Synchrony of physiological activity during mother-child interaction: moderation by maternal history of major depressive disorder

The family environment plays an important role in the intergenerational transmission of MDD, but less is known about how day-to-day mother-child interactions may be disrupted in families with a history of MDD. Disruptions in mother-child synchrony, the dynamic and convergent exchange of physiological and behavioral cues during interactions, may be one important risk factor. Although maternal MDD is associated with a lack of mother-child synchrony at the behavioral level, no studies have examined the impact of maternal MDD on physiological synchrony. Therefore, the current study examined whether maternal history of MDD moderates mother-child physiological synchrony (measured via RSA) during positive and negative discussions

Allocation of Communications to Reduce Mental Workload

As the United States Department of Defense continues to increase the number of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) operations overseas, improved Human Systems Integration becomes increasingly important. Manpower limitations have motivated the investigation of Multiple Aircraft Control (MAC) configurations where a single pilot controls multiple RPAs simultaneously. Previous research has indicated that frequent, unpredictable, and oftentimes overwhelming, volumes of communication events can produce unmanageable levels of system induced workload for MAC pilots. Existing human computer interface design includes both visual information with typed responses, which conflict with numerous other visual tasks the pilot performs, and auditory information that is provided through multiple audio devices with speech response. This paper extends previous discrete event workload models of pilot activities flying multiple aircraft. Specifically, we examine statically reallocating communication modality with the goal to reduce and minimize the overall pilot cognitive workload. The analysis investigates the impact of various communication reallocations on predicted pilot workload, measured by the percent of time workload is over a saturation threshold

World Health Organization estimates of the global and regional disease burden of four foodborne chemical toxins, 2010: a data synthesis

Background: Chemical exposures have been associated with a variety of health effects; however, little is known about the global disease burden from foodborne chemicals. Food can be a major pathway for the general population’s exposure to chemicals, and for some chemicals, it accounts for almost 100% of exposure. Methods and Findings: Groups of foodborne chemicals, both natural and anthropogenic, were evaluated for their ability to contribute to the burden of disease. The results of the analyses on four chemicals are presented here - cyanide in cassava, peanut allergen, aflatoxin, and dioxin. Systematic reviews of the literature were conducted to develop age- and sex-specific disease incidence and mortality estimates due to these chemicals. From these estimates, the numbers of cases, deaths and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) were calculated. For these four chemicals combined, the total number of illnesses, deaths, and DALYs in 2010 is estimated to be 339,000 (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 186,000-1,239,000); 20,000 (95% UI: 8,000-52,000); and 1,012,000 (95% UI: 562,000-2,822,000), respectively. Both cyanide in cassava and aflatoxin are associated with diseases with high case-fatality ratios. Virtually all human exposure to these four chemicals is through the food supply. Conclusion: Chemicals in the food supply, as evidenced by the results for only four chemicals, can have a significant impact on the global burden of disease. The case-fatality rates for these four chemicals range from low (e.g., peanut allergen) to extremely high (aflatoxin and liver cancer). The effects associated with these four chemicals are neurologic (cyanide in cassava), cancer (aflatoxin), allergic response (peanut allergen), endocrine (dioxin), and reproductive (dioxin)

Brooding rumination and attentional biases in currently non-depressed individuals: an eye-tracking study.

Both rumination and attentional biases have been proposed as key components of the RDoC Negative Valence Systems construct of Loss. Although theorists have proposed that rumination, particularly brooding rumination, should be associated with increased sustained attention to depression-relevant information, it is not clear whether this link would be observed in a non-depressed sample or whether it is specific to brooding versus reflective rumination. To address these questions, the current study examined the link between brooding rumination and attentional biases in a sample of non-depressed individuals (n = 105). Attentional biases were assessed using eye tracking during a passive viewing task in which participants were presented with 2 × 2 arrays of angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. In line with predictions, higher levels of brooding rumination were associated with greater sustained attention to sad faces and less sustained attention to happy faces. These results remained significant after controlling for participants’ prior history of major depression and current nonclinical level of depressive symptoms, suggesting that the link between brooding rumination and attentional biases is at least partially independent of current or past depression

Blunted neural reward responsiveness in children with recent suicidal ideation

Individuals with suicidal thoughts and behaviors experience abnormalities in reward-related processes, yet little is known about specific components or stages of reward processing that are impaired, especially in children. The primary aim of this study was to conduct an investigation of the Initial Response to Reward subconstruct of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria in relation to recent suicidal ideation (SI) in children. Participants were 23 children between the ages of 7 and 11 with a history of recent SI and 46 demographically and clinically matched children with no recent SI. Children completed a simple guessing task during which electroencephalographic signals were continuously recorded to isolate the reward positivity (RewP) event-related potential; specifically, we examined change in RewP (∆RewP), quantified as the difference between neural responses to monetary gains and neural responses to monetary losses. Children with recent SI exhibited significantly smaller (i.e., blunted) ∆RewP, providing initial evidence for blunted initial responses to reward in these children

Non-suicidal self-injury attempted suicide, and suicidal intent among psychiatric inpatients

Although attempted suicide and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) differ in several important ways, a significant number of individuals report histories of both behaviors. The current study further examined the relations between NSSI and attempted suicide among psychiatric inpatients. Self-report questionnaires were administered to 117 psychiatric inpatients at a general hospital (M=39.45 years old, S.D.=12.84 years, range=17–73 years). We found that presence and number of NSSI episodes were significantly related to presence and number of suicide attempts. Supporting the importance of NSSI assessment, patients\u27 history of NSSI (presence and frequency) was more strongly associated with history of suicide attempts than were patients\u27 depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and as strongly associated with suicide attempt history as current levels of suicidal ideation. Finally, among patients with a history of suicide attempts, those with an NSSI history reported significantly greater lethal intent for their most severe attempt, and patients\u27 number of prior NSSI episodes was positively correlated with the level of lethal intent associated with their most severe suicide attempt

Suicidal ideation and attentional biases in children: An eye-tracking study.

Background: Despite theoretical and empirical evidence for a heighted responsiveness to signals of social-threat in suicidal individuals, no studies to date have examined whether this responsiveness might also manifest in the form of specific biases in attention to interpersonal stimuli. The current study, therefore, examined the presence and nature of attentional biases for facial expressions of emotion in children with and without a history of suicidal ideation (SI). Method: Participants were 88 children (44 with a history of SI and 44 demographically and clinically matched controls without such history) recruited from the community. The average age of children was 9.26 years (44.3% female; 67.0% Caucasian). Children\u27s history of SI was assessed via structured interviews with children and their parent. Attentional biases were assessed using a dot probe task and included fearful, happy, and sad facial stimuli and focused on eye tracking and reaction time indices of attentional bias. Results: Children with a history of SI exhibited significantly greater gaze duration toward fearful faces. The findings appeared to be at least partially independent of children\u27s history of major depression or anxiety disorders or their current depressive or anxious symptoms. Limitations: The study is limited by its cross-sectional design, which precludes any causal conclusions regarding the role of attentional biases in future suicide risk. Conclusions: Our results suggest that children with a history of SI exhibit biases in sustained attention toward socially-threatening facial expressions. Pending replications, these findings might represent a new avenue of suicide risk assessment and intervention

Lonely adolescents exhibit heightened sensitivity for facial cues of emotion

Contradicting evidence exists regarding the link between loneliness and sensitivity to facial cues of emotion, as loneliness has been related to better but also to worse performance on facial emotion recognition tasks. This study aims to contribute to this debate and extends previous work by (a) focusing on both accuracy and sensitivity to detecting positive and negative expressions, (b) controlling for depressive symptoms and social anxiety, and (c) using an advanced emotion recognition task with videos of neutral adolescent faces gradually morphing into full-intensity expressions. Participants were 170 adolescents (49% boys; Mage = 13.65 years) from rural, low-income schools. Results showed that loneliness was associated with increased sensitivity to happy, sad, and fear faces. When controlling for depressive symptoms and social anxiety, loneliness remained significantly associated with sensitivity to sad and fear faces. Together, these results suggest that lonely adolescents are vigilant to negative facial cues of emotion.peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=pcem20status: publishe