Sunday Science Highlights!

People Who Are Angry Pay More Attention to Rewards Than Threats

Anger is a negative emotion. But, like being happy or excited, feeling angry makes people want to seek rewards, according to a new study of emotion and visual attention. The researchers found that people who are angry pay more attention to rewards than to threats -- the opposite of people feeling other negative emotions like fear.

Previous research has shown that emotion affects what someone pays attention to. If a fearful or anxious person is given a choice of a rewarding picture, like a sexy couple, or a threatening picture, like a person waving a knife threateningly, they'll spend more time looking at the threat than at the rewarding picture. People feeling excitement, however, are the other way -- they'll go for the reward.

Adult Autism Diagnosis by Brain Scan

Scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London have developed a pioneering new method of diagnosing autism in adults. For the first time, a quick brain scan that takes just 15 minutes can identify adults with autism with over 90 per cent accuracy. The method could lead to the screening for autism spectrum disorders in children in the future.

Neurological Process for the Recognition of Letters and Numbers Explained

How does the brain link the visual basic traits of letters and numbers to abstract representations and to words? Scientists from the Basque Research Center on Cognition, Brain and Language have analyzed the influence of context on the visual recognition of a written word regardless of the format in which these letters may be display.

"We analyzed the influence of the context given by a word when linking the physical traits of its components to the abstract representations of letters," explains Nicola Molinaro, main author of the study and researcher of the Basque Research Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL).

Happy Sunday!

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Should teachers suggest diagnoses like ADHD?

Nice piece on CNN.com regarding teachers telling parents their children have ADHD. While initally pushing the hysteria button by suggesting that teachers are acting as doctors, the article settles into a nice discussion about listening to professionals who see hundreds of children and are better equipped than parents to see differences in learning styles and behaviors that parents may not see. It also points out that, while ADHD does appear to be real, there can be many non-ADHD related causes for a child's inappropriate behavior: family traumas, anxiety, depression (though I'd personally be very very careful about diagnosing a child as depressed in a clinical sense)...and, most importantly, inappropriate parenting styles. By that I mean a style that is not suited to that child. I rarely meet 'bad' parents (and the 'bad' parents I do meet are almost always impaired due to cognitive reasons or socioeconomic reasons)...but I do meet many parents whose styles do not work well for their particular child. One of the things I tell them is, "It's important for you to parent the child you have, not the one you want."

Here are some good excerpts:

"I think that sometimes folks want an immediate answer and they want to help a child as quickly as possible," said Cheryl Rode, Director of Clinical Operations at the San Diego Center for Children in California. "Medication is quick and easy but it's not the answer alone for working with kids who have ADHD."

For a teacher to suggest that a child has ADHD is "inappropriate and dangerous," says Dr. Elizabeth Roberts, child psychiatrist in Murrieta, California. Depression, anxiety and abuse are all possibilities in a child's life that could lead to attention problems, Roberts said. That means that many children are receiving medication for the wrong problem.

Alana Morales, of Thornton, Colorado, is one of those teachers who has brought up the subject of ADHD testing with many parents. She doesn't tell parents to medicate their kids, but brings up the subject of getting children tested because she thinks it's important for parents to know.

"You have to be so careful because, again, we are not doctors," she said. "But does that mean we don't recognize it? No."

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Welcome to the revolution.

Adam

Goodbye Lawrence Kim Peek (1951-2009)

You may not recognize the name or even the picture but you have been touched by Kim Peek. While the movie 'Rain Man' is not based on his life, Dustin Hoffman based many of his mannerisms and speech-patterns on Mr. Peek. Hoffman even thanked Mr. Peek in his Oscar acceptance speech and went so far as to give Mr. Peek his personal Oscar. Below is a wonderful video about his life.

Enjoy and gods speed Kim...

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Welcome 2010...

A quick series of interesting articles that have been sitting in my 'tabs' for days:)

First up are a couple of NY Times blog posts.

1) How to raise IQ in Toddlers with Autism by Tara-Parker Pope
It's all about the Early Start Denver Model. They published results of a 2-year study with 48 participants in the journal Pediatrics. The results suggest that, as a result of their intervention, children in the Early Start program demonstrated greater gains than a control group. I am 100% in the pro-early intervention camp but have a couple of concerns with this article and research. The article frames the Early Start Denver Model as a new approach. Far from it, the Denver Model is a fairly classic early-intervention program based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. There are many such programs and all show similar results. As to the research, this is not 'double-blind' research by any stretch of the imagination. Research is conducted and data compiled by people with personal, professional and financial investments in the outcomes. Does this make it suspect? Not really as their results merely add to the body of research supporting early intervention but as someone who has worked in University funded 'community-based' schools, I can assert that any data taken in-situ by staff (IOA be damned:) is somewhat suspect...
Lastly, this school is supported by the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute so this 'community-based' school has multiple PhDs. on staff, many Master's students employed there and a extremely highly-trained staff. This model is NOT transferable to your average school...dont' get me wrong. I LOVE center-based research but these models do not work well in non-university based settings...
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2) Can you teach empathy to children? by Lisa Belkin.
This piece revolves around an essay by Liane Carter who runs and founded a sports league for children with a range of deficits and disabilities. Here's a taste as a mother of one of the teenage volunteers call her:

“I need a report describing your program, discussing what my son has contributed, and what kind of growth you’ve seen in him. And also, what he’s learned from working with those kids,” she says.

Those kids.

“I’m sorry, what did you say your son’s name is?” I say, starting a slow seethe.

“Jeremy.”

Who is Jeremy? I honestly don’t remember him. We have so many volunteers.

But as usual I am polite. “Sure, happy to,” I say, savagely chopping the tomatoes, thinking: If it’s your kid’s community service, why isn’t he calling me himself? Why isn’t he writing his own report? “Oh, just one more thing. Could you have it for me before Friday? I can pick it up, just leave it in your mailbox.”

“No problem,” I say, and hang up. I whack at a pile of carrots, thinking: Let me save you the trouble. I’ll just give him a T-shirt that says: “Look, I’m selfless and wonderful. I volunteer with autistic children.”

It's a short post but check out the posts at the bottom. It really touched a lot of nerves...not just parents of children with disabilities but average readers who took issue with Mrs. Carters 'empathy':)

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How'd I Miss this?

I blame the United States Post Office for not bringing me last month's Wired Magazine which had an excellent article on the use of vaccines on children and the possible link to Autism (spectrum disorders). It does not focus on the autism question but instead looks at the debate from a public health standpoint and posits the following: The decision to NOT vaccinate is driven by FEAR and not understanding and, in addition to putting YOUR child at risk, the decision not to vaccinate puts MANY children at risk. The article is told through the lense of a lengthy interview with Dr. Paul Offitt.
While a very important article I have two critiques. One, it was not very balanced. It does children no good to characterize anyone who is concerned about vaccines as kooks and two, the author is not a science writer with a history of covering complicated scientific issues. This leaves her in a position wherein she relies too heavily on her interview subjects and less so on her own understanding and research.
Still...a MUST READ.

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Merry Christmas Me Hermano Negro...

You are my sunshine...
My only sunshine...
You make me happy...
When skies are gray...
If you only knew Dear...
How much I loved you...
Oh please..don't take my sunshine away...

You are as loved as love can get my chunky monkey brother from the same mother. Enjoy this little movie and know that everyone you've ever touched is thinking about you today...especially the ones you touched naughty-style:)

Love and Christmas...

Adam

From the 'Obvious' files...

The more alcohol expectant mothers drink, the greater the effects on their children. Research from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found evidence that the amount and timing of alcohol consumption in pregnancy affects children in adverse ways.

“Mothers who reported what we would classify as heavy drinking in the first trimester of pregnancy were nearly three times as likely to report that their child suffered with anxiety and/or depression or somatic complaints,” Lead author Colleen O'Leary said.

“Those who drank moderately during that first trimester were twice as likely to report those types of behavioural issues for their child."

So drinking while pregnant is not a good idea. Who would have guessed it?
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Cigarette smoke and air pollution cause people to cough...I know, it sounds silly but they've actually discovered exactly how this occurs on the hopes they can help people with chronic coughs...

In another story, exposure to metals and diesel emissions linked to respitory problems in children...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving

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