Considerations for the Impact of Personal Genome Information: A Study of Genomic Profiling among Genetics and Genomics Professionals

With the expansion of genomic-based clinical applications, it is important to consider the potential impact of this information particularly in terms of how it may be interpreted and applied to personal perceptions of health. As an initial step to exploring this question, we conducted a study to gain insight into potential psychosocial and health motivations for, as well as impact associated with, undergoing testing and disclosure of individual “variomes” (catalogue of genetic variations). To enable the collection of fully informed opinions, 14 participants with advanced training in genetics underwent whole-genome profiling and received individual reports of estimated genomic ancestry, genotype data and reported disease associations. Emotional, cognitive and health behavioral impact was assessed through one-on-one interviews and questionnaires administered pre-testing and 1-week and 3-months post-testing. Notwithstanding the educational and professional bias of our study population, the results identify several areas of research for consideration within additional populations. With the development of new and less costly approaches to genome risk profiling, now available for purchase direct-to-consumers, it is essential that genome science research be conducted in parallel with studies assessing the societal and policy implications of genome information for personal use.     

Parallel, independent attentional control settings for colors and shapes

Attentional capture can be contingent on attentional control settings (ACSs), such that peripheral cues influence processing for a subsequent target only when they share a critical feature with the target. Our previous demonstration that two ACSs from within the same feature category can be maintained simultaneously allows us to investigate the processing stage at which such ACSs are implemented. We compared the relative efficacy of ACSs from two different feature categories (shape and color) that are associated with different levels within the visual processing hierarchy. Participants were instructed to respond to one of two colors at one location and one of two shapes at another location, while ignoring the nontarget color and shape. We observed that spatial capture was modulated by whether the cues fit an ACS, with slightly greater contingent capture effects for ACSs defined by color than by shape. Thus, two ACSs from different feature sets (color and shape) can be maintained in parallel, although effectiveness of the control set varied with the type of feature.     

Effects of spatial response coding on distractor processing: Evidence from auditory spatial negative priming tasks with keypress,joystick, and head movement responses

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Prior studies of spatial negative priming indicate that distractor-assigned keypress responses are inhibited as part of visual, but not auditory,...     

Future Prospects,Deprivation, and Criminality – A Longitudinal Birth Cohort Study

The article explores the longitudinal relationship between subjective and objective deprivation in early adolescence on the one hand, and criminal offending in adolescence and early adulthood on the other. Data from the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study (n = 15,117), containing information from surveys and registers are used. Bivariate analyses confirm a relationship between low socioeconomic status and both subjective and objective deprivation. Subjective deprivation alone is related to offending only for those from less privileged background. Subjective and objective deprivation in combination is associated with a higher risk of offending for all individuals, although the less privileged background, the higher the risk.