A Systematic Review of Ethnoracial Participation in Randomized Clinical Trials of Behavioral Activation

As of the last available NIH report, people of color (POC) constituted 28.1% of enrollment across all U.S. domestic clinical trials. The literature on prevalence rates of depression among POC is mixed. While the prevalence rates of depression may vary across POC, it remains unknown to what degree POC have been included in outcome clinical trials of depression since NIH’s mandates for inclusion of minorities in clinical outcome research. Following PRISMA guidelines, the present review identified randomized controlled trials of behavioral activation from 1989 to 2021 using the following search engines: PsycINFO, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. We reviewed 5,247 articles and included 28 articles that met full inclusion criteria (n = 5,169 participants). Across studies included in this review, 70% were non-Latinx White, 14.1% were African American, 8.9% were Latinx, 0.5% were Asian, 2.9% were other, and 3.7% were unknown. Results indicated an increase in representation of ethnoracial inclusion rates across time and that recruitment method was not associated with adequate inclusion of POC. However, the university setting was associated with inadequate representation of POC.     

Acceptability of Behavioral Activation for Depression Among Latinas: A Mixed Methods Study

Latinxs represent the largest ethnoracial minority population in the United States. Despite having significant rates of depression, Latinxs underutilize behavioral health services. This, combined with the association between gender and depression (women have higher rates of depression than men), underscores the importance of developing an improved understanding of how Latinas view behavioral activation (BA), an empirically supported treatment for depression. In this mixed methods study, participants consisted of 77 Latinas; participants were provided with a vignette depicting a fictional character that underwent BA for depression. Participants in the quantitative study completed a measure of treatment acceptability of BA (n = 60); participants in the qualitative study completed a semistructured interview assessing their views on BA (n = 17). Latinas had generally positive attitudes about BA, although they also identified some elements that they perceived might act as barriers to treatment success. Because we were interested in the interplay of cultural factors and treatment acceptability, we also examined enculturation and acculturation as predictors of treatment acceptability—enculturation only was a significant predictor treatment acceptability. Our sample was relatively small, social desirability may have influenced our responses, and it is not known to what extent our results generalize to Latinx men. Latina women find BA to be an acceptable treatment for depression, which suggests promise with regard to clinical outcomes for depressed Latinas receiving BA. Addressing potential barriers to treatment engagement may improve outcomes for depressed Latinas receiving BA.     

The role of subjective theories for leadership evaluation

This study reviews prior construct-related validity research in assessment centres. Special focus is placed on disentangling possible explanations for the construct-related validity findings. The conclusion is that we now have a much better picture of the reasons behind the construct-related validity findings. Careful assessment centre design and high interrater reliability among assessors seem necessary albeit insufficient conditions to establish assessment centre construct-related validity. The nature of candidate performances is another key factor. This study next discusses how these empirical findings have changed how assessment centres are conceptualized (theoretical advancements framed in the application of trait activation theory), analysed (methodological advancements), and designed (practical advancements).     

The influence of task characteristics on younger and older adult motor overflow

This study investigated the influence of attentional and motor demands on motor overflow in 17 healthy young (18–35 years) and 17 older adults (60–80 years). Participants performed a finger pressing task by exerting either 33% or 66% of their maximal force output using their dominant or nondominant hand. Overflow was concurrently recorded in the passive hand. Attention was manipulated via a tactile stimulus presented to one or both hands for certain trials. Results showed that older adults exhibited greater overflow than young adults and that the effect of target force was exacerbated in older adults. Further, only older adult overflow was increased when tactile stimulation was directed to one or both hands. Increased overflow in older adults may result from bilateral cortical activation that is influenced by increased task demands. To perform comparatively to younger adults, older adults may compensate for age-related brain changes by recruiting an increased cortical network.     

Semantic activation and letter search: Blocking or suppression?

Two experiments investigated associative priming with a letter-search prime task where either the prime and letter probe were presented simultaneously, or the letter probe appeared 200 ms (Experiment 1) or 300 ms (Experiment 2) after the prime. Weak associative priming was observed in both experiments, but unlike Stolz and Besner (1996) we found no evidence that priming was increased when the probe was delayed. However, strong associative priming was observed when a semantic decision had to be made on the prime (Experiment 3). Our results are consistent with an account where semantic activation of the prime occurs but its action on the target is suppressed by the prime task. The persistence of weak priming effects with the letter search task is explained in terms of the low-frequency items used.     

Mug handle affordance and automatic response inhibition: Behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

Behavioural evidence has shown that the perception of an object's handle automatically activates the corresponding action representation. The activation appears to be inhibited if the object is a task-irrelevant prime mug that is presented very briefly prior to responding to the target arrow. The present study uses an electrophysiological indicator of automatic response priming, the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), to investigate the mechanisms of this inhibition effect. We presumed that this effect would reflect motor self-inhibition processes. The self-inhibition explanation of the effect would assume that the effect reflects activation-followed-by-inhibition observed rapidly after the offset of the prime at the primary motor cortex. However, the results showed that the effect is not associated with modulation of the early LRP deflections. In contrast, the inhibition manifested itself in the later LRP deflections that we assume to be linked to interference in the processing of response-related aspects of the target. We propose that the LRP pattern is similar to what would be predicted from the negative priming explanation of the effect. The study sheds light on understanding inhibition mechanisms associated with automatically activated affordance representations.     

Are Automatic Imitation and Spatial Compatibility Mediated by Different Processes?

Automatic imitation or “imitative compatibility” is thought to be mediated by the mirror neuron system and to be a laboratory model of the motor mimicry that occurs spontaneously in naturalistic social interaction. Imitative compatibility and spatial compatibility effects are known to depend on different stimulus dimensions—body movement topography and relative spatial position. However, it is not yet clear whether these two types of stimulus–response compatibility effect are mediated by the same or different cognitive processes. We present an interactive activation model of imitative and spatial compatibility, based on a dual‐route architecture, which substantiates the view they are mediated by processes of the same kind. The model, which is in many ways a standard application of the interactive activation approach, simulates all key results of a recent study by Catmur and Heyes (2011) . Specifically, it captures the difference in the relative size of imitative and spatial compatibility effects; the lack of interaction when the imperative and irrelevant stimuli are presented simultaneously; the relative speed of responses in a quintile analysis when the imperative and irrelevant stimuli are presented simultaneously; and the different time courses of the compatibility effects when the imperative and irrelevant stimuli are presented asynchronously.     

Functional cerebral changes in multiple sclerosis patients during an autobiographical memory test

Our aim was to investigate the functional underpinnings of autobiographical memory (AM) impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. To that end, 18 patients and 18 controls underwent the autobiographical interview (AI). Subsequently, the 36 participants underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session designed to assess the construction and elaboration of AMs. A categorical control task was also presented. Patients were trained in the fMRI procedure to optimise the procedural aspects accompanying the task itself. Although the patients obtained significantly poorer AI scores (p < .001), their performance on the easier AM fMRI task was efficiently carried out, allowing relevant comparisons with healthy controls. Relatively to healthy controls, the patients showed increased and bilateral cerebral activations (p < .005) during the construction and elaboration phases. The prefrontal, temporal and posterior cerebral region activations were located within the core network sustaining AM, with the bilateral prefrontal region being centrally involved. The parametric neural responses to the difficulty of access and amount of details of memories were also significantly different for the two groups, with the right hippocampal region showing a particularly increased recruitment (p < .005). The findings suggested the presence of functional cerebral changes during AM performance and supported the presence of AM retrieval deficit in MS patients.     

On the Escaig obstacle hypothesis for cross-slip in face-centered-cubic materials

There is a significant body of literature wherein a linear approximation of Escaig's model is used to justify the large experimentally measured activation-volumes for cross-slip in face-centered-cubic copper. Here, by examining the error between the linear approximation and the original theory, we show that this explanation is not satisfactory. The calculated value for activation volume in copper, using Escaig's original equations, yields ～60b ³ (b?=?Burgers vector) while the linear approximation yields 200b ³, the latter result fortuitously matching the experimental values.     

双血供胸大肌皮瓣修补咽颈部缺损

探讨双血供胸大肌皮瓣修补咽颈部缺损的可行性。介绍应用双血供胸大肌皮瓣修补咽颈部缺损36例,窄蒂胸大肌皮瓣修补咽颈部缺损7例。结果前者愈合23例,出血3例,感染5例,咽瘘5例,皮瓣坏死无;后者愈合2例,出血1例,感染1例,咽瘘2例,皮瓣坏死1例。双血供胸大肌皮瓣修补咽颈部缺损更利于术后愈合、预防咽瘘。