Running is the neurogenic and neurotrophic stimulus in environmental enrichment

Environmental enrichment (EE) increases dentate gyrus (DG) neurogenesis and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. However, running is considered an element of EE. To dissociate effects of physical activity and enrichment on hippocampal neurogenesis and BDNF levels, young female C57Bl/6 mice were housed under control, running, enrichment, or enrichment plus running conditions, and injected with bromodeoxyuridine. Cell genesis was assessed after 12 d and differentiation was analyzed 1 mo later. In addition, locomotor activity in the open field and hippocampal mature BDNF peptide levels were measured. Open-field adaptation was improved in all groups, compared to controls, but more so with running. New cell proliferation, survival, neuron number, and neurotrophin levels were enhanced only when running was accessible. We conclude that exercise is the critical factor mediating increased BDNF levels and adult hippocampal neurogenesis.     

Social support networks, stress, sense of coherence and academic success of university students with learning disabilities

The current study evaluated the extent to which 191 university students with learning disabilities (LD) differed from 190 students without disabilities in terms of their perceived social support, stress and sense of coherence. The study also investigated students’ perceptions of their academic success at university as compared with their rating of their struggles and failures. Findings indicated that students with LD perceived themselves as having less social support than did students without LD. Students without LD were more likely than students with LD to attribute their academic success to study skills and to their academic characteristics, while students with LD were more likely to attribute their academic success or lack of success to external factors. Although overall the levels of stress reported by the entire sample were relatively low, students with LD tended to experience slightly higher academic stress than students without LD.     

Acquisition of early words from single-word and sentential contexts

Toddlers 15 and 18 months of age were exposed to audiovisual recordings of two novel words paired with novel toys. The words were presented in familiar sentence frames or in isolation. Linguistic context had a greater effect on younger than on older infants. Specifically, 15-month-old boys exhibited successful learning only in the context of single words, and 15-month-old girls did so only for words presented in sentences. Older infants acquired the new words from both contexts, and they learned more rapidly than younger infants. Receptive and expressive vocabulary made no independent contribution to performance.     

Developmental changes in assigning agent relations in Hebrew: The interaction between word order and structural cues

Developmental changes in the interaction between word order and structural cues was investigated by having Hebrew-speaking children between 4 and 10 years of age interpret NVN utterances that balanced the complementary and contradictory effects of work order and two types of morphological cues, inflections that mark subject-verb gender agreement and an object particle. In Hebrew, gender inflections are highly complex and irregular while the object particle is highly regular and distinctive. Both word order and structural cues affected interpretations by subjects of all age groups, though the role of structural cues increased with age. For all groups, the objec particle was a dominant cue. The likelihood of assigning the agent relation to the first or second noun systematically varied with the relative weights of cues that supported and opposed each assignment. Comparisons were made between processing of Hebrew and processing of Serbo-Croatian and Turkish.     

Motherhood Is Not a Given Thing: Experiences and Constructed Meanings of Biological and Nonbiological Lesbian Mothers

This study was designed to examine the subjective experiences of Israeli lesbian mothers. We explored the constructed meanings that both biological and nonbiological mothers relate to their motherhood experience. Eight lesbian couples who were parenting together and who had 1, 2, or 3 children were interviewed. Our data suggest that the birth of the first child to lesbian couples marks a turning point in the lives of each partner, as well as in the lives of the couples, by creating for the first time a significant distinction between the partners. It was found that lesbian mothers tend to organize their experiences into 3 circles of “being”: personal, couple, and communal (e.g., familial and social) aspects. Three themes contribute to the theoretical understanding of lesbian motherhood. First, although lesbian couples are known to value the sense of equality in their relationships, the birth of a child by one of the partners is an event that creates 2 different statuses of motherhood: a biological mother and a nonbiological mother. Second, the legal aspects of lesbian motherhood become a part of everyday life for the lesbian family and shape the partners’ relationship. Third, being both a lesbian and a mother highlights the fundamental dialectic between marginality and mainstream conformity in the life experiences of lesbian mothers in Israeli society.     

Examination of the salutogenic model, support resources, coping style, and stressors among Israeli university students

The author investigated A. Antonovsky's (1979) concept of the sense of coherence (SOC) in relation to social support, coping styles, and the stress experiences of college students. A multivariate model was used to assess the relationships between the psychosocial resources, perceived stress, and the effect of different coping styles among 261 undergraduate students in three Israeli institutions of higher education. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed that younger students used more emotional strategies and perceived having greater social support from friends than did older students. Students who did not work reported experiencing higher levels of stress associated with daily life and work-related issues. Women used more emotional and avoidance coping strategies. The findings of the regression analysis demonstrated that task-oriented and emotional coping modes, work stress, and family support explained 30% of the variance of SOC. These results increase our understanding of the salutogenic model of students within university settings and suggest focusing on the students and their interaction with the environment, using the concepts of stress, coping, and social support as inseparable characteristics of systems models.     

Assessing Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder: The Emotion Regulation Interview

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is thought to involve emotional hyper-reactivity and emotion dysregulation. However, the precise nature of the emotion dysregulation in SAD has not been well characterized. In the present study, the Emotion Regulation Interview (ERI) was developed to quantify the frequency and self-efficacy of five emotion regulation strategies specified by Gross’s (Review of General Psychology 2: 271–299, 1998) process model of emotion regulation. Forty-eight individuals with SAD and 33 healthy controls (HCs) were interviewed about responses during (a) a laboratory speech task and (b) two recent social anxiety-evoking situations. Individuals with SAD reported greater use of avoidance and expressive suppression than HCs, as well as lesser self-efficacy in implementing cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. These regulation deficits were not accounted for by differences in emotional reactivity. These findings highlight specific emotion regulation deficits in SAD, and support the idea that the Emotion Regulation Interview may be usefully applied to other clinical disorders.     

You heard it here first: Readers mentally simulate described sounds

The present experiments examined whether readers spontaneously simulate implied auditory elements of sentences. Participants read sentences that implicitly conveyed details that could provoke auditory imagery (e.g., The engine clattered as the truck driver warmed up his rig.), and then performed an unrelated sound categorization task during which they classified sounds as real (occurring in the world) or fake (computer generated). In Experiment 1 these two tasks were performed in sequence; in Experiment 2 they were separated into three experimental blocks to rule out the possibility that readers strategically formed auditory imagery as a result of task demands. In both studies, readers were faster to correctly categorize sounds as ‘real’ when the sounds had been implied by a preceding sentence. These results suggest that readers mentally simulate the implied auditory characteristics of sentences, even in the absence of tasks that promote mental simulation. Mentally simulating described events is not limited to visual and action-based modalities, further demonstrating the multimodal nature of the perceptual symbols spontaneously activated during reading.     

The Fabric of Thought: Priming Tactile Properties During Reading Influences Direct Tactile Perception

The present studies examined whether implied tactile properties during language comprehension influence subsequent direct tactile perception, and the specificity of any such effects. Participants read sentences that implicitly conveyed information regarding tactile properties (e.g., Grace tried on a pair of thick corduroy pants while shopping) that were either related or unrelated to fabrics and varied in implied texture (smooth, medium, rough). After reading each sentence, participants then performed an unrelated rating task during which they felt and rated the texture of a presented fabric. Results demonstrated that the texture properties implied in sentences influence direct tactile perception. Specifically, after reading about a smooth or rough texture, subsequent fabric ratings became notably smoother or rougher, respectively. However, we also show that there was some specificity to these effects: Fabric‐related sentences elicited more specific and interactive effects on subsequent ratings. Together, we demonstrate that under certain circumstances, language comprehension can prime tactile representations and affect direct tactile perception. Results are discussed with regard to the nature and scope of multimodal mental simulation during reading.