Ethical considerations in neuroimaging and its impact on decision-making for neonates

Neuroimaging can now provide information about structure and function. Despite new and improved neuroimaging technologies applicable to the newborn, predictions about later cognition, learning, social and emotional behavior, and neuromuscular capabilities, based on images of a fetus inside or a newborn outside the womb, are fraught with difficulties that go beyond technical ones. The interpretation of neuroimages may be necessary but it is not sufficient for decision-making related to the withholding or withdrawing of medical support for neonates. As the explanatory reach of neuroimaging increases, there will still need to be consideration of ethical issues as they relate to the best interests of the neonate and the neonate's parents, the quality of life of the neonate and non-beneficial treatment. Once this is appreciated, the boundary between the technical and the ethical will be less often disputed.     

Reaction time slowing in adults with HIV: results of a meta-analysis using brinley plots

A meta-analysis in the form of Brinley plots was conducted on the mean reaction times of HIV+ and HIV- groups. HIV+ reaction times were regressed on HIV- reaction times across 122 task conditions from 29 studies, producing a highly linear function (r(2) = .94), with a slope b = 1.039, which was not significantly different than b = 1.00. Asymptomatic and symptomatic HIV+ reaction times were also separately regressed on HIV- reaction times across 67 task conditions from 13 studies. Both functions were highly linear (r(2) = .97 and.90 respectively), with slopes of 1.034 and 1.117 respectively. Only the slope for symptomatic HIV+ groups was significantly larger than b = 1.00, suggesting a modest generalized slowing of cognition in these adults.     

Mechanisms of source confusion and discounting in short-term priming 2: effects of prime similarity and target duration

D. E. Huber, R. M. Shiffrin, K. B. Lyle, and K. I. Ruys (2001) tested two-alternative, forced-choice (2-AFC) perceptual identification in a short-term priming task. For repetition priming, passive viewing of primes resulted in a preference to choose repeated words, but actively responding to primes resulted in a preference against choosing repeated words. These results were explained with a computational model, responding optimally with unknown sources of evidence (ROUSE), using the offsetting mechanisms of source confusion and discounting. An analysis of ROUSE revealed conditions under which discounting efficacy should diminish, causing a preference for primed words even with active prime processing. Two new studies confirm 2 such conditions: very short target flash durations and very low similarity between primes and primed choice words. These a priori predictions contrast with the a posteriori data fits of a multinomial model developed by R. Ratcliff and G. McKoon (2001).     

Attentional control: brief and prolonged

The attention system can be viewed as a collection of modules each of which contains two components: the expression of attention and the controlling operations that produce that expression. Current theories place sites of attentional control in the anterior cortex and sites of expression in the posterior cortex. Attention to a particular location or appearance of an object is itself controlled by instruction from a supervisory system, by the pointing of an arrow cue, and by bottom-up abrupt onsets of stimuli. The control of attention is regulated by cognitive activities such a cognitive load, error monitoring, and current goals. A new development of the triangular circuit theory, together with supporting data, suggest the existence of two modes of activity in columns of attentional expression: brief enhancement of pulse processing that selects information, and prolonged fast oscillations that sustain attention during preparatory and maintenance attention. It is proposed that the direct pathway of the triangular circuit controls the selection of information in the brief attention mode while the indirect pathway through the thalamus controls the production of fast oscillations in the prolonged attention mode.     

From agape to organs: religious difference between Japan and America in judging the ethics of transplant

This essay argues that Japan's resistance to the practice of transplanting organs from persons deemed "brain dead" may not be the result, as some claim, of that society's religions being not yet sufficiently expressive of love and altruism. The violence to the body necessary for the excision of transplantable organs seems to have been made acceptable to American Christians at a unique historical "window of opportunity" for acceptance of that new form of medical technology. Traditional reserve about corpse mutilation had weakened and, especially as presented by the theologian Joseph Fletcher, organ donation was touted as both expressive of agape and a way of "updating" Christianity via the ethics of Utilitarianism. Many Japanese, largely Buddhist and Confucian in their orientation, view these changed valorizations as neither necessary nor patently more ethical than those of their own traditions.     

Effect of a total smoking ban in a maximum security psychiatric hospital

An archival study was performed in a maximum security forensic hospital to evaluate the effects of a total ban on smoking and all tobacco products. One hundred and forty patients were characterized as nonsmokers or light, moderate or heavy smokers. Patient records for the four weeks prior to the ban were compared with their records for the four weeks subsequent to the ban. Numbers of sick calls, total disruptive behaviors and verbal aggression declined markedly and significantly following the ban in those patients previously classified as moderate or heavy smokers. Weight increased significantly, but almost equally regardless of previous smoking status. Patients, and eventually staff, tolerated the smoking ban without significant negative effects. Patients relied very little on treatment modalities to alleviate nicotine withdrawal. Pre-ban apprehension by staff and patients dissipated with time after the smoking ban started.     

Infants of depressed mothers,although competent learners,fail to learn in response to their own mothers' infant-directed speech

Depressed mothers use less of the exaggerated prosody that is typical of infant-directed (ID) speech than do nondepressed mothers. We investigated the consequences of this reduced perceptual salience in ID speech for infant learning. Infants of nondepressed mothers readily learned that their mothers' speech signaled a face, whereas infants of depressed mothers failed to learn that their mothers' speech signaled the face. Infants of depressed mothers did, however, show strong learning in response to speech produced by an unfamiliar nondepressed mother. These outcomes indicate that the reduced perceptual salience of depressed mothers' ID speech could lead to deficient learning in otherwise competent learners.     

Gender role and personality disorders

Many researchers have hypothesized relationships between personality disorders and gender role (i.e., masculinity and femininity). However, research has not addressed if people who are masculine or feminine more often meet the criteria for personality disorders. The present study examined whether college students (N = 665, 60% women) higher in masculinity or femininity more often exhibited features of the 10 DSM-IV personality disorders. Feminine men exhibited more features of all the personality disorders except antisocial. Dependent traits were associated with higher femininity and lower masculinity. Antisocial traits were associated with masculinity. Both men and women who typically behaved consistent with their gender had more narcissistic and histrionic features, whereas participants who typically behaved unlike their gender had more features of the Cluster A personality disorders.     

Differential age effects for case and hue mixing in visual word recognition

The authors compare older adults' lexical-decision data with younger adults' data reported in P. Allen, A. F. Smith, et al. (2002). On the basis of their work, it was proposed that consistent-case wordswould be processed by the faster holistic (magnodominated) stream, but that mixed-case words would be processed by the slower analytic (interblob-dominated or blob-dominated) steams. Hue mixing was predicted to have no effect on consistent-case performance, but mixed-hue/mixed-case words were predicted to be recognized faster than monochrome/mixed-case words. Younger adults showed the predicted results, but older adults did not. These results suggest that holistic central processes are maintained, but that older adults exhibited an analytic decrement