Development of norms for executive functions in typically-developing Indian urban preschool children and its association with nutritional status

Executive functions (EFs) are essential and important for achieving success in children’s everyday lives and play a fundamental role in children’s cognitive, academic, social, emotional and behavioral functioning. A cross-sectional study was carried out to develop age- and sex-specific norms for EFs using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Preschool Version (BRIEF-P) among 2- to 5-year-olds from urban Bangalore, India. In addition, the association between EFs and anthropometric measures, a marker of nutritional status, is also examined. Primary caregivers of 412 children, equally distributed by age and sex, participated. Raw scores for each domain and indices were converted to standard t-scores and percentiles were computed. A t-score at or above 63 corresponding to the 90th percentile was considered as the cutoff for executive dysfunction in this sample. The prevalence of executive dysfunction is 10% based on the Global Executive Composite score of the BRIEF-P. The cutoff score for identifying executive dysfunction using existing United States (US) norms is higher compared to the cutoff score obtained in the current study. Therefore, using US norms for Indian children could result in the prevalence of executive dysfunction been underestimated. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that stunted and underweight children have significantly elevated EF scores after adjusting for age, sex and socioeconomic status (SES; p < .01). A greater understanding of EFs in preschool children is important for the early identification of executive dysfunction and implementing interventions to improve their future prospects. This study also shows that undernourished children are more likely to have executive dysfunction.     

Assistive/rehabilitation technology,disability, and service delivery models

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals do not explicitly articulate a focus on disability; similar failures in the past resulted in research, policy, and practice that are not generalizable and did not meet the needs of persons with disabilities since they were developed for an “average” population. Academics and professionals in health and other disciplines should have a knowledge base in evidence-based practices that improve well-being and participation of people with disabilities through effective service delivery of assistive technology. Grounded by a theoretical framework that incorporates a multivariate perspective of disability that is acknowledged in the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, we present a review of models of assistive technology service delivery and call for future syntheses of the fragmented evidence base that would permit a comparative effectiveness approach to evaluation.     

Understanding why and how individuals choose to help others: indirect reciprocal considerations and the moderating role of situation severity

In this article, we examine the impact of how helpful an individual is toward third parties on people's willingness to help that individual. Our results show lower willingness to help those that are unhelpful toward others. Further, varying levels of severity of the situation in which help is needed moderates this relationship. Specifically, in less severe situations (i.e., where withholding help does not lead to dire consequences), willingness to help was greater when recipients were seen as being helpful toward others. This effect was also found in moderate severity situations, although to a lesser extent. More severe situations, however, caused people to want to help regardless of how helpful the recipients themselves were. Empathetic feelings toward the recipients mediated these findings.     

Pituitary-adrenal activity in acute and chronically stressed male and female mice lacking the 5-HT-3A receptor

The serotonin (5-HT)-3A receptor has been localized in limbic and brainstem structures that regulate hypothalamic--pituitary--adrenal (HPA) activity. We previously showed that 5-HT-3A receptor knock-out (KO) male mice displayed lower ACTH responses to acute restraint or lipopolysaccharide administration compared to age-matched wild-type (WT) males. In the present study, we found that pituitary-adrenal responses to acute stress were not different in female WT and KO mice. Furthermore, we examined the role of the 5-HT-3A receptor in regulation of chronic stress-induced HPA activity in both male and female WT and KO mice. The results show that ACTH, but not corticosterone, responses to novel restraint are lower in chronically cold stressed females compared to non-stressed control females but no effect of 5-HT-3A receptor deletion was observed. In contrast, male mice showed facilitated responses to novel restraint after chronic cold stress and this facilitation produced sex differences in ACTH responses to novel restraint between male and female chronically stressed KO mice. Together, these results indicate that there are sex differences in HPA responses to novel restraint in chronically stressed mice and these differences are partly related to 5-HT-3A receptor function.     

Initial relaxation response: contrasts between clinical patients and normal volunteers

The effectiveness of EMG biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, and self-relaxation were compared using a within-subjects design. Thirteen clinical subjects and 48 normal volunteers participated in 4 counterbalanced relaxation sessions using one of the techniques. Frontalis EMG and surface skin temperature were monitored throughout the sessions. For reducing EMG, biofeedback was more effective than the other three techniques. A significant interaction of treatment X subjects was found for changes in skin temperature. Clinical subjects had the greatest increase in skin temperature with EMG biofeedback and analog subjects responded best to self-relaxation. There were no significant differences in initial measures of EMG or skin temperature for the two samples.     

Objectified Body Consciousness in a Developing Country: A Comparison of Mothers and Daughters in the US and Nepal

Self-objectification (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) has been related to negative psychological consequences in U.S. women. However, little cross-cultural research has been done. We compared convenience samples of American and Nepali women on two measures of self-objectification. Pairs of Nepali mothers and daughters (N?=?23) and pairs of U.S. mothers and daughters (N?=?24) completed a quantitative and a qualitative measure of self-objectification. Cultural and generational differences were found. Nepali women engaged in less self-surveillance than U.S. women. Older women engaged in less self-surveillance than younger women. Women in both cultures had high beliefs in their ability to control the body. An additional dimension of body consciousness, termed Functionality, was particularly important to younger Nepali women.     

Language representation in the human brain: evidence from cortical mapping

The manner in which the human brain processes grammatical-syntactic and lexical-semantic functions has been extensively debated in neurolinguistics. The discreteness and selectivity of the representation of syntactic-morphological properties in the dominant frontal cortex and the representation of the lexical-semantics in the temporo-parietal cortex have been questioned. Three right-handed adult male neurosurgical patients undergoing left craniotomy for intractable seizures were evaluated using various grammatical and semantic tasks during cortical mapping. The sampling of language tasks consisted of trials with stimulation (experimental) and without stimulation (control) from sites in the dominant fronto-temporo-parietal cortex The sampling of language implicated a larger cortical area devoted to language (syntactic-morphological and lexical-semantic) tasks. Further, a large part of the fronto-parieto-temporal cortex was involved with syntactic-morphological functions. However, only the parieto-temporal sites were implicated with the ordering of lexicon in sentence construction. These observations suggest that the representation of language in the human brain may be columnar or multilayered.     

The effects of brief prayer on the experience of forgiveness: An American and Indian comparison

The present study offers a cross‐cultural examination of the effect of prayer on forgiveness. American (n = 51) and Indian (n = 100) participants either prayed for their romantic partner (prayer condition) or described their romantic partner's physical attributes (control condition). Prayers were self‐guided and lasted 3 minutes. Pre‐test and post‐test measures of retaliation were completed. Results showed that participants in the prayer group showed statistically significant decreases in retaliation motives from pre‐test to post‐test and the magnitude of this change was not different across cultures. Control groups in both cultures showed no change. Because of the religious diversity present in the Indian sample, the robustness of the effect of prayer on forgiveness was tested across Christian, Hindu and Muslim Indians. Religious affiliation did not moderate the effect of prayer on forgiveness in this sample. Results suggest that a brief prayer is capable of producing real change in forgiveness and this change is consistent across American and Indian cultures and across three different religious groups in India. Brief prayer for others that enhances forgiveness may be useful for individuals in close relationships, in certain counselling settings and for people in many different walks of life.