Gender preferences of pregnant women and emotional reaction to information regarding fetal gender and postpartum: An examination of freud's view about motivation for motherhood

Freud (1933) suggested that women enter motherhood with a motivation to compensate for anatomical and psychological inferiority. This motivation is reflected in the desire to bear a son. Freud's idea was investigated by examining pregnant women's preferences regarding fetal gender and their emotional reactions (anxiety and depression) to information about fetal gender following an ultrasound examination and postpartum. Subjects were first-time and third-time pregnant women. In the third-time pregnant group only women who had two previous children of the same gender were investigated. First-time pregnant women did not express a predominant preference for any gender, third-time pregnant women preferred a child of a gender they did not have. In the first pregnancy, after the examination, subjects experienced a significant decrease in depression, and postpartum a significant elevation in both emotions. Preference and information about fetal gender affected depression only when they interacted with the time of measurement. In the third pregnancy, anxiety and depression were highest after the examination and the strongest elevation in both emotions was reported by women who had two sons, preferred a daughter and were informed they will deliver a son. The findings in both pregnancies put doubt on Freud's ideas about the motivation for motherhood, and suggest that social factors may also play a part in determining mother's attitude and emotional reactions towards fetal and neonate's gender.     

Semantic categorization in the human brain: spatiotemporal dynamics revealed by magnetoencephalography

We examined the cortical representation of semantic categorization using magnetic source imaging in a task that revealed both dissociations among superordinate categories and associations among different base-level concepts within these categories. Around 200 ms after stimulus onset, the spatiotemporal correlation of brain activity elicited by base-level concepts was greater within than across superordinate categories in the right temporal lobe. Unsupervised clustering of data showed similar categorization between 210 and 450 ms mainly in the left hemisphere. This pattern suggests that well-defined semantic categories are represented in spatially distinct, macroscopically separable neural networks, independent of physical stimulus properties. In contrast, a broader, task-required categorization (natural/man-made) was not evident in our data. The perceptual dynamics of the categorization process is initially evident in the extrastriate areas of the right hemisphere; this activation is followed by higher-level activity along the ventral processing stream, implicating primarily the left temporal lobe.     

Is Religious Coping Associated with Cumulative Health Risk? An Examination of Religious Coping Styles and Health Behavior Patterns in Alzheimer’s Dementia Caregivers

The current study explored the relationship between religious coping and cumulative health risk associated with health behavior patterns in a sample of 256 Latina and Caucasian female caregivers of elderly relatives with dementia. Primary analyses examined the relationship between religious coping (both positive and negative) and an overall index of cumulative health risk. Secondary analyses were conducted on the individual health behaviors subsumed in the broader index. Findings revealed that negative religious coping was significantly associated with increased cumulative health risk. Positive religious coping was predictive of decreased cumulative health risk among Latina caregivers but not among Caucasians. Negative religious coping was significantly associated with both an increased likelihood for weight gain and increased dietary restriction. Positive religious coping was associated with decreased likelihood for weight gain in Latinas. Implications for both caregivers and clinicians are discussed.     

Technology and the civil epistemology of democracy

In analogy with Rousseau's concept of ‘civil religion’ as a system of ‘positive dogmas’, ‘without which’, as he observed, ‘a man cannot be a good citizen’, this paper advances the concept of ‘civil epistemology’ as the positive dogmas without which the agents of government actions cannot be held accountable by democratic citizens. The civil epistemology of democracy shapes the citizen's views on the nature of political reality, on how the facts of political reality can be known and by whom. Modern liberal democratic politics assumes that the exercise of political power can be manifest in a visible domain of publicly accessible facts. It rests on the Enlightenment faith in the powers of light and visibility to demystify political power, render political actors more exposed and therefore more honestly accountable and enlist the sense of sight as a vehicle of universal political participation. It is, in this context, that technology has come to play such an important symbolic role in the construction of the particular democratic genre of public action as a political spectacle. Democratic civil epistemology, and technology ‐ in the widest sense of the word ‐ as the prototype of action which can be observed in the field of visual perception, uphold the democratic conception of politics as a view. Together they define political actors as visible performers, journalists as observers (who translate actual seeing into virtual seeing) and the citizens as witnesses.     

Semantic boost on episodic associations: an empirically-based computational model

Words become associated following repeated co-occurrence episodes. This process might be further determined by the semantic characteristics of the words. The present study focused on how semantic and episodic factors interact in incidental formation of word associations. First, we found that human participants associate semantically related words more easily than unrelated words; this advantage increased linearly with repeated co-occurrence. Second, we developed a computational model, SEMANT, suggesting a possible mechanism for this semantic-episodic interaction. In SEMANT, episodic associations are implemented through lateral connections between nodes in a pre-existent self-organized map of word semantics. These connections are strengthened at each instance of concomitant activation, proportionally with the amount of the overlapping activity waves of activated nodes. In computer simulations SEMANT replicated the dynamics of associative learning in humans and led to testable predictions concerning normal associative learning as well as impaired learning in a diffuse semantic system like that characteristic of schizophrenia.     

Associating unseen events: semantically mediated formation of episodic associations

In prior work, we developed a computational model of how episodic associations between words are formed. Simulating associative learning, the model indicated that strongly associated semantically unrelated words facilitate the episodic association of other exemplars included in their semantic neighborhoods. This prediction was supported empirically by the present study. First, the incidental formation of strong associations between unrelated words, such as dog and table, improved cued recall of weak associations formed incidentally between semantic neighbors, like cat and chair. Second, deciding that two words were semantically unrelated was facilitated by forming strong associations between other words in their respective semantic neighborhoods, even if the tested pair was not presented at study. Together with the computational model, the present results demonstrate that forming episodic associations between words can implicitly mediate the association of other exemplars from the same semantic categories and reveal a mechanism by which the semantic system contributes to the formation of new episodic associations.     

Categorization generated by extended prototypes—An axiomatic approach

We suggest a model of categorization based on prototypes. A set of entities, identified with some finite dimensional Euclidian space, is partitioned into a finite number of categories. Such a categorization is said to be generated by extended prototypes if there is a set of distinguished entities, one for each category, such that the categorization is determined by proximity to these prototypical entities. The prototypes are called extended since they are described by points in a higher dimensional space than the entities. Sufficient conditions for a categorization to be generated by extended prototypes are provided. These conditions are also necessary if the prototypes are in general position.     

Depression and distress predict time to cardiovascular disease in dementia caregivers.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the impact of depressive symptoms and distress from patient problem behaviors on time to developing a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a sample of 643 dementia family caregivers. DESIGN: A longitudinal, prospective design was used. Over an 18-month period, caregivers free from a CVD diagnosis at baseline were assessed at 6, 12, and 18-month follow-ups for the onset of CVD. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Days to the onset of CVD was the primary outcome. RESULTS: Over the length of the study, 32 participants (5%) reported a diagnosis of CVD. After adjusting for sociodemographic and health factors (e.g., high blood pressure, age, smoking history), greater depressive symptoms (p = .040) and distress from patient problem behaviors (p = .034) were significant predictors of time to CVD diagnosis. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that increased depressive symptoms and reaction to patient problem behaviors (i.e., distress) may increase caregivers' risk for experiencing negative health outcomes, specifically CVD.     

Gaps Between Immigrant Spouses in Host Country Language Proficiency: Longitudinal Effects on Marital Satisfaction

Research on immigration underscores the importance of language acculturation in successful adjustment to life in a new country. However, the profound impact of different levels of language proficiency between immigrant spouses on their married life is an understudied topic. The current study explores whether differences between immigrant spouses in host language proficiency predict marital satisfaction in their first four years in the host country. Using a three-wave longitudinal study, with intervals of one to two years, we collected data from 316 married couples who immigrated from the Former Soviet Union to Germany and Israel. Language proficiency and marital satisfaction were measured via self-report questionnaires. We conducted an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model analysis to control for dyadic and time data dependencies. The results indicate that differences between spouses in their host language proficiency predict marital dissatisfaction, and that this effect is exacerbated over time. These associations held across gender and host country. The findings are discussed in light of the gap-distress model.