Validating Regulatory Sensory Processing Disorders Using the Sensory Profile and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1?–5)

The objective was to validate Regulatory Sensory Processing Disorders’ criteria (DC:0-3R, 2005) using empirical data on the presence and severity of sensory modulation deficits and specific psychiatric symptoms in clinical samples. Sixty toddlers who attended a child mental health unit were diagnosed by a clinical team. The following two groups were created: toddlers with RSPD (N?=?14) and those with “other diagnoses in Axis I/II of the DC:0-3R″(OD3R) (N?=?46). Independently of the clinical process, parents completed the Infant Toddler Sensory Profile (as a checklist for sensory symptoms) and the Achenbach Behavior Checklist for ages 1?–5 (CBCL 1?–5). The scores from the two groups were compared. The results showed the following for the RSPD group: a higher number of affected sensory areas and patterns than in the OD3R group; a higher percentage of sensory deficits in specific sensory categories; and a higher severity of behavioral symptoms such as withdrawal, inattention, other externalizing problems and pervasive developmental problems in CBCL 1?–5. The results confirmed our hypotheses by indicating a higher severity of sensory symptoms and identifying specific behavioral problems in children with RSPD. The results revealed convergent validity between the instruments and the diagnostic criteria for RSPD and supported the validity of RSPD as a unique diagnosis. The findings also suggested the importance of identifying sensory modulation deficits in order to develop an early intervention to enhance the sensory capacities of children who do not fully satisfy the criteria for some DSM-IV-TR disorders.     

Patterns of Responding on a Balloon Analogue Task Reveal Individual Differences in Overall Risk-Taking: Choice Between Guaranteed and Uncertain Cash

ABSTRACT. We explored the utility of analyzing within- and between-balloon response patterns on a balloon analogue task (BAT) in relation to overall risk scores, and to a choice between a small guaranteed cash reward and an uncertain reward of the same expected value. Young adults (n = 61) played a BAT, and then were offered a choice between $5 in cash and betting to win $0 to $15. Between groups, pumping was differentially influenced by explosions and by the number of successive unexploded balloons, with risk takers responding increasingly on successive balloons after an explosion. Within-balloons, risk takers showed a characteristic pattern of constant high rate, while non-risk takers showed a characteristic variable lower rate. Overall, results show that the higher number of pumps and explosions that characterize risk takers at a molar level, result from particular forms of adaptation to the positive and negative outcomes of choices seen at a molecular level.

Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/vgen.     

Dual Equivalent Two-valued Under-determined and Over-determined Interpretations for Łukasiewicz’s 3-valued Logic Ł3

?ukasiewicz three-valued logic ?3 is often understood as the set of all 3-valued valid formulas according to ?ukasiewicz’s 3-valued matrices. Following Wojcicki, in addition, we shall consider two alternative interpretations of ?3: “well-determined” ?3a and “truth-preserving” ?3b defined by two different consequence relations on the 3-valued matrices. The aim of this paper is to provide (by using Dunn semantics) dual equivalent two-valued under-determined and over-determined interpretations for ?3, ?3a and ?3b. The logic ?3 is axiomatized as an extension of Routley and Meyer’s basic positive logic following Brady’s strategy for axiomatizing many-valued logics by employing two-valued under-determined or over-determined interpretations. Finally, it is proved that “well determined” ?ukasiewicz logics are paraconsistent.     

Deficits on the Continuous Performance Test within the schizophrenia spectrum and the mediating effects of family history of schizophrenia

Individuals with schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders (SSPD) and schizophrenia show similar cognitive impairments. The authors examined the contributions of SSPD symptoms and familial risk for schizophrenia to impairments on the Continuous Performance Test--Identical Pairs Version. Participants included 103 schizophrenia patients, 66 first-degree relatives (29 SSPD), and 103 community controls (26 SSPD) screened for family history of psychosis. Patients and SSPD relatives performed significantly worse than non-SSPD relatives and SSPD and non-SSPD community controls. No differences in performance were observed among non-SSPD relatives and SSPD and non-SSPD community controls. Results suggest a continuum in which risk for schizophrenia-related cognitive impairments is highest among patients and SSPD relatives, intermediate among non-SSPD relatives, and lowest among SSPD and non-SSPD community controls. Results suggest that SSPD in the absence of a family history of psychosis may be a phenocopy.     

Burial and the Crossing of Boundaries

This article discusses portrayals of the underworld in classical and contemporary poetry, exploring connections between darkness and light, the underworld, and growth in the natural world. It links them together with the idea of beauty, and especially beauty in writing poetry. It gives examples of how contemporary poets can use innovative and radical forms to suggest the world of the darkness that is the underworld.     

The Basic Constructive Logic for a Weak Sense of Consistency defined with a Propositional Falsity Constant

The logic B_Kc1 is the basic constructive logic in the ternaryrelational semantics (without a set of designated points) adequateto consistency understood as the absence of the negation ofany theorem. Negation is introduced in B_Kc1 with a negationconnective. The aim of this paper is to define the logic B_Kc1F.In this logic negation is introduced via a propositional falsityconstant. We prove that B_Kc1 and B_Kc1F are definitionally equivalent.     

Personality traits and anxiety symptoms: the multilevel trait predictor model

Investigation of relations between personality traits and mental disorders can inform key issues in psychopathology research. However, it has been hindered by extensive correlations among the traits. Building on studies of affect-psychopathology relations (e.g., the tripartite model), an organizational framework is proposed to solve this problem with respect to anxiety pathology. To test the resulting model, associations between four traits (negative emotionality, positive emotionality, anxiety sensitivity, and negative evaluation sensitivity) and four anxiety symptoms (chronic worry, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, panic, and social anxiety) were examined in an undergraduate sample (N=907). Confirmatory factor analyses supported operationalizations of the constructs in this study. Examination of the trait-symptom links using hierarchical multiple regression analyses supported most of the predicted relations. Specifically, negative emotionality emerged as a general predictor that was significantly related to all four symptom dimensions. In contrast, anxiety sensitivity was specific to panic and worry, whereas negative evaluation sensitivity was specific to social anxiety and worry. Finally, positive emotionality was uniquely related to social anxiety. The model accounted for a substantial amount of variance in the symptoms and almost all of the covariation among them.     

The Aggression Questionnaire: a validation study in student samples

The goal of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) in Spain. The AQ is a 29-item instrument designed to measure the different dimensions of the hostility/anger/aggression construct. It consists of 4 subscales that assess: (a) anger, (b) hostility, (c) verbal aggression, and (d) physical aggression. In Study 1, reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity were evaluated in a group of 384 male and female university students. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using a group of 154 male and female university students. The results of the factor analysis were similar to the scale structure claimed for this instrument. The subscales also showed internal consistency and stability over time. The AQ and its subscales were also compared with the scales and subscales of the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Ho), the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), and the Jenkins Activity Survey-Form H (JASE-H). The results show that the AQ evaluates some aspects of anger, such as Anger-Trait and Anger-Out, rather than other elements, such as Anger-In or Anger-State. In Study 2, two new male groups were used to evaluate the criterion validity of the AQ: 57 prison inmates and 93 university students, finding that this instrument discriminated between the scores obtained by common offenders and university students.     

Effects of moderate chronic ethanol consumption on hippocampal nicotinic receptors and associative learning

A number of studies have reported that ethanol exposure induces changes in different brain systems. The hippocampus is a brain region that is very vulnerable to ethanol exposition, which functionally results in impairment of learning and memory processes reported in heavy drinkers. Hippocampal nicotinic receptors are involved in learning and memory. In this study, we determined the effects of ethanol on the main hippocampal subtypes of neural nicotinic receptors (α7 and α4β2) in rats non-selected for alcohol consumption, in order to check for possible changes on these receptors that could be linked with alterations in learning acquisition. Binding assays were carried out with [³H]methyllycaconitine ([³H]MLA) to study the α7 and [³H]nicotine to study α4β2 receptors. Auto-shaping, continuous ratio and extinction procedures were used as behavioral tests. The results show that moderate chronic ethanol consumption for 10 weeks produces: (a) a decrease of both hippocampal nicotinic receptor subtypes without alterations in affinity; (b) no differences in behavioral performance between control rats and ethanol-drinking rats in auto-shaping and continuous ratio; (c) an improvement of performance of extinction paradigm. These results indicate that chronic ethanol consumption, at moderate levels, induces changes in hippocampal nicotinic receptors but does not impair acquisition and performance of new associative learning and even improves some kind of paradigms. These results may have implications in the biochemical basis of interactions between alcohol and nicotine and the effects of these drugs on behavior.