The Cultivation of Pure Altruism via Gratitude: A Functional MRI Study of Change with Gratitude Practice.

Gratitude is an emotion and a trait linked to well-being and better health, and welcoming benefits to oneself is instrumentally valuable. However, theoretical and empirical work highlights that gratitude is more fully understood as an intrinsically valuable moral emotion. To understand the role of neural reward systems in the association between gratitude and altruistic motivations we tested two hypotheses: First, whether self-reported propensity toward gratitude relates to fMRI-derived indicators of "pure altruism," operationalized as the neural valuation of passive, private transfers to a charity versus to oneself.

Neural Reactivity to Emotional Faces May Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Empathy and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior.

Reactivity to others' emotions not only can result in empathic concern (EC), an important motivator of prosocial behavior, but can also result in personal distress (PD), which may hinder prosocial behavior. Examining neural substrates of emotional reactivity may elucidate how EC and PD differentially influence prosocial behavior. Participants (N = 57) provided measures of EC, PD, prosocial behavior, and neural responses to emotional expressions at ages 10 and 13.

A Physical Activity Intervention and Changes in Body Mass Index at a Middle School With a Large American Indian Population, Oklahoma, 2004-2009.

School-based interventions can reach children and adolescents and aid in reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity. A physical education class that engaged middle school students in a daily 1-mile walk or run and other team sports was developed in a rural school in southwestern Oklahoma with a large American Indian population. Body mass index z scores decreased among boys and were stable among girls in the intervention group compared with students who did not participate in the intervention.

Preliminary evidence of the impact of early childhood maltreatment and a preventive intervention on neural patterns of response inhibition in early adolescence.

Maltreated youths in foster care often experience negative developmental and psychological outcomes, which have been linked with poor response inhibition. Recent evidence suggests that childhood maltreatment is also associated with alterations in the neural circuitry underlying response inhibition. However, a burgeoning line of research has begun to explore the mitigating effects of preventive interventions on neural functioning.

But do you think I'm cool? Developmental differences in striatal recruitment during direct and reflected social self-evaluations.

The current fMRI study investigates the neural foundations of evaluating oneself and others during early adolescence and young adulthood. Eighteen early adolescents (ages 11-14, M=12.6) and 19 young adults (ages 22-31, M=25.

Patterns of brain activation in foster children and nonmaltreated children during an inhibitory control task.

Children in foster care have often encountered a range of adverse experiences, including neglectful and/or abusive care and multiple caregiver transitions. Prior research findings suggest that such experiences negatively affect inhibitory control and the underlying neural circuitry. In the current study, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was employed during a go/no go task that assesses inhibitory control to compare the behavioral performance and brain activation of foster children and nonmaltreated children.

Risk-taking and social exclusion in adolescence: neural mechanisms underlying peer influences on decision-making.

Social exclusion and risk-taking are both common experiences of concern in adolescence, yet little is known about how the two may be related at behavioral or neural levels. In this fMRI study, adolescents (N=27, 14 male, 14-17years-old) completed a series of tasks in the scanner assessing risky decision-making before and after an episode of social exclusion. In this particular context, exclusion was associated with greater behavioral risk-taking among adolescents with low self-reported resistance to peer influence (RPI).

'Like me?': ventromedial prefrontal cortex is sensitive to both personal relevance and self-similarity during social comparisons.

Social comparisons are an important means by which we gain information about the self, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying comparative social judgment, as most prior functional magnetic resonance imaging research on this topic has investigated judgments of self or others in isolation. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has routinely been implicated in social cognitive tasks that rely on such absolute judgments about the self or others, but it is unclear whether activity in this region is modulated by personal relevance of social stimuli or self-similarity of judgment targets. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that these forces interact to determine vmPFC response during social comparisons, as well as neural activity in the bilateral anterior insulae.

Weight status of American Indian and white elementary school students living in the same rural environment, Oklahoma, 2005-2009.

Introduction: Studies have assessed rates of childhood obesity in diverse populations, but few have been able to compare the weight status of American Indian and white children living in the same community and attending the same schools. The objective of this study was to measure and compare the weight status of American Indian and white elementary school students (kindergarten through 5th grade) from 2005 through 2009 in an Oklahoma school district.

Methods: We assessed height, weight, age, and sex to calculate body mass index, body mass percentile, and categorical weight status of students, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 Growth Charts.

Facing puberty: associations between pubertal development and neural responses to affective facial displays.

Adolescence is marked by profound psychosocial and physiological changes. Although investigations into the interactions between these forces have begun to shed light on the neural correlates of affective processing during the transition to adolescence, relatively little is known about the relationship between pubertal development and emotion perception at the neural level. In the current longitudinal study, 45 neurotypical participants were shown affective facial displays while undergoing fMRI, at ages 10 and 13.

Comparison of 2 line blot assays for defining HPV genotypes in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas.

Patients with invasive oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas infected with human papillomaviruses (HPV) demonstrate improved survival. HPV detection in tumors may assist in risk stratification of patients and in guiding optimum treatment. Two reverse line blot assays [Linear Array (LA) and INNO-LiPA (LiPA)] were evaluated for detection of HPV genotypes in paraffin-embedded biopsies.

Entering adolescence: resistance to peer influence, risky behavior, and neural changes in emotion reactivity.

Adolescence is often described as a period of heightened reactivity to emotions paired with reduced regulatory capacities, a combination suggested to contribute to risk-taking and susceptibility to peer influence during puberty. However, no longitudinal research has definitively linked these behavioral changes to underlying neural development. Here, 38 neurotypical participants underwent two fMRI sessions across the transition from late childhood (10 years) to early adolescence (13 years).

Comparison of molecular methods for detection of HPV in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Substantial molecular evidence exists to implicate human papillomavirus (HPV) in the pathogenesis of a subset of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas. Several studies have shown that HPV-associated oral/oropharyngeal tumors differ etiologically, biologically, and clinically from those that lack the virus. HPV infection confers a significant survival benefit; therefore, HPV detection in tumors could be used to risk-stratify patients and drive optimum treatment strategies.

Evaluation of a community-based participatory physical activity promotion project: effect on cardiovascular disease risk profiles of school employees.

Background: The efficacy of physical activity in improving cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profiles has been well established. However, the effectiveness of health promotion programs implemented at the community level remains controversial. This study evaluated a school-based work-site physical activity program.

Association of HPV16 E6 variants with diagnostic severity in cervical cytology samples of 354 women in a US population.

It has been suggested that DNA sequence variants of HPV16 contribute to differences in the behavior of individual cervical lesions. To address this question, we have analyzed the association of HPV16 variants with diagnostic severity in 354 HPV16-positive Oklahoman women. HPV16 variant status was determined by PCR amplification and DNA sequencing of the E6 open reading frame.

The Healthy Adults Project in rural Oklahoma.

Context: Screening to identify individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease is sorely needed in rural areas of Oklahoma.

Objective: The Healthy Adults Project was started as a screening program for public school employees in a rural school district in southwest Oklahoma.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The screening project is a collaborative effort between the Anadarko Public School district and the University of Oklahoma Prevention Research Center.

Blood pressure screening of school children in a multiracial school district: the Healthy Kids Project.

Background: There are few studies of the prevalence of elevated blood pressure (BP) that include American Indian school children. Therefore, the intent of this study was to examine the relationships between BP and risk factors in a multiracial, predominantly American Indian, school district.

Methods: A total of 1,829 American Indian, white, Hispanic, and African American students, 5-17 years old, were included in this study.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function: relative contributions of perceived stress and obesity in women.

Objective: A range of behavioral and psychosocial factors may contribute to a chronically stimulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and subsequently altered diurnal patterns. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to examine associations among diurnal cortisol levels, perceived stress, and obesity patterns.

Methods: Seventy-eight women (aged 24-72 years) employed in a rural public school system completed the perceived stress scale, collected diurnal saliva samples, and underwent anthropometric assessments.

Overweight and obesity in an ethnically diverse rural school district: the Healthy Kids Project.

Objective: Data on Native American children and adolescents are rarely reported along with other racial and ethnic groups. The Healthy Kids Project is part of an effort to describe the prevalence of overweight and obesity in a racially mixed rural area where Native American, Hispanic, African American, and white children reside.

Methods And Procedures: We measured height and weight of students in Anadarko, Oklahoma public schools (n = 1,980) in 2002-2003.

Distribution of human papillomavirus genotypes in invasive squamous carcinoma of the vulva.

Many studies have established a critical role for human papillomavirus (HPV) in the development of anogenital squamous neoplasia. In this report, we show the distribution of 37 high- and low-risk HPV types in 116 cases of invasive squamous vulvar carcinoma. Sections from paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were dissected as necessary to select areas of invasive carcinoma.

Relationship of the 1793G-A and 677C-T polymorphisms of the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene to coronary artery disease.

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between polymorphisms, in particular 677C-T and 1298A-C, of the methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene and coronary artery disease (CAD) with conflicting results. This study investigates the potential association of two point mutations in MTHFR, 677C-T and 1793G-A, along with other risk factors, with CAD. This is the first hospital-based study to investigate 1793G-A in this context.

Distribution of HPV genotypes in 282 women with cervical lesions: evidence for three categories of intraepithelial lesions based on morphology and HPV type.

Previously we found differences in the distribution of the individual human papillomavirus types in cervical cancers and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. This suggested that there were differences in risk for progression of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions that were related to human papillomavirus type within the category of oncogenic genotypes. In this work, we add additional cases including low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions.

Body mass index and blood pressure screening in a rural public school system: the Healthy Kids Project.

Introduction: All students (N = 2053) in Anadarko public schools, grades kindergarten through 12, were invited to be screened for height, weight, and blood pressure to assess the health status of this multiracial, multiethnic (American Indian, white, African American, and Hispanic) population in southwestern Oklahoma.

Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2000 growth charts were used to determine body mass index (BMI) percentiles, and standards from the National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group on Hypertension Control in Children and Adolescents were used to assess blood pressure.

Results: Seven hundred sixty-nine students with active consent participated in the screening.

Neural network predictions of significant coronary artery stenosis in men.

Objective: A neural network system was designed to predict whether coronary arteriography on a given patient would reveal any occurrence of significant coronary stenosis (>50%), a degree of stenosis which often leads to coronary intervention.

Methodology: A dataset of 2004 records from male cardiology patients was derived from a national cardiac catheterization database. The catheterizations selected for analysis from the database were first-time and elective, and they were precipitated by chest pain.

Tobacco use among American Indians in Oklahoma: an epidemiologic view.

Objectives: With the exception of national surveys that sample the entire U.S. population, little information exists on tobacco habits among American Indians.