Spirituality and outcomes in caregivers of persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Purpose/objective: Spiritual well-being has been associated with better quality of life outcomes in caregivers, but the associations among the care recipient's functional status, the caregiver's spiritual well-being, and the caregiver's health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is unknown. Research Method/Design: The study examined the Spiritual Well-Being Scale in caregivers of persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI; = 335). Participants completed measures from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, the Quality of Life in Caregivers of TBI, and the Caregiver Appraisal Scale.

The fear of Alzheimer's disease: mediating effects of anxiety on subjective memory complaints.

To determine if the fear of developing Alzheimer's disease (FDAD) construct, in combination with similar psychoemotional factors, could help elucidate the nature of older adults' subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and subsequent objective memory performance. One hundred ninety-three healthy older adults (aged 65-93) were administered clinician and self-report measures of depression, worry, anxiety, illness attitudes, and memory, and each rated their concern with developing AD. Self-reported FDAD was not associated with objective memory performance ( > .

Explaining between-race differences in African-American and European-American women's responses to breast density notification.

Background: Prior research shows between-race differences in women's knowledge and emotions related to having dense breasts, thus suggesting that between-race differences in behavioral decision-making following receipt of breast density (BD) notifications are likely. Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this study examined differences in emotion-related responses (i.e.

Performance variability during a multitrial list-learning task as a predictor of future cognitive decline in healthy elders.

Introduction: In clinical settings, neuropsychological test performance is traditionally evaluated with total summary scores (TSS). However, recent studies demonstrated that indices of intraindividual variability (IIV) yielded unique information complementing TSS. This 18-month longitudinal study sought to determine whether IIV indices derived from a multitrial list-learning test (the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) provided incremental utility in predicting cognitive decline in older adults compared to TSS.

Effect of predictive cuing on response inhibition in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure.

Background: Heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol leads to widespread cognitive deficits, including problems with attention and response inhibition. This study examined blood oxygen level-dependent response in children with and without histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure during a task of response inhibition consisting of cued and noncued trials.

Methods: Children and adolescents (ages 8 to 18 years) with (alcohol-exposed [AE] = 20) and without (control [CON] = 15) histories of heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a go/no-go task.

A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of spatial working memory in children with prenatal alcohol exposure: contribution of familial history of alcohol use disorders.

Background: Heavy prenatal alcohol exposure leads to widespread cognitive deficits, including problems with spatial working memory (SWM). Neuroimaging studies report structural and functional abnormalities in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), but interpretations may be complicated by the co-occurrence of a family history of alcoholism. Since this history is also linked to cognitive deficits and brain abnormalities, it is difficult to determine the extent to which deficits are unique to prenatal alcohol exposure.

Neural activation during inhibition predicts initiation of substance use in adolescence.

Background: Problems inhibiting non-adaptive behaviors have been linked to an increased risk for substance use and other risk taking behaviors in adolescence. This study examines the hypothesis that abnormalities in neural activation during inhibition in early adolescence may predict subsequent substance involvement.

Methods: Thirty eight adolescents from local area middle schools, ages 12-14, with very limited histories of substance use, underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as they performed a go/no-go task of response inhibition and response selection.

Neuroimaging and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

The detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing brain include structural brain anomalies as well as cognitive and behavioral deficits. Initial neuroimaging studies of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed previous autopsy reports of overall reduction in brain volume and central nervous system (CNS) disorganization, with specific structural abnormalities of the corpus callosum, cerebellum, caudate, and hippocampus. Advances in neuroimaging techniques have allowed detection of regional increases in cortical thickness and gray matter volume along with decreased volume and disorganization of white matter in individuals with FASD.

Effects of family history of alcohol use disorders on spatial working memory BOLD response in adolescents.

Background: A positive family history (FH) of alcohol use disorders (AUD) has been linked to increased risk for the development of AUD, and neurocognitive factors have been postulated as important underlying mechanisms of familial alcoholism transmission.

Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a spatial working memory (SWM) and vigilance paradigm to investigate potential neurodevelopmental differences linked to familial density of AUD in 72 adolescents aged 12 to 14 years.

Results: Youth with denser family histories of AUD showed less activation during a simple vigilance condition relative to SWM in cingulate and medial frontal gyri (beta = 0.