Social and individual determinants of infant attachment security and disorganization

The aim of this study was to assess individual and social antecedents of attachment security and attachment disorganization of infants as assessed by the Strange Situation. Observations from two longitudinal studies, with a parallel assessment schedule yielding a total sample of 88 infant-mother pairs, formed the database of the study. Newborn behavioral organization, in terms of orienting ability and regulation of state, and maternal sensitivity assessed several times during the infant's first year were used to predict the security of infant-mother attachment and the status of disorganization of attachment behavior strategies at the age of 12 months. Whereas attachment security was significantly associated only with maternal sensitivity, the status of disorganization was only predicted by newborn behavioral organization. The findings are discussed with respect to specific assumptions about individual and social contribution to the development of infant-mother attachment on the background of maternal attachment representation.     

Refugee students' perspectives on inclusive and exclusive school experiences in Austria

This paper examines refugee students' experiences in the Austrian mainstream school system. It highlights four areas: school connectedness, social exclusion, support systems and friendships. In the study, 55 refugee students between 8 and 21 years old enrolled in primary and secondary education participated in a semi-structured interview. Data were analysed with directed qualitative content analysis, whereby codes were created deductively and inductively. Students stressed the importance of schooling in order to prosper in the future, particularly through language acquisition. Peers and bilingual teachers played an important role in their efforts to learn German and develop feelings of belonging in the school system. While language acquisition was important for the students, they indicated that other support measures (i.e., remedial education) were largely absent. Further, half of the students reported bullying experiences (verbal, social and physical) associated with their refugee status, language proficiency and religious affiliation. This study has implications for school professionals. The scope of support refugee students receive at school must be broadened, forced migration should be addressed in school in order to counteract negative effects of bullying students receive due to their refugee status and school connectedness can be promoted by hiring staff from diverse cultural backgrounds.     

Motivation and anxiety for dental treatment and dental attendance: The roles of the locus of causality personality and treatment styles

The purpose of the present study was to test a self-determination theory model with the following hypotheses: (1) Patients’ autonomous causality personality orientation and oral health care professionals’ autonomy-supportive treatment styles, as perceived by patients, would both be positively indirectly associated with dental attendance through patients’ autonomous motivation for dental treatment. (2) Patients’ controlled causality personality orientation and oral health care professionals’ controlling treatment styles, as perceived by patients, would both be positively indirectly associated with avoidance of making a dental clinic appointment through patients’ anxiety for dental treatment. A sample size of about 200 patients was estimated to be acceptable in detecting moderate effect sizes (independent variables: 5–6; power: .80; p < .05). Student patients (N = 226) responded to a survey with validated questionnaires. Using LISREL, both hypotheses were supported. In addition, patients’ perception of a controlling treatment style moderated the controlled personality—dental anxiety relation, so that a lower controlling treatment style mitigated dental anxiety substantially among patients with a high control orientation. Effect sizes were moderate to large. Analyses (Z-scores) also revealed that the autonomous personality is more strongly linked to situational autonomous motivation than situational autonomy support, whereas a controlled personality and a perceived controlling treatment style are equally and significantly associated to dental anxiety. Both patient personalities and oral health care professionals’ treatment styles are substantially linked to autonomous motivation and anxiety for dental treatment, which are relatively strongly associated with dental attendance and avoiding dental clinic appointments, respectively.     

Editorial: Shaping Ethical Futures in Brain-Based and Artificial Intelligence Research

Science and Engineering Ethics -     

The perceptual-mnemonic/feature conjunction model of perirhinal cortex function.

The perirhinal cortex was once thought to be "silent cortex", virtually ignored by researchers interested in the neurobiology of learning and memory. Following studies of brain damage associated with cases of amnesia, perirhinal cortex is now widely regarded as part of a "medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system". This system is thought to be more or less functionally homogeneous, having a special role in declarative memory, and making little or no contribution to other functions such as perception. In the present article, we summarize an alternative view. First, we propose that components of the putative MTL system such as the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex have distinct and dissociable functions. Second, we provide evidence that the perirhinal cortex has a role in visual discrimination. In addition, we propose a specific role for perirhinal cortex in visual discrimination: the contribution of complex conjunctive representations to the solution of visual discrimination problems with a high degree of "feature ambiguity". These proposals constitute a new view of perirhinal cortex function, one that does not assume strict modularity of function in the occipito-temporal visual stream, but replaces this idea with the notion of a hierarchical representational continuum.     

Cytokine production by spleen cells after social defeat in mice: activation of T cells and reduced inhibition by glucocorticoids

Social disruption (SDR) is an effective model of social stress associated with an enhanced inflammatory reactivity of the immune system. The aim of the present study was to further describe SDR effects on cytokine production by spleen cells, testing selectively monocyte and T cell functions as a result of this stressor. For this purpose, splenocytes from control mice (C) and mice socially stressed for 7 days (SDR) were cultured in the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or concanavalin A (Con A). Splenocyte proliferation, cytokine production and sensitivity of spleen cells to corticosterone were assessed in vitro. The humoral response to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) immunization was assessed. SDR induced splenomegaly and enhanced splenocyte basal proliferation. The pro-inflammatory influence of SDR was confirmed by an increased release of interleukin-6 (IL-6) by LPS-stimulated cultures and by a reduced sensitivity of spleen cells to the anti-inflammatory effect of corticosterone. The mechanism increasing cytokine production in response to LPS was cytokine specific, since among inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 but not interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) was enhanced by stress. In stressed mice, the increase in IL-6 and IFN-gamma and the decrease in IL-10 release in Con A-stimulated cultures indicate that SDR did not modify the Th1/Th2 cytokine balance but globally activated T cells. Plasma anti-KLH antibody levels were similar in both groups. Wounded and non-wounded mice presented similar responses to stress. This study shows that social disruption stress enhances the reactivity of cells from both the acquired and innate immune systems.