The point of no return in the Emotional Stop-Signal Task: A matter of affect or method?

An affective variant of the Stop-Signal task was used to study the interaction between emotion and response inhibition (RI) in healthy young participants. The task involved the covert presentation of emotional faces as go stimuli, as well as a manipulation of motivation and affect by inducing a negative mood through the assignment of unfair punishment. In the literature on emotion and RI, there are contrasting findings reflecting the variability in the method used to calculate the RI latency, namely the Stop-Signal Reaction Time (SSRT).

Area-Selective Deposition of AlO and Al-Silicate for Fully Self-Aligned Via Integration.

The rush for better-performing electronics, and manufacturing processes that heavily rely on "top-down" patterning techniques, is making the integration of "self-aligned" fabrication methods, such as area-selective deposition (ASD), a critical objective for continued device scaling. The fully self-aligned via (FSAV) scheme is broadly proposed as a "killer application" to determine whether ASD can shift from an R&D process to high-volume manufacturing. Nevertheless, the lack of a suitable low-κ deposition process has prevented the realization of FSAV by dielectric-on-dielectric ASD.

Effect of Prearrival Orders on Time to Antibiotics for Immunocompromised Oncology Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department With Fever.

Objective: Pediatric cancer patients with fever are at risk for invasive bacterial infection. The administration of antibiotics to these patients within the first hour of evaluation is viewed as a quality of care metric with potential to improve outcome. We sought to evaluate the impact of prearrival patient orders on the timeliness of antibiotic administration for this patient population presenting to the emergency department (ED) because of fever.

Pediatric Lyme Disease Presenting as a Ruptured Popliteal Cyst: A Report of 3 Cases.

Cases: This case report describes 3 pediatric patients presenting with acute calf or knee pain, calf swelling, and a ruptured popliteal cyst diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging. Lyme disease was serologically confirmed in each case. In all instances, treatment was delayed because of atypical presentation.

The role of selective attention in the positivity offset: Evidence from event related potentials.

Some research suggests that positive and negative valence stimuli may be processed differently. For example, negative material may capture and hold attention more readily than equally arousing positive material. This is called the negativity bias, and it has been observed as both behavioural and electroencephalographic (EEG) effects.

Opportunities for Interaction : Natural Observations of Children's Social Behavior in Five Societies.

We examine the opportunities children have for interacting with others and the extent to which they are the focus of others' visual attention in five societies where extended family communities are the norm. We compiled six video-recorded datasets (two from one society) collected by a team of anthropologists and psychologists conducting long-term research in each society. The six datasets include video observations of children among the Yasawas (Fiji), Tanna (Vanuatu), Tsimane (Bolivia), Huatasani (Peru), and Aka (infants and children 4-12 years old; Central African Republic).

Electrophysiological evidence that psychopathic personality traits are associated with atypical response to salient distractors.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to assess the neural mechanisms underlying visual-spatial attention abnormalities associated with psychopathic personality traits. Sixty-nine undergraduates (56 women, 13 men) completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005) and performed two cognitive tasks in which search displays containing a lateralized singleton encircled a fixation point that changed luminance from trial-to-trial. When searching for the singleton as a target, PPI-R scores were uncorrelated with ERP measures of its salience (Ppc), goal-directed selection (N2pc), and working memory evaluation (negative amplitude CDA).

Spatiotemporal dynamics of reward and punishment effects induced by associative learning.

While reward associative learning has been studied extensively across different species, punishment avoidance learning has received far less attention. Of particular interest is how the two types of learning change perceptual processing of the learned stimuli. We designed a task that required participants to learn the association of emotionally neutral images with reward, punishment, and no incentive value outcomes through trial-and-error.

Parasagittal vertex clots on head CT in infants with subdural hemorrhage as a predictor for abusive head trauma.

Background: Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the most common cause of subdural hemorrhage (SDH) in infants younger than 12 months old. Clot formation in the parasagittal vertex seen on imaging has been associated with SDH due to AHT. There have been very few studies regarding these findings; to our knowledge, no studies including controls have been performed.

Electrophysiological evidence of early attentional bias to drug-related pictures in chronic cannabis users.

Behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of attentional bias to cannabis-related cues were investigated in a marijuana dependent group and a non-user group employing a drug Stroop task in which cannabis-related, negative and neutral images were presented. Behaviorally, cannabis users were less accurate during drug-containing blocks than non-users. Electrophysiologically, in chronic marijuana-users, an early positive ERP enhancement over left frontal scalp (EAP, 200-350ms) was present in response to drug-containing blocks relative to negative blocks.

Size and space controlled hexagonal arrays of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanodots: magnetic studies and application.

Highly dense hexagonally arranged iron oxide nanodots array were fabricated using PS-b-PEO self-assembled patterns. The copolymer molecular weight, composition and choice of annealing solvent/s allows dimensional and structural control of the nanopatterns at large scale. A mechanism is proposed to create scaffolds through degradation and/or modification of cylindrical domains.

Electrophysiology of blunted emotional bias in psychopathic personality.

Diminished emotional capacity is a core characteristic of psychopathic personality. We examined behavioral and electrophysiological differences in attentional bias to emotional material in 34 healthy individuals rated high or low in psychopathic traits using the short form of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (18 high-trait, 16 low-trait). While performing an emotional Stroop task, high-trait participants displayed reduced emotional modulation of the late positive potential (LPP, 400-600 ms), and early anterior positivity (EAP, 200-300 ms) amplitudes.

Spontaneous pneumorrhachis.

Pneumomediastinum is a relatively uncommon occurrence in pediatric patients. After mediastinal air leak, air may dissect through a variety of tissue planes within the chest, neck, and abdomen. We report the case of a 16-year-old adolescent boy who presented with spontaneous pneumomediastinum accompanied by the presence of air within the spinal canal.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the hedonic processing of chocolate images in individuals with and without trait chocolate craving.

The spatiotemporal dynamics of the hedonic response to chocolate images was investigated in healthy participants high and low in trait-chocolate craving employing high-density ERPs. There were two sessions: (1) before and (2) after satiety for chocolate. Among cravers, chocolate stimuli evoked a positive amplitude ERP enhancement over the anterior frontal scalp (250-350 ms) that was not modified by satiety and that source localized to the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex.

Age-related changes in the attentional control of visual cortex: a selective problem in the left visual hemifield.

To what extent does our visual-spatial attention change with age? In this regard, it has been previously reported that relative to young controls, seniors show delays in attention-related sensory facilitation. Given this finding, our study was designed to examine two key questions regarding age-related changes in the effect of spatial attention on sensory-evoked responses in visual cortex--are there visual field differences in the age-related impairments in sensory processing, and do these impairments co-occur with changes in the executive control signals associated with visual spatial orienting? Therefore, our study examined both attentional control and attentional facilitation in seniors (aged 66-74 years) and young adults (aged 18-25 years) using a canonical spatial orienting task. Participants responded to attended and unattended peripheral targets while we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to both targets and attention-directing spatial cues.

Are impairments in visual-spatial attention a critical factor for increased falls risk in seniors? An event-related potential study.

Falls are experienced annually by approximately one third of community dwellers over the age of 65, and while neuro-cognitive deficits have been shown to increase falls risk, the specific nature of these deficits remain unspecified. Here we examined whether visual-spatial attention may be a core neuro-cognitive system showing abnormal function in fallers. Using a between-groups design, we recorded event-related potentials in a canonical spatial cuing task performed by two groups of senior (aged 65+ years old) participants: those with a recent history of falls and those with no such history.

Impact of changes in infant death classification on the diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome.

This study evaluates the hypothesis that a decline in sudden infant death syndrome in Minnesota is associated with increases in other categories of sudden unexpected infant death. Matched birth and death certificates, autopsy reports, and home visit questionnaires were reviewed for 722 sudden unexpected infant deaths that occurred from January 1, 1996 through December 31, 2002. Descriptive data and cause of death were recorded.