Clinical specificity and the non-generalities of science

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - How to improve clinical practice and, in particular, that of physical therapy? Currently, several strategies are used which all fit the label...     

Relations of Age to Cognitive and Motivational Elements of Impulse Control in Boys With and Without Externalizing Behavior Problems

In a cross-sectional study of 83 unmedicated boys, 6 to 16 years of age (M = 10.6, SD = 2.1), attending public (N = 48) and therapeutic schools for behaviorally disturbed children (N = 35), we examined relations of externalizing psychopathology to age-dependent change in performance on cognitive and motivational dimensions of impulse control assessed by laboratory tasks. When we controlled for internalizing symptoms and IQ or school achievement, all children showed improving competence with increasing age on both dimensions over the age range of the sample. Children with externalizing problems performed more poorly on both dimensions at all ages than children without such problems. Comparing age-dependent competence for the two groups, a model of convergent maturation in cognitive aspects of impulse control, and a model depicting a stable deficit in motivational aspects of impulse control in those children with externalizing behavior problems, relative to those without such problems, emerged. Studies of individual growth in impulse control, together with correlates of growth, are needed to validate these observations.Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods     

L-Type Voltage-Dependent Calcium Channel Blocker Nifedipine Enhances Memory Retention When Infused into the Hippocampus

Wistar rats with cannulae bilaterally implanted in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus were trained in a step-down inhibitory avoidance task. Through these cannulae they received an infusion of 28 or 280 ng per side of the L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel antagonist nifedipine, or of its vehicle (20% dimethyl sulfoxide in saline). The two doses of the drug were studied by administration 0 or 30 min after training; in addition, the higher dose was studied by infusion 10 min before training. A retention test was carried out 24 h after the training session. The highest dose of nifedipine administered 0 min post-training enhanced test session performance of the animals compared to the control group; the effect of the lower dose was not statistically significant. There was no effect of the drug given 30 min post-training or 10 min pretraining. Despite the inability to discriminate direct neural from indirect vascular effects, these results are consistent with previous reports on nootropic actions of the dihydropyridine class of calcium channel blockers. The data are at variance with the amnestic effect of intrahippocampal nifedipine described by Lee and Lin (1991,Life Sciences,48,1333–1340), which may be attibuted to the different range of doses studied here. This might resemble the inverted U-shaped dose–response curve observed with another dihydropyridine, nimodipine, by other authors.     

Sensitivity to Affective Information and Investors' Evaluation of Past Performance: An Eye‐tracking Study

In the present work, we used the eye‐tracking methodology to investigate how affective reactions influence investment decision making. In addition, we looked at individual differences in terms of people's sensitivity to affective information and how efficiently they regulate it, that is, trait emotional intelligence. We demonstrated that people who are more sensitive to affective information have larger pupil dilation when looking at the past performance of a stock fund. In addition, we also found that participants' larger pupil dilation had an impact on their investment decisions (whether people were more likely to sell their shares, hold on to the investment, or buy more shares). A larger pupil dilation led people to be more consistent and willing to invest more money on a fund regardless from its past performance (positive or negative). We also tested the hypothesis that individuals with a larger pupil dilation should be more influenced by a fund's past performance (e.g., selling their shares more often when the past performance of the fund was negative and buying additional shares more often when the past performance was positive). However, results did not support this explanation. Finally, our data revealed that the effect of individual differences in trait emotional intelligence on investment decisions was significantly mediated by pupil dilation. In the discussion, we explored the relationship between our results and previous evidence on the role of pupil dilation in processing information under uncertainty and the role of affect in decision making. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental Psychopathology Levels as a Moderator of Temperament and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms in Preschoolers

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is among the most prevalent disorders in preschoolers. It has been linked to temperament, since characteristics such as elevated surgency and negative affect, as well as low levels of effortful control, contribute to the development of this disorder. Evidence also indicates that parental psychopathology can accentuate temperamental traits. Our aim was to assess whether the levels of psychopathology of mothers and fathers acts as a moderator of the relationship between temperament and ODD symptoms in preschoolers, both cross-sectionally at ages 3, 4 and 5, and longitudinally between ages 3 and 5. The sample included 550 children evaluated at ages 3, 4 and 5 through questionnaires and a semi-structured diagnostic interview with parents. Parents also answered a questionnaire about their own psychopathology. The results indicated that negative affect and effortful control are associated with higher levels of ODD symptoms in preschoolers. At child age 5, higher levels of paternal depression and anxiety increased the effect of low effortful control on ODD. High levels of negative affect and low levels of effortful control at age 3 were statistical predictors of ODD levels at age 5, and this relationship was also moderated by paternal anxiety and depression. The results have important clinical implications for the proper orientation of interventions, suggesting that interventions should integrate the paternal caregiver in the treatment.     

Bodily maps of emotions across child development

Different basic emotions (anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise) are consistently associated with distinct bodily sensation maps, which may underlie subjectively felt emotions. Here we investigated the development of bodily sensations associated with basic emotions in 6‐ to 17‐year‐old children and adolescents (n = 331). Children as young as 6 years of age associated statistically discernible, discrete patterns of bodily sensations with happiness, fear, and surprise, as well as with emotional neutrality. The bodily sensation maps changed from less to more specific, adult‐like patterns as a function of age. We conclude that emotion‐related bodily sensations become increasingly discrete over child development. Developing awareness of their emotion‐related bodily sensations may shape the way children perceive, label, and interpret emotions.     

The Church of England’s Pray One for Me intercessory prayer site: a virtual cathedral?

Over the past decade there has been a growing number of studies examining the prayer content of people’s personal prayers left in intercessory church-related contexts. Since 2012, these studies have extended to include the cathedral intercessory prayer board and the online intercessory prayer site. Both ‘the cathedral’ and ‘the online site’ are distinctive contexts for intercessory prayer in terms of their openness and accessibility for a broad range of people, who are allowed to enter and use these prayer facilities. What is not known, however, is whether the cathedral prayer board and the online site are functioning in similar ways. This study presents an analysis of 500 prayers posted on the Church of England’s ‘Pray One for Me’ (POFM) website over a period of six months in 2012. The analysis employs the ap Siôn Analytic Framework for Intercessory Prayer (apSAFIP), which distinguishes among prayer intention, prayer reference, and prayer objective. The results of the analysis are compared with the results from recent cathedral studies employing the same analytic tool, and it is concluded that these two prayer contexts are functioning differently.     

Oceans of stimuli: an individual-based model to assess the role of olfactory cues and local enhancement in seabirds’ foraging behaviour

Animal Cognition - Oceans are extremely dynamic environments, which poses challenges for top-predators such as seabirds to find food resources. Yet, seabirds evolved sensorial abilities (olfactory...     

Introspective forgetting

We model the forgetting of propositional variables in a modal logical context where agents become ignorant and are aware of each others’ or their own resulting ignorance. The resulting logic is sound and complete. It can be compared to variable-forgetting as abstraction from information, wherein agents become unaware of certain variables: by employing elementary results for bisimulation, it follows that beliefs not involving the forgotten atom(s) remain true. The work for this publication was mainly carried out while Hans van Ditmarsch was associated to: Institut de Recherche en Informatique, Université Paul Sabatier, France.