INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL STRENGTHS ON THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ACCULTURATIVE STRESS, RACISM, AND MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH IN LATINO IMMIGRANTS

The Latino immigrant population in the United States has grown rapidly, now standing at over 56 million people. Due to this increase in Latino immigrants, investigation of their mental and physical health is crucial. Few studies have investigated conjointly both physical and mental health in Latino immigrant adults. Daily discrimination and acculturative stress have been found to affect the mental and physical health of Latino immigrants. Cultural strengths including social support, religiosity, and enculturation have been linked to Latino immigrant health. In the minority stress model, cultural strengths have been theorized to moderate relationships between discrimination and health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among acculturative stress, discrimination, and mental and physical health. A secondary aim was to examine whether direct and indirect effects among these series of variables are moderated by social support, religiosity, and enculturation. A community sample of 204 Latino immigrants were recruited. Generally, bivariate associations between variables were congruent with previous research. Anxiety was found to mediated the effects of both acculturative stress and discrimination on physical health. Depression was found to mediate the effect of discrimination on physical health. Social support was found to moderate indirect effect of discrimination on physical health through depression. Enculturation moderated the indirect effects of both acculturative stress and discrimination on physical health through anxiety. Results from this study indicate that minority stressors can impact physical health through mental health, and these relationships can be buffered by links to cultural strengths including social support and enculturation

scMRI Reveals Large-Scale Brain Network Abnormalities in Autism

Autism is a complex neurological condition characterized by childhood onset of dysfunction in multiple cognitive domains including socio-emotional function, speech and language, and processing of internally versus externally directed stimuli. Although gross brain anatomic differences in autism are well established, recent studies investigating regional differences in brain structure and function have yielded divergent and seemingly contradictory results. How regional abnormalities relate to the autistic phenotype remains unclear. We hypothesized that autism exhibits distinct perturbations in network-level brain architecture, and that cognitive dysfunction may be reflected by abnormal network structure. Network-level anatomic abnormalities in autism have not been previously described. We used structural covariance MRI to investigate network-level differences in gray matter structure within two large-scale networks strongly implicated in autism, the salience network and the default mode network, in autistic subjects and age-, gender-, and IQ-matched controls. We report specific perturbations in brain network architecture in the salience and default-mode networks consistent with clinical manifestations of autism. Extent and distribution of the salience network, involved in social-emotional regulation of environmental stimuli, is restricted in autism. In contrast, posterior elements of the default mode network have increased spatial distribution, suggesting a ‘posteriorization’ of this network. These findings are consistent with a network-based model of autism, and suggest a unifying interpretation of previous work. Moreover, we provide evidence of specific abnormalities in brain network architecture underlying autism that are quantifiable using standard clinical MRI

A MULTISITE STUDY OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IN LATIN AMERICA: LONGITUDINAL MEDITATIONAL MODEL OF FAMILY DYNAMICS, COPING, AND HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the greatest global contributor to death and disability among all trauma-related injuries. The leading causes of TBI globally are road traffic injuries/violence and as violence is a principle cause of death in Latin America, TBI in that region is a pressing public health and medical problem. Comorbid presentations of mental health disorders is common among TBI patients. TBI results in permanent and transient types of impairment impacting patient health related quality of life (HRQL) post-injury. In TBI patients, sense of coherence (SOC) focuses on successful personal coping and contributes to psychosocial functioning. In order to more fully understand the psychosocial adjustment process in TBI including comorbid mental health concerns and health related quality of life in Latin America, it is important to incorporate cultural values including family-based variables. TBI not only affects the patient but the entire family system, and rehabilitation outcomes for TBI patients are closely associated with family functioning. Although rehabilitation from TBI is a source of prolonged stress on the patient and their family, understanding the impact of family dynamics, salient in Latin American families with TBI, on patient mental and physical HRQL through patients’ SOC is imperative. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among healthy family dynamics, SOC, and mental and physical HRQL among a sample of TBI patients across three sites and two countries in Latin America over the first four months after injury. The secondary aim was to examine if family functioning over time is found to impact TBI patients’ SOC and HRQL more than the reverse causal direction. A sample of 109 TBI patients from Mexico and Colombia were recruited. A series of longitudinal mediation and cross-lag panel analyses were run in order to test the study’s research questions. Mental and physical HRQL were positively associated with each other, as well as healthy family dynamics and SOC. Congruent with hypotheses, SOC partially mediated the effects of healthy family dynamics on both mental and physical HRQL. Family dynamics showed larger cross-lag relationships with SOC going from 2 months to 4 months than SOC to family dynamics over the same intervals. Similarly, SOC showed larger cross-lag relationships with both mental and physical HRQL going from baseline to 2 months than mental and physical HRQL to SOC. Results from this study provide empirical support for the importance of family-systems approaches to TBI rehabilitation services in Latin America, as improved family functioning may exert salubrious effects on SOC and mental and physical HRQL

Is Helping Really Helping? Health-Related Quality of Life after TBI Predicting Caregiver Depression Symptom Trajectories in Latin America

Previous research connecting health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and caregiver mental health has primarily been conducted cross-sectionally in the U.S. and Western Europe. This study, therefore, examined how HRQoL in individuals immediately after their TBI predicts longitudinal caregiver depression symptom trajectories in Latin America. A sample of 109 patients with an acute TBI and 109 caregivers (total n = 218) was recruited from three hospitals in Mexico City, Mexico, and in Cali and Neiva, Colombia. TBI patients reported their HRQoL while they were still in hospital, and caregivers reported their depression symptoms at the same time and at 2 and 4 months later. Hierarchal linear models (HLM) found that caregiver depression symptom scores decreased over time, and lower patient mental health and pain-related quality of life at baseline (higher pain) predicted higher overall caregiver depression symptom trajectories across the three time points. These findings suggest that in Latin America, there is an identifiable relationship between psychological and pain-related symptoms after TBI and caregiver depression symptom outcomes. The results highlight the importance of early detection of caregiver mental health needs based in part upon patient HRQoL and a culturally informed approach to rehabilitation services for Latin American TBI caregivers

A Multi-Site Study of Traumatic Brain Injury in Mexico and Colombia: Longitudinal Mediational and Cross-Lagged Models of Family Dynamics, Coping, and Health-Related Quality of Life

Latin America has high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet reduced mental and physical health outcomes due to limited rehabilitation services. To understand the psychosocial adjustment process in TBI patients in Latin America, the incorporation of cultural values including family-based variables is imperative. The current study examined relations among healthy family dynamics, coping, and mental and physical health related quality of life (HRQL) among a sample of TBI patients across three sites and two countries over the first 4 months post-injury. A sample of 109 acute TBI patients from Mexico and Colombia were recruited, and a series of longitudinal mediation and cross-lag panel analyses were run. Mental and physical HRQL were positively associated with each other, as well as healthy family dynamics and coping. Coping partially mediated the effects of healthy family dynamics on both mental and physical HRQL. Family dynamics showed the strongest cross-lag relationships with coping going from 2 months to 4 months. Similarly, coping showed the strongest cross-lag relationships with both mental and physical HRQL going from baseline to 2 months. Results provide empirical support for the importance of a rehabilitation workforce that has been trained in and can effectively implement family-based interventions for individuals with TBI in Latin America

Fusiform Correlates of Facial Memory in Autism

behavioral sciences ISSN 2076-328X www.mdpi.com/journal/behavsci

Structural covariance maps of salience and default mode networks as a result of direct between-group contrasts.

<p>Statistical parametric maps depict brain regions in which gray matter intensity covaried with that of the seed ROI (right FI or PCC) differently between groups. (A) Structural covariance with right FI is greater in bilateral SMA in autistic subjects (hot colors; see also <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0049172#pone-0049172-t003" target="_blank">Table 3</a>), whereas control subjects (cool colors) demonstrate more robust covariance in extensive frontal and temporal brain regions, in addition to insular cortex. Covariance outside of canonical SN boundaries is evidenced only in the autistic group. (B) Structural covariance with right PCC includes posterior cingulate, parieto-occipital, and temporal brain regions in autism (hot colors), whereas frontal covariance is absent. In contrast, control subjects demonstrate more robust covariance in frontal, lateral inferior parietal, and paracentral regions (cool colors; see also <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0049172#pone-0049172-t003" target="_blank">Table 3</a>). Covariance outside of canonical DMN boundaries is evidenced only in the autistic group. scMRI data are T-statistic maps (p<0.05, inclusively masked to the network global map for both groups at p<0.01 FWE) displayed on the average anatomical template of all subjects. The left side of the image corresponds to the right side of the brain. DMN, default mode network; FI, frontoinsula; FWE, family-wise error; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; ROI, region of interest; SN, salience network.</p

Group demographics and neuropsychiatric test characteristics.

<p>ADOS-SI, ADOS Social Impairment score; ADOS-C, ADOS Communication score; VIQ, Verbal IQ; PIQ, Performance IQ.</p

Group differences in network volume.

<p>Plots of voxel counts by group indicate substantially restricted network extent in the SN of autistic subjects, whereas the DMN is more spatially extensive in the autistic group. Y-axis scale is voxel number from associated statistical maps. AUT, autism group; CTRL, control group; DMN, default mode network; L, left; R, right; SN, salience network.</p