Mental and Motor Switching in Parkinson's Disease

Switching difficulties in Parkinson's disease (PD) are expressed in both mental and motor tasks. The authors of the present study investigated whether those deficits coexist in the same patient and are positively correlated. They tested 8 nondemented PD patients and 6 age-matched control participants by using the modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and a motor switching paradigm that is based on the task of reaching toward visual targets, the location of which could unexpectedly be altered within the reaction time. In both mental and motor tasks, patients performed significantly worse than controls. There were no significant correlations between the two types of pathology in individual patients. Mental and motor switching deteriorate in PD patients, but the deficits are not necessarily of parallel severity.

basal ganglia     

The Psychology of the Child at Geneva and the J. J. Rousseau Institute

In the present study, the authors investigated what prosocial-assertive, passive, and coercive strategies 6-year-olds (N = 257) would propose in response to stories about 2 socially challenging situations: displacing another child in a game and obtaining a toy from another child. The scenarios also varied the gender composition of the characters. Participants' verbalizations while acting out their responses using toy props fell into 13 categories of strategies. Teachers reported antisocial behavior and social competence of the participants. Girls and boys responded similarly in their general suggestions of prosocial or assertive strategies, but girls were more likely to offer prosocial strategies with other girls than with boys. Teacher-rated competence and antisocial behavior interacted in predicting coercive responses by girls but not by boys. The results demonstrate that prosocial and antisocial behaviors need to be considered in interaction to fully understand the nature of social competence.     

Behavioral Effects of Chronic Melatonin and Pregnenolone Injections in a Myelin Mutant Rat (taiep)

The taiep (tremor, ataxia, immobility, epilepsy, and paralysis) myelin mutant displays a number of locomotor deficits. Taiep rat gait is characterized by shorter stride and step lengths as well as by larger stride widths. Thirty-day-old taiep mutants were placed under a regimen of daily hormone injections for 60 days. Animals in Condition 1 received melatonin, those in Condition 2 received pregnenolone sulfate, and those in a third control condition received injections of saline. Following the injections, each taiep mutant's gait was analyzed. The animals that received melatonin and pregnenolone displayed significantly larger stride and step lengths than did the controls. In addition, the animals that received hormones displayed shorter stride widths than did the controls. These experimental effects are consistent with a normalization of gait. Possible cellular mechanisms of this behavioral effect are discussed.     

Type D personality and cardiac output in response to stress

Type D personality is predictive of adverse clinical outcome and psychological distress in cardiac patients. However, the mechanisms by which Type D affects health are largely unknown. This study (1) investigated the relationship between Type D and cardiovascular reactivity to experimentally induced stress and (2) tested the influence of Type D on subjective feelings of stress. Eighty four healthy young adults (50% males, mean (SD) age 22 (6.84) years), completed measures of Type D personality, stress arousal and a stress-inducing procedure involving a taxing mental arithmetic task. Cardiovascular measures were recorded throughout the experiment. Mixed measures ANOVA showed a significant main effect of Type D and a significant group by time effect of Type D on cardiac output in male participants. Type D males exhibit significantly higher cardiac output during the stressor phase compared to non-Type D males. However, there was no relationship between Type D and cardiovascular reactivity in females. In addition, Type D individuals exhibited significantly higher feelings of subjective stress compared to non-Type D's. These findings provide new evidence on Type D and suggest that Type D may affect health through increased cardiac output and higher subjective feelings of stress following acute stress.     

Mothers' and fathers' coping with chronic childhood disease

Abstract

Mothers and fathers with a child with diabetes, asthma, cardiac conditions, epilepsy or leukaemia completed questionnaires to investigate their appraisal of disease-related difficulties and patterns of coping. There were differences both in appraised difficulties and coping patterns as a function of diagnostic group. In general, mothers who perceived more difficulties reported that it was helpful to cope by gaining disease-related knowledge. Fathers who perceived more difficulties reported it was more helpful to adopt strategies to enhance their own personal autonomy. Fathers who perceived more difficulties also reported that contact with medical staff was less helpful. Implications are discussed in terms of the differential implications of coping with chronic childhood diseases for mothers and fathers. Theoretical models need to take into account the differential demands of specific diseases in accounting for parents' stress appraisal and coping patterns.     

Coping strategies,depressive symptoms and quality of life in hypertensive patients: Mediational and prospective relations

This study examined whether depressive symptoms mediated the association between coping strategies and quality of life (QoL) in a sample of hypertensive patients, and the prospective contribution of depressive symptoms and coping strategies in the prediction of their QoL. One hundred and fifty patients (50% males and 50% females) with a diagnosis of essential hypertension were recruited from a general hospital. Symptoms of depression, coping and QoL measures (global score and dimensions) were collected at baseline. Sixty-three participants completed the QoL questionnaire again one year later (T2). The results indicated that the relations between emotion coping and QoL (global score, satisfaction and social support) were totally mediated by depressive symptoms. The association between emotion coping and well-being was, however, partially mediated by depressive symptoms. Furthermore, only baseline instrumental coping strategies predicted higher levels of QoL (global score, well-being and social support) at T2. Neither emotion coping nor depressive symptoms were significantly associated with prospective QoL. These findings suggest that depressive symptoms may be a mechanism linking the manner in which patients cope with their hypertension and their QoL. They also emphasise the adaptive role played by instrumental coping responses in the management of hypertension in the long term.     

Illness perceptions and coping explain well-being in patients with Huntington's disease

This study sought to investigate the contribution of illness perceptions and coping mechanisms to the explanation of well-being of patients with Huntington's disease (HD). We investigated the Leventhal et al. assumption of the Self-regulation Model that coping mediates the relationship between illness perceptions and patients’ well-being. Illness perceptions, coping, and well-being in 77 HD patients were assessed with validated questionnaires; motor performance and cognitive performance were assessed with Huntington's disease-specific measures. The assumption that illness perceptions influence HD patients’ well-being via coping was not supported. The results indicate that both coping and illness perceptions made a major contribution to the explanation of variance in HD patients’ psychosocial well-being. Variance in their physical well-being was explained by illness perceptions mainly. The need to conduct further research on the interrelationships between illness perceptions, coping, and well-being in this patient category is discussed.     

Interpreting coronary-prone behaviour: Relationships among type a behaviour,hopelessness, anger management and social contact

Abstract

Two approaches to interpreting relationships among psychosocial risk factors for coronary heart disease are contrasted: the profile approach which focuses on predictive validity and confounding; and the theoretical approach which emphasises internal validity. These approaches are explored by applying them to a set of correlations found among Type A behaviour, hopelessness, anger management and social contact in a female sample. Type A behaviour was positively correlated with hopelessness and with anger expression, whilst anger management was related to the availability of social contact. The relationships between Type A, anger expression and hopelessness also appeared to be moderated by degree of social contact. These results are interpreted from the profile perspective and from that of Price's cognitive social learning theory. The relative merits of the two approaches are considered and a case is made for encouraging more theoretically based research on coronary-prone behaviour.     

The Racial and Ethnic Identity Formation Process of Second‐Generation Asian Indian Americans: A Phenomenological Study

This phenomenological study elucidates the identity development processes of 12 second‐generation adult Asian Indian Americans. The results identify salient sociocultural factors and multidimensional processes of racial and ethnic identity development. Discrimination, parental, and community factors seemed to play a salient role in influencing participants’ racial and ethnic identity development. The emergent Asian Indian American racial and ethnic identity model provides a contextualized overview of key developmental periods and turning points within the process of identity development. Este estudio fenomenológico dilucida los procesos de desarrollo de la indentidad de 12 individuos Americano‐Indoasiáticos adultos. Los resultados identifican factores socioculturales destacados y procesos multidimensionales del desarrollo de la identidad racial y étnica. Los factores de discriminación, paternos y comunitarios parecieron jugar un papel destacado en su influencia sobre el desarrollo de la identidad racial y étnica de los participantes. El modelo emergente de identidad racial y étnica Americano‐Indoasiática proporciona una visión general contextualizada de los periodos clave del desarrollo y los puntos de inflexión durante el proceso del desarrollo de la identidad.     

Exploring the transitional process from receiving a diagnosis to living with motor neurone disease

Motor neurone disease (MND) is a rapidly progressing neurodegenerative condition that results in a marked reduction in life expectancy. Currently, little is known about the experiences of people after they have received this diagnosis and the effect of this on their sense of self and identity. In this study, interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore both the personal and lived experiences of people with MND. Seven people diagnosed with MND within the previous six months were recruited. The three themes constructed from the participants’ accounts were ‘Then they dropped the bomb shell’; Receiving a diagnosis of MND; ‘Getting on with it’; Learning to live with MND; and ‘A lot of normal life is lost’; Experiencing progressive loss. Participants described receiving a diagnosis as a devastating experience but most participants were able to accept their diagnosis and employ adaptive strategies to cope with increasing levels of functional decline. However, in spite of this, the participants experienced functional changes that affected their identity, social status and social relationships.