Growing in generosity?:The effects of giving magnitude, target, and audience on the neural signature of giving in adolescence

Giving is essential for forming and maintaining social relationships, which is an important developmental task for adolescents. This pre-registered fMRI study investigated behavioral and neural correlates of adolescents’ (N = 128, ages 9 – 19 years) small versus large size giving in different social contexts related to target (i.e., giving to a friend or unfamiliar peer) and peer presence (i.e., anonymous versus audience giving). Participants gave more in the small size than large size condition, more to friends than to unfamiliar peers, and more in the audience compared to anonymous condition. Giving very small or large amounts was associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior insula (AI), and older adolescents showed increased lateral and anterior PFC activation for small size giving. We observed activity in the intraparietal cortex (IPL), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and AI for giving to friends, but no age-related differences in this activity. Behaviorally, in contrast, we observed that older adolescents differentiated more in giving between friends and unfamiliar peers. Finally, we observed interactions between peer presence and target in the AI, and between giving magnitude and target in the precuneus. Together, findings reveal higher context-dependency of giving and more lateral PFC activity for small versus large giving in older adolescents

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Trust to Friends, Community Members, and Unknown Peers in Adolescence

Trust plays an important role during adolescence for developing social relations. Although prior developmental studies give us insight into adolescents' development of differentiation between close (e.g., friends) and unknown (e.g., unknown peers) targets in trust choices, less is known about the development of trust to societal targets (e.g., members of a community organization) and its underlying neural mechanisms. Using a modified version of the Trust Game, our preregistered fMRI study examined the underlying neural mechanisms of trust to close (friend), societal (community member), and unknown others (unknown peer) during adolescence in 106 participants (aged 12-23 years). Adolescents showed most trust to friends, less trust to community members, and the least trust to unknown peers. Neural results show that target differentiation in adolescents' trust behavior is associated with activity in social brain regions implicated during mentalizing, reward processing, and cognitive control. Recruitment of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and OFC was higher for closer targets (i.e., friend and community member). For the mPFC, this effect was most pronounced during no trust choices. Trust to friends was additionally associated with increased activity in the precuneus and bilateral temporal parietal junction. In contrast, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex were most active for trust to unknown peers. The mPFC showed increased activity with age and consistent relations with individual differences in feeling needed/useful.</p

A comparative study on the health and well-being of adolescent immigrants in Spain and Portugal

The terms on which the integration of new generations of immigrants into Portuguese and Spanish societies happens will have a decisive influence in the future of both countries. Therefore, promoting their health, well-being, and psychosocial adaptation is a matter of strategic interest. This paper analyses psychosocial factors associated with well-being and psychological adjustment on a sample of 108 adolescents (55 males and 53 females), children of immigrants from Huelva (Spain) and Algarve (Portugal), aged between 10 and 17 years. Adolescents were assessed for demographic characteristics and perceived well-being. We used the "KIDSCREEN-5", a self-report questionnaire that yields detailed profile information for children aged 8 to 18 years for the following ten dimensions: Physical well-being, Psychological well-being, Moods and emotions, Self-perception, Autonomy, Parental relationships and home life, Financial resources, Social support and peers, School environment, and Social acceptance (Bullying). Overall, significant differences were found between the Spanish and Portuguese samples on physical well-being, psychological well-being, mood, financial resources and social acceptance (bullying). Boys perceived themselves as having a better physical well-being than girls. Mothers' educational level was associated with psychological well-being and mood. Also, results suggested that residence location and other socio-demographical variables were not associated with the adolescents' well-being and psychological adjustment

Ethnic Label Use in Adolescents from Traditional and Non-Traditional Immigrant Communities

Understanding adolescents’ use of ethnic labels is a key developmental issue, particularly given the practical significance of identity and self-definition in adolescents’ lives. Ethnic labeling was examined among adolescents in the traditional immigrant receiving area of Los Angeles (Asian n = 258, Latino n = 279) and the non-traditional immigrant receiving area of North Carolina (Asian n = 165, Latino n = 239). Logistic regressions showed that adolescents from different geographic settings use different ethnic labels, with youth from NC preferring heritage and panethnic labels and youth from LA preferring hyphenated American labels. Second generation youth were more likely than first generation youth to use hyphenated American labels, and less likely to use heritage or panethnic labels. Greater ethnic centrality increased the odds of heritage label use, and greater English proficiency increased the odds of heritage-American label use. These associations significantly mediated the initial effects of setting. Further results examine ethnic differences as well as links between labels and self-esteem. The discussion highlights implications of ethnic labeling and context

Molecular profiling improves classification and prognostication of nodal peripheral T-cell lymphomas: results of a phase III diagnostic accuracy study

PURPOSE: The differential diagnosis among the commonest peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs; ie, PTCL not otherwise specified [NOS], angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma [AITL], and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma [ALCL]) is difficult, with the morphologic and phenotypic features largely overlapping. We performed a phase III diagnostic accuracy study to test the ability of gene expression profiles (GEPs; index test) to identify PTCL subtype. METHODS: We studied 244 PTCLs, including 158 PTCLs NOS, 63 AITLs, and 23 ALK-negative ALCLs. The GEP-based classification method was established on a support vector machine algorithm, and the reference standard was an expert pathologic diagnosis according to WHO classification. RESULTS: First, we identified molecular signatures (molecular classifier [MC]) discriminating either AITL and ALK-negative ALCL from PTCL NOS in a training set. Of note, the MC was developed in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples and validated in both FFPE and frozen tissues. Second, we found that the overall accuracy of the MC was remarkable: 98% to 77% for AITL and 98% to 93% for ALK-negative ALCL in test and validation sets of patient cases, respectively. Furthermore, we found that the MC significantly improved the prognostic stratification of patients with PTCL. Particularly, it enhanced the distinction of ALK-negative ALCL from PTCL NOS, especially from some CD30+ PTCL NOS with uncertain morphology. Finally, MC discriminated some T-follicular helper (Tfh) PTCL NOS from AITL, providing further evidence that a group of PTCLs NOS shares a Tfh derivation with but is distinct from AITL. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the usage of an MC as additional tool in the diagnostic workup of nodal PTCL

Diversity of Bifidobacteria within the Infant Gut Microbiota

Background The human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) represents one of the most densely populated microbial ecosystems studied to date. Although this microbial consortium has been recognized to have a crucial impact on human health, its precise composition is still subject to intense investigation. Among the GIT microbiota, bifidobacteria represent an important commensal group, being among the first microbial colonizers of the gut. However, the prevalence and diversity of members of the genus Bifidobacterium in the infant intestinal microbiota has not yet been fully characterized, while some inconsistencies exist in literature regarding the abundance of this genus. Methods/Principal Findings In the current report, we assessed the complexity of the infant intestinal bifidobacterial population by analysis of pyrosequencing data of PCR amplicons derived from two hypervariable regions of the 16 S rRNA gene. Eleven faecal samples were collected from healthy infants of different geographical origins (Italy, Spain or Ireland), feeding type (breast milk or formula) and mode of delivery (vaginal or caesarean delivery), while in four cases, faecal samples of corresponding mothers were also analyzed. Conclusions In contrast to several previously published culture-independent studies, our analysis revealed a predominance of bifidobacteria in the infant gut as well as a profile of co-occurrence of bifidobacterial species in the infant’s intestine

Immigration Background and the Intergenerational Correlation in Education

This paper analyzes the degree of intergenerational education mobility among immigrant and native-born youth in Australia. We find that young Australians from non-English-speaking background (NESB) immigrant families have an educational advantage over their English-speaking background (ESB) immigrant and Australian-born peers. Moreover, while highly-educated Australian-born mothers and fathers transfer separate and roughly equal educational advantages to their children, outcomes for ESB (NESB) youth are most closely linked to the educational attainment of their fathers (mothers). On balance, intergenerational mobility in families with two highly-educated parents appears to be much the same for Australian-born and ESB families and is somewhat greater for NESB families. Finally, the greater importance that NESB mothers attribute to education appears to mitigate the educational penalty associated with socio-economic disadvantage