fMRI of parents of children with Asperger Syndrome: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: People with autism or Asperger Syndrome (AS) show altered patterns of brain activity during visual search and emotion recognition tasks. Autism and AS are genetic conditions and parents may show the 'broader autism phenotype.' AIMS: (1) To test if parents of children with AS show atypical brain activity during a visual search and an empathy task; (2) to test for sex differences during these tasks at the neural level; (3) to test if parents of children with autism are hyper-masculinized, as might be predicted by the 'extreme male brain' theory. METHOD: We used fMRI during a visual search task (the Embedded Figures Test (EFT)) and an emotion recognition test (the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' (or Eyes) test). SAMPLE: Twelve parents of children with AS, vs. 12 sex-matched controls. DESIGN: Factorial analysis was used to map main effects of sex, group (parents vs. controls), and sexxgroup interaction on brain function. An ordinal ANOVA also tested for regions of brain activity where females>males>fathers=mothers, to test for parental hyper-masculinization. RESULTS ON EFT TASK: Female controls showed more activity in extrastriate cortex than male controls, and both mothers and fathers showed even less activity in this area than sex-matched controls. There were no differences in group activation between mothers and fathers of children with AS. The ordinal ANOVA identified two specific regions in visual cortex (right and left, respectively) that showed the pattern Females>Males>Fathers=Mothers, both in BA 19. RESULTS ON EYES TASK: Male controls showed more activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus than female controls, and both mothers and fathers showed even more activity in this area compared to sex-matched controls. Female controls showed greater bilateral inferior frontal activation than males. This was not seen when comparing mothers to males, or mothers to fathers. The ordinal ANOVA identified two specific regions that showed the pattern Females>Males>Mothers=Fathers: left medial temporal gyrus (BA 21) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 44). CONCLUSIONS: Parents of children with AS show atypical brain function during both visual search and emotion recognition, in the direction of hyper-masculinization of the brain. Because of the small sample size, and lack of age-matching between parents and controls, such results constitute a pilot study that needs replicating with larger samples.     

Decision-Making during Games by Professional Handball Coaches Using Regulatory Focus Theory

The main goal of this study, based on regulatory focus theory, is to assess the effects of the reward structure on the defensive strategy of handball teams. The results show that (a) a promotional defensive strategy is more often preferred in the second half of the second half-time than in any other game period and (b) second-division coaches are more likely to put their players in regulatory fit situations than are first-division coaches, and could, thus, be more influenced by affordance situations than first-division coaches, who would be more concerned with the ratio of strength between the teams.     

El tratamiento de la impulsividad infantil: Autoinstrucciones versus solución de problemas

Resumen

El objetivo del presente trabajo es comparar la eficacia de dos tratamientos, Autoinstrucciones (AI) y Solución de Problemas (SP), en la reducción de la impulsividad infantil y la mejora del rendimiento escolar. Alumnos impulsivos (seleccionados a partir del MFF-20) de cuarto y quinto de EGB (n = 18) fueron asignados a una de las dos condiciones de tratamiento, de dieciocho sesiones, o a un grupo control. Los resultados indican una superior eficacia del tratamiento de SP, ya que las latencias sobre el test MFF-20 aumentaron (p <.01) Y además, tanto en latencias como en errores, diferían de los otros dos grupos al terminar el tratamiento (p <.01). En cuanto al rendimiento escolar, los efectos de ambos tratamientos han sido mínimos, aunque sugieren también cierta superioridad del SP. Estos resultados señalan la necesidad de analizar en los programas multicomponentes el grado de contribución de cada procedimiento a la reducción de la impulsividad, concretamente el componente AI no parece contribuir decisivamente a ello.     

Incidental emotions associated with uncertainty appraisals impair decisions in the Iowa Gambling Task

With the Appraisal Tendency Framework, it has been established that (un)certainty appraisals associated with incidental emotions trigger the kind of information processing to cope with situation. We tested the impact of (un)certainty-associated emotions on a sequential task, the Iowa Gambling Task. In this task, intuitive processing is necessary to lead participants to rely on emotional cues arising from previous decisions and to making advantageous decisions. We predicted that certainty-associated emotions would engage participants in intuitive processing, whereas uncertainty-associated emotions would engage them in deliberative processing and lead them to make disadvantageous decisions. As expected, we observed in two distinct experiments, that participants induced to feel uncertainty (fear, sadness) were found to decide less advantageously than participants induced to feel certainty (anger, happiness, disgust).     

Hemispheric lateralization in aging: Interest of the verbal-manual concurrency paradigm

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the classic asymmetry seen in hemispheric functioning is modified in older adults by using a verbal-manual concurrency task. Method: Thirty-five right-handed participants divided into two groups according to age (15 older participants, mean age: 68 ± 8 years, without cognitive decline and 20 younger participants, mean age: 23 ± 2 years) had to perform a 30-second uni-manual tapping task, in both a single task (tapping alone) and dual task (tapping and performing a letter fluency task together) condition. Results: In younger participants, the letter fluency task disrupted the right hand more than the left hand whereas, in older participants, the letter fluency task disrupted both hands equally. Conclusion: These results should be considered preliminary data using a behavioral dual task condition, which might be useful for studying lateralized hemispheric functioning and the processes of divided attention during aging.     

Technical note on the joint receipt of quantities of a single good

The joint receipt of x and y is the fact of receiving them both. If x and y are objects that are valued, their joint receipt is valued as well. Assumming joint receipt is a binary operation that satisfies the conditions of extensive measurement, there is a numerical representation that is additive over joint receipt. We consider the case where x and y are quantities of the same infinitely divisible good. Different sets of assumptions are explored. Invariance with respect to multiplication proves to be interesting. Invariance with respect to addition yields a linear form. A relaxation of the latter yields an approximately linear form. Finally, we consider a non-commutative but bisymmetric joint-receipt operation with a representation arising from preferences over gambles.     

Payment by Results Systems: A Review of Research 1945–1985

Le taux d'utilisation des systemés de "Payment by results" (PBR) varie considerablement selon les pays, aussi bien en Europe de l'ouest que de Test. Les donnees disponibles laissent entendre que les pays de Test appliquent le PBR a la plupart de leurs travailleurs. Parmi les pays de l'ouest, l'lrlande et le Royaume Uni se placent a un niveau eleve, tandis que les Pays-Bas sont en queue de liste. II est surprenant que des bilans des recherches sur l'efficacite comparee du PBR et des systemés de salaire fixe ne soient pas disponibles. Dans notre travail, les donnees sont dans la mesure du possible presentees par systemés distincts a partir desquels on discute les recherches portant sur l'efficacite relative du PBR. Le "merit rating" est decevant. Le "Scanlon Plan" donne des résultats encourageants. Toutefois, la plupart des donnees interdis-ent d'inferer avec certitude sur les relations causales. On insiste sur quelques-uns des domaines que la recherche se doit d'explorer et sur les conditions favorisant I'elaboration et le choix de strategies pertinentes de remuneration.