The effect of neurostimulation applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on post-stress adaptation as a function of depressive brooding.

Depressive brooding following a stressful event predicts negative affect and neuroendocrine responses related to psychological stress. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been associated with the top-down regulation of thoughts and emotions, and abnormal neural activity within this region has been associated with increased psychological stress and ruminative thinking. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the modulation of the DLPFC could have beneficial effects on ruminative thoughts and the endocrine response following a self-relevant stressor.

More Precise Estimation of Lower-Level Interaction Effects in Multilevel Models.

In hierarchical data, the effect of a lower-level predictor on a lower-level outcome may often be confounded by an (un)measured upper-level factor. When such confounding is left unaddressed, the effect of the lower-level predictor is estimated with bias. Separating this effect into a within- and between-component removes such bias in a linear random intercept model under a specific set of assumptions for the confounder.

Helping Your Partner with Chronic Pain: The Importance of Helping Motivation, Received Social Support, and Its Timeliness.

Objective: Like all intentional acts, social support provision varies with respect to its underlying motives. Greater autonomous or volitional motives (e.g.

Anodal tDCS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulates cognitive processing of emotional information as a function of trait rumination in healthy volunteers.

Healthy individuals reporting higher (as compared to lower) levels of trait rumination recruit more neural activity in dorso-cortical regions (mostly in the right hemisphere) when inhibiting negative information, possibly to compensate their difficulty to disengage from it. In the present study, we investigated whether these latter neural correlates are causally implicated in cognitive control in these individuals. We administered the Cued Emotional Control Task, a measure of cognitive control indexed by cognitive costs for inhibiting versus providing a habitual response for emotional information, in thirty-five healthy volunteers reporting a broad range of trait rumination levels.

Within-Subject Mediation Analysis in AB/BA Crossover Designs.

Crossover trials are widely used to assess the effect of a reversible exposure on an outcome of interest. To gain further insight into the underlying mechanisms of this effect, researchers may be interested in exploring whether or not it runs through a specific intermediate variable: the mediator. Mediation analysis in crossover designs has received scant attention so far and is mostly confined to the traditional Baron and Kenny approach.

Preschool predictors of mathematics in first grade children with autism spectrum disorder.

Up till now, research evidence on the mathematical abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been scarce and provided mixed results. The current study examined the predictive value of five early numerical competencies for four domains of mathematics in first grade. Thirty-three high-functioning children with ASD were followed up from preschool to first grade and compared with 54 typically developing children, as well as with normed samples in first grade.