A high-field functional MRI study of quadri-lingual subjects

We assessed six multilingual subjects by functional MRI using a Noun Verb Generation task in four different languages. We hypothesised that the degree of proficiency in each language would be related to the extent of functional activity measured in a region of interest analysis. Proficiency in each language was quantified using two neuropsychological tests. All four languages activated overlapping brain areas, corresponding to the major language regions. The number of activated voxels correlated with proficiency, so that the activated volume increased for languages in which a subject had poorer proficiency. Activation did not appear to be dependent on the age at which the language was learnt.     

Emotional support from parents early in life, aging, and health

The purpose of this study is to estimate the relationship between receiving emotional support from parents early in life and an individual's health in adulthood. Analysis of data from a nationally representative sample of adults ages 25-74 years suggests that a lack of parental support during childhood is associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms and chronic conditions in adulthood. These associations between early parental support and adult health persist with increasing age throughout adulthood. Personal control, self-esteem, and social relationships during adulthood account for a large portion of these long-term associations. These findings underscore the importance of adopting a life course perspective in studying the social determinants of health among adults.     

Family, School, and Community Factors and Relationships to Racial–Ethnic Attitudes and Academic Achievement

This study examined family, school, and community factors and the relationships to racial–ethnic attitudes and academic achievement among 98 African American fourth-grade children. It has been posited that young people who feel better about their racial–ethnic background have better behavioral and academic outcomes, yet there is a need for more empirical tests of this premise. Psychometric information is reported on measures of parent, teacher, and child racial–ethnic attitudes. Path analysis was used to investigate ecological variables potentially related to children's racial–ethnic attitudes and achievement. Parental education and level of racial–ethnic pride were correlated and both were related to children's achievement though in the final path model, only the path from parental education level was statistically significant. Children whose teachers exhibited higher levels of racial–ethnic trust and perceived fewer barriers due to race and ethnicity evidenced more trust and optimism as well. Children living in communities with higher proportions of college-educated residents also exhibited more positive racial–ethnic attitudes. For children, higher racial–ethnic pride was related to higher achievement measured by grades and standardized test scores, while racial distrust and perception of barriers due to race were related to reduced performance. This study suggests that family, school, and community are all important factors related to children's racial–ethnic attitudes and also to their academic achievement.     

A Review of Behavioral Interventions for Anxiety‐Related Behaviors in Lower‐Functioning Individuals with Autism

Anxiety is highly prevalent in persons with autism and affects individuals with higher‐functioning autism (HFA) and lower‐functioning autism (LFA). Although there is emerging support for the efficacy of cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating anxiety in autism, these findings are largely based on HFA samples. Moreover, CBT may be inappropriate for individuals with LFA who may struggle to grasp the cognitive components of the therapy because of their more limited verbal abilities. Behavior analytic interventions may be better suited to treat anxiety in this population; however, the quantity and quality of the extant literature have yet to be reviewed. Toward this end, the extant behavioral intervention literature was reviewed. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated against quality indicators for within‐subject design research. Next, the efficacy of each treatment component was assessed using established criteria for defining empirically supported therapies. Results revealed behavioral interventions to be efficacious, with desensitization and reinforcement emerging as efficacious treatment components, while prompting, modeling, and antianxiety stimuli were established as possibly efficacious. However, given that some of the quality indicators were not met, these results should be interpreted with some caution. Additional research is needed to form a more conclusive evidence base for the treatment of anxiety in individuals with LFA. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Relation of Exposure to Traumatic Events and Longitudinal Mental Health Outcomes for Children Enrolled in Systems of Care: Results from a National System of Care Evaluation

This study examined the relation between children's history of exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and clinical and functional mental health trajectories over a 18‐month period among a national sample of youth referred for services in children's behavioral health systems of care (SOCs). Using data from the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services program for communities funded from 1997 to 2000, the study sample included 9556 children and their families. Latent growth modeling was used to assess the effect of history of exposure to PTEs on trajectories in a number of behavioral health outcomes during the 3‐year period following referral to services, controlling for child demographic characteristics (gender, race, and age). Results revealed that, on average, children in SOCs exhibited significant improvements over time on all four outcome measures. Children with a history of exposure to PTEs had higher rates of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors and functional impairments and fewer behavioral and emotional strengths at baseline, but experienced improvements in these outcomes at the same rates as children without exposure to a traumatic event. Finally, child race, gender, and age also were associated with differences in behavioral health trajectories among service recipients. Implications for SOCs, including approaches to make them more trauma‐informed, are discussed.     

Representing object colour in language comprehension

Embodied theories of cognition hold that mentally representing something red engages the neural subsystems that respond to environmental perception of that colour. This paper examines whether implicit perceptual information on object colour is represented during sentence comprehension even though doing so does not necessarily facilitate task performance. After reading a sentence that implied a particular colour for a given object, participants were presented with a picture of the object that either matched or mismatched the implied colour. When asked if the pictured object was mentioned in the preceding sentence, people's responses were faster when the colours mismatched than when they matched, suggesting that object colour is represented differently to other object properties such as shape and orientation. A distinction between stable and unstable embodied representations is proposed to allow embodied theories to account for these findings.     

The Citizenship Project Part II: Impact of a Citizenship Intervention on Clinical and Community Outcomes for Persons with Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Involvement

This study assessed the effectiveness of an intervention based on a theoretical framework of citizenship on reducing psychiatric symptoms, alcohol use, and drug use, and increasing quality of life for persons with serious mental illness (SMI) and criminal justice involvement. One-hundred fourteen adults with SMI and a history of criminal justice involvement participated in a 2 × 3 longitudinal randomized controlled trial of a four-month citizenship intervention versus usual services. Linear mixed model analyses were used to assess the intervention’s impact on quality of life, symptoms, and substance use. After controlling for baseline covariates, participants in the experimental condition reported significantly increased quality of life, greater satisfaction with and amount of activity, higher satisfaction with work, and reduced alcohol and drug use over time. However, individuals in the experimental condition also reported increased anxiety/depression and agitation at 6 months (but not 12 months) and significantly increased negative symptoms at 12 months. Findings suggest that community-oriented, citizenship interventions for persons with SMI and criminal justice histories may facilitate improved clinical and community outcomes in some domains, but some negative clinical findings suggest the need for post-intervention support for intervention participants. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.