How to bite your tongue without blowing your top: implicit evaluation of emotion regulation predicts affective responding to anger provocation

People frequently have to control their emotions to function in life. However, mounting evidence suggests that deliberate emotion regulation often is costly. This presents a dilemma: Is it better to let emotions go or to pay the price of exerting costly control? In two studies, the authors explore whether emotion regulatory processes associated with implicit positive evaluation of emotion regulation might provide the benefits of successful emotion regulation without the costs. In Study 1, the authors introduce a measure of implicit evaluation of emotion regulation (ER-IAT). Study 2 examined whether this measure is associated with actual emotional responses to an anger provocation. It was found that greater ER-IAT scores were associated with lesser anger experience, fewer negative thoughts, lessened self-reported effortful emotion regulation, and an adaptive pattern of cardiovascular responding. These findings suggest that implicit positive evaluation of emotion regulation is associated with successful, automatic, and physiologically adaptive down-regulation of anger.     

Postpartum feeding attitudes, maternal depression, and breastfeeding in Barbados

Maternal feeding attitudes, maternal moods and infant feeding practices during the first 6 months postpartum were assessed in 226 healthy, well-nourished Barbadian mother-infant dyads. Factor analysis of the feeding attitudes questionnaire resulted in six independent factors. The belief that breastfeeding was better than bottle-feeding was associated with higher family income, more information seeking behavior and older maternal age at the time of her first pregnancy. Women who believed that breastfeeding was better at 7 weeks postpartum were also more likely to breastfeed at concurrent and later ages, up to 6 months postpartum. This belief was also associated with less maternal depression at 7 weeks and 6 months. The association between feeding attitudes and actual feeding practices was significant even after correcting for maternal moods and other background variables. Conversely, after controlling for feeding attitudes, maternal mood at 7 weeks was still significantly associated with infant feeding practices at 6 months. Thus, feeding attitudes and maternal moods were closely linked, but each contributed independently and uniquely to different aspects of breastfeeding, especially at 6 months. These findings suggest that early intervention addressing maternal feeding attitudes, may improve the extent of breastfeeding and the health of children in this setting.     

Bed-sharing, breastfeeding and maternal moods in Barbados

Bed-sharing among Barbadian mothers and infants was studied in relationship to maternal and infant characteristics. This prospective study followed 226 healthy, well-nourished mother–infant dyads at birth, 7 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postpartum. At each age, approximately half of the infants shared the same beds as their mothers. Bed-sharing was associated with demographic characteristics, especially fewer home conveniences, and also maternal characteristics, including less information seeking by the mother and younger maternal age at first pregnancy. Bed-sharing was also associated with lower infant birth weights. Maternal moods were significantly correlated with bed-sharing, such that mothers who reported having more despair and anxiety were also more likely to sleep with their infants. Bed-sharing was also significantly associated with increased breastfeeding at all infant ages, but this relationship was no longer significant once the effects of maternal moods were controlled. This study emphasizes the importance of assessing maternal moods in studies evaluating the risk and benefits of bed-sharing.     

Does anticipation training affect drivers' risk taking?

Skill and risk taking are argued to be independent and to require different remedial programs. However, it is possible to contend that skill-based training could be associated with an increase, a decrease, or no change in risk-taking behavior. In 3 experiments, the authors examined the influence of a skill-based training program (hazard perception) on the risk-taking behavior of car drivers (using video-based driving simulations). Experiment 1 demonstrated a decrease in risk taking for novice drivers. In Experiment 2, the authors examined the possibilities that the skills training might operate through either a nonspecific reduction in risk taking or a specific improvement in hazard perception. Evidence supported the latter. These findings were replicated in a more ecological context in Experiment 3, which compared advanced and nonadvanced police drivers.     

Lessons learned in deep brain stimulation for movement and neuropsychiatric disorders

The introduction of deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a treatment for medication-refractory essential tremor in the late 1980s revealed, for the first time, that "chronically" implanted brain hardware had the potential to modulate neurologic function with surprisingly low morbidity. Over time, the therapeutic promise of DBS has become evident in Parkinson's disease and dystonia. In some experienced centers, complex tremor disorders, such as posttraumatic Holmes tremor and the tremor of multiple sclerosis, are being increasingly targeted. More recently, other indications, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome, major depression, and chronic pain, have been proposed. As the field has expanded, our knowledge about potential cognitive side effects of DBS has also expanded. This article reviews the current knowledge regarding the impact of stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus internus, and ventralis intermedius nucleus of the thalamus on symptoms in essential tremor, Parkinson's disease, and dystonia. Also discussed are the emerging targets, what is known about the cognitive sequelae of DBS, and what has been learned about the complications and therapeutic failures.     

The association of macro- and microstructure of the corpus callosum and language lateralisation

The present study aimed to examine how differences in functional lateralisation of language are related to interindividual variations in interhemispheric connectivity. Utilising an fMRI silent word-generation paradigm, 89 left- and right-handed subjects were subdivided into four lateralisation subgroups. Applying morphological and diffusion-tensor MRI, midsagittal cross-sectional area as well as quantitative measures of molecular diffusion (anisotropy, mean diffusion) of the corpus callosum were determined to assess interhemispheric connectivity. Statistical analyses revealed group differences in molecular diffusion but not in callosal size, which may be interpreted to reflect a stronger and/or faster interhemispheric connection in strongly left-lateralised subjects as compared to moderately left-lateralised, bilateral, or moderately right-lateralised subjects.     

Differences in family functioning in grandparent and parent-headed households in a clinical sample of drug-using African American adolescents

Grandparents play a critical role in African American families, providing support and important leadership functions. Little is known, however, about family functioning in grandparent-headed households with a drug-using adolescent. Such knowledge is particularly salient for researchers and therapists who work with drug-using adolescents and their families. Using a clinical sample of convenience, analyses were conducted to identify similarities and differences in adolescent substance use and behavior problems, family relationships, and family social ecology relationships between African American grandparent-headed (n=12) and parent-headed (n=54) households. Results indicated that adolescents from the 2 household types reported similar levels of problem behaviors, but that grandparents reported less delinquency with peers than did parents. Primary caregivers in grandparent-headed households reported less monitoring and supervision of peers and less within-family conflict. Implications for treatment are discussed.     

Anatomy of a decision: striato-orbitofrontal interactions in reinforcement learning, decision making, and reversal

The authors explore the division of labor between the basal ganglia-dopamine (BG-DA) system and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in decision making. They show that a primitive neural network model of the BG-DA system slowly learns to make decisions on the basis of the relative probability of rewards but is not as sensitive to (a) recency or (b) the value of specific rewards. An augmented model that explores BG-OFC interactions is more successful at estimating the true expected value of decisions and is faster at switching behavior when reinforcement contingencies change. In the augmented model, OFC areas exert top-down control on the BG and premotor areas by representing reinforcement magnitudes in working memory. The model successfully captures patterns of behavior resulting from OFC damage in decision making, reversal learning, and devaluation paradigms and makes additional predictions for the underlying source of these deficits.     

What do children want to know about animals and artifacts? Domain-specific requests for information

Children's questions may reveal a great deal about the characteristics of objects they consider to be conceptually important. Thirty-two preschool children were given opportunities to ask questions about unfamiliar artifacts and animals. The children asked ambiguous questions such as "What is it?" about artifacts and animals alike. However, they were more likely to ask about the functions of artifacts, but about category membership, food choices, and typical locations of animals. They never asked questions about either artifacts or animals that would be considered inappropriate by adults. The results indicate that children hold different expectations about the types of information important for categorizing living and artifact kinds. Young children conceive of artifacts in terms of functions, but conceive of animals in terms of biologically appropriate characteristics. Such results speak to debates about the role of function in children's biological reasoning and to accounts of children's artifact concepts.