Neurodevelopmental consequences of pediatric cancer and its treatment: applying an early adversity framework to understanding cognitive,behavioral, and emotional outcomes

Today, children are surviving pediatric cancer at unprecedented rates, making it one of modern medicine’s true success stories. However, we are increasingly becoming aware of several deleterious effects of cancer and the subsequent “cure” that extend beyond physical sequelae. Indeed, survivors of childhood cancer commonly report cognitive, emotional, and psychological difficulties, including attentional difficulties, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Cognitive late- and long-term effects have been largely attributed to neurotoxic effects of cancer treatments (e.g., chemotherapy, cranial irradiation, surgery) on brain development. The role of childhood adversity in pediatric cancer – namely, the presence of a life-threatening disease and endurance of invasive medical procedures – has been largely ignored in the existing neuroscientific literature, despite compelling research by our group and others showing that exposure to more commonly studied adverse childhood experiences (i.e., domestic and community violence, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse) strongly imprints on neural development. While these adverse childhood experiences are different in many ways from the experience of childhood cancer (e.g., context, nature, source), they do share a common element of exposure to threat (i.e., threat to life or physical integrity). Therefore, we argue that the double hit of early threat and cancer treatments likely alters neural development, and ultimately, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional outcomes. In this paper, we (1) review the existing neuroimaging research on child, adolescent, and adult survivors of childhood cancer, (2) summarize gaps in our current understanding, (3) propose a novel neurobiological framework that characterizes childhood cancer as a type of childhood adversity, particularly a form of early threat, focusing on development of the hippocampus and the salience and emotion network (SEN), and (4) outline future directions for research.     

A confirmatory analysis of the factor structure and cross-age invariance of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition

In the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III; D. Wechsler, 1997), the manual reports several confirmatory factor analyses in support of the instrument's latent factor structure. In practice, examiners frequently compare an examinee's score from a current administration of the WAIS-III with the results from a previous test administration. Implicit in test-retest score comparisons is evidence that scores retain similar interpretive meaning across time. Establishing an instrument's factorial invariance provides the foundation for this practice. This study investigated the factorial invariance of the WAIS-III across the instrument's 13 age groups. The overall results from this study generally support both configural and factorial invariance of the WAIS-III when the 11 primary tests are administered.     

The interaction of locus of control expectancies and providing purpose on children's motivation

Children differing in locus of control orientation (internals, mediums, and externals' were administered an extended coding task following either a fictional rationale for the study (purpose incentive statement) or no purpose. As predicted, externals' performance under no purpose was significantly poorer and their rated interest in the task was significantly less favorable than those of internals. Also as predicted, these differences were nullified under the purpose incentive condition. The findings extend Lefcourt's (1967) suggestion that cue explication is important for externals to include external children, and support the position (Mischel, 1973; Rotter, 1975) that personality variables are increasingly important as a function of greater situational ambiguity. Implications of these findings for education and child-rearing are discussed.     

智能时代的工程心理学

智能技术为智能时代的工程心理学研究和应用提供了新的机遇。为此, 系统提出了智能时代工程心理学的工作框架。该工作框架包括工程心理学研究和应用的对象、核心问题空间、学科理念、研究重点、应用范围、方法等。智能时代的人机关系呈现出一种新的形式: 人机组队式的人机合作关系。“以人为中心的人工智能”应该是智能时代工程心理学的学科理念。针对智能技术, 近期工程心理学研究者开始开展围绕新型人机关系的理论框架和基本问题、人机组队中的心理结构和决策控制、人机交互等方面的研究工作。为有效支持智能系统的研发, 概括总结了一些工程心理学新方法和提升的方法。最后, 针对当前工程心理学所面对的一些挑战提出了具体的建议。     

孔子思想中的君子人格：心理学测量的探索

君子人格是中国文化(尤其是儒学思想)中的理想的人格特质, 对于理解中国文化心理具有重要意义, 但鲜有实证研究。通过经典文本的理论分析与心理测量的实证分析相结合的方法, 选取《论语》中孔子对君子的论述编制初测条目, 通过探索性和验证性因素分析、效标关联效度分析等实证研究方法(总样本量 = 1916), 对孔子思想中的君子人格的内在结构进行了探索, 并编制了具有良好信效度的测量工具。结果表明, 孔子思想中的君子人格包含了智仁勇、恭而有礼、喻义怀德、有所不为、持己无争5个因素。此外还考察了其与大五人格、中国人价值观、自我和谐、合作与竞争人格倾向、亲社会倾向等效标变量的相关关系。     

Coding for Short-Term Memory as a Function of Age

Twenty-one young (), 21 middle-aged (), and 21 old () female volunteers viewed letter sequences of 12 letters each and were required to recall the letters in exactly the same order as they saw them. In half of the sequences the letters could not be coded into meaningful units, while in the other half the letters could be chunked into three complete four-letter words. The findings indicated that the age groups did not differ from each other in the low-code condition, but that with the high-code sequences the old subjects performed significantly more poorly than either the young or middle-aged subjects. These findings suggest an age-related deficit in the coding of sequentially ordered material.     

stigma management strategies among women with physical disabilities: contrasting approaches of downplaying or claiming a disability status

The lived experiences of women with physical disabilities have received little research attention. To investigate a variety of social and interpersonal issues, in-depth tape-recorded interviews were conducted with 24 female students with physical disabilities. Findings concerning their experiences as students indicate that these women need to negotiate their disability status with able-bodied others. Respondents employ contrasting stigma management strategies of deflection, normalization, disidentifiers, and advocacy with students, faculty, and campus personnel. Women with physical disabilities either downplay or claim their disability status depending on the type of stigma (discredited or discreditable), the nature of the relationship with the audience (personal or formal), and the perceived reaction of the audience (accepting or questioning the legitimacy of the disability). Implications regarding conflicting presentations of self, divergence of strategies from normative expectations, and lack of group consciousness are discussed.     

正负性情绪的自主神经反应及应用

情绪可以唤醒自主神经系统, 伴随有一系列的生理变化。从基础研究的角度来看, 正负性情绪可以诱发心血管系统(如心率、血压、心率变异性)、皮肤电系统(如皮肤电导水平)、呼吸系统(如呼吸阻力、每分通气量)和其他系统(如瞳孔直径、胃肌电等)的活动及其变化。在应用研究方面, 正负性情绪诱发的自主神经反应可以应用在多个领域, 主要包括用户体验中的情绪测量、基于生理信号的人-机情感交互系统的开发, 以及消费者态度和偏好的测查等。对于现有研究结果中存在的分歧, 从被试的个体差异、诱导范式的不一致性和诱导效果的可靠性, 以及刺激材料属性的多样化等方面进行了分析, 指出了未来研究应该注意的问题。     

腹膜间皮细胞EMT在腹膜纤维化中的研究进展及意义

腹膜透析是终末期肾衰患者肾脏替代治疗的重要手段,腹膜纤维化导致腹透效能下降及超滤衰竭,制约着腹膜透析的应用。腹膜间皮细胞上皮细胞间充质转化是腹膜纤维化的起始和可逆环节,因此预防和逆转EMT的发生发展可能是阻止和延缓腹膜纤维化、超滤衰竭的最佳策略,并将带来巨大的社会和经济效益。