Brain hyper‐connectivity and operation‐specific deficits during arithmetic problem solving in children with developmental dyscalculia

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is marked by specific deficits in processing numerical and mathematical information despite normal intelligence (IQ) and reading ability. We examined how brain circuits used by young children with DD to solve simple addition and subtraction problems differ from those used by typically developing (TD) children who were matched on age, IQ, reading ability, and working memory. Children with DD were slower and less accurate during problem solving than TD children, and were especially impaired on their ability to solve subtraction problems. Children with DD showed significantly greater activity in multiple parietal, occipito‐temporal and prefrontal cortex regions while solving addition and subtraction problems. Despite poorer performance during subtraction, children with DD showed greater activity in multiple intra‐parietal sulcus (IPS) and superior parietal lobule subdivisions in the dorsal posterior parietal cortex as well as fusiform gyrus in the ventral occipito‐temporal cortex. Critically, effective connectivity analyses revealed hyper‐connectivity, rather than reduced connectivity, between the IPS and multiple brain systems including the lateral fronto‐parietal and default mode networks in children with DD during both addition and subtraction. These findings suggest the IPS and its functional circuits are a major locus of dysfunction during both addition and subtraction problem solving in DD, and that inappropriate task modulation and hyper‐connectivity, rather than under‐engagement and under‐connectivity, are the neural mechanisms underlying problem solving difficulties in children with DD. We discuss our findings in the broader context of multiple levels of analysis and performance issues inherent in neuroimaging studies of typical and atypical development.     

The neurodevelopmental basis of math anxiety

Math anxiety is a negative emotional reaction to situations involving mathematical problem solving. Math anxiety has a detrimental impact on an individual's long-term professional success, but its neurodevelopmental origins are unknown. In a functional MRI study on 7- to 9-year-old children, we showed that math anxiety was associated with hyperactivity in right amygdala regions that are important for processing negative emotions. In addition, we found that math anxiety was associated with reduced activity in posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions involved in mathematical reasoning. Multivariate classification analysis revealed distinct multivoxel activity patterns, which were independent of overall activation levels in the right amygdala. Furthermore, effective connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex regions that regulate negative emotions was elevated in children with math anxiety. These effects were specific to math anxiety and unrelated to general anxiety, intelligence, working memory, or reading ability. Our study identified the neural correlates of math anxiety for the first time, and our findings have significant implications for its early identification and treatment.     

Depressed or Just Blue? The Persuasive Effects of a Self‐Diagnosis Inventory1

A self‐diagnosis inventory is both a response instrument and a tool for an individual to assess his or her risk. Three experiments show that the manner in which a depression self‐diagnosis inventory is administered and constructed affects the manner in which a respondent interprets behavioral symptoms. This in turn affects (a) self‐reports of whether the symptoms apply to the respondent; (b) the respondent's perceived risk of depression; (c) the perceived controllability of the behavioral symptoms; and (d) the respondent's likelihood of seeking treatment. Theoretical implications of the content and format of self‐diagnosis inventories are discussed, as are implications for how to persuade people to seek assistance when they are at risk.     

Construal level and temporal judgments of the past: the moderating role of knowledge

The vast majority of work in construal level theory has found a robust relationship between construal level and temporal judgments for future events: Distance is associated with the abstract, and nearness is associated with the concrete. Our work looks at the past and proposes a critical moderator that reverses this relationship: knowledge. Through experiments involving real news events, we demonstrate that people with less knowledge about events felt nearer to them when recalling them in a concrete mindset versus an abstract one. However, this relationship reverses for those with greater knowledge: They feel closer to past events when recalling them in an abstract mindset versus a concrete one. We provide evidence that this reversal stems from feelings of metacognitive ease that inform temporal judgments when knowledge (which drives what information is held available and accessible in memory) and construal mindset (which drives what information is sought from memory) coincide. Our findings suggest that in memory, there are instances where the abstract seems near and the concrete seems distant.     

Stress in Doctors: A Pilot Study of the University Teaching Hospital,Lusaka, Zambia

This study had the objective of explored the stressful aspects of a doctor's job at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. Stress can have a serious effect on the work output of a doctor and on their physical and mental health. The data were collected from 41 doctors at UTH using the Perceived Stress Scale and a stress check list. The results revealed that out of the list of 14 possible stressors, Zambian doctors in this sample identified an average of 7.3 aspects of their job (SD=2.7) as being stressful. Lack of resources to carry out their job, the workload, the low level of reward and the long working hours were most frequently identified as stressors.     

Reconstruction of things past: Why do some memories feel so close and others so far away?

The vast majority of work in construal level theory focuses prospectively on the future. Through a series of studies controlling for knowledge about an event, we look retrospectively at the past and demonstrate that construal mindsets can materially influence how a past event is reconstructed in memory. Specifically, an event recalled in a more concrete mindset feels subjectively closer than when recalled in an abstract mindset (Studies 1-3). We present evidence suggesting this is because a concrete mindset actually makes people feel as though they know more, even if they were initially exposed to the same set of information—perceived information accessibility mediates the effect of construal level on temporal distance (Study 2). The effect of construal level on memory reconstruction extends to judgments of blame, where judgments of greater temporal distance drive a greater propensity to blame parties for negative events and temporal distance mediates these judgments (Study 3). Together, these studies are the first to demonstrate that the mindset employed when recalling an event shapes its remembrance.     

Peer-Reputational Influences and Academic Achievement: Exploring Gender Differences

This study explored the impact of peer-reputations for academic ability and affect/liking on academic outcomes in a sample of preadolescents. In light of the popular stereotypes regarding the differential academic abilities of girls and boys (favoring girls in English, and boys in math and science), it was hypothesized that peer-reputations in English would be more predictive of academic outcomes (measured via school-grades and standardized test-scores) for girls than for boys, while math and science reputations would be most predictive of boys’ academic outcomes. Further, it was also hypothesized that these links would be stronger for school-grades than for standardized test-scores. As expected, overall, peer-reputations were found to be predictive of school-grades but not standardized test-scores. Further, the results reveal that although ability reputations in most areas were predictive of grades for both sexes, gender differences were observed which were consistent with hypotheses. Results suggest that children’s peer-reputations may play an important role in their academic achievement, especially within domains most central to their gender identities.     

Psychological Androgyny and Children’s Mental Health: A New Look with New Measures

We evaluated Bem’s (1981, 1993) thesis that psychological androgyny—perceiving the self to possess characteristics of both genders—is associated with healthy adjustment and minimal gender-polarizing cognition. Prior studies testing Bem’s ideas have yielded ambiguous results, mainly because self-perceptions of gender-typed attributes have been inferred narrowly from self-perceptions of expressive and instrumental personality traits. We administered measures of gender identity (self-perceived similarity to a gender) that more clearly capture self-perceptions of attributes typical of a gender, and we examined conjoint influences of same-gender typicality and other-gender typicality on children’s self-esteem, internalizing problems, felt pressure for gender differentiation, and sexist ideology. Two studies were conducted with ethnically/racially diverse samples of preadolescent children in the southeastern United States. In Study 1 (N?=?305, M _age?=?10.8 years), androgynous children (i.e., children who saw themselves as similar to both genders) reported high self-esteem, evidenced few internalizing problems, and reported feeling little pressure for gender differentiation. In Study 2 (N?=?236, M _age?=?11.3 years), androgynous boys reported few sexist beliefs. Children with other patterns of gender identity (e.g., high same-gender typicality coupled with low other-gender typicality) sometimes showed similar correlates, but each other pattern of gender identity was associated with poor adjustment or strong gender-differentiating cognition on at least one dependent variable whereas androgyny never was. Results support Bem’s thesis that persons who perceive themselves as possessing characteristics of both genders enjoy mental health advantages over those who perceive themselves as possessing characteristics of only one.