Cognitive impairment and whole brain diffusion in patients with neuromyelitis optica after acute relapse

The objective of this study investigated cognitive impairments and their correlations with fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) without visible lesions on conventional brain MRI during acute relapse. Twenty one patients with NMO and 21 normal control subjects received several cognitive tests to assess cognitive function. Head diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of all patients with NMO were collected with a 3-T MR system. Correlations of cognitive test scores and whole brain FA and MD were examined by voxel-based analysis. Region-of-interest analysis was applied to the significantly correlated regions which the most frequently appeared. We found that NMO patients without visible brain lesions had significantly impaired learning and memory, decreased information processing speed, and damaged attention compared with normal control subjects. These impaired cognitive domains were significantly correlated with FA and MD in local regions of corpus callosum, anterior cingulate and medial frontal cortex. In corpus callosum of NMO patients, mean FA was significantly lower and mean MD higher than normal control subjects. Our findings suggest that cognitive impairments in learning and memory, information processing speed and attention occur in NMO patients without visible brain lesions during acute relapse. The impairments in immediate and short-term memory in NMO patients may be due to information encoding deficits in the process of information acquisition. The corpus callosum of such patients may have local microscopic damages that play a role in cognitive impairments during acute relapse.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FALSE‐POSITIVE OUTCOMES DURING FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES OF PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

False‐positive outcomes of functional analyses exist when exposure to the consequences in a condition strengthens a relation that did not previously exist. Two functional analyses (aggression and spitting) were conducted with a child with an intellectual disability. High rates of problem behavior occurred immediately in the attention condition of the functional analysis across response topographies, suggesting a clear functional response class. However, rates of aggression and spitting increased in the demand condition, following the initial block of sessions, indicating the possible creation of a novel contingent relation for spitting. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward a ‘Catholic’ Reading of Kierkegaard

Historically, some Catholic readers have been suspicious of Kierkegaard's writings; viewing him as an irrational Protestant irreconcilably at odds with Catholic thought. Nevertheless, the unexpected yet favorable mention of Kierkegaard in John Paul II's Fides et Ratio is an indication that Kierkegaard's writings are not so easily dismissed. One may be justified in asking: what account can be given to explain such a shift in how the Catholic reception of Kierkegaard changes from a polemical rejection to a papal endorsement during the 20th century? In this review essay, I will explore some recent Kierkegaard research that provides – or at least, provides some of the groundwork for – a positive ‘Catholic’ reading of Kierkegaard. Space does not permit an exhaustive exposition of each book, so I will highlight the salient features of each to underscore a new trend that is emerging in Kierkegaard studies.     

Coping with COVID-19: Longitudinal Impact of the Pandemic on Adjustment and Links with Coping for Adolescents with and without ADHD

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Understanding factors that foster resilience and buffer against the negative psychological impact of COVID-19 is critical to inform efforts to...     

Parental Psychological Control and Adolescents’ Problematic Mobile Phone Use: The Serial Mediation of Basic Psychological Need Experiences and Negative Affect

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Drawing on self-determination theory and problem-behavior theory, we tested the relation between parental psychological control and adolescents’...     

Longitudinal Association of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo with Depression in Adolescents and the Possible Role of Peer Victimization

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - It is unknown whether sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is prospectively associated with depression in adolescence, and possible processes linking...     

The Sex-Based Harassment Inventory: A Gender Status Threat Measure of Sex-Based Harassment Intentions

Sex Roles - We introduce a new inventory measuring sex-based harassment intentions and threat perceptions grounded in gender status threat theories (Berdahl, 2007; Stephan et al., 2016). In Study 1...     

Mental Disorders Associated with COVID-19 Related Unemployment

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on economic activities have resulted in a sharp rise of unemployment. The purpose of this research is to explore mental disorders associated with COVID-19 related unemployment using a large, nationally representative dataset, the 2020 COVID-19 Household Pulse Survey. ANOVA with post hoc tests (Tukey HSD) are utilized to reveal the mean difference of mental disorders between various employment status, as well as between reasons of unemployment. Binary logit model is used to investigate the potential effect of different reasons of unemployment on mental disorders. Individuals who were not working during the pandemic due to involuntary reasons had higher probabilities of mental disorders than those who were working and those who voluntarily separated from work. Among respondents who were not working due to COVID-19 related reasons, respondents whose employer went out of business were the most likely to experience mental disorders. Household job uncertainty in the next four weeks positively contributed to mental disorders. Government should consider measures to contain the spread of virous while keeping as many people employed as possible. Government should also consider providing adequate financial and counseling assistance to individuals who are in the greatest need for such support.

     

Purity matters more than harm in moral judgments of suicide: Response to Gray (2014)

Many people judge suicide to be immoral. We have found evidence that these moral judgments are primarily predicted by people’s belief that suicide taints the soul and by independent concerns about purity. This finding is inconsistent with accounts that define morality as fundamentally based upon harm considerations. In this commentary, we respond to a critique of our finding, and we provide further support for our original conclusions. Even when applying new exclusion criteria to our data, an examination of effect sizes demonstrates that concerns about purity robustly and meaningfully explain variance in moral judgments of suicide. While harm concerns sometimes predict moral judgments of suicide alongside purity concerns, they reliably explain a much smaller proportion of the variance than do purity concerns. Therefore, data from six studies continue to suggest that the relevance of harm concerns for moral judgments of suicide is substantially overshadowed by the contribution of purity concerns.