Intelligence of Children from Economically Disadvantaged Families: Role of Parental Education

The impact of parental education status on the intelligence of children from economically disadvantaged families was examined. One-hundred school going children aged 4 to 8 years from low income families were divided into 3 groups based on the level of their parental education. The main outcome measure was the intelligence of the child. Significant differences (p < .000) in the IQs of the 3 groups of children were found. Children with high parental education had significantly higher IQs as compared to children with moderate and low parental education level. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that 33.7% of the variance in the IQ of the child was explained by the education of the mother and income of the household. It is concluded that economic disadvantage may not necessarily constrain the cognitive development of children living in poverty, provided parents have some threshold level of education.     

Developmental Functioning of Young Indian Children with Malnutrition

The paper examines the effect of malnutrition on the developmental functioning of young Indian children. A total of 117 children between the ages 0 to 6 years attending the anganwadis of Chandigarh city were recruited. The Indian Developmental Inventory was used to assess developmental functioning. Anthropometric evaluations were done by a pediatrician and these included height and weight. Nearly 30 % of children of the study population were found to be stunted and 22 % were wasted. There were significant differences between the 3 groups of children on developmental functioning: Social DQ (F?=?3.46, P?=?.036); Communication DQ (F?=?3.16, P?=?.047); and Total DQ (F?=?5.17, P?=?.007). Children with chronic malnutrition had the most impaired developmental scores. The problem of poor child development urgently needs to be tackled with child nutrition, early stimulation, and development programmes.     

Neurotoxicity of Kainate to the Hippocampus is not Accrued by Aging, Stress and Exogenous Corticosterone in Wistar Kyoto and Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

It has been reported that a high corticosterone milieu can exacerbate various experimental insults to the nervous system, in particular to the hippocampus. However, in many of these studies the above milieu was attained by injecting corticosterone in doses (e.g. 10 mg/rat) producing supraphysiological concentrations. In the present study we have investigated whether high plasma corticosterone levels, such as those associated with aging or stress, potentiate a hippocampal excitotoxic insult. Male Wistar Kyoto (WKY) and Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) at the age of 6, 12, 18 and 24 months (only WKY for the oldest age) were used. As in other strains, aging in these rats was marked by an increase in basal plasma corticosterone levels. Rats were infused in the dorsal hippocampus with kainic acid (0.035 μg/hippocampus) and the neuronal injury was evaluated within the areas CA3 and CA4. Results indicated that neither aging nor the hypertensive condition affected kainic acid neurotoxicity. In order to study the effect of stress, rats were stressed twice a day, with alternate types of stressors to avoid possible habituation, 3 days prior to and 3 days following the kainic acid infusion. Using this experimental paradigm the hippocampal damage in stressed rats was of the same degree as in non-stressed controls. In a complementary set of experiments, 6 month old WKY and SHR rats were injected with corticosterone (10 mg/rat s.c.). Four hours after administration plasma corticosterone levels in the range of 60-70 μg/100 ml were found. Moreover, a time-course study showed a plasma corticosterone peak in the range of 240 μg/100 ml. Daily corticosterone administration for 3 days before and 3 days after kainic acid infusion potentiated the hippocampal damage in 6 months old SHR but not in the WKY. These results demonstrate that elevation of corticosterone levels within physiological range does not exacerbate hippocampal kainate neurotoxicity and that pharmacological doses of glucocorticoid hormone, which produces plasma levels well above those observable in any physiopathological condition, might, with some strain dependency, potentiate a hippocampal neurotoxic insult.     

A fiber-optic system for recording skin conductance in the MRI scanner

The acquisition of the skin conductance response (SCR) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) raises significant safety issues, as well as practical ones, which need to be addressed in order for these experiments to be conducted safely and successfully. Metallic and conductive wires in the presence of time-varying gradient magnetic fields such as those present in fMRI experiments may induce heating, as well as electric fields, in these components and, if in contact with the subject, could produce severe burns and electric shocks. Moreover, these metallic and conductive components can significantly distort the magnetic field, resulting in image artifacts. A system for recording the SCR in humans simultaneously with fMRI is presented. The device is a fiber-optic-based transducer, which records the SCR from two fingers of the same hand, using electrodes containing inline radio frequency (RF) suppression filters and protective resistive loads. The fiber-optic SCR transducer was tested using 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla MRI scanners running EPI sequences. This system was able to safely record SCRs free of RF interference during an fMRI experiment, and the fiber-optic design of the transducer eliminated any artifacts on the MRI scan.