MINDSCAPES AND LANDSCAPES: EXPLORING THE EXTENDED MIND

This brief article introduces a symposium discussing the extended mind thesis and its suggestive relation to religious thought. Essays by Mark Rowlands, Lynne Rudder Baker, Teed Rockwell, Joel Krueger, Leonard Angel, and Matthew Day present a variety of perspectives.     

Early Personality Traits as Predictors of Mortality Risk Following Conjugal Bereavement

ABSTRACT This study explored pre-bereavement personality traits and gender as predictors of post-widowhood mortality risk, using newly derived life span data for participants originally recruited for Lewis Terman's classic study of the gifted. Personality traits measured in 1940 were used to predict mortality risk from 1940 through 2004 for married participants who were either widowed between 1940 and 1986 or who remained married. Results indicated that widowhood predicted a decrease in mortality risk for these (intelligent) individuals (relative hazard [ rh ]=0.68, N =843, p <.001) and neuroticism significantly moderated this effect. Specifically, neuroticism in young adulthood was significantly associated with decreased mortality risk among men who were later widowed ( rh =0.50, N =66, p <.02) but not among women or consistently married men. Conclusions reveal the importance of personality–situation interactions and the adoption of a long-term perspective.     

“Heart Trouble” and Religious Involvement among Older White Men and Women

Objective Few studies examine how older adults’ health status affects spiritual and religious involvement. This study examined the effects of gender and poor cardiac health on older adults’ ends, means, and quest religious motivations and frequency of private devotion. Method Longitudinal data (12 months between the T₁ and T₂ interviews) with 182 older adults sampled from a Northeast city were used to examine in a multivariate analysis of covariance whether gender and the existence of cardiac health problems at T₁ affected older adults’ spiritual and religious involvement at T₂. Findings A gender and cardiac health condition interaction showed older men with heart trouble had more changes in religious involvement—they engaged in more religious doubt, prayed less, and were not as intrinsically oriented at T₂. Discussion The findings strongly suggest that older men with heart trouble may maintain a masculine style and shun seeking divine help.     

Hyperperfusion syndromes: insight into the pathophysiology and treatment of hypertensive encephalopathy

Hypertensive encephalopathy is one of the manifestations of a hypertensive crisis. It is not the absolute value of the blood pressure that causes the encephalopathy, rather the presence of an abrupt rise in pressure. In terms of clinical and radiographic findings, there are many similarities among a group of entities, including hypertensive encephalopathy, eclampsia, and immunosuppressant neurotoxicity. Hyperperfusion syndromes may represent these clinical disease states that may share the same pathophysiology. Magnetic resonance imaging fluid attenuated inversion recovery sequences have recognized the prominent cortical involvement of the disease that had been previously missed on computed tomography. Studies have found cortical involvement in 94% of their patients, particularly in mild cases. Animal models demonstrate endothelial damage and enhanced pinocytosis in the cortex as reasons why edema may begin in that region of the brain. Patients diagnosed with hypertensive encephalopathy should be diagnosed and treated promptly in order to avoid further neurological complications. The mean arterial pressure should be lowered by 20% to 25% within the first hour of patient presentation, followed by further gradual reduction in blood pressure over the following 24 hours. Hypertensive emergency in acute ischemic stroke should be managed with more caution. According to the 2003 American Stroke Association treatment guidelines, for patients with ischemic stroke not eligible for thrombolytic therapy, target blood pressures are a diastolic blood pressure <120 mmHg and systolic blood pressure <220 mmHg. The systolic pressure must be <185 mmHg and diastolic pressure <110 mmHg at all times if eligible for thrombolytic therapy.     

Progressive age-related changes in the attentional blink paradigm

Previous studies on aging and attention typically examine group differences between younger and older adults, rather than seeing aging as a continuous process. Using correlational analyses, this study examined progressive changes in the magnitude of the attentional blink (AB) associated with aging. Increased age was found to be significantly associated with the ability to detect the second target (T2), whereby older age was correlated with the production of a longer and more pronounced AB; this supports the proposition that aging is associated with reduced inhibitory processes and selective attention. It was also found that AB performance somewhat improves between ages 18-39 years, but tends to decline from 40 years of age onward, providing an interesting and novel finding that AB effects may become more sensitive at this point in time. The AB task may prove useful in the assessment of selective attention in normal healthy adults, as well as changes associated with pathological aging.     

How Do Children Stigmatize People With Mental Illness?

A way to promote eliminating stigma surrounding mental illnesses is targeting the phenomenon in children. This study's purpose is to validate models of mental illness stigma on children in Grades 6–8. Children completed the revised Attribution Questionnaire in a pretest of a larger study on a mental health education program. Data from this study permitted testing of roles of demographics in these social cognitive models. Subsequent analyses using manifest model structural equations were mixed, but mostly showed adequate fit for multiple versions of the models. These results suggest that models of blame and dangerousness are relevant to the way 10 to 13-year-olds stigmatize mental illness. Demographics were not found to fit these models satisfactorily. Implications of these findings for stigma-change agenda are discussed.