Exploring The Neural Correlates of Reading Comprehension and Social Cognition Deficits in College Students with ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Symptoms of this disorder have been shown to adversely impact academic and social functioning of those with ADHD. College students with ADHD, compared to their non-ADHD peers, are at increased risk for academic and social difficulties. Given the reading-intensive and socially-driven environment of the college campus, empirical literature examining the reading comprehension and social cognition of college students are wanting. The current investigation utilized the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) and Faux Pas Recognition test (FPRT) to assess reading comprehension and social cognition, respectively, in college students with (n = 3) and without ADHD (n = 9). The Short Story Task (SST) was administered during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural correlates of narrative comprehension and theory of mind (ToM) while reading short fictional stories of varying prose complexity. The ADHD and control groups did not differ in IQ, GPA, or scores of NDRT, FPRT, or SST, suggesting that they had comparable academic performance, narrative comprehension, and social cognition. The fMRI analysis of SST showed that the ADHD group demonstrated increased activation in the left anterior cingulate (ACC) and parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) while reading the complex story compared to the simple story. This differential activation was not observed in the CTRL group, suggesting that the ADHD group required more neural resources to process the emotional components of the complex story to achieve the comparable performance on the SST. The ADHD group additionally exhibited lower activation in the narrative comprehension and ToM networks (medial prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area, angular gyri). Collectively, these results indicate that while ADHD and CTRL groups did not differ behaviorally, they exhibit differential neural activation patterns in tasks related to narrative comprehension and social cognition. Further investigations may inform the development of educational and psychosocial interventions to improve academic and social functioning in young adults with ADHD

The Early Attachment Experiences are the Roots of Psychopathy

This review proposes the ‘attachment and the deficient hemispheric integration hypothesis’ as explanation for psychopathy. The hypothesis states that since secure attachment to the parents is essential for the proper development of both the hemispheres in children, psychopaths with histories of neglect and abuse are unable to develop efficient interaction of both the hemispheres, important for emotional processing and regulation. Various studies have shown that without an efficient interaction between the two hemispheres psychopaths fail to perform adequately on tasks that require both language abilities and non-verbal emotional processing. The hypothesis also explains why psychopaths will perform inefficiently in conditions that selectively prime the left hemisphere resources as these people would have learnt to rely more on the language based mode of this hemisphere. The childhood of psychopaths is marked by insecure attachment with their parents where the parents fail to respond to the needs of the pre-verbal infant thus leading to improper development of the right hemisphere abilities, one of which is decoding and showing appropriate non-verbal emotional signals resembling a pattern shown by the parents. The hypothesis is useful in explaining different findings on laterality in psychopathy as well as answering the nature-nurture debate of the disorder. Research carried out under the proposed framework can be helpful in understanding the nature of the disorder which will be ultimately useful in the prevention of its full blown manifestation

Psychosocial outcome and quality of life following childhood stroke - A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper was to critically review the recent literature on psychosocial and behavioral outcome following childhood stroke, to assess whether quality of life is affected and to investigate the factors related to psychosocial outcome. METHODS: Literature searches were conducted and identified 36 relevant papers from the period 1908-2016. RESULTS: The systematic review found that many children experience difficulties in a wide range of psychosocial domains. Quality of life can also be significantly reduced. Inconsistent findings regarding the correlates of outcome are likely due to methodological limitations. These issues include small and heterogeneous samples, lack of control groups, and measurement difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review strongly indicates that childhood stroke can affect a myriad of psychosocial domains and a child's quality of life. Methodological issues, particularly around heterogeneous samples and measures, limit the conclusions that can be drawn regarding the predictors of outcome

The comparison of adolescent development issues and learned optimism between learning disabled and non-learning disabled college students.

There were two goals of this study. The first was to continue reliability and validity investigations of the Body-Karlson Adolescent Development Inventory (BKADI). The second was to compare college students with a learning disability to a control group of college students focussing on adolescent development issues. The study used a matched sample procedure of 40 students diagnosed with a learning disability and 40 students without a learning disability diagnosis at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The students were administered the BKADI, The College Adjustment Scales (CAS), and the Seligman Learned Optimism Inventory (SLOT). The BKADI assesses seven developmental concerns: Body Image, Autonomy Within the Family, Life in School, Interpersonal Relationships, Career and Lifestyle, Gender Identity, and Comfort with Changing Cultural Values while the CAS contains nine clinical scales including Anxiety, Depression, Suicidal Ideation, Substance Abuse, Self-esteem Problems, Interpersonal Problems, Family Problems, Academic Problems, and Career Problems. The SLOT assesses overall perceptions the person has about good and bad events happening in their life, as well as, a hopelessness rating, and a self-esteem rating. This study reveals a strong reliability for the BKADI for both LD and non-LD groups. Also concurrent validity was found. Comparative results of the BKADI indicated that LD students scored significantly less on the Life in School and Career Lifestyle scales. Also, results of the comparative study from the CAS showed LD students scored significantly more problematic on the scales of Academic Problems, Career Problems, Self-esteem, Family Problems, Anxiety, and Depression. Total percentages of LD students falling within the problematic ranges are significant in the previous scales, as well as, Suicidal Ideation and Substance Abuse. On the SLOT, results indicated that LD and non-LD students explained good and bad events in their life similarly. LD students, however, were significantly more optimistic on the Personalization Good scale. Conclusions related to previous research and implications for policy and practice are included

Executive Functioning Outcomes among Self-Harming Adolescents Receiving DBT-A

Changes in WM, GM, and neural activation in networks involving the PFC underlie the development of EFs during adolescence; however, adolescents with DSH have impaired EFs in the areas of inhibition, emotion regulation, shifting, and interpersonal functioning. DBT-A has been shown to be effective in treating these youth and the skills of mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and “walking the middle path” are suited to treat their impaired EFs. As such, this study examined EF changes in adolescents receiving DBT-A and discussed implications for treatment and brain-behavior relationships. Ninety-three adolescents from a 16-week DBT-A program for DSH were administered the BRIEF-SR at baseline and post-treatment. There was improvement from the at-risk to non-clinical range on the Emotional Control, Shift, and Monitor scales, and the GEC. Significant effects for funding type and previous history of psychiatric hospitalizations were also observed. DBT-A appears to be effective for improving the EFs of adolescents with DSH and for specific subgroups. These EF profiles will assist clinicians in implementing DBT-A skills used during this period of neural development and inform future DBT-A outcome studies that utilize neuropsychological measures and neuroimaging techniques to examine EF

Lateral likeness and legion : a psychoanalytic film study of siblingship in <em>The color wheel</em>

116 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-116).Narcissism not only influences, but can define the sibling relationship in psychoanalytic theory. The distinction of the sibling relationship is identified and discussed in psychoanalytic theory and film theory. Upon analysis, it is clear that film can relate the reality that siblings are substantial psychic forces on one another and against others. “Lateral Likeness and Legion” involves discovering how the sibling relationship can be significant in psychoanalytic film theory. Literature surrounding psychoanalytic theory and film theory is reviewed and correlated to a case study of Lateral likeness and legion : a psychoanalytic film study of siblingship in The Color Wheel. This study shows how narcissism can define siblingship cinematically through the emergent themes in the literature of labour, loss, and legion [correlative to the Self]. Lateral likeness and legion : a psychoanalytic film study of siblingship in The Color Wheel depicts this in its narrative of siblings. The film follows a brother and a sister who reunite after being estranged. Siblings are distinct markers of narcissism in addition to development and catharsis in film. This project establishes the significance of siblings in psychoanalytic film theory

Positive schizotypy : a proposed endophenotype for psychosis in neurological disorders

In the current thesis, a model whereby the fully dimensional expression of positive schizotypal (PS) personality traits represents a psychological and biological diathesis that would predict psychotic decompensation in states of neurological stress was theoretically conceptualised and empirically validated. To our knowledge, this is the first piece of work to fully reconcile a predispositional psychological and biological susceptibility within a diathesis stress model of neurological psychosis. Whilst previous studies have assessed psychological or biological vulnerabilities to the development of psychotic symptoms in neurodegenerative and functional models, to date no individual study has theoretically or experimentally combined these features.The predictive ability of PS for neurological psychosis was validated on interdependent neuroanatomical, psychological, emotional, cognitive and symptomatic levels. The validity of PS as an endophenotype for neurological psychosis was tested across several behavioural and neuroimaging studies. The most compelling cognitive evidence for the endophenotype‘s validity was the finding that PS is associated with a bias to make false positive confabulationary style memories for psychosis congruent words. This finding converges with behavioural and anatomical evidence for a relationship between confabulation and delusions in pathological populations and was supported by the neuroimaging study of the individual differences of PS traits in healthy young individuals undertaken for the current thesis. Individual differences in schizotypal traits in normal individuals were found to be reflected endophenotypically in the structure of the brain in the bilateral but predominantly right frontal regions that have been anatomically and behaviourally related to psychosis in previous studies. The endophenotype was also validated as predicting psychosis in single case studies of patients with various diagnoses and was behaviourally and anatomically associated with the psychotic reactions of patients with Parkinson‘s disease to Levodopa medication. The validation studies suggest that, independent of aetiology, psychosis appears to be supported by bilateral but predominantly right sided frontal and limbic regions. The majority of individuals with this non-standard but dimensional trait will not decompensate into psychosis. However, the clinical data suggests that when individuals with high PS traits are under the duress of a significant affective, neurodegenerative or neuropharmacological stressor, the prominent symptom will be psychosis

Maternal depression during early childhood, persistent aggression into emerging adulthood: neurodevelopmental pathways of risk?

Despite an accumulation of evidence documenting prospective links between maternal depression and aggression in offspring, the mechanisms underlying this association remain somewhat mysterious. Mothers' depressive symptoms could undermine offspring's learning of stage-adaptive emotion regulation (ER) skills during early childhood (e.g., Seifer, Schiller, Sameroff, Resnick, & Riordan, 1996; Silk, Shaw, Skuban, Oland, & Kovacs, 2006). Some longitudinal studies link maternal depression to disruptions in young children's ER, which has been found to predict elevated aggressive behavior in later childhood and emerging adolescence (e.g., Gilliom et al., 2002; Trentacosta & Shaw, 2009). Neurodevelopmental mechanisms such as altered organization or refinement in cortico-limbic pathways could also play a role in prospective associations between mothers' depression during early childhood and dysregulated aggression in offspring (Callaghan & Tottenham, 2016; Sheikh et al., 2014). To further inform future inquiries into these mechanisms of risk, the present study tested whether maternal depression in early childhood was prospectively linked to persistent patterns of aggression at school entry and in emerging adulthood via disruptions in early ER processes and related patterns of neuroanatomical connectivity. Participants were drawn from a sample of 310 males at elevated risk for disruptive behavior problems based on their gender and low socioeconomic status. Direct paths from maternal depression and preschool-age ER in early childhood to offspring aggression at school-age were supported. Unexpectedly, aggressive behavior was not found to be stable from the early school-age period into young adulthood across informant and context. Children's aggressive behavior was inversely associated with uncinate fasciculus structural integrity in emerging adulthood, such that higher aggression at school-age predicted lower fractional anisotropy at age 20. Another index of uncinate structural integrity (i.e., mean diffusivity) was positively associated with general antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms in young adulthood. The present findings add new, longitudinal evidence to inform nascent theories for neurodevelopmental mechanisms underlying antisocial behavior and clarify directions for future research endeavors to illuminate other potential neurodevelopmental mechanisms of risk related to mothers' depression