalgia predicted increased physical warmth, and participants who recalled a nostalgic (vs. ordinary autobiographical) event perceived ambient temperature as higher. Finally, and consistent with the close central nervous system integration of temperature and pain sensations, participants who recalled a nostalgic (vs. ordinary autobiographical) event evinced greater tolerance to noxious cold. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Discrepancies Between Implicit and Explicit Self‐concepts of Intelligence Predict Performance on Tests of Intelligence

Three studies investigated the correspondence between implicit and explicit self‐concepts of intelligence and how that correspondence is related to performance on different intelligence tests. Configurations of these two self‐concepts were found to be consistently related to performance on intelligence tests in all three studies. For individuals who self‐reported high intelligence (high explicit self‐concept), a negative implicit self‐concept (measured with the Implicit Association Test) led to a decrease in performance on intelligence tests. For participants whose self‐report indicated a low self‐concept of intelligence, positive automatic associations between the self and intelligence had a similar effect. In line with a stress hypothesis, the results indicate that any discrepant configuration of self‐concepts will impair performance. Importantly, the prediction of performance on intelligence tests by the self‐concept of intelligence was shown to be independent of self‐esteem (Study 3). Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coping with racial discrimination: The role of substance use

Three studies tested the hypothesis that the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use reported in previous research is moderated by use of substances as a coping mechanism. Studies 1 and 2 were experimental studies of African American adolescents' and young adults' reactions to a discrimination experience. Results revealed that those who endorsed substance use-as-coping reported more willingness to use substances after experiencing discrimination. Study 3 was a prospective study of the relation between perceived discrimination and substance use over an 8-year period in African American adolescents. Results demonstrated that discrimination is associated with increases in substance use, but only among adolescents who endorse substance use-as-coping. Together, these three studies provide evidence that experiencing discrimination has both short- and long-term detrimental effects on African Americans' substance use, but significantly more so for those who adopt a pattern of using substances as a coping mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The power of the past: nostalgia as a meaning-making resource

In three experiments we tested whether nostalgia bolsters meaning in life relative to two other modes of autobiographical thought: imagining a desired future experience and recalling a positive past experience. In Experiment 1 participants thought about a nostalgic or desired future experience and then completed a presence of meaning scale. Thinking about a nostalgic (compared to desired future) experience increased perceived presence of meaning. In Experiment 2 we examined whether nostalgia can additionally reduce the search for meaning. Participants thought about a nostalgic, desired future or recent positive experience, and then completed a search for meaning scale. Nostalgia, relative to both comparison conditions, decreased the search for meaning. Finally we tested whether, by virtue of its capacity to increase meaning, nostalgia can mitigate threats to meaning. In Experiment 3 participants were exposed to either absurd or representational art, under the guise that they would later have to interpret its meaning, and then thought about either a nostalgic or a recent positive experience. Meaning was subsequently measured. The absurd art interpretation condition decreased the perceived presence of meaning but nostalgic reflection attenuated this effect.     

Angiotensin II differentially affects hippocampal glial inflammatory markers in young adult male and female mice

Hypertension is a risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders involving inflammation and inflammatory cytokine-producing brain cells (microglia and astrocytes) in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Here we investigated the effect of slow-pressor angiotensin II (AngII) on gliosis in the hippocampus and mPFC of young adult (2-mo-old) male and female mice. In males, AngII induced hypertension, and this resulted in an increase in the density of the astrocyte marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in the subgranular hilus and a decrease in the density of the microglial marker ionized calcium binding adapter molecule (Iba-1) in the CA1 region. Females infused with AngII did not show hypertension but, significantly, showed alterations in hippocampal glial activation. Compared with vehicle, AngII-infused female mice had an increased density of Iba-1 in the dentate gyrus and CA2/3a region. Like males, females infused with AngII exhibited decreased Iba-1 in the CA1 region. Neither male nor female mice showed differences in GFAP or Iba-1 in the mPFC following AngII infusion. These results demonstrate that the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to AngII in young adulthood. Differences in gonadal hormones or the sensitivity to AngII hypertension may account for divergences in GFAP and Iba-1 in males and females.

Hypertension is a significant risk factor for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer''s disease (AD) that are associated with neurodegeneration and cognitive decline (Daugherty 2021). Hypertension can develop during the life span yet is often studied at middle and late life. There is emerging evidence that hypertension is becoming more common in late adolescence and early adulthood (Azegami et al. 2021; Hamrahian and Falkner 2022). In addition, there is increasing awareness that the duration of hypertension can impact the onset of neural degeneration (Schaare et al. 2019; Yang et al. 2021) and cognitive dysfunction (Yaffe et al. 2014, 2021; Mahinrad et al. 2020; Zhou et al. 2022). Although the age of onset of hypertension may influence the trajectory of degenerative disease in later life, the effect of hypertension on brain health in young adult subjects is relatively underinvestigated.Hippocampal and medial prefrontal cortical pathology are commonly present in neurodegenerative diseases like AD (Belonwu et al. 2021). Structurally and functionally, both the hippocampus and mPFC also are compromised during hypertension (Raz et al. 2007; Gonzalez et al. 2015; Bu et al. 2018). In the hippocampus, hypertension is known to disrupt cerebrovascular function, promote inflammatory processes, and contribute to neuronal impairment and cognitive decline (Iulita et al. 2018). Although less studied than the hippocampus, the PFC is also compromised by hypertension (Raz et al. 2007; Bu et al. 2018; Wang et al. 2020).Microglia, the resident macrophages in the brain, have been implicated in inflammatory states, cognitive function (Cornell et al. 2022), and the brain''s response to hypertension (Calvillo et al. 2019; Li et al. 2020). An increase in the density of ionized calcium binding adapter molecule (Iba-1), a protein constitutively expressed in microglia and up-regulated when microglia enter an activated stage (Imai et al. 1996; Sasaki et al. 2001), is commonly reported in models of cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders (Prinz et al. 2021).In addition to microglia, astrocytes also have been implicated in the emergence of hippocampal and cortical dysfunction. Astrocytes play critical roles in blood–brain barrier (BBB) formation; brain metabolic, ion, and water homeostasis; neurotransmitter recycling; synapse formation; and neuroimmune signaling (Matias et al. 2019). In the context of insult, pathogen infection, or neurological disease, astrocytes undergo functionally complex reactive responses (Chiu et al. 2014; Giovannoni and Quintana 2020) that are associated with an increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene and protein expression (Crespo-Castrillo et al. 2020; Sofroniew 2020).To better understand the consequences of elevated blood pressure on the young adult brain, we conducted an exploratory investigation of the impact of hypertension on the expression of microglia and astrocyte markers—Iba-1 and GFAP, respectively—in the hippocampus and mPFC of male mice. Mice were exposed to angiotensin II (AngII) using the “slow-pressor” model (Dickinson and Lawrence 1963), which in males mimics the gradual rise in blood pressure and increase in sympathetic activation (Grassi and Ram 2016; Lerman et al. 2019) characteristic of essential hypertension (Lerman et al. 2019). Significantly, there is an important sex dimorphism in the risk for hypertension. Compared with men, women are protected from hypertension before middle age but become increasingly affected as they reach perimenopause, and intact young female rodents show a reduced sensitivity to AngII hypertension (Van Kempen et al. 2016). Similarly, there are sex differences in the incidence, progression, and severity of hypertension-associated neurodegenerative disease (Lopez-Lee et al. 2021). Furthermore, sex differences in glial function have also been documented within the context of neurodegenerative diseases (Kodama and Gan 2019; Biechele et al. 2020). Given this evidence, the effect of AngII on hippocampal and medial prefrontal cortical glial markers also was investigated in young intact female mice.     

Closing the Vocabulary Gap?: A Review of Research on Early Childhood Vocabulary Practices

Our qualitative literature review of 31 published studies found that (a) three major approaches are used in early childhood classrooms to support children's vocabulary learning—exposing children to advanced words, providing direct word-meaning instruction, and employing mixed-method interventions; (b) these practices support children's learning of targeted vocabulary words and/or general vocabulary knowledge gains, but various methods have differential impacts on children's depth of word knowledge; and (c) theme-based multimethod interventions are the most likely approach to close the gap. Based on these findings, we suggest future research directions and discuss implications for classroom practice.