The Effects of Stress and Trauma on Brain and Memory: A View from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Many aspects of brain development depend on experience. Because the major macro-morphological events of brain development occur over the first 2–3 years of postnatal life, this time period can be considered both a period of opportunity as well as a period of vulnerability. In this paper we describe how experience with stress early in life can have a negative impact on certain aspects of brain development, and specifically, those neural circuits that underlie memory. We also describe the effects of traumatic events on the development of the neural basis of memory. In support of our argument, we review the literature on brain, stress, and memory in the context of development. Based on this review, we suggest that the developing brain is particularly vulnerable to the harmful physiological effects of stress, which in turn has the potential to lead to impairments in memory. Unfortunately, there are few empirical data that directly address this hypothesis. In this context we offer a number of suggestions for future research

Assessing the influence of the built environment on physical activity for utility and recreation in suburban metro Vancouver

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical inactivity and associated co-morbidities such as obesity and cardiovascular disease are estimated to have large societal costs. There is increasing interest in examining the role of the built environment in shaping patterns of physical activity. However, few studies have: (1) simultaneously examined physical activity for leisure and utility; (2) selected study areas with a range of built environment characteristics; and (3) assessed the built environment using high-resolution land use data.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data on individuals used for this study are from a survey of 1602 adults in selected sites across suburban Metro Vancouver. Four types of physical activity were assessed: walking to work/school, walking for errands, walking for leisure and moderate physical activity for exercise. The built environment was assessed by constructing one-kilometre road network buffers around each respondent's postal code. Measures of the built environment include terciles of recreational and park land, residential land, institutional land, commercial land and land use mix.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Logistic regression analyses showed that walking to work/school and moderate physical activity were not associated with any built environment measure. Living in areas with lower land use mix, lower commercial and lower recreational land increased the odds of low levels of walking for errands. Individuals living in the lower third of land use mix and institutional land were more likely to report low levels of walking for leisure.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that walking for errands and leisure have a greater association with the built environment than other dimensions of physical activity.</p

A Maternal Influence on Reading the Mind in the Eyes Mediated by Executive Function: Differential Parental Influences on Full and Half-Siblings

BACKGROUND: Parent-of-origin effects have been found to influence the mammalian brain and cognition and have been specifically implicated in the development of human social cognition and theory of mind. The experimental design in this study was developed to detect parent-of-origin effects on theory of mind, as measured by the 'Reading the mind in the eyes' (Eyes) task. Eyes scores were also entered into a principal components analysis with measures of empathy, social skills and executive function, in order to determine what aspect of theory of mind Eyes is measuring. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Maternal and paternal influences on Eyes scores were compared using correlations between pairs of full (70 pairs), maternal (25 pairs) and paternal siblings (15 pairs). Structural equation modelling supported a maternal influence on Eyes scores over the normal range but not low-scoring outliers, and also a sex-specific influence on males acting to decrease male Eyes scores. It was not possible to differentiate between genetic and environmental influences in this particular sample because maternal siblings tended to be raised together while paternal siblings were raised apart. The principal components analysis found Eyes was associated with measures of executive function, principally behavioural inhibition and attention, rather than empathy or social skills. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, the results suggest a maternal influence on Eye scores in the normal range and a sex-specific influence acting to reduce scores in males. This influence may act via aspects of executive function such as behavioural inhibition and attention. There may be different influences acting to produce the lowest Eyes scores which implies that the heratibility and/or maternal influence on poor theory of mind skills may be qualitatively different to the influence on the normal range

Search for narrow resonances in dilepton mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV and combination with 8 TeV data

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Search for light bosons in decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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Observation of Charge-Dependent Azimuthal Correlations in p-Pb Collisions and Its Implication for the Search for the Chiral Magnetic Effect

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Search for R-parity violating supersymmetry with displaced vertices in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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