Evaluation of school-based child sexual abuse prevention program

The aim of the present work is to evaluate the efficacy of a program entitled "Prevention of child sexual abuse" the first structured program in Spain designed to prevent such risks. With this purpose, we carried out a study of 382 minors with ages ranging between 8 and 12 years. The result s show that the program has a very positive impact, increasing the awareness of the minors about this type of risk and improving their skills for coping with a possible event of sexual abuse. The efficacy of the program is also apparent, at the level of secondary prevention, in that it increased the likelihood that the children would reveal such events. Finally, exploration of the possible adverse effects of the program showed that the negative effects observed by parents and educators are negligible.     

fMRI of parents of children with Asperger Syndrome: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: People with autism or Asperger Syndrome (AS) show altered patterns of brain activity during visual search and emotion recognition tasks. Autism and AS are genetic conditions and parents may show the 'broader autism phenotype.' AIMS: (1) To test if parents of children with AS show atypical brain activity during a visual search and an empathy task; (2) to test for sex differences during these tasks at the neural level; (3) to test if parents of children with autism are hyper-masculinized, as might be predicted by the 'extreme male brain' theory. METHOD: We used fMRI during a visual search task (the Embedded Figures Test (EFT)) and an emotion recognition test (the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' (or Eyes) test). SAMPLE: Twelve parents of children with AS, vs. 12 sex-matched controls. DESIGN: Factorial analysis was used to map main effects of sex, group (parents vs. controls), and sexxgroup interaction on brain function. An ordinal ANOVA also tested for regions of brain activity where females>males>fathers=mothers, to test for parental hyper-masculinization. RESULTS ON EFT TASK: Female controls showed more activity in extrastriate cortex than male controls, and both mothers and fathers showed even less activity in this area than sex-matched controls. There were no differences in group activation between mothers and fathers of children with AS. The ordinal ANOVA identified two specific regions in visual cortex (right and left, respectively) that showed the pattern Females>Males>Fathers=Mothers, both in BA 19. RESULTS ON EYES TASK: Male controls showed more activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus than female controls, and both mothers and fathers showed even more activity in this area compared to sex-matched controls. Female controls showed greater bilateral inferior frontal activation than males. This was not seen when comparing mothers to males, or mothers to fathers. The ordinal ANOVA identified two specific regions that showed the pattern Females>Males>Mothers=Fathers: left medial temporal gyrus (BA 21) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 44). CONCLUSIONS: Parents of children with AS show atypical brain function during both visual search and emotion recognition, in the direction of hyper-masculinization of the brain. Because of the small sample size, and lack of age-matching between parents and controls, such results constitute a pilot study that needs replicating with larger samples.     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: the effect of concurrent task performance

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors found that in each experiment, there was no effect of ISR on the magnitude of the recency effect, but interleaved ISR disrupted free recall of those words that would otherwise be rehearsed. The authors conclude that ISR and recency cannot both be outputs from a unitary limited-capacity short-term memory store and discuss the possibility that the process of rehearsal may be common to both tasks.     

Natural history of the long-term cognitive, affective, and physical sequelae of mild traumatic brain injury

Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is associated with cognitive,affective, and physical sequelae. When symptoms persist for more than 3 months, a diagnosis of Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) is often given. The current study tracked symptom development to explore the natural sequelae of MTBI. Twenty-six MTBI patients received a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment at three intervals: within 1 week, at 4 months and at 7 months post-concussion. Based on DSMIV criteria and clinical judgment, two external raters diagnosed five MTBI participants with PCS. Results suggested that aspects of cognitive functioning of the symptomatic MTBI (i.e., PCS) participants were different from matched normal control (NC) subjects, and from the 21 MTBI patients who were asymptomatic, at 4 months. Asymptomatic MTBI participants improved in overall level of functioning from 4 to 7 months, but remained significantly different from NC participants in their reduced verbal fluency and working memory functioning.     

Attention and movement execution during handwriting

Two studies were performed in order to test the hypothesis that movement execution during handwriting in skilled writers is independent of attention. Study I examined the relationship between attentional functioning and kinematic aspects of handwriting movements in 24 adult participants. A digitizing tablet was used for the assessment of handwriting movements. Participants were asked to perform a simple writing task and various components of their attention were assessed. Correlation analysis indicated no significant relationship between attention functions and both kinematic aspects of handwriting movements and quality of handwriting. In Study II, 20 participants underwent total sleep deprivation (TSD) for 24h. While attention, as assessed with alertness and vigilance tasks, deteriorated during TSD, the execution of handwriting movements, as assessed with a digitizing tablet, improved markedly. The quality of handwriting was not affected by TSD. These findings may suggest an independence between attention and movement generation during handwriting.     

Viewpoint and orientation influence picture recognition in the blind

In the first three experiments, subjects felt solid geometrical forms and matched raised-line pictures to the objects. Performance was best in experiment 1 for top views, with shorter response latencies than for side views, front views, or 3-D views with foreshortening. In a second experiment with blind participants, matching accuracy was not significantly affected by prior visual experience, but speed advantages were found for top views, with 3-D views also yielding better matching accuracy than side views. There were no performance advantages for pictures of objects with a constant cross section in the vertical axis. The early-blind participants had lower performance for side and frontal views. The objects were rotated to oblique orientations in experiment 3. Early-blind subjects performed worse than the other subjects given object rotation. Visual experience with pictures of objects at many angles could facilitate identification at oblique orientations. In experiment 5 with blindfolded sighted subjects, tangible pictures were used as targets and as choices. The results yielded superior overall performance for 3-D views (mean, M = 74% correct) and much lower matching accuracy for top views as targets (M = 58% correct). Performance was highest when the target and matching viewpoint were identical, but 3-D views (M = 96% correct) were still far better than top views. The accuracy advantage of the top views also disappeared when more complex objects were tested in experiment 6. Alternative theoretical implications of the results are discussed.     

Effects of image background on spatial-frequency thresholds for face recognition

A great deal of work has been devoted to the question of which spatial frequencies, if any, are optimal for various visual tasks, such as face and object recognition. However, to date these studies have all been carried out with stimuli set against a uniform background. It is possible that this type of stimulus does not produce ecologically valid results. The natural world in which visual tasks normally take place involves a great deal of luminance variation and distracting visual structure, which may alter the spatial frequencies necessary for a task. We conducted two experiments that examined the effects of image background on the spatial-frequency thresholds (50% maximum of a low-pass or high-pass Butterworth filter) for face recognition by the psychophysical methods of adjustment and constant stimuli. In both experiments we found no significant difference in spatial-frequency thresholds between uniform-grey backgrounds and natural-scene backgrounds, and only minor differences between uniform-grey backgrounds and fractal noise backgrounds. This suggests that results obtained with uniform backgrounds are ecologically valid and that background effects, if they exist, are small.     

Gender differences in victimized homeless adolescents

Most of what we know about sexual abuse comes from efforts to examine female children victimized by men. Although some researchers have identified similarities between male and female victims of sexual abuse, few studies have examined gender-specific factors associated with sexual health practices among homeless adolescents. The aim of this study was to explore how gender and history of sexual abuse influence cognitive-perceptual and behavioral factors associated with sexual health practices of homeless adolescents. This study was a secondary analysis of data collected for a cross-sectional study of the sexual health practices of homeless adolescents. The sample consisted of 414 youths (104 males who reported sexual abuse and 124 who did not; and 95 females who reported sexual abuse and 75 who did not; 16 did not provide these data). Homeless adolescent females with a history of sexual abuse scored higher (indicating a shorter perspective) on a measure of future time perspective than females with no sexual abuse. Males who reported no sexual abuse scored higher than abused females on perceived health status and higher than abused males on assertive communication. With respect to perceived health status, males who reported no sexual abuse scored significantly higher than females who reported sexual abuse (p = .04). Males with no sexual abuse had significantly higher assertive communication scores than did males who had experienced sexual abuse (p = .015). We found that male and female abuse victims differ in terms of their cognitive-perceptual and behavioral factors associated with sexual health practices. Early identification of those who have been abused is critical so that interventions can be developed. Effective short-term interventions are needed for the adolescent victims of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), particularly those who are homeless and prone to further sexual victimization.     

How do we evaluate learning from the curriculum? Thirty phone interviews with Institutes of the American Psychoanalytic Association

A telephone survey of curriculum directors of the thirty institutes of the American Psychoanalytic Association revealed that 75 percent of institutes highly value the importance of evaluating what candidates learn from the curriculum. Paradoxically, however, most institutes do not do evaluations in this area. Typically, institutes evaluate candidates' satisfaction with courses, or their attendance and conduct in classes, rather than learning per se. Some institutes have more rigorous evaluation methods, including oral exams. Objections to evaluating what candidates learn included (1) evaluations involve too much work; (2) evaluations of learning are considered inappropriate or invalid; (3) evaluations would hurt candidates, faculty, the learning process, and the institute. Some curriculum directors dismissed these objections, contending that it is the responsibility of psychoanalytic educators to set teaching goals and evaluate learning.