Infant/Weanling Mortality in Tennessee\u27s Prehistory: A Comparative Approach

Although there is general agreement among many researchers concerning the decline in health and nutrition which accompanied the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, few studies have directly addressed the differences in infant\weanling mortality between these two distinct cultural adaptational strategies. This research focuses on infant mortality as an indicator of general health and nutritional status. Results from the present study, which utilizes more than 1,200 skeletal samples from eight sites, indicate a significant difference in infant mortality between prehistoric hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists in Tennessee. Demographic comparisons were made between six Archaic sites and two Mississippian sites using the mortality profile method. Non-statistically significant differences in infant\weanling mortality were noted between the Archaic sites having shell middens and those without. These differences, while not significant, are believed to be due to a combination of better bone preservation in shell middens and density dependant diseases affecting individuals in the 0-5 year age intervals at Archaic summer base camps. Statistically significant differences in infant\weanling mortality were found between the Archaic and Mississippian sites. This difference suggests a better health and nutritional status for the Archaic hunter-gatherers than for the later Mississippian agriculturalists. The higher infant\weanling mortality among the Mississippian peoples is believed to result from an intensive reliance on a high carbohydrate, low protein maize diet and density dependant diseases brought about by population increase and sedentism. Results from a paleopathological analysis of the remains utilized in the study show a statistically significant difference in frequencies of porotic hyperostosis between the Archaic and Mississippian periods. This pathology is used as and indicator of nutritional stress and is the result of iron deficiency anemia. Previous research has shown a correlation between porotic hyperostosis and maize reliance. The results show a much higher frequency of porotic hyperostosis in the Mississippian sample compared to the Archaic series analyzed. These findings support the conclusions drawn from the paleodemographic results

Fear extinction across development: The involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex as assessed by temporary inactivation and immunohistochemistry

Extinction in adult animals, including humans, appears to involve the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, the role of mPFC in extinction across development has not yet been studied. Given several recent demonstrations of developmental differences in extinction of conditioned fear at a behavioral level, different neural circuitries may mediate fear extinction across development. In all experiments, noise conditioned stimulus (CS) and shock unconditioned stimulus (US) were used. In experiment 1A, temporary unilateral inactivation of the mPFC during extinction training impaired long-term extinction the following day in postnatal day 24 (P24) rats but not in P17 rats. In experiment 1B, bilateral inactivation of them PFC again failed to disrupt long-term extinction in P17 rats. In experiment 2, extinction training increased phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK) in the mPFC for P24 rats but not for P17 rats, whereas rats of both ages displayed elevated pMAPK in the amygdala. Across both ages, "not trained," "reactivated, " and "no extinction" control groups expressed very low numbers of pMAPK immunoreactive (IR) neurons across both neural structures. This result indicates that the mere conditioning experience, the exposure to the CS, or the expression of CS-elicited fear in and of itself is not sufficient to explain the observed increase in pMAPK-IR neurons in them PFC and/or the amygdala after extinction. Together, these findings show that extinction in P17 rats does not involve the mPFC, which has important theoretical and clinical implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders in humans

Fear extinction across development: The involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex as assessed by temporary inactivation and immunohistochemistry

Extinction in adult animals, including humans, appears to involve the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, the role of mPFC in extinction across development has not yet been studied. Given several recent demonstrations of developmental differences in extinction of conditioned fear at a behavioral level, different neural circuitries may mediate fear extinction across development. In all experiments, noise conditioned stimulus (CS) and shock unconditioned stimulus (US) were used. In experiment 1A, temporary unilateral inactivation of the mPFC during extinction training impaired long-term extinction the following day in postnatal day 24 (P24) rats but not in P17 rats. In experiment 1B, bilateral inactivation of them PFC again failed to disrupt long-term extinction in P17 rats. In experiment 2, extinction training increased phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK) in the mPFC for P24 rats but not for P17 rats, whereas rats of both ages displayed elevated pMAPK in the amygdala. Across both ages, "not trained," "reactivated, " and "no extinction" control groups expressed very low numbers of pMAPK immunoreactive (IR) neurons across both neural structures. This result indicates that the mere conditioning experience, the exposure to the CS, or the expression of CS-elicited fear in and of itself is not sufficient to explain the observed increase in pMAPK-IR neurons in them PFC and/or the amygdala after extinction. Together, these findings show that extinction in P17 rats does not involve the mPFC, which has important theoretical and clinical implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders in humans

Exploring the movement dynamics of deception

Both the science and the everyday practice of detecting a lie rest on the same assumption: hidden cognitive states that the liar would like to remain hidden nevertheless influence observable behavior. This assumption has good evidence. The insights of professional interrogators, anecdotal evidence, and body language textbooks have all built up a sizeable catalog of non-verbal cues that have been claimed to distinguish deceptive and truthful behavior. Typically, these cues are discrete, individual behaviors—a hand touching a mouth, the rise of a brow—that distinguish lies from truths solely in terms of their frequency or duration. Research to date has failed to establish any of these non-verbal cues as a reliable marker of deception. Here we argue that perhaps this is because simple tallies of behavior can miss out on the rich but subtle organization of behavior as it unfolds over time. Research in cognitive science from a dynamical systems perspective has shown that behavior is structured across multiple timescales, with more or less regularity and structure. Using tools that are sensitive to these dynamics, we analyzed body motion data from an experiment that put participants in a realistic situation of choosing, or not, to lie to an experimenter. Our analyses indicate that when being deceptive, continuous fluctuations of movement in the upper face, and somewhat in the arms, are characterized by dynamical properties of less stability, but greater complexity. For the upper face, these distinctions are present despite no apparent differences in the overall amount of movement between deception and truth. We suggest that these unique dynamical signatures of motion are indicative of both the cognitive demands inherent to deception and the need to respond adaptively in a social context

Riding the ‘O’ Train: Comparing the Effects of Ostracism and Verbal Dispute on Targets and Sources

In the present study we examined the effects of social ostracism (being excluded and ignored in the presence of others) on those who ostracize (sources) and those who are ostracized (targets). Unlike previous research that compared ostracism to social inclusion, the present study also compared ostracism to verbal dispute (i.e. an argument). A role-play method was used such that participants acted out a five-minute train ride in which two sources ignored or argued with a target sitting between them. In three studies, ostracism was shown to be a unique form of social conflict, with targets of ostracism reporting lower need satisfaction levels than targets of argument, whereas sources of ostracism reported higher need satisfaction levels than did sources of argument

Policy analysis: Compressed workweek

Today the economy has slowed down and inflation has risen to near record highs. Corporations, governments, and agencies are looking at ways to save costs. Budget expenditures on payroll are addressed as well as the cost of utilities, resources, and the costs of doing business. One implicated method to help solve these problems is for the use of compressed workweeks. Compressed workweeks are both beneficial to the agencies and the employees. The employee can have more time for home life while putting in the same amount of hours at work, and save money on commuting to work. Additionally the agency is saving on the budget, because of an extended weekend for the worker. An employer can shorten its workweek and lower operational costs, while improving employee attendance through the use of compressed workweeks. This study is going to examine the different workweeks for differences in attendance, the best measurable variable in favor for the agency. The study will focus on the Clark County, Nevada, the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJS), which has an identical job classification working both traditional workweeks and compressed workweeks. This type of study is rare in that the comparison group is within the same agency and job classification as the experimental group. This examination of compressed work weeks comes at a time where most work in the area of compressed work weeks remain exploratory (Pierce & Dunham 1992), and current agencies, and even entire government agencies are moving radically toward compressed workweeks because of the slowing of the economy and increased inflation

The Relationship between Narrative Informativeness and Psychosocial Outcomes in Chronic Stroke-Induced Aphasia

Currently there is a gap in the literature in understanding the relationship between the newly categorized primary outcome measure of discourse and secondary outcomes related to psychosocial impact, such as participation, psychological impact, social well-being, or mood. In a large sample of persons with stroke-induced aphasia (N=115), this study analyzed discourse samples using main concept analysis to determine how discourse performance correlates with the secondary outcome measures ALA, CCRSA, GDS, and CIQ. As a secondary research question, the differences in these relationships dependent on severity was also explored. Results showed statistically significant positive correlations between main concepts (MCs) and ALA (overall), CCRSA, and CIQ (overall), with effect sizes ranging from weak to moderate strength. This study provides novel insights into the relationship between the newly categorized primary outcome measure of discourse and secondary outcomes related to psychosocial impact

Eduardo Mujica con Universidad Católica de Chile -Corporación de Televisión

<p>Mean (SEM) percent pre-CS freezing for Experiment 1.</p

Early-life stress leads to sex-dependent changes in pubertal timing in rats that are reversed by a probiotic formulation.

Puberty marks the beginning of a period of dramatic physical, hormonal, and social change. This instability has made adolescence infamous as a time of "storm and stress" and it is well-established that stress during adolescence can be particularly damaging. However, prior stress may also shape the adolescent experience. In the present series of experiments, we observed sex-specific effects of early-life maternal separation stress on the timing of puberty onset in the rat. Specifically, stressed females exhibited earlier pubertal onset compared to standard-reared females, whereas stressed males matured later than their standard-reared counterparts. Further, we demonstrated that a probiotic treatment restores the normative timing of puberty onset in rodents of both sexes. These results are in keeping with previous findings that probiotics reverse stress-induced changes in learned fear behaviors and stress hormone levels, highlighting the remarkable and wide-ranging restorative effects of probiotics in the context of early-life stress

A brief guide to studying fear in developing rodents: important considerations and common pitfalls.

Development is a time of rapid change that sets the pathway to adult functioning across all aspects of physical and mental health. Developmental studies can therefore offer insight into the unique needs of individuals at different stages of normal development as well as the etiology of various disease states. The aim of this overview is to provide an introduction to the practical implementation of developmental studies in rats and mice, with an emphasis on the study of learned fear. We first discuss how developmental factors may influence experimental outcomes for any study. This is followed by a discussion of methodological issues to consider when conducting studies of developing rodents, highlighting examples from the literature on learned fear. Throughout, we offer some recommendations to guide researchers on best practice in developmental studies