Rostro‐caudal and dorso‐ventral gradients in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex during cognitive control of affective and cognitive interference

Characterizing the anatomical substrates of major brain functions such as cognition and emotion is of utmost importance to the ongoing efforts of understanding the nature of psychiatric ailments and their potential treatment. The aim of our study was to investigate how the brain handles affective and cognitive interferences on cognitive processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation was performed on healthy individuals, comparing the brain oxygenation level dependent activation patterns during affective and cognitive counting Stroop tasks. The affective Stroop task activated rostral parts of medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and rostral and ventral parts of lateral PFC, while cognitive Stroop activated caudal parts of medial PFC and caudal and dorsal parts of lateral PFC. Our findings suggest that the brain may handle affective and cognitive interference on cognitive processes differentially, with affective interference preferentially activating rostral and ventral PFC networks and cognitive interference activating caudal and dorsal PFC networks.     

Anxiety disorders in 8–11‐year‐old children: Motor skill performance and self‐perception of competence

Ekornås, B., Lundervold, A. J., Tjus, T. & Heimann, M. (2010). Anxiety disorders in 8–11‐year‐old children: Motor skill performance and self‐perception of competence. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 271–277. This study investigates motor skill performance and self‐perceived competence in children with anxiety disorders compared with children without psychiatric disorders. Motor skills and self‐perception were assessed in 329 children aged 8 to 11 years, from the Bergen Child Study. The Kiddie‐SADS PL diagnostic interview was employed to define a group of children with an anxiety disorder without comorbid diagnosis, and a control group (no diagnosis) matched according to gender, age, and full‐scale IQ. Children in the anxiety disorder group displayed impaired motor skills and poor self‐perceived peer acceptance and physical competence compared with the control group. Two‐thirds of the anxious boys scored on the Motor Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) as having motor problems. The present study demonstrated impaired motor skills in boys with “pure” anxiety disorders. Anxious children also perceived themselves as being less accepted by peers and less competent in physical activities compared with children in the control group.     

Sex role concepts in eight- and twelve-year olds

Abstract.— Children's perception of sex roles was sought, taking Piaget's cognitive developmental theory and the role theory of Sarbin as points of departure. It was proposed that sex role perception could be described on two levels. The first level entailed a sex role enactment based upon superficial understanding, whereas the second level involved a sex role taking based upon a deeper understanding.
The measuring device consisted of a standardized interview of 20 narratives, 10 covering the first level 10 the second level. Each narrative described the objectively observable behavior (level 1) or the supposedly constant personality characteristics (level 2) of a typical boy or girl. The subjects, 8- and 12-year olds, listened to each story and then were asked whether a typical boy, girl, or both would have performed the behavior or expressed the personality quality. The results suggest that both 8-and 12-year-old children understand the superficial as well as the deep aspects of sex roles. However, the younger children accept the sex role differences, whereas the older children are starting to question them. There was also evidence of a developmental difference in experiencing sex roles between boys and girls. The 8-year-old girls in the study most strongly recognized the sex role differences and therefore were the most rigid in their sex role conceptions. The 12-year-old girls were the most liberal group in their approach to sex roles. The boys fell in-between, with small developmental differences.     

Egoistic,altruistic, and biospheric environmental concerns: A path analytic investigation of their determinants

Swami, V., Chamorro‐Premuzic, T., Snelgar, R. & Furnham, A. (2009) Egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric environmental concerns: A path analytic investigation of their determinants. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 139–145. Previous studies have shown that environmental concerns (ECs) can be reduced to a three‐factor model – comprising altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic concerns – but there have been few studies examining individual difference predictors of ECs. In this study with 203 individuals from a British community sample, we show that biospheric concern was significantly associated with participants’ age, political orientation, Machiavellianism, and the Big Five personality traits of Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness. Altruistic concern was significantly associated with sex, age, political orientation, and Machiavellianism, but not the Big Five traits, whereas egoistic concern was not significantly associated with any of these predictors except sex. These results are discussed in relation to previous work on ECs and pro‐environmental behavior.