GOD, DISEASE, AND SPIRITUAL DILEMMAS: READING THE LIVES OF WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER

To write about the disease of breast cancer from both scientific and spiritual perspectives is to reflect upon our genetic and spiritual ancestry. We examine the issues involved in breast cancer at the intersections of spirituality, technology, and science, using the fundamental thing we know about being human: our bodies. Our goal in this essay is to offer close readings of women's spiritual and bodily journeys through the disease of breast cancer. We have discovered that both illness and health come within the stories of particular people and particular disciplines. And to learn more about breast cancer, both scientific and spiritual aspects, one must be attentive to such particularities. Medicine and religion are bodily experiences, and being a body-self is what it means to be human.     

The effects of prenatal stress on motivation in the rat pup

Exposure to prenatal stress (PNS) has been shown to induce a set of psychological and behavioral changes in developing offspring. We used the rodent model to investigate whether PNS produces changes in the ability of the pup to express social motivation. We used a set of behavioral tasks including monitoring ultrasonic vocalizations after isolation, a conditioned place preference, and a novel and familiar odor approach test. Pregnant Long-Evans rats were exposed to an unpredictable, variable stressor twice daily during the third week of gestation. Isolation vocalizations were assessed on postnatal day (PND) 10. Pup affinity for the dam was evaluated on PND 15. Typically, pups display a selective preference for an odor-paired environment only after the odor has been associated with the dam. This previous association produces a positive conditioned stimulus (CS). Normally, pups exposed to a neutral CS (odor paired with cotton balls) do not form this place preference. Results indicate that PNS exposed pups had significantly increased distress vocalizations and an equal preference for the positive and neutral conditioned stimuli. This type of alteration in forming early preferences could be detrimental because of decreases in the specificity of social learning and an impaired responsiveness in social relationships.     

Measuring depression at the end of life: is the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale a valid instrument?

Depression at the end of life is a common mental health issue with serious implications for quality of life and decision making. This study investigated the reliability and validity of one of the most frequently used measures of depression, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) in 422 patients with terminal cancer admitted to a palliative care hospital. The HAM-D demonstrated high reliability and concurrent validity with depression diagnosis, based on Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, non-patient research version (SCID-I/NP Depression Module). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses generated an area under the curve of .91, indicating high sensitivity and specificity. The HAM-D strongly correlated with several measures of distress (e.g., hopelessness, desire for hastened death, and suicidal ideation). Factor analysis generated 4 factors (anxiety, depressed mood, insomnia, and somatic symptoms), accounting for 42% of the variance. Implications for assessing depression in this population are discussed.     

Facial identity and facial expression matching in 5–12‐year‐old children and adults

Facial identity and facial expression matching tasks were completed by 5–12‐year‐old children and adults using stimuli extracted from the same set of normalized faces. Configural and feature processing were examined using speed and accuracy of responding and facial feature selection, respectively. Facial identity matching was slower than face expression matching for all age groups. Large age effects were found on both speed and accuracy of responding and feature use in both identity and expression matching tasks. Eye region preference was found on the facial identity task and mouth region preference on the facial expression task. Use of mouth region information for facial expression matching increased with age, whereas use of eye region information for facial identity matching peaked early. The feature use information suggests that the specific use of primary facial features to arrive at identity and emotion matching judgments matures across middle childhood. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender-specific Normative Misperceptions of Risky Sexual Behavior and Alcohol-related Risky Sexual Behavior

This research examined gender-specific perceptions of risky sexual behavior norms among college students and their relationship with one’s own sexual behavior. We expected that students would misperceive the risky sexual behavior of their peers and that these perceptions would positively relate to their sexual behavior. Undergraduate students from the United States (N?=?687; 57.6% female) completed measures assessing perceived sexual behavior, sexual behavior, and other behaviors (e.g., marijuana use, alcohol consumption). Findings demonstrated that students perceived that others engaged in more risky sexual behavior than they do and that perceived norms were positively associated with one’s own behavior. The incorporation of personalized normative feedback regarding risky sexual behavior into brief interventions aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior is discussed.     

P300 amplitude, externalizing psychopathology, and earlier- versus later-onset substance-use disorder

P300 amplitude predicts substance use or disorder by age 21. Earlier- versus later-onset substance disorders may reflect different levels of an externalizing psychopathology dimension. P300 in adolescence may not be as strongly related to later-onset substance problems as it is to earlier-onset ones. In the present study, visual P300 amplitude was measured at age 17 in a community-representative sample of young men. Substance and externalizing disorders were assessed at approximately ages 17, 20, and 24. Earlier-onset (by age 20) substance disorder was associated with higher rates of externalizing disorders than were later-onset problems. P300 amplitude was reduced in subjects with earlier-onset substance disorders, relative to later-onset and disorder-free subjects. Amplitude was also reduced in subjects with an externalizing disorder but no substance disorder. Earlier-onset subjects had reduced P300, even in the absence of an externalizing disorder. The results could not be attributed to a concurrent disorder or to recent substance use at the time of the P300 recording. The findings are consistent with P300 indexing an externalizing spectrum. Earlier-onset substance disorders are more strongly related to P300 and externalizing than are later-onset problems.     

Assessment of the functions of vocal behavior in children with developmental disabilities: a replication

Although experimental analysis methodologies have been useful for identifying the function of a wide variety of target behaviors (e.g., Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994), only recently have such procedures been applied to verbal operants (Lerman et al., 2005). In the current study, we conducted a systematic replication of the methodology developed by Lerman et al. Participants were 4 children who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities and who engaged in limited vocal behavior. The function of vocal behavior was assessed by exposing target vocal responses to experimental analyses. Results showed that experimental analyses were generally useful for identifying the functions of vocal behavior across all participants.     

Causal relations drive young children's induction, naming, and categorization

A number of recent models and experiments have suggested that evidence of early category-based induction is an artifact of perceptual cues provided by experimenters. We tested these accounts against the prediction that different relations (causal versus non-causal) determine the types of perceptual similarity by which children generalize. Young children were asked to label, to infer novel properties, and to project future appearances of a novel animal that varied in two opposite respects: (1) how much it looked like another animal whose name and properties were known, and (2) how much its parents looked like parents of another animal whose name and properties were known. When exemplar origins were known, children generalized to exemplars with similar origins rather than with similar appearances; when origins were unknown, children generalized to exemplars with similar appearances. Results indicate even young children possess the cognitive control to choose the similarities that best predict accurate generalizations.     

Social Control in Marital Relationships: Effect of One's Partner on Health Behaviors1

The present study examined the role that health‐related social control plays in promoting health‐enhancing behavioral reactions among married couples. Health‐related social control refers to interactions entailing influence and regulation of health practices. A sample of 109 couples answered questions about their social control interactions during structured phone interviews. Analyses maintaining the couple as the unit of analysis indicated that spouses' reports of more frequent social control overall and the use of positive, bilateral, and direct social control tactics predicted their partners' reports of health‐enhancing behavioral reactions.     

Functional MRI of Language in Aphasia: A Review of the Literature and the Methodological Challenges

Animal analogue studies show that damaged adult brains reorganize to accommodate compromised functions. In the human arena, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other functional neuroimaging techniques have been used to study reorganization of language substrates in aphasia. The resulting controversy regarding whether the right or the left hemisphere supports language recovery and treatment progress must be reframed. A more appropriate question is when left-hemisphere mechanisms and when right-hemisphere mechanisms support recovery of language functions. Small lesions generally lead to good recoveries supported by left-hemisphere mechanisms. However, when too much language eloquent cortex is damaged, right-hemisphere structures may provide the better substrate for recovery of language. Some studies suggest that recovery is particularly supported by homologues of damaged left-hemisphere structures. Evidence also suggests that under some circumstances, activity in both the left and right hemispheres can interfere with recovery of function. Further research will be needed to address these issues. However, daunting methodological problems must be managed to maximize the yield of future fMRI research in aphasia, especially in the area of language production. In this review, we cover six challenges for imaging language functions in aphasia with fMRI, with an emphasis on language production: (1) selection of a baseline task, (2) structure of language production trials, (3) mitigation of motion-related artifacts, (4) the use of stimulus onset versus response onset in fMRI analyses, (5) use of trials with correct responses and errors in analyses, and (6) reliability and stability of fMRI images across sessions. However, this list of methodological challenges is not exhaustive. Once methodology is advanced, knowledge from conceptually driven fMRI studies can be used to develop theoretically driven, mechanism-based treatments that will result in more effective therapy and to identify the best patient candidates for specific treatments. While the promise of fMRI in the study of aphasia is great, there is much work to be done before this technique will be a useful clinical tool.