The planning and execution of short auditory sequences

Action planning, but not action execution, in speeded tasks is typically faster when responses and their effects are compatible than when they are incompatible. We tested whether response-effect compatibility (REC) affects the execution of music-like sequential actions that require temporal regularity rather than rapidity. Musicians responded to metronomic visual stimuli by producing sequences of three taps at a specific tempo on three vertically aligned keys. Each tap triggered a tone. Key-to-tone mapping was either compatible or incompatible in terms of spatial height and pitch height. The results indicated that tap timing was more accurate with compatible than with incompatible mappings, both for taps produced before (Tap 1) and after (Taps 2 and 3) the onset of auditory feedback. Thus, the observed influence of REC on action execution was not due exclusively to actual auditory feedback. The anticipation of distal action effects may be involved in planning the dynamics of temporally precise movements.     

Inflammation in white matter: clinical and pathophysiological aspects

While the central nervous system (CNS) is generally thought of as an immunopriviledged site, immune-mediated CNS white matter damage can occur in both the perinatal period and in adults, and can result in severe and persistent neurological deficits. Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is an inflammatory white matter disease of premature infants that frequently results in cerebral palsy (CP). Clinical and experimental studies show that both hypoxic/ischemic and innate immune mechanisms contribute to the destruction of immature oligodendroglia and of axons in the deep cerebral white matter in PVL. No data are yet available as to whether there is any genetic predisposition to PVL or to its neurological sequelae. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory white matter disease that often begins in young adulthood, causes multifocal destruction of mature oligodendroglia and of axons, and eventually leads to substantial cumulative neurological disability. Certain genetic polymorphisms contribute to susceptibility to MS, and adaptive immune responses to myelin-associated self antigens, or to exogenous antigens that mimic these self antigens, play a central role in the pathophysiology of this disease.     

In search of shared and nonshared environmental factors in security of attachment: a behavior-genetic study of the association between sensitivity and attachment security

The current article presents results from a twin study of genetic and environmental components of maternal sensitivity and infant attachment and their association. The sample consisted of 136 twin pairs from 2 sites: Leiden, the Netherlands, and London, UK. Maternal sensitivity was assessed in the home at 9-10 months, and infant attachment security was observed in the laboratory at 12 months. The study yielded little evidence that genetic factors are involved in variations between twins in maternal sensitivity ratings but did find that shared variance in maternal sensitivity was able to account for some of the similarity between twins in attachment security. Weak nonshared associations between sensitivity and attachment appeared to suppress the magnitude of the correlation between attachment and sensitivity in twin children. The results could indicate that the attachment security of one twin may depend on the relationship the parent has with the other twin. The results are brought to bear on the validity of attachment theory as a theory of primarily shared environmental effects in children's development and the continuing challenge posed to attachment theory by within-family differences in socioemotional processes.     

Terror management and religion: evidence that intrinsic religiousness mitigates worldview defense following mortality salience

Terror management theory suggests that people cope with awareness of death by investing in some kind of literal or symbolic immortality. Given the centrality of death transcendence beliefs in most religions, the authors hypothesized that religious beliefs play a protective role in managing terror of death. The authors report three studies suggesting that affirming intrinsic religiousness reduces both death-thought accessibility following mortality salience and the use of terror management defenses with regard to a secular belief system. Study 1 showed that after a naturally occurring reminder of mortality, people who scored high on intrinsic religiousness did not react with worldview defense, whereas people low on intrinsic religiousness did. Study 2 specified that intrinsic religious belief mitigated worldview defense only if participants had the opportunity to affirm their religious beliefs. Study 3 illustrated that affirmation of religious belief decreased death-thought accessibility following mortality salience only for those participants who scored high on the intrinsic religiousness scale. Taken as a whole, these results suggest that only those people who are intrinsically vested in their religion derive terror management benefits from religious beliefs.