Aberrant neural mediation of verbal fluency in autism spectrum disorders

Objective

Contrasts of verbal fluency and automatic speech provide an opportunity to evaluate the neural underpinnings of generativity and flexibility in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Method

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to contrast brain activity in high functioning ASD (n = 17, mean verbal IQ = 117) and neurotypical (NT; n = 20, mean verbal IQ = 112) adolescent and young adult males (12–23 years). Participants responded to three word generation conditions: automatic speech (reciting months), category fluency, and letter fluency.

Results

Our paradigm closely mirrored behavioral fluency tasks by requiring overt, free recall word generation while controlling for differences in verbal output between the groups and systematically increasing the task demand. The ASD group showed reduced neural response compared to the NT participants during fluency tasks in multiple regions of left anterior and posterior cortices, and sub-cortical structures. Six of these regions fell in cortico-striatal circuits previously linked to repetitive behaviors (Langen, Durston, Kas, van Engeland, & Staal, 2011), and activity in two of them (putamen and thalamus) was negatively correlated with autism repetitive behavior symptoms in the ASD group. In addition, response in left inferior frontal gyrus was differentially modulated in the ASD, relative to the NT, group as a function of task demand.

Conclusions

These data indicate a specific, atypical brain response in ASD to demanding generativity tasks that may have relevance to repetitive behavior symptoms in ASD as well as to difficulties generating original verbal responses.     

An expanded model of careers professional identity: time for change?

ABSTRACT

The careers profession is challenged significantly by government, employers and potential consumers to articulate its added value to society. Neoliberal discourses such as privatisation, deregulation, flexicurity and a self-help culture are impacting upon arrangements for the design and delivery of all-age careers provision across the UK. In this article, a UK-wide alliance designed to reconceptualise professional formation and identity is examined and critiqued. Findings from experiences in England illuminate the necessity for credible and authentic professional reconstruction. This is challenging work, where boundary maintenance is contested and disconnect with employer networks is prevalent. The article concludes that there is a need for strong leadership and more collective efforts to harness and secure careers professionals’ identity and impact.     

Effects of the Copy-Cover-Compare Strategy on Acquisition,Maintenance, and Generalization of Spelling Sight Words for Elementary Students With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often struggle with spelling. Research shows this population benefits from self-management interventions, structured practice opportunities, and immediate feedback—all components of the copy-cover-compare strategy. This empirical investigation used a multiple-baseline experimental design to determine the effects of the copy-cover-compare strategy on acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of spelling words for four students with ADHD in Grades 1 through 3. Results showed a functional relation between copy-cover-compare and mastery, maintenance, and generalization of three sets of spelling words for each student. Limitations, implications for practice, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Symmetry of receiver operating characteristic curves and Kullback–Leibler divergences between the signal and noise populations

It is shown that the symmetry of the receiver operating characteristic curve implies that the Kullback–Leibler divergences between the signal and noise populations are equal when the arguments are interchanged.     

Negatively biased emotion perception in depression as a contributing factor to psychological aggression perpetration: a preliminary study

Based on research linking depressive symptoms and intimate partner aggression perpetration with negatively biased perception of social stimuli, the present authors examined biased perception of emotional expressions as a mechanism in the frequently observed relationship between depression and psychological aggression perpetration. In all, 30 university students made valence ratings (negative to positive) of emotional facial expressions and completed measures of depressive symptoms and psychological aggression perpetration. As expected, depressive symptoms were positively associated with psychological aggression perpetration in an individual's current relationship, and this relationship was mediated by ratings of negative emotional expressions. These findings suggest that negatively biased perception of emotional expressions within the context of elevated depressive symptoms may represent an early stage of information processing that leads to aggressive relationship behaviors.     

I'm outgoing and she's reserved: the reciprocal dynamics of personality in close friendships in young adulthood

Close college-age friendships provide differential opportunities for reinforcing dispositional tendencies and fostering accommodation or change. This finding was obtained from a cross-sectional study of 66 pairs of same-sex college-age friends (58% female). Each pair of friends was extreme and either very similar or different with regard to extraversion-introversion. Interviews with each friend were analyzed for references to each other's role in various friendship domains, including the setting of the friendship and position with regard to chatting, disclosing, expressing opinions about peers, and energizing the friendship. Matched friends mutually reinforced each other's similar dispositional tendencies. Friends with contrasting personalities showed patterns of personality accommodation as well as complementary reinforcement. Implications are discussed for embedding reciprocal theories of personality development in close friendships.     

Target adjustment and self-other agreement: utilizing trait observability to disentangle judgeability and self-knowledge

Are well-adjusted individuals good targets or accurate self-judges? Across two round-robin studies, the current research first demonstrates that well-adjusted individuals' personalities are viewed with greater distinctive self-other agreement by new acquaintances. Is this enhanced self-other agreement a function of greater judgeability, improving others' ability to form an accurate impression? Or is it a function of greater self-knowledge, having a more accurate impression about oneself? By examining the relationship between psychological adjustment and self-other agreement as a function of trait observability, it becomes clear that psychological adjustment fosters self-other agreement through judgeability more so than through self-knowledge. Specifically, well-adjusted individuals provide new acquaintances with greater information regarding their less observable traits, enhancing others' knowledge and thus distinctive self-other agreement. This effect was replicated with close informant-other agreement, indicating that the well-adjusted individual's tendency to make his or her less visible traits more accessible to others allows those who just met the target to agree better with people who know the target well. In sum, although well-adjusted individuals are in part good self-judges, it is their greater judgeability that seems most critical in enhancing self-other agreement in first impressions.     

Influence of discrimination awareness on the occupational interests of African American children

This study examined the influence of discrimination awareness on children's occupational interests. Participants included 46 African American children aged 10 to 13. Children completed pretest measures of perceptions of occupational racial discrimination, discrimination-related self-efficacy beliefs, occupational outcome expectations, and the perceived status of their aspired-to and expected occupations. Participants were then randomly assigned to a bias resistance condition or a control condition. After participating in workshops that either did or did not address bias resistance, children completed posttest measures identical to pretest measures. At pretest, the gap in status of children's aspired-to and expected occupations was positively correlated to their perceptions of occupational racial discrimination, and this relation was mediated by occupational outcome expectations. At posttest, children in the bias resistance condition had higher-status occupational expectations than children in the control condition, and this difference was due to improved occupational outcome expectations in the bias resistance condition.     

Reciprocal effects of student-teacher and student-peer relatedness: Effects on academic self efficacy

This study investigated the reciprocal effects between teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) and two dimensions of classroom peer relatedness, peer liking and peer academic reputation (PAR), across three years in elementary school and the effect of both TSRQ and the peer relatedness dimensions on academic self efficacy. Participants were 695 relatively low achieving, ethnically diverse students recruited into the longitudinal study when they were in the first grade. Measures of TSRQ and peer relatedness were assessed in years/grades 2-4. Peer liking and PAR were moderately correlated with each other at each time period. As expected, peer liking and TSRQ exhibited bidirectional effects across the three years. Year 3 TSRQ had an effect on Year 4 PAR, but PAR did not have an effect on TSRQ at either time interval. In an additional analysis, Year 4 PAR mediated the effect of Year 3 TSRQ on Year 5 academic self efficacy. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed.     

Behavioral Inhibition and Anxiety: The Moderating Roles of Inhibitory Control and Attention Shifting

Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament identified in early childhood, is associated with social reticence in childhood and an increased risk for anxiety problems in adolescence and adulthood. However, not all behaviorally inhibited children remain reticent or develop an anxiety disorder. One possible mechanism accounting for the variability in the developmental trajectories of BI is a child’s ability to successfully recruit cognitive processes involved in the regulation of negative reactivity. However, separate cognitive processes may differentially moderate the association between BI and later anxiety problems. The goal of the current study was to examine how two cognitive processes—attention shifting and inhibitory control—laboratory assessed at 48 months of age moderated the association between 24-month BI and anxiety symptoms in the preschool years. Results revealed that high levels of attention shifting decreased the risk for anxiety problems in children with high levels of BI, whereas high levels of inhibitory control increased this risk for anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that different cognitive processes may influence relative levels of risk or adaptation depending upon a child’s temperamental reactivity.