Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan: A Neuroconstructivist Approach.

Objectives. To investigate neuropsychological and neurobehavioral outcome in children with arterial ischemic stroke (AIS).

Background. Childhood stroke can have consequences on motor, cognitive, and behavioral development. We present a cross-sectional study of neuropsychological and neurobehavioral outcome at least one year poststroke in a uniquely homogeneous sample of children who had experienced AIS.

Method. Forty-nine children with AIS aged 6 to 18 years were recruited from a specialist clinic. Neuropsychological measures of intelligence, reading comprehension, attention, and executive function were administered. A triangulation of data collection included questionnaires completed by the children, their parents, and teachers, rating behavior, executive functions, and emotions.

Key Findings. Focal neuropsychological vulnerabilities in attention (response inhibition and dual attention) and executive function were found, beyond general intellectual functioning, irrespective of hemispheric side of stroke. Difficulties with emotional and behavioral regulation were also found. Consistent with an “early plasticity” hypothesis, earlier age of stroke was associated with better performance on measures of executive function.

Conclusions. A significant proportion of children poststroke are at long-term risk of difficulties with emotional regulation, executive function, and attention. Data also suggest that executive functions are represented in widespread networks in the developing brain and are vulnerable to unilateral injury.     

Monitoring and meta-metacognition in the own-race bias

Although there is a great deal of research focused on identification issues related to own-versus other-race faces very few experiments have explored whether metacognitive monitoring contributes to the own-race bias. In the current experiment the typical own-race bias paradigm was modified so that type-2 signal detection measures (e.g.  and ) could be used to directly measure metacognitive monitoring at retrieval. A second goal of the experiment was to explore whether self-reported confidence ratings differed depending on whether they were directed at answer accuracy (e.g., judging a face as “studied”) versus at decisions about that answer (e.g., volunteering vs. withholding that answer). Overall the results demonstrated that monitoring does contribute to the own-race bias, in that participants were better at monitoring their memory for own-race faces. Further, there was a significant difference between the two confidence measures, and the pattern of this difference depended on whether responses had been volunteered or withheld.     

Sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation as transdiagnostic processes in a comorbid sample

Sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation have been identified as etiologic and maintaining factors for a range of psychopathology and separate literatures support their relationships to anxiety, depression, PTSD, and alcohol dependence (AD) symptom severity. Previous studies have examined these relationships in isolation, failing to account for the high rates of comorbidity among disorders. It is not yet known whether these processes uniquely predict symptom severity in each of these domains. Participants were 220 patients in residential substance abuse treatment, who had experienced a potentially traumatic event and exceeded screening cutoffs for probable PTSD and problematic alcohol use. Controlling for emotion dysregulation and the interrelationships among the outcome variables, insomnia was uniquely associated with anxiety (B = .27, p < .001), depression (B = .25, p < .001), PTSD (B = .22, p < .001), and AD (B = .17, p = .01) symptom severity. Similarly, controlling for insomnia, emotion dysregulation was uniquely associated with anxiety (B = .40, p < .001), depression (B = .47, p < .001), PTSD (B = .38, p < .001), and AD (B = .26, p < .001) symptom severity. Insomnia and emotion dysregulation appear to be transdiagnostic processes uniquely associated with symptom severity across a number of different domains and might be important treatment targets for individuals with PTSD and AD.     

Self‐regulatory strength amplification through selective information processing

We propose and demonstrate that although depletion of self-regulatory strength is common, it is not inevitable. Four experiments show that under certain conditions, consumers can amplify their self-regulatory strength and, as a result, increase their ability to control their behavior. Experiments 1–3 examine the depleting effects of information processing by exposing dieters and nondieters to either cost or pleasure information about chocolate. The results of experiments 1–3 show that when dieters have the ability to monitor the costs of consumption, they are motivated to mobilize additional strength and increase their ability to self-regulate. In experiment 4 we show the practical implications of our work and show that dieters are better able to control their eating because they choose to focus more on the cost (versus pleasure) of consumption.     

Emotion regulation,disgust sensitivity,and psychophysiological responses to a disgust-inducing film

Abstract

Using a disgust-inducing film, Gross (1998) showed that the instruction to suppress mimic expression (suppression) triggered physiological arousal, while the instruction to think about the film in order to adopt a detached and unemotional attitude (reappraisal) reduced affective strain compared to a condition instructing subjects simply to watch the film (watch). The present paper investigates, if disgust sensitivity has a moderating role in this context. Physiological, subjective, and behavior responses were recorded in 120 males divided according to high/low disgust sensitivity who were exposed to the disgust-inducing film used by Gross. The instruction effects reported by Gross could not be replicated. However, high disgust-sensitive subjects were more physiologically and emotionally aroused than low disgust-sensitive subjects. Interactions between disgust sensitivity and the three film instructions can possibly be traced back to a repressive coping style of subjects with low disgust sensitivity.     

Hornsby and Baker on the physicalist orthodoxy

I examine some recent claims put forward by L. A. Paul, Barry Dainton and Simon Prosser, to the effect that perceptual experiences of movement and change involve an (apparent) experience of ‘passage’, in the sense at issue in debates about the metaphysics of time. Paul, Dainton and Prosser all argue that this supposed feature of perceptual experience – call it a phenomenology of passage – is illusory, thereby defending the view that there is no such a thing as passage, conceived of as a feature of mind-independent reality. I suggest that in fact there is no such phenomenology of passage in the first place. There is, however, a specific structural aspect of the phenomenology of perceptual experiences of movement and change that can explain how one might mistakenly come to the belief that such experiences do involve a phenomenology of passage.     

Measurement invariance of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). A cross-national validity study

The goal of this research was to examine the measurement invariance of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) across two European nations. Participants were Italian and German undergraduate students. First, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test for the two-factor structure of the ERQ; subsequently, measurement invariance was analysed. The results showed acceptable fit indices for the German and Italian sample; however, results with regard to the Italian sample showed lower fit indices than results regarding the German one. Measurement invariance of the ERQ across Italy and Germany was confirmed. Despite the fact that we assumed measurement invariance of the ERQ, future research is needed to deal with the lower fit regarding the Italian version.     

Emotional and neuroendocrine regulation in very preterm and full-term infants at six months of age

Emotional and neuroendocrine regulation have been shown to be associated. However, results are inconsistent. This paper explores the functioning and relationships between these two systems in 54 healthy preterm and 25 full-term born infants at six months of age. Results showed significant differences between very preterm and full-term children in emotional intensity and regulation, as well as in neuroendocrine regulation. No evidence of an association between neuroendocrine and emotional regulations was found. Results suggest a possible delay in the maturation of the neuroendocrine system as well as in emotional regulation in very preterm infants.     

Loving the One You Hurt: Positive Effects of Recounting a Transgression against an Intimate Partner

Intimate partners described a past transgression in which one of them had been a victim and the other a perpetrator and then evaluated each other and their relationship. Participants had been randomly assigned to the perpetrator or victim role. Perpetrators described their actions as more justifiable, perceived greater improvement since the transgression, and were more optimistic about the future of their relationship than were their victims or control participants. The results support the authors' contention that temporal appraisals are an important mechanism enabling people to maintain positive images of themselves and their relationships.     

Preconscious effects of temporary goals on attention

Two experiments examined whether accessible goals preconsciously direct selective attention. Goal activation was manipulated by one's goal pursuit being either undermined or affirmed (resulting in an experienced state of either incompleteness or completeness). Attention responses were assessed through a Stroop-like task (Experiment 1) and a response-time task in which participants indicated a stimulus' direction of motion (Experiment 2). Results showed that when goals were accessible, attention was drawn toward goal-relevant items—even when these items were to be ignored and when responses occurred too fast for conscious control. Accessible goals directed implicit cognition (i.e., attention toward stimuli associated with the goal), despite the fact that these goals were not chronically held, but manipulated in the lab.