Prevalence, symptoms and distribution of oppositional defiant disorder

The purpose of this work was to determine the epidemiological evolution of the Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) in adolescents, using a sample of Secondary School students of the region of Campo de Gibraltar (Cadiz). The students' age ranged from 12 to 16 years old. Two evaluations were completed, the first one during the school year 2001-2002 and the second one in the school year 2006-2007. The sample comprised 2310 students in the first study and 2351 students in the second one. We used a comparative-selective approach. The results of the comparison revealed a prevalence ranging from 3.77% to 3.83% of students with this disorder, maintaining the main symptoms and with some changes in its distribution as a function of the school grade. Indeed, the data showed more cases in the final courses (1st study) in contrast with a higher concentration of cases in the initial courses (2nd study). With regard to the frequency of ODD by sex, we found that whereas in the earlier study (2001-2002), the relationship between boys and girls was 3.5:1, in the school year 2006/2007, the number of boys with ODD quadrupled the number of girls.     

Evidence against the myth of adjustment problems of people with high intellectual abilities

Personal and social adjustment of high-ability children and adolescents is a very important issue in the specialized literature. The differences found between data for and against appropriate adjustment in gifted children and adolescents could be explained by conceptual or methodological biases. In this work, the relation between adjustment and high abilities are contrasted in a sample of teenagers from the Canary Islands, using a screening procedure based on their scores in intelligence tests. Results show that, although gifted adolescents differ significantly from their peers in the control group in socio-economic variables and academic performance, there are no differences in personal, social and educational adjustment. We conclude that adjustment problems and high ability are independent variables, and there is no evidence to support that gifted individuals have adjustment problems.     

Feeling happy enhances early spatial encoding of peripheral information automatically: electrophysiological time-course and neural sources

Previous research has shown that positive mood may broaden attention, although it remains unclear whether this effect has a perceptual or a postperceptual locus. In this study, we addressed this question using high-density event-related potential methods. We randomly assigned participants to a positive or a neutral mood condition. Then they performed a demanding oddball task at fixation (primary task ensuring fixation) and a localization task of peripheral stimuli shown at three positions in the upper visual field (secondary task) concurrently. While positive mood did not influence behavioral performance for the primary task, it did facilitate stimulus localization on the secondary task. At the electrophysiological level, we found that the amplitude of the C1 component (reflecting an early retinotopic encoding of the stimulus in V1) was enhanced in the positive, as compared with the neutral, mood group. Importantly, this effect appeared to be largely automatic, because it occurred regardless of the task relevance of the peripheral stimulus and prior to top-down gain control effects seen at the level of the subsequent P1 component. This early effect was also observed irrespective of a change of the target-related P300 component (primary task) by positive mood. These results suggest that positive mood can automatically boost the spatial encoding of peripheral stimuli early on following stimulus onset. This effect can eventually underlie the broadening of spatial attention, which has been associated with this specific mood state.     

Enhancing theory of mind in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia with transcranial direct current stimulation

Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a form of frontotemporal degeneration characterized by early changes in personality, emotional blunting, and/or loss of empathy. Recent research has highlighted that these features may be at least partially explained by impairments in the theory of mind (ToM; i.e., the ability to understand and predict other people’s behaviour by attributing independent mental states to them). The aim of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to test the hypothesis that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the medial frontal cortex (MFC) selectively enhances communicative intention processing, a specific ToM ability. Using a single-session online design, we administered a ToM task that measures the ability to represent other people’s private and communicative intentions during active or sham tDCS to 16 bvFTD patients. To assess the impact of dementia on performance on the ToM task, we included 16 age-matched healthy volunteers who were asked to perform the entire experimental ToM task. BvFTD is characterized by an impairment in the comprehension of both communicative and private intentions relative to a healthy control group and by a disproportional impairment in communicative intention compared with private intention processing. Significant and selective accuracy improvement in the comprehension of communicative intentions after active stimulation was observed in patients with bvFTD. This is the first study that analyses ToM ability in patients with bvFTD using tDCS stimulation. Our findings could potentially contribute to the development of an effective, noninvasive brain stimulation treatment of ToM impairments in patients with bvFTD.     

When is a lie acceptable? Work and private life lying acceptance depends on its beneficiary

In this article we show that when analyzing attitude towards lying in a cross-cultural setting, both the beneficiary of the lie (self vs other) and the context (private life vs. professional domain) should be considered. In a study conducted in Estonia, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden (N = 1345), in which participants evaluated stories presenting various types of lies, we found usefulness of relying on the dimensions. Results showed that in the joint sample the most acceptable were other-oriented lies concerning private life, then other-oriented lies in the professional domain, followed by egoistic lies in the professional domain; and the least acceptance was shown for egoistic lies regarding one’s private life. We found a negative correlation between acceptance of a behavior and the evaluation of its deceitfulness.     

The own‐age face recognition bias is task dependent

The own‐age bias (OAB) in face recognition (more accurate recognition of own‐age than other‐age faces) is robust among young adults but not older adults. We investigated the OAB under two different task conditions. In Experiment 1 young and older adults (who reported more recent experience with own than other‐age faces) completed a match‐to‐sample task with young and older adult faces; only young adults showed an OAB. In Experiment 2 young and older adults completed an identity detection task in which we manipulated the identity strength of target and distracter identities by morphing each face with an average face in 20% steps. Accuracy increased with identity strength and facial age influenced older adults' (but not younger adults') strategy, but there was no evidence of an OAB. Collectively, these results suggest that the OAB depends on task demands and may be absent when searching for one identity.     

Amygdala or hippocampus inactivation after retrieval induces temporary memory deficit

The hypothesis that memory is stored through a single stage of consolidation that results in a stable and lasting long-term memory has been challenged by the proposition that reactivation of a memory induces reconsolidation of the memory. The reconsolidation hypothesis is supported by evidence that, under some conditions, post-retrieval treatments affecting amygdala and hippocampus functioning impair subsequent retention performance. We now report that repeated retention testing attenuates the performance impairment induced by post-retrieval reversible inactivation of the amygdala and hippocampus of rats induced by tetrodotoxin. These findings challenge the reconsolidation hypothesis and suggest that the post-retrieval retention performance impairment is best explained as due to temporary retrieval failure.     

Evaluation of school-based child sexual abuse prevention program

The aim of the present work is to evaluate the efficacy of a program entitled "Prevention of child sexual abuse" the first structured program in Spain designed to prevent such risks. With this purpose, we carried out a study of 382 minors with ages ranging between 8 and 12 years. The result s show that the program has a very positive impact, increasing the awareness of the minors about this type of risk and improving their skills for coping with a possible event of sexual abuse. The efficacy of the program is also apparent, at the level of secondary prevention, in that it increased the likelihood that the children would reveal such events. Finally, exploration of the possible adverse effects of the program showed that the negative effects observed by parents and educators are negligible.     

Theory and research in Mexican social psychology

Social psychology in Mexico has its roots in the early 20th century as a field with the objective of recognizing the ethnic character of its people. Influences from the United States and Europe, combined with indigenous thinkers gave way to the growth of a psychological, a sociological and a cultural perspective. In addition, as it occurs in spaces were smooth and amiable interpersonal relationships are paramount, and social, economic and political problems thrive, a unique applied tradition has emerged. In order to offer a concise but at the same time broad view of Mexican social psychology, theory and research trends, both classical and contemporary are reviewed, offering examples of prevailing methodologies and findings.     

Estructura morfológica y recuperación léxica

Resumen

El objetivo principal de esta investigación es el de contribuir a un mayor conocimiento del papel que desempeña la estructura morfológica de las palabras en la organización del léxico interno y, por consiguiente, en las estrategias que emplean los sujetos para acceder a la representación mental de las palabras. Más en concreto, se trata de ver cuál es la relación existente entre la representación de la forma base de una palabra (por ej., flor) y la de formas derivadas de la misma (por ej., florero, florecer, florido) de cara a una posible simplificación del inventario mental de entradas léxicas.

Se han realizado tres experimentos, basados en una tarea de decisión léxica y en la utilización de la técnica de «priming» o presentación previa de un supuesto elemento facilitador del reconocimiento de cada estímulo. Se midió la latencia de respuesta para clasificar los estímulos como palabras o no-palabras del idioma. Los dos primeros experimentos se efectuaron bajo la modalidad visual de reconocimiento y el tercero, bajo la modalidad auditiva. En todos los casos, las comparaciones relevantes se establecen entre los TRs correspondientes a una misma palabra en condiciones experimentales diferentes: según vaya precedida por sí misma, o por una relacionada morfológicamente, o cuando no vaya precedida ni por sí misma ni por otra relacionada (condición de control).

Los resultados obtenidos bajo las dos modalidades perceptivas son coincidentes y ponen de manifiesto que: 1) se da un efecto de facilitación en el reconocimiento, tanto al presentar una palabra precedida por sí misma (repetición) como al presentarla precedida por otra relacionada morfológicamente; 2) el efecto de facilitación por repetición es significativamente superior al de facilitación por relación morfológica; y 3) dentro de este último no aparecen diferencias significativas entre la facilitación de la forma base por la derivada y la de ésta por aquélla.

Estos resultados se interpretan a la luz de los distintos modelos propuestos acerca de la representación léxica. Sin que sean cruciales para decidirse por uno de ellos en contra de los otros, sí que parecen apoyar la existencia de un código de representación abstracto que aglutina familias de palabras relacionadas morfológicamente en torno a una misma entrada léxica. En cualquier caso, y aun suponiendo que hubiera entradas léxicas distintas para cada forma particular, sería preciso postular algún mecanismo adicional que diera cuenta del papel que desempeña la información morfológica en la organización general del léxico interno.