Electrophysiological evidence for greater attention to threat when cognitive control resources are depleted

In this study, we investigated the time course of attentional bias for threat-related (angry) facial expressions under conditions of high versus low cognitive (working memory) load. Event-related potential (ERP) and reaction time (RT) data were recorded while participants viewed pairs of faces (angry paired with neutral face) displayed for 500 ms and followed by a probe. Participants were required to respond to the probe while performing a concurrent task of holding in working memory a sequence of digits that were either in the same order (low memory load) or in a random mixed order (high memory load). The ERP results revealed that higher working memory load resulted in enhanced lateralized neural responses to threatening relative to neutral faces, consistent with greater initial orienting of attention to threatening faces (early N2pc: 180–252 ms) and enhanced maintenance of processing representations of threat (late N2pc, 252–320 ms; SPCN, 320–500 ms). The ERP indices showed significant positive relationships with each other, and also with the behavioral index of attentional bias to threat (reflected by faster RTs to probes replacing angry than neutral faces at 500 ms), although the latter index was not significantly influenced by memory load. Overall, the findings indicate that depletion of cognitive control resources, using a working memory manipulation, increases the capacity of task-irrelevant threat cues to capture and hold attention.     

Children of Mentally Ill Parents Participating in Preventive Support Groups: Parental Diagnoses and Child Risk

In the Netherlands, preventive support groups are offered to children of mentally ill parents. Given the variety of parental diagnoses it might be questionable if offering a standardized program for all these children is the most effective response. While no overall knowledge exists about the type of parental disorder and varying risk levels and support needs among the participating children, we examined whether there are differences between these children that are related to their parents’ diagnoses. With questionnaires we assessed risk factors in 122 mentally ill parents and their children: high parental illness severity, low perceived parental competence, parent–child interaction problems, poor family functioning, difficult child temperament, and low child competence. We also assessed the children’s psychosocial problems and negative cognitions about their parent’s illness. Results showed that most parents had co-morbidity (multiple diagnoses) and/or personality disorders. Children of parents with either of these conditions were more likely to be exposed to the risk factors: high parental illness severity, low perceived parental competence, problematic parent–child interaction, and low perceived child competence, compared to children of parents without these conditions. They were also faced with more risk factors and had more psychosocial problems and negative cognitions. From these results we may conclude that children of parents with co-morbidity and/or personality disorders require more extensive support than children of parents without these conditions. We suggest strengthening the children’s competence and involving parents as important focuses of preventive interventions for children at high risk. Longitudinal studies should test these assumptions.     

The Relation Between Parental Mental Illness and Adolescent Mental Health: The Role of Family Factors

Children of parents with a mental illness are often found to be at high risk of developing psychological problems themselves. Little is known about the role of family factors in the relation between parental and adolescent mental health. The current study focused on parent–child interaction and family environment. This cross-sectional questionnaire study included 124 families with a mentally ill parent and 127 families without a mentally ill parent who at the time of the study had children aged 11–16 years old. Parents completed questionnaires about their mental health, parent–child interaction (i.e., parental monitoring and parental support), and family environment (i.e., cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict). Adolescents reported their internalizing and externalizing problems. Path analyses were used to examine the direct associations between parental mental illness and adolescent problems as well as the indirect relations via parent–child interaction and family environment. The results showed that interaction between parents with a mental illness and their child was significantly worse compared to parents without a mental illness. The family environment of parents with mental illness was also more negative. Mentally ill parents monitored their adolescents less, which in turn related to more externalizing problems of the adolescents. No factors mediated the relation between parental mental health and adolescent internalizing problems. Moreover, no direct effects of parental support, family cohesion, and family expressiveness with externalizing problems were found. These findings imply that parental monitoring should get a specific focus of attention in existing interventions designed to prevent adolescents with a mentally ill parent from developing problems.     

The neural correlates of attempting to suppress negative versus neutral memories

We performed an event-related fMRI study comparing attempts at suppressing recall of negative versus neutral memories. The hippocampus is crucial for successful explicit recall. Hippocampal activation has been shown to decrease during the suppression of previously learned neutral words. However, different effects may occur in the case of emotional memories. Participants first learned 40 word pairs consisting of a cue and either a neutral or a negative target. During fMRI scanning, the participants were shown the cues and were instructed to recall the targets or to suppress the targets, using attentional distraction. Similar right-lateralized frontoparietal regions were activated more during suppression than during recall, regardless of emotion. However, we show for the first time that lowered hippocampal activation occurs during the suppression of neutral, but not negative, words. Coinciding with this sustained hippocampal activation, the amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate, and fusiform gyrus showed greater activation during the suppression of negative memories than during suppression of neutral memories. Thus, during attempts to suppress negative memories, regions involved in the emotional and sensory aspects of memory reactivate, along with regions indexing conscious recall. Revealing the neural correlates and mechanisms of the suppression of negative memories has relevance for disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, in which traumatic memories often intrude and are associated with avoidance. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Age-Related Differences in Implicit Learning of Non-Spatial Sequential Patterns

This experiment investigated whether there are age differences in implicit learning of non-spatially arranged sequential patterns. We tested 12 young and 12 old participants for five sessions each in a non-spatial alternating serial reaction time (ASRT) task, in which predictable pattern events alternated with random, unpredictable ones. People of both ages were able to learn the sequence, but older people showed less pattern sensitivity than younger ones. Neither group was able to exhibit declarative knowledge of the pattern or to discriminate between pattern and random sequences on a recognition test, suggesting that the learning was indeed implicit. These findings indicate that the age deficits previously observed in the learning of spatial sequences are not due solely to age-related deficits in visuo-spatial attention or control of eye movements, but rather reflect a more general deficit in the ability to learn subtle sequential regularities.     

Health anxiety,anxiety sensitivity,and attentional biases for pictorial and linguistic health‐threat cues

The study investigated attentional biases for pictorial and linguistic health‐threat stimuli in high and low health anxious individuals, who were selected from the upper and lower quartile ranges of a normal sample using a screening measure of health anxiety. Attentional bias was assessed using a visual probe task which presented health‐threat and neutral pictures and words at two exposure durations, 500 ms and 1250 ms. The prediction that the high health anxious group would show a greater attentional bias for health‐threat cues than the low health anxious group was not supported despite the groups being well‐differentiated on a general measure of health anxiety, the Illness Attitudes Scale (IAS). Instead, the results indicated that individuals with high levels of anxiety sensitivity showed a significantly greater initial attentional bias for threat pictures compared with those with low anxiety sensitivity, as assessed by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI).     

Post-irradiation annealing behaviour of oxide dispersion strengthened Fe-Cr alloys studied by nanoindentation

ABSTRACT

To study the nature of irradiation-induced nanofeatures in oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe-Cr alloys, post-irradiation isochronal thermal annealing up to 600°C was performed for ODS Fe-9%Cr and Fe-14%Cr alloys ion-irradiated at 300°C and 500°C. Nanoindentation indicated hardening for all as-irradiated alloys and complete hardness recovery upon post-irradiation annealing. Cross-sectional TEM indicated an irradiation-induced defect band near peak damage mainly consisting of dislocation loops. Candidate mechanisms of recovery were critically evaluated. Shrinkage of loops via capture of thermal vacancies was found to correctly reflect the annealing behaviour of ODS Fe-9Cr irradiated at 300°C.     

The Eternal Irony of the Community: Aristophanian Echoes in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

This essay re-examines Hegel's account of Greek culture in the section of the Phenomenology of Spirit devoted to “ethical action”. The thrust of this section cannot be adequately grasped, it is argued, by focusing on Hegel's references to either Sophocles' Antigone or Greek tragedy as a whole. Taking into account Hegel's complex use of literary sources, the essay shows in particular that Hegel draws on Aristophanes' comedies to comprehend the collapse of Greek culture, a collapse he considered to result from the tragic conflict constitutive of Greek culture as a whole. The essay thus aims to shed light on Hegel's abstruse remarks on womanhood and, more generally, to demonstrate that Hegel's peculiar employment of literary sources constitutes an essential element of the method he employs throughout the Phenomenology of Spirit.     

Cognitive Control in Children with ADHD-C: How efficient are they?

The literature on children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD-C), is currently inconclusive as to the nature of deficits in two forms of cognitive control — interference control and response selection (Nigg, 2006 Nigg, J. T. 2006. What Causes ADHD? Understanding what goes wrong and why, New York: The Guildford Press.  [Google Scholar]). This paper examined the performance of children with ADHD-C on interference control and response selection conflict tasks that required both speed and accuracy. The data was analyzed utilizing a new efficiency method to more effectively analyze overall responses. Both interference control and response selection conditions were combined within tasks allowing for a closer comparison of how children with ADHD-C perform on these specific types of cognitive control. Computerized tasks were administered to 62 boys, ages 7 to 12 (31 controls, 31 ADHD-C). Results revealed deficits in efficient performance for children with ADHD-C on interference control tasks and response selection tasks hypothesized to involve high cognitive control demand. These results highlight the utility of analyzing efficiency data to identify deficits in performance for children with ADHD-C and to foster an increased understanding of cognitive control functioning in this clinical population.