1,722,423 research outputs found
Early child neglect: Does it predict obesity or underweight in later childhood?
Child neglect has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for both obesity and underweight in early childhood, although little research has examined the relation between neglect and body mass index (BMI). The present study examined the relation between neglect and BMI among 185 children (91 with a Child Protective Services history of neglect) who were initially seen at ages 4 to 6 years and who were followed through ages 7 to 9 years. Neglected and comparison children were found to have similar BMIs, although both groups had BMIs that were significantly greater than CDC norms for age, gender, and ethnicity. Neglect chronicity did predict lower BMIs but only at age 8 and 9 years. The present findings suggest that greater examination of moderators is needed to identify the specific contexts in which neglect is related to children’s weight.This is the authors' accepted manuscript for an article that was published in Child Maltreatment (2010), vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 250-254. doi: 10.1177/1077559510363730Peer reviewe
Brain activation when hearing one's own and others' names
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activation patterns were examined in response to hearing one's own first name in contrast to hearing the names of others. There are several regions in the left hemisphere that show greater activation to one's own name, including middle frontal cortex, middle and superior temporal cortex, and cuneus. These findings provide evidence that hearing one's own name has unique brain functioning activation specific to one's own name in relation to the names of others.NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Brain Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Brain Research, Volume 1116, Issue 1 (20 October 2006) DOI:10.1016/j.brainres.2006.07.121Peer reviewe
Early Risk, Attention, and Brain Activation in Adolescents Born Preterm
The relations among early cumulative medical risk, cumulative environmental risk, attentional control, and brain activation were assessed in 15 – 16-year-old adolescents who were born preterm. Functional magnetic resonance imaging found frontal, temporal, and parietal cortex activation during an attention task with greater activation of the left superior-temporal and left supramarginal gyri associated with better performance. Individual differences in early cumulative risk are related to patterns of brain activation such that medical risk is related to left parietal cortex activation and environmental risk is related to temporal lobe activation. The findings suggest that early risk is related to less mature patterns of brain activation, including reduced efficiency of processing and responding to stimuli.This is the accepted version of the following article: Carmody, D. P., Bendersky, M., Dunn, S. M., DeMarco, J. K., Hegyi, T., Hiatt, M. and Lewis, M. (2006), Early Risk, Attention, and Brain Activation in Adolescents Born Preterm. Child Development, 77: 384–394, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00877.x/abstract.Peer reviewe
Infant Approach and Withdrawal in Response to a Goal Blockage: Its Antecedent Causes and Its Effect on Toddler Persistence
In two separate longitudinal studies, infants and their mothers were seen in three longitudinal visits. At two months, they were observed in free play where mothers’ contingency toward their infants was obtained. At five months, a goal blockage response was produced when a previously learned contingent response became ineffective in producing an interesting event. Infants’ emotional responses, in particular anger and sad facial expressions, were observed. At two years, toddlers’ persistence at play was assessed by measuring children’s responses to an interruption of their play. In both studies, the amount of toddlers’ persistence was positively related to their anger response to the blocked goal at five months. Maternal contingency was not related either to infants’ response to the blocked goal nor to their persistence at play. These findings provide evidence for the contribution to and the consequences of infants’ response to a goal blockage and the role of anger as an approach emotion.Peer reviewedThis article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record
Prenatal tobacco exposure predicts differential brain function during working memory in early adolescence: A preliminary investigation
Children prenatally exposed to tobacco exhibit higher rates of learning and emotional-behavioral problems related to worse working memory performance. Brain function, however, among tobacco exposed children while performing a working memory task has not previously been examined. This study compared the brain function of tobacco-exposed (n = 7) and unexposed (n = 11) 12-year-olds during a number N-back working memory task using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design. Prenatal alcohol exposure, neonatal medical problems, environmental risk, and sex were statistically controlled. Tobacco-exposed children showed greater activation in inferior parietal regions, whereas unexposed children showed greater activation in inferior frontal regions. These differences were observed in the context of correct responses, suggesting that exposed and unexposed children use different brain regions and approaches to succeed in working memory tasks. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.Peer reviewe
Adolescent risk-taking as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure and biological sex
Objective: To examine the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure and biological sex on adolescent risk-taking while controlling for early environmental risk. Methods: Adolescents (n. = 114, mean age. = 16) were grouped according to high and low risk-taking propensity as measured by the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Prenatal cocaine exposure was assessed at birth, while environmental risk was assessed at three points during early childhood. Results: A binary regression analysis indicated that males were 3.5 times more likely than females to be high risk-takers. Biological sex and prenatal cocaine exposure interacted such that exposed males were most likely to be high risk-takers while exposed females were the least likely to be high risk-takers. This pattern held after controlling for prenatal alcohol exposure and early environmental risk. Early environmental risk did not predict adolescent risk-taking. Conclusions: These findings complement and extend earlier research demonstrating that prenatal cocaine exposure interacts with biological sex in domains related to inhibitory control, emotion regulation, antisocial behavior, and health risk behaviors during preadolescence
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