Faculty Bibliography

The present study examined the influence of schooling during children's first and second years of preschool for children who experienced different amounts of preschool (i.e., one or two years), but who were essentially the same chronological age. Children (n = 76) were tested in the fall and spring of the school year using measures of self-regulation, decoding, letter knowledge, and vocabulary. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), preschool was not associated with children's development of self-regulation in either year. For decoding and letter knowledge, children finishing their second year of preschool had higher scores, although both groups of children grew similarly during the school year. Thus, our results suggest that the first and second years of preschool are both systematically associated with decoding and letter knowledge gains, and the effects are cumulative (two years predicted greater gains overall than did one year of preschool). Finally, children's chronological age, and not whether they experienced one versus two years of preschool, predicted children's vocabulary and self-regulation outcomes. Implications for preschool curricula and instruction are discussed, including the increasing emphasis on literacy learning prior to kindergarten entry and the need to address self-regulation development along with academic learning.

Pavlovian auditory fear conditioning involves the integration of information about an acoustic conditioned stimulus (CS) and an aversive unconditioned stimulus in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA). The auditory CS reaches the LA subcortically via a direct connection from the auditory thalamus and also from the auditory association cortex itself. How neural modulators, especially those activated during stress, such as norepinephrine (NE), regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity in this network is poorly understood. Here we show that NE inhibits synaptic transmission in both the subcortical and cortical input pathway but that sensory processing is biased toward the subcortical pathway. In addition binding of NE to beta-adrenergic receptors further dissociates sensory processing in the LA. These findings suggest a network mechanism that shifts sensory balance toward the faster but more primitive subcortical input

Research on resting-state functional connectivity reveals intrinsically connected networks in the brain that are largely consistent across the general population. However, there are individual differences in these networks that have not been elucidated. Here, we measured the influence of naturally occurring mood on functional connectivity. In particular, we examined the association between self-reported levels of anxiety and connectivity in the default mode network (DMN). Healthy youth (n=43; ages 10-18) and adult participants (n=24, ages 19-59) completed a 6-min resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, then immediately completed questionnaires assessing their mood and thoughts during the scan. Regression analyses conducted separately for the youth and adult samples revealed brain regions in which increases in connectivity differentially corresponded to higher anxiety in each group. In one area, the left insular cortex, both groups showed similar increased connectivity to the DMN (youth: -30, 26, 14; adults: -33, 12, 14) with increased anxiety. State anxiety assessed during scanning was not correlated with trait anxiety, so our results likely reflect state levels of anxiety. To our knowledge, this is the first study to relate naturally occurring mood to resting state connectivity.