White matter microstructure predicts individual differences in infant fear (But not anger and sadness)

We examine neural correlates of discrete expressions of negative emotionality in infants to determine whether the microstructure of white matter tracts at 1 month of age foreshadows the expression of specific negative emotions later in infancy. Infants (n = 103) underwent neuroimaging at 1-month, and mothers reported on infant fear, sadness, and anger at 6, 12, and 18 months using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. Levels and developmental change in fear, sadness, and anger were estimated from mother reports. Relations between MRI and infant emotion indicated that 1-month white matter microstructure was differentially associated with level and change in infant fear, but not anger or sadness, in the left stria terminalis (p < 0.05, corrected), a tract that connects frontal and tempo-parietal regions and has been implicated in emerging psychopathology in adults. More relaxed constraints on significance (p < 0.10, corrected) revealed that fear was associated with lower white matter microstructure bilaterally in the inferior portion of the stria terminalis and regions within the sagittal stratum. Results suggest the neurobehavioral uniqueness of fear as early as 1 month of age in regions that are associated with potential longer-term outcomes. This work highlights the early neural precursors of fearfulness, adding to literature explaining the psychobiological accounts of affective development.

Highlights

• Expressions of infant fear and anger, but not sadness, increase from 6 to 18 months of age.
• Early neural architecture in the stria terminalis is related to higher initial levels and increasing fear in infancy.
• After accounting for fear, anger and sadness do not appear to be associated with differences in early white matter microstructure.
• This work identifies early neural precursors of fearfulness as early as 1-month of age.

     

(Lsuno) the Soviet folktale as an ideological strategy for survival in international business relations

Part of Soviet education is the use of the folktale with a message. This message includes forming attitudes toward foreigners. Among the foreigners so depicted are capitalists and businessmen. For fruitful negotiations with the Soviets, it will pay to know how they view their Western counterparts.     

Some preliminary postulates on stimulus-perception,and consequent probability distributions for behavior

A stimulus (or stimulus-complex) is pictured as giving rise to a random series of sensory nerve pulses, which manifest themselves in contractions of individual muscle fibers. Assuming the expected time-frequency of these pulses to be proportional to the intensity of the stimulus, probability distributions are computed representing the cumulative effect of these pulses on the state of the organism, that is, on its degree ofawareness of the stimulus. Preliminary results suggest a modification of the Weber-Fechner formula for intensity discrimination for certain types of stimuli: the psychological scale to be measured byI ⁱ instead of logI.Contributions from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, New Series, No. 54.