Progressive Thinning of Visual Motion Area in Lower Limb Amputees

Accumulating evidence has indicated that amputation or deafferentation of a limb induces functional or structural reorganization in the visual areas. However, the extent of the visual areas involved after lower limb amputation remains uncertain. In this investigation, we studied 48 adult patients with unilateral lower limb amputation and 48 matched healthy controls using T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Template-based regions of interest analysis was implemented to detect the changes of cortical thickness in the specific visual areas. Compared with normal controls, amputees exhibited significantly lower thickness in the V5/middle temporal (V5/MT+) visual area, as well as a trend of cortical thinning in the V3d. There was no significant difference in the other visual areas between the two groups. In addition, no significant difference of cortical thickness was found between patients with amputation at different levels. Across all amputees, correlation analyses revealed that the cortical thickness of the V5/MT+ was negatively correlated to the time since amputation. In conclusion, our findings indicate that the amputation of unilateral lower limb could induce changes in the motor-related visual cortex, and provide an update on the plasticity of the human brain after limb injury

Chinese adolescents’ coping tactics in a parent-adolescent conflict and their relationships with life satisfaction: The differences between coping with mother and father

The present study examined the differences of conflict coping tactics in adolescents’ grade and gender and parents’ gender and explored the relationships among conflict frequency, conflict coping tactics and life satisfaction. A total of 1,874 Chinese students in grades 7, 8, 10 and 11 completed surveys on conflict frequency, coping tactics and life satisfaction. The results obtained by MANOVA suggested that the adolescents’ reported use of assertion and avoidance with either mothers or fathers increased from Grade 7 to Grade 8 and did not change from Grade 8 to Grade 11 in parent-adolescent conflicts. The results of paired sample T tests indicated that adolescents used more conciliation in Grade 7, more conciliation and assertion in Grade 8, and more conciliation and less avoidance in Grade 10 and 11 to cope with mothers than with fathers in parent-adolescent conflicts. Boys used more conciliation and less avoidance, while girls used more conciliation, assertion and third-party intervention to cope with mothers than with fathers in parent-adolescent conflicts. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis indicated the significance of the primary effects of conflict frequency and coping tactics on life satisfaction. Specifically, conflict frequency negatively predicted life satisfaction. Conciliation positively and avoidance negatively predicted life satisfaction when adolescents coped with either mothers or fathers in parent-adolescent conflicts. Assertion negatively predicted life satisfaction when adolescents coped with fathers. The moderating effects of conflict coping tactics on the relationship between parent-adolescent conflict frequency and life satisfaction were not significant