Decreasing Self-Injurious Behavior in a Student with Autism and Tourette Syndrome through Positive Attention and Extinction

This case study was conducted with a student diagnosed with autism and Tourette syndrome who displayed severe self-injurious behavior (SIB). We conducted a functional behavioral assessment which indicated that SIB was maintained by multiple functions using an ABAC design to determine the effect of positive social attention and extinction. Results show a considerable decrease in SIB incidents, particularly when session duration was reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes during the second intervention phase. Thus, the combination of contingent social attention formulated from the functional assessment and extinction was successful in bringing about significant decreases in SIB. This combination holds great promise as a nonintrusive positive strategy for SIB.     

Detecting conscious awareness from involuntary autonomic responses

Can conscious awareness be ascertained from physiological responses alone? We evaluate a novel learning-based procedure permitting detection of conscious awareness without reliance on language comprehension or behavioural responses. The method exploits a situation whereby only consciously detected violations of an expectation alter skin conductance responses (SCRs). Thirty participants listened to sequences of piano notes that, without their being told, predicted a pleasant fanfare or an aversive noise according to an abstract rule. Stimuli were presented without distraction (attended), or while distracted by a visual task to remove awareness of the rule (unattended). A test phase included occasional violations of the rule. Only participants attending the sounds reported awareness of violations and only they showed significantly greater SCR for noise occurring in violation, vs. accordance, with the rule. Our results establish theoretically significant dissociations between conscious and unconscious processing and furnish new opportunities for clinical assessment of residual consciousness in patient populations.     

Subregion-specific dendritic spine abnormalities in the hippocampus of Fmr1 KO mice

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common inherited form of mental retardation and is caused by the lack of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). In the brain, spine abnormalities have been reported in both patients with FXS and Fmr1 knockout mice. This altered spine morphology has been linked to disturbed synaptic transmission related to altered signaling in the excitatory metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) pathway. We investigated hippocampal protrusion morphology in adult Fmr1 knockout mice. Our results show a hippocampal CA1-specific altered protrusion phenotype, which was absent in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. This suggests a subregion-specific function of FMRP in synaptic plasticity in the brain.     

早孕期诊断及其相关问题分析

早孕期诊断是早期诊断的一部分。将新方法应用于早孕期诊断时,应考虑其成本效益问题。早孕期咨询应注意孕妇的年龄特征、个体化诊断和社会伦理学问题,正确诠释诊断结果,让孕妇及其配偶共同参与诊断。     

手术治疗Duane眼球后退综合征的临床分析

探讨Duane眼球后退综合征（DRS）的临床特征,鉴别诊断以及手术治疗的方法和效果。对自2003年~2010年16例因DRS行手术治疗的患者资料进行回顾性总结和分析,观察项目包括患者的性别和年龄、DRS类型和临床表现、手术治疗方式和效果。16例患者中,男7例,女9例。左眼受累11例,右眼受累5例,左眼易患病。I型10例...     

急性心理应激对多囊卵巢综合征患者的影响

为了了解PCOS患者易患抑郁症、肥胖、代谢综合征、心血管疾病、糖尿病的原因。通过对28例PCOS患者和28例体重指数、年龄匹配的健康对照组回应公众演讲压力进行分析,在回应公众演讲压力时,PCOS组和对照组均有比较显著的焦虑程度、ACTH、皮质醇、心率和血压升高（P均〈0．01）;但PCOS患者焦虑程度、ACTH、皮质醇...     

Mutual exclusivity in autism spectrum disorders: testing the pragmatic hypothesis

While there is ample evidence that children treat words as mutually exclusive, the cognitive basis of this bias is widely debated. We focus on the distinction between pragmatic and lexical constraints accounts. High-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) offer a unique perspective on this debate, as they acquire substantial vocabularies despite impoverished social-pragmatic skills. We tested children and adolescents with ASD in a paradigm examining mutual exclusivity for words and facts. Words were interpreted contrastively more often than facts. Word performance was associated with vocabulary size; fact performance was associated with social-communication skills. Thus mutual exclusivity does not appear to be driven by pragmatics, suggesting that it is either a lexical constraint or a reflection of domain-general learning processes.     

A study of Ghiselli's hobo syndrome

This study attempts to clarify conceptual and operational inconsistencies in the literature around “Ghiselli's hobo syndrome.” I propose that defining characteristics of hobo syndrome should include both the exhibition of frequent job movement behavior and positive attitudes about such behavior. This definition effectively differentiates the construct from other similar phenomena associated with frequent job movement (e.g., job/career mobility, protean careers). Using latent class cluster analysis of a diverse sample of 944 U.S. workers, it was empirically validated that a small number of individuals resembling the proposed characteristics of hobos did emerge as a distinct group (N = 42), providing person-centered evidence for the construct validity of hobo syndrome. The dispositional roots of hobo syndrome and work-related outcomes were also explored. It was found that individuals with high levels of openness to experience were likely to exhibit hobo syndrome, whereas impulsivity was not related to such tendency. Also, workers who were more likely to be categorized as hobos tended to report less positive views about their current jobs. Based on these findings, implications for research and practice are discussed.     

全身炎症反应综合征治疗新策略——胆碱能抗炎通路

全身炎症反应综合征(systemic inflammatory response syndrome,SIRS)是各种原因刺激机体产生失控的全身性炎症反应的统称,严重者可致多器官功能障碍综合征。迷走神经及其递质乙酰胆碱所构成的胆碱能抗炎通路可以有效抑制局部和全身炎症反应。本文将从胆碱能抗炎通路的作用特点分析激活胆碱能抗炎通路对全身炎症反应综合征的潜在治疗前景。     

The perception of biological and mechanical motion in female fragile X premutation carriers

Previous studies reported impaired visual information processing in patients with fragile X syndrome and in premutation carriers. In this study, we assessed the perception of biological motion (a walking point-light character) and mechanical motion (a rotating shape) in 25 female fragile X premutation carriers and in 20 healthy non-carrier controls. Stimuli were moving stimulus dots embedded among a cloud of noise dots. Sensitivity (d′) for motion detection was determined. Emotional symptoms were assessed by Hamilton’s depression and anxiety rating scales. Results revealed that the premutation carriers displayed lower sensitivities for biological and mechanical motion relative to the non-carriers. This deficit was more pronounced in the case of biological stimuli. The premutation carriers displayed higher depression and anxiety scores relative to the non-carriers. Higher depression, but not anxiety, scores were associated with decreased sensitivity for biological, but not mechanical, motion in the carrier group. These results suggest that motion perception deficits are detectable in fragile X premutation carriers, and that the impairment of biological motion perception is associated with depressive symptoms.