Cardiovascular reactivity during social and nonsocial stressors: do children's personal goals and expressive skills matter?

The relationships between social competence and cardiovascular reactivity were evaluated in 180 children (ages 8-17; 52% female; 53% Caucasian). Participants performed a social task (Social Competence Interview [SCI]) and 2 nonsocial tasks while reactivity measures were obtained. Social competence was coded from SCI audiotapes. Among adolescents, higher scores on the Acceptance-Affiliation subscale were associated with increased heart rate (HR) and blood pressures and with decreased HR variability during the SCI. Among boys, greater Acceptance-Affiliation scores were associated with increased vascular reactivity during the SCI. During the nonsocial tasks, higher Self-Defensiveness and Expressiveness scores were associated with increased cardiac output and stroke volume among African American children. Personal strivings and expressive skills do matter for understanding cardiovascular responses in children.     

Fatigue following Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury and its Impact on Functional Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Fatigue is a commonly reported sequela following an acquired brain injury (ABI), and can have a negative impact on many areas of a child’s life. However, there is minimal research that focuses on fatigue specifically, and so factors such as its occurrence, duration, and impact on functioning remain uncertain. This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the research to date, bringing together a number of studies with a focus on paediatric ABI and fatigue. Terms were searched in relevant databases (PsycInfo, Medline, CINAHL), and articles were included or excluded based on specified criteria. Of the 1177 papers identified in the original search, a total of 9 papers met inclusion criteria, and were categorised as traumatic brain injury (TBI; n?=?4), meningitis and meningococcal disease (n?=?2), brain tumours (n?=?2), and mixed ABI group (n?=?1). Key findings suggest that fatigue is a problem encountered by a significant proportion of patients in all the studies reviewed, and often occurred regardless of the cause; fatigue was also associated with poor academic achievement, limited physical activity, and social and emotional problems. Injuries of greater severity were associated with higher levels of fatigue and worse outcomes. Several management options were suggested, though their efficacy was not reported. Future research is required with a suggested focus on using multiple time points to better understand the trajectories of fatigue following childhood ABI, and to build an evidence base to determine which management options are most suitable.     

Anosognosia for Memory Impairment in Addiction: Insights from Neuroimaging and Neuropsychological Assessment of Metamemory

In addiction, notably Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), patients often have a tendency to fail to acknowledge the reality of the disease and to minimize the physical, psychological, and social difficulties attendant to chronic alcohol consumption. This lack of awareness can reduce the chances of initiating and maintaining sobriety. Presented here is a model focusing on compromised awareness in individuals with AUD of mild to moderate cognitive deficits, in particular, for episodic memory impairment—the ability to learn new information, such as recent personal experiences. Early in abstinence, alcoholics can be unaware of their memory deficits and overestimate their mnemonic capacities, which can be investigated with metamemory paradigms. Relevant neuropsychological and neuroimaging results considered suggest that the alcoholics’ impairment of awareness of their attenuated memory function can be a clinical manifestation explained mechanistically by neurobiological factors, including compromise of brain systems that result in a mild form of mnemonic anosognosia. Specifically, unawareness of memory impairment in AUD may result from a lack of personal knowledge updating attributable to damage in brain regions or connections supporting conscious recollection in episodic memory. Likely candidates are posterior parietal and medial frontal regions known to be integral part of the Default Mode Network (DMN) and the insula leading to an impaired switching mechanism between the DMN and the Central-Executive Control (i.e., Lateral Prefronto-Parietal) Network. The cognitive concepts and neural substrates noted for addictive disorders may also be relevant for problems in self-identification of functional impairment resulting from injury following war-related blast, sport-related concussion, and insidiously occurring dementia.     

Views of a good life and allostatic load: Physiological correlates of theories of a good life depend on the socioeconomic context

This research examines the relationship between one’s theory of a good life and allostatic load, a marker of cumulative biological risk, and how this relationship differs by socioeconomic status. Among adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher, those who saw individual characteristics (e.g. personal happiness, effort) as part of a good life had lower levels of allostatic load than those who did not. In contrast, among adults with less than a bachelor’s degree, those who saw supportive relationships as part of a good life had lower levels of allostatic load than those who did not. These findings extend past research on socioeconomic differences in the emphasis on individual or relational factors and suggest that one’s theory of a good life has health implications.     

ENCOUNTER WITH NEUROBIOLOGY: THE RESPONSE OF RITUAL STUDIES

Abstract. Knowledge of the working of the brain is of prime importance to anthropologists studying ritual and symbol. The play between the neocortical hemispheres can be inferred from the varying styles at different stages of ritual: one can begin to hypothesize archetypes for general processes such as self-healing social dramas that are at the roots of ritual: the concept of preparedness as a genetic endowment residing in the brain appears to confirm the fundamental importance of image making; while the shamanic skills of inhibition and disinhibition, releasing latent religious powers, can be grasped for what they are.     

Forensic hypnosis to lift amnesia: The jury is still out

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the use of forensic hypnosis to lift amnesia in victims and witnesses who may have repressed or otherwise forgotten evidentiary details. This paper addresses the reliability of memories that result from forensic hypnosis, as well as the impact that hypnotically refreshed testimony has on a jury. Because of the mixed data on the reliability of hypnotically enhanced memories, the increasing use of this forensic tool on amnesics is questioned.     

Can confidentiality of data pay off?

Ss were administered a self-report personality measure and a social desirability scale under conditions of Confidentiality, Anonymity or Nonanonymity alone. The tester's written assurance that the Ss' disclosures would be kept strictly confidential had a substantial moderating effect (when compared with Nonanonymity alone) on correlations between some subscales of the personality measure and the social desirability scale. In contrast to an earlier finding, there were no appreciable effects of Anonymity when compared with Nonanonymity alone. It appears that confidentiality of data can pay off in terms of increased predictive validity of some self-report personality measures by moderating the potential biasing effect of test response distortion due to socially desirable responding.     

Juror decision making: A case of attitude change mediated by authoritarianism

For a jury to reach a unanimous decision, certain individuals must change their attitudes with regard to the defendant's guilt during deliberations. Because these changers are the key to the group decision-making process, they were carefully scrutinized to ascertain demographic or personality characteristics which might be mediating their behavior. In three experiments, two using college students as subjects and one using Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury pool members, it was found that authoritarians changed their attitude with regard to the defendant's guilt more than equalitarians. Further, most of these “changers” were aware they had changed their attitude. There was no generalizable evidence for the proposition that authoritarians are more likely to favor a guilty verdict.     

Formulating policies concerning effective early childhood education and development programs

School psychologists should play a critical role in determining the policy implications of effective early childhood education and development programs. The tools they use are: (1) knowledge about human growth and development, learning, and program impact; (2) knowledge about differential effects of programs on children; and (3) knowledge about the process of program implementation at the local level. The essential findings from research are provided to clarify and support these tools. Using these tools, school psychologist are able to establish a set of procedures for determining what current policies are, what the policy implications of the new program are, and what policy changes need to be made to assure successful adaptation of the new program.