The 9th annual INDUS-EM 2013 Emergency Medicine Summit, “Principles,Practices, and Patients,” a level one international meeting,Kerala University of Health Sciences and Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute,Thrissur, Kerala,India, October 23–27, 2013

INDUS-EM is India’s only level one conference imparting and exchanging quality knowledge in acute care. Specifically, in general and specialized emergency care and training in trauma, burns, cardiac, stroke, environmental and disaster medicine. It provides a series of exchanges regarding academic development and implementation of training tools related to developing future academic faculty and residents in Emergency Medicine in India. The INDUS-EM leadership and board of directors invited scholars from multiple institutions to participate in this advanced educational symposium that was held in Thrissur, Kerala in October 2013.     

Children's Moral Emotion Attribution in the Happy Victimizer Task: The Role of Response Format

Previous research in the happy victimizer tradition indicated that preschool and early elementary school children attribute positive emotions to the violator of a moral norm, whereas older children attribute negative (moral) emotions. Cognitive and motivational processes have been suggested to underlie this developmental shift. The current research investigated whether making the happy victimizer task less cognitively demanding by providing children with alternative response formats would increase their attribution of moral emotions and moral motivation. In Study 1, 93 British children aged 4–7 years old responded to the happy victimizer questions either in a normal condition (where they spontaneously pointed with a finger), a wait condition (where they had to wait before giving their answers), or an arrow condition (where they had to point with a paper arrow). In Study 2, 40 Spanish children aged 4 years old responded to the happy victimizer task either in a normal or a wait condition. In both studies, participants' attribution of moral emotions and moral motivation was significantly higher in the conditions with alternative response formats (wait, arrow) than in the normal condition. The role of cognitive abilities for emotion attribution in the happy victimizer task is discussed.     

Meta-analyses of ALDH2 and ADH1B with alcohol dependence in Asians

Meta-analyses were conducted to determine the magnitude of relationships between polymorphisms in 2 genes, ALDH2 and ADH1B, with alcohol dependence in Asians. For each gene, possession of 1 variant *2 allele was protective against alcohol dependence, and possession of a 2nd *2 allele did not offer significant additional protection. The protective effects of these 2 gene polymorphisms were independent. Diagnostic criteria, recruitment strategy, and Japanese ethnicity moderated the effect of ALDH2*2. Recruitment strategy and gender moderated the effect of ADH1B*2. These findings highlight the importance of methodological issues and potential gene-gene and gene-environment interactions that must be considered when examining relationships between genetic polymorphisms and phenotypes.     

The effect of arousal on memory for emotionally-relevant information: a study of skydivers

The aim of the present study was to test memory for information under conditions of extreme arousal in an analogue design to mimic hyperarousal during trauma exposure. Prior to their skydive, 70 novice skydivers were administered measures of fear, heart rate, and anxiety sensitivity. Half the participants learnt a list of words that varied in both relevance to their skydive and valence (irrelevant/relevant, negative/neutral) on the plane (skydivers), and remaining participants learnt an identical list of words on the ground (delayed controls). Following the skydive, participants completed free recall and recognition tasks; heart rate, dissociation, and subjective arousal were also measured. Consistent with an attentional narrowing hypothesis, skydivers recalled comparable a comparable number of relevant words as delayed controls, but significantly less irrelevant words. In terms of recognition performance, skydivers displayed better recognition of relevant words but poorer recognition of irrelevant words than delayed controls. Valence of words did not alter the pattern of results. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of understanding memory processes under conditions of high threat.     

Event-related potentials in cognitive neuropsychology: Methodological considerations and an example from studies of aphasia

Recording event-related potentials (ERPs) from neurological patients introduces some methodological problems that are unique to this type of work. Important issues include, for example, the signal-to-noise ratio in patients relative to control subjects and changes in conductivity that are due to brain lesion. Therefore, in order to be able to reliably interpret possible changes in the ERP effects of brain-damaged patients as reflecting changes in underlying cognitive processes, it is important to clearly identify the factors that might contaminate the results of the experiments and to apply appropriate controls. Possible controls are discussed, and, as an example, some studies illustrating the use of ERPs in aphasic patients are reviewed.