Adenoviral Vector-Mediated Rescue of the OMP-Null Behavioral Phenotype: Enhancement of Odorant Threshold Sensitivity.

Mice from which the olfactory marker protein (OMP) gene has been deleted demonstrate a number of neurophysiologic and behavioral defects that suggest OMP is an important component in olfactory signal transduction and is critically involved in odor processing. Recently, the potential pleiotropic effects of gene deletion were addressed by adenoviral vector-mediated rescue of the neurophysiologic defects, in vivo. As a complement to this study, the authors used a recombinant adenoviral vector to transiently introduce OMP into olfactory sensory neurons of adult OMP-null mice and, using psychophysical methods, demonstrated the resulting reacquisition of behavioral function subsequent to gene replacement. The rescue of the OMP-null behavioral phenotype further supports the hypothesis that OMP is an important component in olfactory signal amplification and/or transduction processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neonatal Amygdala Lesions and Juvenile Isolation in the Rat: Differential Effects on Locomotor and Social Behavior Later in Life.

Pervasive developmental disorders such as autism are characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication. Disturbed development of limbic structures such as the amygdala might underlie these deficits. The authors examined the effects of amygdala lesions on Postnatal Day 7 and juvenile isolation (2 weeks of individual housing during Weeks 4 and 5 of life) on rat locomotor and social activity later in life. Before puberty, but more pronounced after puberty, lesioned rats displayed enhanced locomotor activity. Adult social behavior was selectively disturbed by the lesion and the isolation procedure. In particular, the combination of neonatal lesions and juvenile isolation severely disrupted social interaction. These results suggest that a combination of neonatal amygdala damage and juvenile isolation may serve as an animal model of certain psychopathological neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond the Individual: The Impact of Ethnic Context and Classroom Behavioral Norms on Victims' Adjustment.

With a sample of 1,630 sixth-grade students from 77 classrooms, the authors used hierarchical linear modeling to examine how ethnicity within context and classroom social disorder influenced the association between peer victimization and social-psychological adjustment (loneliness and social anxiety). Victimized students in classrooms where many classmates shared their ethnicity reported feeling the most loneliness and social anxiety. Additionally, classroom-level social disorder served as a moderator such that the association between victimization and anxiety was stronger in classrooms with low social disorder. Both findings were interpreted as evidence that problem behavior deviating from what is perceived as normative in a particular context heightens maladjustment. The authors discuss implications for studying ethnicity and classroom behavioral norms as context variables in peer relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining the Link Between Low Socioeconomic Status and Psychopathology: Testing Two Mechanisms of the Social Causation Hypothesis.

Two mechanisms of the hypothesized social causation of psychopathology--differential incidence and cumulative prevalence--were tested over 9 years in a nationally representative sample of 1,075 children and youths, ages 8-17 at Time 1 (1986). Analyses using parental responses on behavior checklists at 4 time points showed significant increases in clinical elevations for those of the lowest socioeconomic status (SES) on anxious/depressed, somatic complaints, thought problems, delinquent, and aggressive syndromes. This SES-linked differential incidence supports the social causation hypothesis that factors associated with SES contribute to variations in levels of psychological problems. SES-linked differential cumulative prevalence was found for withdrawn and somatic complaints; this finding indicates that low-SES cases do not improve as much as do middle- and high-SES cases, which results in greater accumulation of low-SES cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effects of Family, School, and Classroom Ecologies on Changes in Children's Social Competence and Emotional and Behavioral Problems in First Grade.

This study tested the independent and interactive influences of classroom (concentrations of peer prosocial behaviors and victimization), family (household moves, mothers' education), and school (proportion of students receiving income assistance) ecologies on changes in children's social competence (e.g., interpersonal skills, leadership abilities), emotional problems (e.g., anxious, withdrawn behaviors), and behavioral problems (e.g., disruptiveness, aggressiveness) in first grade. Higher classroom concentrations of prosocial behaviors and victimization predicted increases in social competence, and greater school disadvantage predicted decreases. Multiple household moves and greater school disadvantage predicted increases in behavioral problems. Multiple household moves and low levels of mothers' education predicted increases in emotional problems for children in classrooms with few prosocial behaviors. Greater school disadvantage predicted increases in emotional problems for children in classrooms with low prosocial behaviors and high victimization. Policy implications of these findings are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social behavior phenotypes in fragile X syndrome, autism, and the Fmr1 knockout mouse: Theoretical comment on McNaughton et al. (2008).

Comments on the article by C. H. McNaughton et al. ((see record 2008-03769-005). Individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS) show varying degrees of social behavior disturbances, from social anxiety to autism. This variability of social behavior phenotypes in FXS is likely to be due to interactions of Fmr1 with other gene variants and environmental factors during brain development, although very little is known about the specific genetic and neural mechanisms involved. The Fmr1 knockout mouse is an important experimental resource for elucidating the neural mechanisms of social anxiety, social reward, and social cognition. However, studies of social behavior phenotypes in the Fmr1 knockout mouse are still in early stages. McNaughton et al provide important new information on these phenotypes in the Fmr1 knockout mouse through their use of novel, detailed behavioral analysis to identify signs of increased social anxiety and social cognition deficits. Their significant refinements in measurement of social behavior phenotypes will help to advance future efforts to elucidate the genetic and neural mechanisms underlying social behavior disturbances in FXS and autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Youth: A Critical Review of the Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment Outcome Literature.

What treatments work for children who have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Perhaps more important, what else do clinicians need to learn? In this article, the authors focus on treatment research in the area of trauma and PTSD in youth, in an attempt to highlight the clinical implications of such work and to identify the areas in which additional research is needed. Overall, there is emerging evidence that a variety of cognitive and behavioral programs are effective in treating youth with PTSD. In spite of such evidence, additional research is needed to shore up the scientific base for effective clinical practice with these youth. Psychologists working with traumatized youth will find this article a useful update on the state of evidence for cognitive-behavioral interventions in the treatment of PTSD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral rehabilitation of the "treatment-refractory" schizophrenia patient: Conceptual foundations, interventions, and outcome data.

This article describes an intensive, inpatient behavioral rehabilitation program for patients with schizophrenia who have been considered "treatment-refractory" at state hospitals. The program is a public-private partnership involving state and private hospitals and community residence providers. The essential elements of this program are described, along with the conceptual and philosophical bases of its treatment and examples of staff behaviors critical to treatment success. Outcome data are then discussed to emphasize the point that when evidence-based psychological treatment is implemented with this population, outcomes can be positive in most cases, and therefore, the number of treatment-refractory patients is actually far less than is estimated on the basis of response to medication alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Somatosensory Processing and Schizophrenia Liability: Proprioception, Exteroceptive Sensitivity, and Graphesthesia Performance in the Biological Relatives of Schizophrenia Patients.

In the present study, the authors examined somatosensory processing in 30 biological relatives of persons with schizophrenia (hereafter called "schizophrenia relatives"), 30 biological relatives of persons with bipolar affective disorder (psychiatric family control subjects), and 30 healthy control subjects with no family history of psychopathology. All 3 groups completed a weight discrimination task, a 2-point discrimination task, and a complex cognitive somatosensory task (i.e., graphesthesia). The schizophrenia relatives performed significantly worse on all 3 somatosensory tasks compared with both the healthy control subjects and the bipolar relatives. The healthy control subjects and psychiatric family control subjects showed no significant differences on any of the somatosensory tasks. Within the weight discrimination and 2-point discrimination tasks, schizophrenia relatives showed group differences on the d' index, the measure of sensitivity, whereas all 3 groups did not differ on lnβ, the measure of response bias, suggesting a genuine difference in weight and touch sensitivity. The d' value of the weight discrimination task was significantly associated with both the cognitive-perceptual factor and negative symptom factor of the clinical questionnaire (e.g., Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire; SPQ), whereas the 2-point discrimination d' value and graphesthesia scores were significantly associated only with the cognitive-perceptual factor of the SPQ. Implications for the possible relation between somatosensory task performance and schizophrenia liability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A goal-striving life event and the onset of hypomanic and depressive episodes and symptoms: Perspective from the Behavioral Approach System (BAS) dysregulation theory.

On the basis of the behavioral approach system (BAS) dysregulation theory of bipolar disorder, this study examined the relation between occurrence of a BAS activation-relevant life event--goal striving--and onset of hypomanic and depressive episodes and symptoms. In particular, the authors examined the relation between preparing for and completing final exams (a goal-striving event) and onset of bipolar spectrum episodes and symptoms in college students with bipolar II disorder or cyclothymia (i.e., "soft" bipolar spectrum conditions). One hundred fifty-nine individuals with either a bipolar spectrum disorder (n=68) or no major affective psychopathology (controls; n=91) were further classified on the basis of whether they were college students (i.e., completed final exams). Consistent with the BAS dysregulation theory, preparing for and completing final exams was associated with an increase in hypomanic but not depressive episodes and symptoms in individuals with a soft bipolar spectrum diagnosis. Furthermore, self-reported BAS sensitivity moderated the presence of certain hypomanic symptoms during final exams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social isolation makes me sad: 5-year cross-lagged analyses of loneliness and depressive symptomatology in the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study.

We present evidence from a 5-year longitudinal study for the prospective associations between loneliness and depressive symptoms in a population-based, ethnically diverse sample of 229 men and women who were 50–68 years old at study onset. Cross-lagged panel models were used in which the criterion variables were loneliness and depressive symptoms, considered simultaneously. We used variations on this model to evaluate the possible effects of gender, ethnicity, education, physical functioning, medications, social network size, neuroticism, stressful life events, perceived stress, and social support on the observed associations between loneliness and depressive symptoms. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that loneliness predicted subsequent changes in depressive symptomatology, but not vice versa, and that this temporal association was not attributable to demographic variables, objective social isolation, dispositional negativity, stress, or social support. The importance of distinguishing between loneliness and depressive symptoms and the implications for loneliness and depressive symptomatology in older adults are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Social Cognition of Immigrants' Acculturation: Effects of the Need for Closure and the Reference Group at Entry.

Three studies found support for the notion that immigrants' acculturation to the host culture is interactively determined by their need for cognitive closure (A. W. Kruglanski & D. M. Webster, 1996) and the reference group they forge on their arrival. If such reference group is fashioned by close social relations with coethnics, the higher the immigrants' need for closure, the weaker their tendency to assimilate to the new culture and the stronger their tendency to adhere to the culture of origin. By contrast, if the reference entry group is fashioned by close relations with members of the host country, the higher their need for closure, the stronger their tendency to adapt to the new culture and the weaker their tendency to maintain the culture of origin. These findings obtained consistently across 3 immigrant samples in Italy, 1 Croatian and 2 Polish, and across multiple different measures of acculturation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from age 2 to age 12: Findings from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care.

How and why do internalizing and externalizing problems, psychopathological problems from different diagnostic classes representing separate forms of psychopathology, co-occur in children? We investigated the development of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from ages 2 to 12 with the use of latent class growth analysis. Furthermore, we examined how early childhood factors (temperament, cognitive functioning, maternal depression, and home environment) and early adolescent social and behavioral adjustment variables were related to differential trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems. The sample (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care) consisted of 1,232 children (52% male). Mother reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991, 1992) were used to construct the trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems. Analyses identified groups of children exhibiting pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems. Children exhibiting continuous externalizing or continuous co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems across the 10-year period under investigation were more likely to (a) engage in risky behaviors, (b) be associated with deviant peers, (c) be rejected by peers, and (d) be asocial with peers at early adolescence. However, children exhibiting pure internalizing problems over time were only at higher risk for being asocial with peers as early adolescents. Moreover, the additive effects of individual and environmental early childhood risk factors influenced the development of chronic externalizing problems, although pure internalizing problems were uniquely influenced by maternal depression. Results also provided evidence for the concepts of equifinality and multifinality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)