To sustain or repair cooperation during a social exchange, adaptive creatures must understand social gestures and the consequences when shared expectations about fair exchange are violated by ...accident or intent. We recruited 55 individuals afflicted with borderline personality disorder (BPD) to play a multiround economic exchange game with healthy partners. Behaviorally, individuals with BPD showed a profound incapacity to maintain cooperation, and were impaired in their ability to repair broken cooperation on the basis of a quantitative measure of coaxing. Neurally, activity in the anterior insula, a region known to respond to norm violations across affective, interoceptive, economic, and social dimensions, strongly differentiated healthy participants from individuals with BPD. Healthy subjects showed a strong linear relation between anterior insula response and both magnitude of monetary offer received from their partner (input) and the amount of money repaid to their partner (output). In stark contrast, activity in the anterior insula of BPD participants was related only to the magnitude of repayment sent back to their partner (output), not to the magnitude of offers received (input). These neural and behavioral data suggest that norms used in perception of social gestures are pathologically perturbed or missing altogether among individuals with BPD. This game-theoretic approach to psychopathology may open doors to new ways of characterizing and studying a range of mental illnesses.
Early cognitive, motor, and language skills were evaluated in 165 children, 91 with Spina Bifida (SB) and 74 developing typically. Assessments were given at 5 time points (6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 ...months of age). Three latent growth curve models were conducted to evaluate the development of these early skills, with social economic status and etiology as predictors of growth. Lesion level and shunting effects were included for group comparison. Children with SB exhibited lower levels of functioning in all areas, with slower rates of growth in cognition and language, but more acceleration in growth of motor skills. The impact of lesion level and shunting significantly related to growth in cognition and motor skills but not in language.
The impact of parenting and motor skills on the development of cognitive, language, and daily living skills was examined in 165 children (91 with spina bifida, SB), from 6–36 months of age. Motor ...scores significantly influenced cognitive, language, and daily living skills. Higher quality parenting was associated with higher levels of development and faster growth in cognitive and language skills for both groups. However, on daily living skills, an interaction among parenting, motor skills and group revealed that higher quality parenting was associated with higher levels and faster rates of growth only for the typically developing children with better motor skills. Early parenting style was found to have a directional impact (mother to child) on child development by 26 months of age. Results are discussed relative to intervention considerations for children with SB.
Early cognitive, motor, and language skills were evaluated in 165 children, 91 with Spina Bifida (SB) and 74 developing typically. Assessments were given at 5 time points (6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 ...months of age). Three latent growth curve models were conducted to evaluate the development of these early skills, with social economic status and etiology as predictors of growth. Lesion level and shunting effects were included for group comparison. Children with SB exhibited lower levels of functioning in all areas, with slower rates of growth in cognition and language, but more acceleration in growth of motor skills. The impact of lesion level and shunting significantly related to growth in cognition and motor skills but not in language.
The purpose of this study was to examine the role of early (3- and 6-months) maternal sensitivity in the development of infant neurophysiological and emotion regulation by the end of the first year. ...This was accomplished by assessing maternal sensitivity, infant Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) suppression during challenge, and infant emotional behaviors during laboratory visits with 60 infants (33 males) and their mothers at 3, 6, and 12 months. Maternal sensitivity was evaluated during unstructured interactions with infants using the Parent Behavior Coding Scales for Dyadic Play (Fish, Belsky, and Stifter, 1991). Infant suppression of RSA, as well as infant negativity at 3 months and infant use of behavioral emotion regulation strategies at 6 and 12 months, were assessed during challenging tasks as measures of infant neurophysiological and emotion regulation. Concurrent maternal sensitivity was not related to infant RSA suppression or infant emotional behaviors at any age. Infant RSA suppression at 3 and 6 months was unrelated to later measures of infant RSA. No infant emotional behaviors were related across time. However, maternal sensitivity at 3 months was related to infant RSA suppression at 6-months (p < .001) and RSA suppression during frustration challenge at 12-months (p < .05). Maternal sensitivity at 6-months was related to infant suppression during a fear challenge at 12-months ( p < .05). Maternal sensitivity was not related to concurrent emotional behaviors or emotional behavior across time. Concurrent use of a nonconstructive regulation strategy during frustration challenge at 6-months was negatively related to RSA suppression during that task (p < .01) and concurrent use of a constructive regulation strategy during fear challenge at 12-months was positively related to RSA suppression during that fear task. Suppression during the frustration task at 12 months was negatively related RSA suppression during that task. Earlier measures of RSA suppression, however, were unrelated to later measures of infant emotion regulation. Findings from this study support the hypothesis that early maternal sensitivity relates to the development of infant RSA suppression during challenge, but failed to support the hypothesis that such sensitivity also relates to later infant emotion regulation. These findings also suggest the importance of longitudinal research beginning in early infancy to understand the interface of biological and social factors in the development of emotionally relevant behavior.
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