Inhibitory control and set shifting describe different pathways from behavioral inhibition to socially anxious behavior

Individuals with a behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament are more likely to develop social anxiety. However, the mechanisms by which socially anxious behavior emerges from BI are unclear. Variation in different forms of top‐down control, specifically executive functions (EF), may play distinct roles and characterize differential pathways to social anxiety. Here 291 children were assessed for BI in toddlerhood (ages 2 and 3), parent‐reported inhibitory control and set shifting during middle childhood (age 7), and multidimensional assessment of socially anxious behavior completed during late childhood and early adolescence (ages 9 and 12). Structural equation modeling revealed that early variation in BI predicted the development of socially anxious behavior through either higher levels of parent‐reported inhibitory control or lower levels of parent‐reported set shifting. These data reinforce the notion that top‐down control does not uniformly influence relations between temperament and socially anxious behavior. These data suggest novel approaches to thinking about the role of EFs and social anxiety outcomes as children approach adolescence.     

The relationship of perinatal birth status to handedness: A prospective study

As part of a longitudinal study of the consequences of high risk birth, 66 infants born to right-handed parents were given two unimanual tasks at 24 months of age to assess their hand preference. The 66 infants had been assigned to one of four diagnostic categories at birth: Premature with no postnatal medical complications; premature and having experienced respiratory distress; term and having experienced birth asphyxia during labor and delivery; term with normal delivery and postnatal course. Results of the handedness tasks revealed an increased incidence of use of the left hand among the term infants who underwent birth asphyxia and among the healthy preterm infants. The data indicate that timing of birth stress may play an important role in the ontogeny of pathological left-handedness.     

Face-to-face interaction in term and preterm infants

Previous research has found that mothers of preterm infants work harder in a face-to-face situation with their infants than mothers of term infants. Data have also revealed that preterm infants are less responsive than term infants in a social interaction. To date, there have been few studies that have attempted to determine the range of facial expressive cues that preterms may be emitting or the possible physiological basis for this behavior. In an attempt to investigate these questions, preterm and term infants were observed in a face-to-face situation. Prior to the session, three minutes of resting EKG was recorded. The infant's facial behavior was coded with a discrete facial action coding system. Maternal behavior was also coded. Measures of heart rate as well as short and long term variability were computed. Results revealed no differences in facial lability or in facial expressiveness between term and preterm infant. In addition, there were no differences in maternal behavior to either term or preterm. There were, however, reliable contingent relationships between facial expression of the infant and maternal behavior. In addition, there was a significant association between short term variability (vagal tone) and infant facial behavior.     

Normality,Non-contamination and Logical Depth in Classical Natural Deduction

Studia Logica - In this paper we provide a detailed proof-theoretical analysis of a natural deduction system for classical propositional logic that (i) represents classical proofs in a more natural...     

Individual differences in visual acuity and face matching ability

The visual acuity of the eyes varies outside the range of normal vision, requiring corrective lenses, but also within the normal range. This study investigated whether both types of variation relate to individual differences in face-identity matching, considering this applied task requires perception of detail. Across two experiments, face-matching accuracy correlated with variation in acuity when this fell outside the normal range of vision and was uncorrected with glasses or contact lenses. In contrast, variation in visual acuity within the normal range did not affect face-matching accuracy, whereas matching accuracy at a given level of acuity could vary substantially. These results indicate that visual acuity is only a problem for occupations performing face-identity matching when below-normal acuity is not diagnosed or adequately corrected. In turn, these findings suggest that variation in acuity within the normal range is not a contributing factor to individual differences in face matching accuracy.     

Hotep's Story: Exploring the Wounds of Health Vulnerability in the US

A wide variety of forms of domination hasresulted in a highly heterogeneous health riskcategory, ``the vulnerable.' The study of healthinequities sheds light on forces thatgenerate, sustain, and alter vulnerabilities toillness, injury, suffering and death. Thispaper analyzes the case of a high-risk teenfrom a Boston ghetto that illuminatesintersections between ``race' and class in theconstruction of vulnerability in the US.Exploration of his ``wounds' helps specify howlarge-scale social and cultural forces becomeembodied as individual experience of disparatehealth risk. The case demonstrates that healthinequities would not occur if resources –employment, income, wealth, education, housing,profiling in the legal system, and health care– were more justly managed in keeping withstandards outlined in the Universal Declarationof Human Rights. Professional responses to the``wounds of vulnerability' may reveal importantaspects of who we are and what our work asscholars, practitioners, and advocates mustbecome.