Motor excitability during movement preparation in Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by the occurrence of motor and vocal tics. TS has been linked to the impaired operation of cortical‐striatal‐thalamic‐cortical circuits that give rise to hyper‐excitability of cortical motor areas, which may be exacerbated by dysfunctional intra‐cortical inhibitory mechanisms. That said, many individuals gain control over their tics during adolescence and it has been suggested that this increased control arises as a result of the development of mechanisms that operate to suppress corticospinal excitability (CSE) ahead of volitional movements. Here we used single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in conjunction with a manual Go/NoGo task to investigate alterations in CSE ahead of volitional movements in a group of adolescents with TS (N = 10). Our study demonstrated that CSE, as measured by TMS‐induced motor‐evoked potentials (MEPs), was significantly reduced in the TS group in the period immediately preceding a finger movement. More specifically, we show that individuals with TS, unlike their age‐matched controls, do not exhibit the predicted increase in mean MEP amplitude and decrease in MEP variability that immediately precede the execution of volitional movements in typically developing young adults. Finally, we report that the magnitude of the rise in MEP amplitude across the movement preparation period in TS is significantly negatively correlated with clinical measures of motor tic severity, suggesting that individuals with severe motor tics are least able to modulate motor cortical excitability.     

Leibniz,Pufendorf, and the Possibility of Moral Self-Governance

In his On the Duties of Man and Citizen, seventeenth century natural law theorist Samuel Pufendorf argues that the source of obligation lies in ‘the command of a superior’. This so-called ‘voluntarist’ position was famously criticized by the ‘rationalist’ Gottfried Leibniz. However, I wish to highlight several neglected aspects of the debate. Leibniz implicitly proposes a solution to a central moral problem: how one can be obligated voluntarily. His answer reflects a sort of motivational internalism, whereby the ideas of justice provide some motive cause of action, and virtue provides the rest. In this way, the agent acts voluntarily by making the principles of justice the principles of her action. Secondly, I show how this argument for the principles depends implicitly on his ‘science of right’, established in his earliest writings on jurisprudence. These principles are constituent of the nature of rational substance. It then becomes clear that Leibniz had long developed a foundation for self-governance, similar to Kantian autonomy, consisting in the agent's internal moral power to act (jus) and moral necessity to act (obligation). These points are exposed through a close reading of Leibniz's criticisms of Pufendorf on the end, object and efficient cause of natural law.     

Getting one's thoughts straight: A dialogical analysis of women's accounts of poorly controlled type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterised by chronically elevated blood glucose and a high risk of cardiovascular and other complications. Self-management is central to diabetes care and includes taking regular exercise, low-fat/sugar diet and blood glucose monitoring. However, little is understood about how people with diabetes make sense of self-management. Our aim, therefore, is to explore the process of ‘getting one's thoughts straight’ in relation to illness self-management for women with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes. Eight women were recruited from two hospitals in the North of England. Each was interviewed using a biographic-narrative method. Narratives were analysed using a dialogical approach. We use Bakhtin's concepts of voice, official and unofficial truth, and internally persuasive discourse to explore how participants considered, struggled with, and, sometimes, acted upon self-management. We demonstrate how the truth by which participants lived shifted as they encountered new perspectives and experiences. The accounts revealed tension between official, authoritative voices, typically concerned with optimal illness control and unofficial voices that speak at a lived, embodied level. In conclusion, we suggest moving beyond the notion of self-management towards a conceptualisation of life with chronic illness that includes personal goals, values and embodied experience in context.     

COMPARING TYPES OF COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS FOUND IN FOURTH GRADE READERS

Abstract

This article examines the implications of Dr. Dolores Durkin's recent research on Reading comprehension. The author takes the seminal findings of Dr. Durkin's study and applies these to improving classroom reading instruction.     

An Investigation of Middle School Classroom Libraries

Given that much of the research on classroom libraries focus on elementary school classrooms, this study sought to examine classroom libraries at the middle school level. Access to books is especially important for middle school students given the persistent decline in reading engagement at this level. The research questions guiding this investigation focused on the nature of the libraries, the physical features of the libraries, the contributions made by the libraries to the literacy environment of the classrooms, the contents of the libraries, and teacher perceptions of their own classroom libraries. Findings indicate that teachers value classroom libraries for promoting literacy engagement and understand how these libraries provide students with immediate and easy access to books. The contents of the libraries that were examined varied in terms of genre, multicultural literature, and social justice issues.     

Achieving Safety: Safer Sex, Communication, and Desire among Young Gay Men

Conceptualizations of safer sex practices among young gay men (YGM) are frequently structured around communication between partners and the subsequent utilization or absence of condoms in a sexual encounter. Drawing on a sample of 34 in-depth interviews with YGM, ages 18 to 24, we explore the ways in which conceptualizations and definitions of safer sex are discussed and enacted. Placing attention on their safer sex practices, we analyze the conversations that do and do not occur among YGM and their partners, including the strategies (e.g., negotiated safety, condom communication and negotiation) that are commonly perceived as most useful by YGM. We provide recommendations regarding how to craft safer sex messages for YGM by considering their competing demands.     

The Costs of Accepting Gender Differences: The Role of Stereotype Endorsement in Women's Experience in the Math Domain

Two studies were designed to examine the costs of stereotype endorsement for women's self-perceptions, career intentions, and susceptibility to stereotype threat in the math domain. Study 1, a survey of women majoring in math-related fields, revealed that women who believe that status differences between the sexes are legitimate were more likely to endorse gender stereotypes about women's math abilities, which in turn predicted more negative self-perceptions of math competence and less interest in continuing study in one's field. In Study 2, women who tended to endorse gender stereotypes were found to be more susceptible to the negative effects of stereotype threat on their math test performance. The implications of these results for research on stereotype endorsement and women's math achievement are discussed.     

A Teacher’s Life: An Interview with Raymond B. Williams

Raymond B. Williams, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Wabash College, founding Director of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, long–time member of the Executive Board of the American Academy of Religion, and founding editor of the journal Teaching Theology and Religion, has moved on to what will no doubt be a very active retirement. An interview with Williams was conducted by Malcolm Warford to be published in a venue unknown to the subject, thus enabling Warford to capture the spontaneous, unguarded vocational narrative of this private, humble scholar–teacher. After Warford transcribed and edited the interview, Lucinda Huffaker, co–editor of Teaching Theology and Religion, inserted commentary to set out themes and emphases on teaching and learning (desig. – LAH). As an autobiography, the article is both a window and a mirror – revealing both the formative influences in one professor’s life and providing readers with an opportunity for reflective comparison with their own vocational paths and identities.