Faculty Bibliography

Memory consolidation during sleep is regaining attention due to a wave of recent reports of memory improvements after sleep or deficits after sleep disturbance. Neuromodulators have been proposed as possible players in this putative off-line memory processing, without much experimental evidence. We recorded neuronal activity in the rat noradrenergic nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) using chronically implanted movable microelectrodes while monitoring the behavioral state via electrocorticogram and online video recording. Extracellular recordings of physiologically identified noradrenergic neurons of LC were made in freely behaving rats for 3 h before and after olfactory discrimination learning. On subsequent days, if LC recording remained stable, additional learning sessions were made within the olfactory discrimination protocol, including extinction, reversals, learning new odors. Contrary to the long-standing dogma about the quiescence of noradrenergic neurons of LC, we found a transient increase in LC activity in trained rats during slow wave sleep (SWS) 2 h after learning. The discovery of learning-dependent engagement of LC neurons during SWS encourages exploration of brain stem-cortical interaction during this delayed phase of memory consolidation and should bring new insights into mechanisms underlying memory formation

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorders in adolescents are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Over the past decade, there has been a burgeoning of research on adolescent alcohol use disorders. METHODS: A summary of the alcohol assessment tools is provided, and randomized studies reviewed and synthesized to provide an overview of state of the art knowledge of treatment of adolescent alcohol use disorders. Animal models of addiction are also briefly reviewed, and the value of translational research approaches, using findings from basic studies to guide the design of clinical investigations, is also highlighted. RESULTS: Comorbidity is the rule, not the exception in adolescent alcohol use disorders. Comprehensive assessment of psychiatric and other substance use disorders, trauma experiences, and suicidality is indicated in this population to optimize selection of appropriate clinical interventions. In terms of available investigated treatments for adolescents with alcohol use disorders, Multidimensional Family Therapy and group administered Cognitive Behavioral Therapies have received the most empirical support to date. There is a paucity of research on pharmacological interventions in this patient population, and no firm treatment recommendations can be made in this area. CONCLUSIONS: Given the high rate of relapse after treatment, evaluation of combined psychosocial and pharmacological interventions, and the development of novel intervention strategies are indicated

Nativist and constructivist approaches to the study of development share a common emphasis on characterizing beginning and end states in development. This focus has highlighted the question of preservation and transformation-whether core aspects of the adult end state are present in the earliest manifestations during infancy. In contrast, a developmental systems approach emphasizes the process of developmental change. This perspective eschews the notions of objective starting and ending points in a developmental progression and rejects the idea that any particular factor should enjoy a privileged status in explaining developmental change. Using examples from motor development and animal behavior, we show how a developmental systems framework can avoid the pitfalls of the long and contentious debate about continuity versus qualitative change.

The authors examined the effects of locomotor experience on infants' perceptual judgments in a potentially risky situation--descending steep and shallow slopes--while manipulating social incentives to determine where perceptual judgments are most malleable. Twelve-month-old experienced crawlers and novice walkers were tested on an adjustable sloping walkway as their mothers encouraged and discouraged descent. A psychophysical procedure was used to estimate infants' ability to crawl/walk down slopes, followed by test trials in which mothers encouraged and discouraged infants to crawl/walk down. Both locomotor experience and social incentives affected perceptual judgments. In the encourage condition, crawlers only attempted safe slopes within their abilities, but walkers repeatedly attempted impossibly risky slopes, replicating previous work. The discourage condition showed where judgments are most malleable. When mothers provided negative social incentives, crawlers occasionally avoided safe slopes, and walkers occasionally avoided the most extreme 50 degrees increment, although they attempted to walk on more than half the trials. Findings indicate that both locomotor experience and social incentives play key roles in adaptive responding, but the benefits are specific to the posture that infants use for balance and locomotion.

OBJECTIVE: Fear of a partner, a component of intimate partner violence (IPV), can be used in clinical IPV assessment. This study examines correlates of fear in a population-based, urban sample to inform a gender-specific health care response to IPV. METHODS: This study used pooled data on 9687 men and 13,903 women collected in 2002, 2004 and 2005 through three random-digit-dial surveys of New York City adults. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were used to examine associations between fear and sociodemographic and health-related factors. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in age-adjusted prevalence of reported fear of a partner between women (2.7%) and men (2.2%). In multivariable analysis, fear was correlated with being female, younger age, divorced or separated marital status, poor self-reported health status, and multiple sex partners. The most striking gender difference was in the stronger association with multiple sex partners among women (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR]=6.2; p<0.01). Binge drinking was correlated with fear only among low-income adults (aOR=2.8; p<0.01). CONCLUSION: IPV is a health concern for both men and women, and a risk profile for fear can guide IPV assessment in health care. Physicians should consider multiple sex partners in women and alcohol misuse in low-income patients as potential markers for IPV.

We employed a cutoff design in order to examine age- and schooling-related effects on executive functions. Specifically, we looked at development of working memory and response inhibition over the period of 1 school year in prekindergarten and kindergarten students born within 4 months of each other. All children improved on executive function and word-decoding tasks from the beginning to the end of the year. Additionally, we found prekindergarten- and kindergarten-schooling effects for the working memory and word-decoding tasks (p < .05), and a trend-level prekindergarten-schooling effect for the response inhibition task (p < .10)

BACKGROUND: Evidence indicates an association between older parents at birth and increased risk for schizophrenia and autism. Patients with schizophrenia and autism and their first-degree relatives have impaired social functioning; hence, impaired social functioning is probably an intermediate phenotype of the illness. This study tested the hypothesis that advanced father's age at birth would be associated with poorer social functioning in the general population. To test this hypothesis, we examined the association between parental age at birth and the social functioning of their adolescent male offspring in a population-based study. METHODS: Subjects were 403486, 16- to 17-year-old Israeli-born male adolescents assessed by the Israeli Draft Board. The effect of parental age on social functioning was assessed in analyses controlling for cognitive functioning, the other parent's age, parental socioeconomic status, birth order, and year of draft board assessment. RESULTS: Compared with offspring of parents aged 25-29 years, the prevalence of poor social functioning was increased both in offspring of fathers younger than 20 years (odds ratio [OR] = 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08-1.49) and in offspring of fathers 45 years old (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.43-1.61). Male adolescent children of mothers aged 40 years and above were 1.15 (95% CI = 1.07-1.24) times more likely to have poor social functioning. CONCLUSIONS: These modest associations between parental age and poor social functioning in the general population parallel the associations between parental age and risk for schizophrenia and autism and suggest that the risk pathways between advanced parental age and schizophrenia and autism might, at least partially, include mildly deleterious effects on social functioning

Autism is currently viewed as a spectrum condition that includes strikingly different severity levels; IQ is consistently described as one of the primary aspects of the heterogeneity in autism. To investigate the possibility of more than one distinct subtype of autism based on IQ both latent class analysis and taxometrics methods were used to classify Mullen IQs in a sample of 456 children with autism spectrum disorder. We found evidence for multiple IQbased subgroups using both methods. Groups differed in level of intellectual functioning and patterns of verbal versus nonverbal ability. Results support the notion of distinct subtypes of autism that differ in severity of intellectual ability, patterns of cognitive strengths and weaknesses, and severity of autism symptoms

In the absence of visual input, the question arises as to how complex spatial abilities develop and how the brain adapts to the absence of this modality. We explored navigational skills in both early and late blind individuals and structural differences in the hippocampus, a brain region well known to be involved in spatial processing. Thirty-eight participants were divided into three groups: early blind individuals (n = 12; loss of vision before 5 years of age; mean age 33.8 years), late blind individuals (n = 7; loss of vision after 14 years of age; mean age 39.9 years) and 19 sighted, blindfolded matched controls. Subjects undertook route learning and pointing tasks in a maze and a spatial layout task. Anatomical data was collected by MRI. Remarkably, we not only show that blind individuals possess superior navigational skills than controls on the route learning task, but we also show for the first time a significant volume increase of the hippocampus in blind individuals [F(1,36) = 6.314; P < or = 0.01; blind: mean = 4237.00 mm(3), SE = 107.53; sighted: mean = 3905.74 mm(3), SE = 76.27], irrespective of whether their blindness was congenital or acquired. Overall, our results shed new light not only on the construction of spatial concepts and the non-necessity of vision for its proper development, but also on the hippocampal plasticity observed in adult blind individuals who have to navigate in this space

We examined the relationship between acute stress and prefrontal-cortex (PFC) based working memory (WM) systems using behavioral (Experiment 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI; Experiment 2) paradigms. Subjects performed a delayed-response item-recognition task, with alternating blocks of high and low WM demand trials. During scanning, participants performed this task under three stress conditions: cold stress (induced by cold-water hand-immersion), a room temperature water control (induced by tepid-water hand-immersion), and no-water control (no hand-immersion). Performance was affected by WM demand, but not stress. Cold stress elicited greater salivary cortisol readings in behavioral subjects, and greater PFC signal change in fMRI subjects, than control conditions. These results suggest that, under stress, increases in PFC activity may be necessary to mediate cognitive processes that maintain behavioral organization