Cerebral blood flow in 5‐ to 8‐month‐olds: Regional tissue maturity is associated with infant affect

Infancy is marked by rapid neural and emotional development. The relation between brain function and emotion in infancy, however, is not well understood. Methods for measuring brain function predominantly rely on the BOLD signal; however, interpretation of the BOLD signal in infancy is challenging because the neuronal‐hemodynamic relation is immature. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) provides a context for the infant BOLD signal and can yield insight into the developmental maturity of brain regions that may support affective behaviors. This study aims to elucidate the relations among rCBF, age, and emotion in infancy. One hundred and seven mothers reported their infants' (infant age M ± SD = 6.14 ± 0.51 months) temperament. A subsample of infants completed MRI scans, 38 of whom produced usable perfusion MRI during natural sleep to quantify rCBF. Mother‐infant dyads completed the repeated Still‐Face Paradigm, from which infant affect reactivity and recovery to stress were quantified. We tested associations of infant age at scan, temperament factor scores, and observed affect reactivity and recovery with voxel‐wise rCBF. Infant age was positively associated with CBF in nearly all voxels, with peaks located in sensory cortices and the ventral prefrontal cortex, supporting the formulation that rCBF is an indicator of tissue maturity. Temperamental Negative Affect and recovery of positive affect following a stressor were positively associated with rCBF in several cortical and subcortical limbic regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. This finding yields insight into the nature of affective neurodevelopment during infancy. Specifically, infants with relatively increased prefrontal cortex maturity may evidence a disposition toward greater negative affect and negative reactivity in their daily lives yet show better recovery of positive affect following a social stressor.     

Intelligence Level and the Allocation of Resources for Creative Tasks: A Pupillometry Study

This pupillometry study examined the relationship between intelligence and creative cognition from the resource allocation perspective. It was hypothesized that, during a creative metaphor task, individuals with higher intelligence scores would have different resource allocation patterns than individuals with lower intelligence scores. The study also examined the influence of intelligence in language and visuo-spatial domains on the resource allocation mechanism of verbal and visual creativity. The results suggested that individuals with higher intelligence scores allocated more cognitive resources for creative tasks than those with lower intelligence scores but not for non-creative tasks. The findings of this study support the view that creativity requires allocation of several cognitive faculties and may share underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms with intelligence. Domain-specific intelligence did not seem to play a significant role in the same domain, as individuals with higher scores in both domains showed similar resource allocation patterns. However, individuals with higher intelligence scores in the visuo-spatial domain generated more creative metaphorical interpretations in both verbal and visual creative metaphor tasks suggesting its importance in creative cognition.     

Schedule control, supervisor support and work engagement: A winning combination for workers in hourly jobs?

The changing natures of both work and the lives of the U.S. workforce have created an array of challenges for organizations attempting to foster work engagement. To accommodate the work and family needs of an increasingly diverse workforce, many firms are offering flexible work solutions to employees. However, the distribution of these types of organizational resources is unequal, with workers in lower-wage hourly jobs having the least access to any form of flexibility. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of schedule control, as a form of flexible work practice, and work engagement among workers employed in hourly retail jobs. Authors tested a model whereby the relationship between schedule control and work engagement is mediated by schedule satisfaction and perceived supervisor support. A sample of 1343 full-time hourly retail workers was used to address the study's purpose. Hypothesized relationships were fully or partially supported. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Religio-cultural variation in childbearing practices

A sample of 300 mothers aged 20-35 years from Bihar city in Bhagalpur, India, was drawn to reflect similar ages, education, family income, number of children, and residence for each religious group: Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. The hypothesis was that childbearing mothers would differ significantly in their child rearing methods and attitudes toward their children. The Child Care Schedule asked questions about methods of feeding, weaning, toilet training, and bed habit training. The Parent Attitude Schedule measures mother's attitudes: restrictive-permissive, loving-rejecting, and protecting-neglecting. The results indicated that 78% of Christian mothers breast fed compared to 75% of Muslim mothers and 58% of Hindu mothers. There were significant differences between groups in feeding practices (x2= 11.18, df=2, p.01). 77.3% of Christian mothers practiced a 3-hour feeding schedule, compared to 52% of Muslim mothers and 50% of Hindu mothers; 49.5% of Hindu mothers preferred a 4-hour feeding schedule. These differences were also significant. 54% of HIndu mothers wean before 12 months, and only 33% of Muslim and 35% of Christian mothers did. A greater proportion of Muslim mothers (58%) wean between 13 and 24 months. Differences again were significant. 66% or more of the mothers in each group practiced gradual weaning rather than forced or casual weaning. There were significant differences in toilet training habits and training in washing and bathing among the 3 groups of women. All 3 groups believed in moderate training in bathing. There were insignificant differences in bed habit training and the age at which training began. About 75% of all mothers followed moderate approaches to bed habit training. There were significant differences in child rearing attitudes between Hindus and Muslims. Hindu mothers were the least restrictive, and Christian mothers were the most restrictive. The same pattern applied to loving-rejecting and protecting-neglecting. Christian mothers were the most loving, and Muslim mothers were the least loving. Christian mothers were the most protective and Muslim mothers the least protective. In Hindu families with early weaning and toilet training, the joint family system helps to dissipate frustration caused by early practices. Further research on cultural differences in personality and cultural variations in child rearing is needed.     

Asparagus recemosus enhances memory and protects against amnesia in rodent models

Asparagus Racemosus (AR) is an Ayurvedic rasayana possessing multiple neuropharmacological activities. The adpatogenic and antidepressant activity of AR is well documented. The present study was undertaken to assess nootropic and anti-amnesic activities of MAR in rats. The Morris water maze (MWM) and elevated plus maze (EPM) models were employed to evaluate learning and memory activity. Subsequently, the anti-amnestic activity was evaluated in scopolamine and sodium nitrite (NaNO₂)-induced amnestic models in rats. Rats pre-treated with MAR (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, p.o) for 7 days showed significant decrease in escape latency in the MWM test indicating nootropic activity. MAR also significantly reversed scopolamine and sodium nitrite-induced increase in transfer latency on EPM indicating anti-amnesic activity. Further, MAR dose-dependently inhibited acetylcholinesterase enzyme in specific brain regions (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus). Thus, MAR showed nootropic and anti-amnesic activities in the models tested and these effects may probably be mediated through augmentation of cholinergic system due to its anti-cholinesterase activity.     

PERSONALITY AND SOCIO-FAMILIAL CORRELATES OF CONSERVATISM IN INDIAN YOUTH

Wilson (1973) proposed a theory that internal and external factors which lead to ‘generalized susceptibility to experiencing threat or anxiety in the face of uncertainty’ are responsible for the growth of conservatism. The present study explored the relationship of some such factors with conservatism in Indian university students (120 males, 72 females) aged 21–25 yrs. It was discovered that conservatism is characterized by low self-esteem, insecurity, anxiety and intolerance of ambiguity. It is related with lower SES and joint family system but unrelated with family size and birth-order. Conservatives are more likely to be of the older generation, of the fair sex and to have conservative parents. The findings, on the whole, lend support to Wilson's (1973) theory.     

Twinning stress prediction in bcc metals and alloys

The development of a twin stress relationship for bcc metals and alloys in agreement with experiments has been both scientifically challenging and technologically vital. A modified approach to Peierls–Nabarro model is formulated that predicts the twinning stress in excellent agreement with experiments. We utilize the first principles energy calculations to extract the energy landscape associated with twinning and obtain the disregistry function to account for the interaction of multiple dislocations comprising the twin. The metals and alloys considered include Fe, V, Nb, Ta, Mo, W, Fe–3at.%V, Fe–35at.%Ni and Fe–3at.%Si. The variation of twinning stress within metals is substantial (90–800 MPa) and depends primarily on the twin boundary migration energy, the shear moduli, the interplanar spacing and the geometrical positions of the fractional dislocations constituting the twin.