Corpus callosum size is linked to dichotic deafness and hemisphericity, not sex or handedness

Individuals differ in the number of corpus callosum (CC) nerve fibers interconnecting their cerebral hemispheres by about threefold. Early reports suggested that males had smaller CCs than females. This was often interpreted to support the concept that the male brain is more "lateralized" or "specialized," thus accounting for presumed male predominance in mathematics, as well as for aggressive behavior. Ultimately, meta-analyses of these many reports found no significant overall sex differences in inter-cerebral information carrying capacity. Here, using quantitative MRI, we found the midline CC area of 113 subjects was significantly correlated, not with handedness or sex, but with dichotic deafness, and even more so with redefined hemisphericity, the latter accounting for over 19% of CC variability. That is, both dichotic hearing and right brain-oriented individuals of either sex had significantly larger CCs than dichotically deaf or left brain-oriented persons. Thus, current traditions of brain laterality and gender may benefit from revisions that include redefined hemisphericity.     

CBT intensity and outcome for panic disorder in a primary care setting

A hybrid efficacy-effectiveness design in which participants (n = 91/93) were retained in the study regardless of whether or not they received treatment enabled evaluation of CBT intensity in relation to panic disorder in the primary care setting. CBT intensity was operationalized as number of cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions, number of follow-up booster phone calls, and secondarily, as number of cognitive behavioral coping and exposure strategies. Baseline psychosocial and demographic predictors of CBT intensity were analyzed first. Severity of anxiety sensitivity predicted number of cognitive behavioral sessions, but no baseline variables predicted number of follow-up booster phone calls or number of coping and exposure strategies. Multivariate logistic and linear regressions were used to evaluate the degree to which treatment intensity predicted 3-month and 12-month outcomes (anxiety sensitivity, phobic avoidance, depressive symptoms, disability, and medical and mental health functioning) after controlling for potential confounding baseline variables. Number of cognitive behavioral therapy sessions predicted lower anxiety sensitivity at 3 and 12 months, and number of follow-up booster phone calls predicted lower anxiety sensitivity, less phobic avoidance, and less depression at 12 months. These findings indicate that "dose" of psychotherapy was an important predictor of outcome. The significance of follow-up booster phone contact is discussed as an index of continued self-management of panic and anxiety following acute treatment.     

Assessing cross-cultural differences through use of multiple-group invariance analyses

The use of structural equation modeling in cross-cultural personality research has become a popular method for testing measurement invariance. In this report, we present an example of testing measurement invariance using the Sense of Coherence Scale of Antonovsky (1993) in 3 ethnic groups: Chinese, Japanese, and Whites. In a series of increasingly restrictive constraints on the measurement models of the 3 groups, we demonstrate how to assess differences among the groups. We also provide an example of construct validation.     

Book reviews

Historical Atlas of East Central Europe by Paul Robert Magocsi. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1993, xiii + 218 pp.

Aleksandr Men’, pastore e martire by Yves Hamant. Edizioni Russia Cristiana ‘La casa di Matriona’, 1993, 176 pp. 19,000 lire. (Translation by Mara dell'Asta of Alexandre Men, un témoin pour la Russie de ce temps. Editions Mame, 1993.)

Prizyv by the Society of Ecumenical Christians. Moscow: Izd. Obshchestva Khristian‐ekumenov, 1992. Paperback, 320 pp.? This review was originally published in Khristiansky vestnik, nos 43–44 (57–58), November 1993, pp. 20–1.      

On the sociohistorical context of creativity programs

What role does emotion play in helping youth reach their creative potential? Does it alter how they process ideas, and how many ideas they can generate? By varying the levels of arousal associated with low, medium, and high levels of exertion in the video game Dance Dance Revolution, and inducing a positive or negative mood, this study offers evidence that emotion significantly affects creativity through the interaction of arousal and valence. Faced with the cognitive demand of creativity, lower arousal levels resulted in higher creativity scores when coupled with a negative mood. At high arousal levels, a positive mood resulted in greater creative potential than a negative mood. These results are discussed here in light of theories of emotion as a prime, as information, and as a moderator of attention.     

Analysis as a mutual endeavor—what does it look like?

A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis by Lewis Aron (Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1996)     

The pull of the group: Conscious conflict and the involuntary tendency towards conformity

Is the reason that majorities exert an undue influence on the actions of individuals revealed through changes in subjective experience? Using an adaptation of the response interference paradigm (Morsella, Wilson, et al., 2009) in which participants are trained to introspect on their own experience of conscious conflict, two studies reported here show that the mere act of recalling counter-majority stances or opinions is associated with stronger subjective effects than recalling stances or opinions that coincide with majorities. Thus, an intention to conform to a majority (even when the majority is known to be wrong, as shown in the second study) seems to interfere with people’s recall of their own stance or opinion. These results provide novel evidence for recent yet under-supported suggestions that majorities can influence individuals even when it is improper or illogical because human social cognition is primarily and involuntarily cooperative at the implicit level.