A new research approach has improved the way in which psychologists study people.

The emerging strategy is to follow people over time, rather than a quick assessment of a large group of individuals.

A new study describes how psychologists can use this new approach to learn about the different ways that people’s minds work. Most psychology research is done by asking a big group of people the same questions at the same time.

“So we might get a bunch of Psych 101 undergrads, administer a survey, ask about how much they use alcohol and what their mood is, and just look and see, is there a relationship between those two variables,” said Dr. Daniel J. Bauer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the author of the article.

Over time the experts have learned that a one-time survey can only get you so far.

For example, it might find that sad people drink more, but it can’t tell us whether people drink more at times when they are unhappy, whether the consequences of drinking instead result in a depressed mood, or whether the relationship between mood and alcohol use is stronger for some people than others.

The new approach of following people over time helps to determine the effects of mood and stress. For example, an individual may be given an electronic device to record blood pressure and stress several times a day, or they may be asked to log on to a website every night to answer a survey.

In one case, Bauer’s colleague, Dr. Andrea Hussong, asked adolescents to complete daily diaries with ratings of their mood and alcohol use over 21 days. The data showed that the relationship between mood and alcohol use is not the same for everyone.

Adolescents with behavioral problems drink more in general, irrespective of mood, but only adolescents without behavioral problems drink more often when feeling depressed.

A caveat to this type of research is that investigators must use relatively sophisticated mathematical models. In the new paper, Bauer pointed to statistical methods that can show how variables relate differently for different people.

The point of all of this is to help people, Bauer said. For example, if psychologists discover that certain kinds of people are more likely to drink when depressed, it would be possible to help those people early.

“Ultimately, the idea would be to identify people who might be more at risk and try to help them,” he said.

Source: Association for Psychological Science

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A provocative new study suggests adolescents who use the computer for more than 4.5 hours a day are at risk for multiple risky behaviors.

In the study, researchers discovered a strong connection between computer and Internet use in adolescents and participation in risky behaviors such as illicit drug use, drunkenness and unprotected sex.

“This research is based on social cognitive theory, which suggests that seeing people engaged in a behavior is a way of learning that behavior,” said lead researcher Valerie Carson, a doctoral candidate at Queen’s University in Canada.

“Since adolescents are exposed to considerable screen time — over 4.5 hours on average each day — they’re constantly seeing images of behaviors they can then potentially adopt.”

Researchers discovered high computer use was associated with approximately 50 per cent increase in display of multiple risky behaviors (MRB).

A common cluster of MRB includes smoking, drunkenness, non-use of seatbelts, cannabis and illicit drug use, and unprotected sex.

High television use was also associated with a modestly increased engagement in these MRB.

Researchers believe the findings may be explained by the exposure to significant amounts of advertising that used to be shown on TV that is now being shown on the Internet. In addition, computer usage by adolescents has increased considerably in recent years.

Carson notes that while TV and video games have established protocols in terms of censorship while the Internet has yet to develop any.

“Parents can make use of programs that control access to the Internet, but adolescents in this age group are quite savvy about technology and the Internet,” she said. “It’s possible that these types of controls aren’t effective in blocking all undesirable websites.”

The research was published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine, with Carson suggesting that future studies should examine the specific content adolescents are being exposed to in order to help strengthen current screen time guidelines for youth.

Source: Queen’s University

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Prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides — those commonly used on food crops — is associated with the child having a lower intelligence score at age 7, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

Organophosphates (OP) are a group of pesticides that are well known neurotoxicants. Indoor use of two common OPs — chlorpyrifos and diazinon — has been phased out over the past decade, mostly because of health risks to children.

The study confirmed that for every tenfold increase in OP levels detected in the mother during pregnancy, there was an overall 5.5 point drop in her child’s IQ at age 7. Furthermore, children with the highest prenatal exposure levels scored seven points lower on a standardized measure of intelligence compared with children who had the least exposure.

“These associations are substantial, especially when viewing this at a population-wide level,” said study principal investigator Brenda Eskenazi, UC Berkeley professor of epidemiology and of maternal and child health.  

“That difference could mean, on average, more kids being shifted into the lower end of the spectrum of learning, and more kids needing special services in school.”

The UC Berkeley research is one of three studies to be published April 21st in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that shows a link between pesticide exposure and childhood IQ. The other two studies — from Mount Sinai Medical Center and Columbia University — examined urban populations in New York City; the UC Berkeley study focused on children living in Salinas, an agricultural area in Monterey County, California.

“It is very unusual to see this much consistency across populations in studies, so that speaks to the significance of the findings,” said lead author Maryse Bouchard, who was working as a UC Berkeley post-doctoral researcher with Eskenazi during the study.

“The children are now at a stage where they are going to school, so it’s easier to get good, valid assessments of cognitive function.”

The study followed 329 children as part of the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS), an ongoing longitudinal study led by Eskenazi. In 1999, researchers began enrolling pregnant women into the study who came in for regular visits in which they answered questionnaires; once the children were born, their health and development were measured periodically.

Participants gave urine samples twice during pregnancy to check for dialkyl phosphate (DAP) metabolites, the breakdown product of about 75 percent of the organophosphorus insecticides in use in the United States. The two urine results were averaged together; the children were also tested at regular intervals between ages 6 months and 5 years.

Once the children reached age 7, they were given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) to assess their cognitive abilities, including verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed.

Not only did higher DAP levels during pregnancy affect the children’s overall IQ scores, but it also caused lower scores in each of the four cognitive development subcategories. The findings were consistent even after researchers factored in maternal education, family income and exposure to other environmental contaminants, including DDT, lead and flame retardants.

“There are limitations to every study; we used metabolites to assess exposure, so we cannot isolate the exposure to a specific pesticide chemical, for instance,” said Eskenazi. “But the way this and the New York studies were designed — starting with pregnant women and then following their children — is one of the strongest methods available to study how environmental factors affect children’s health.”

Although prenatal OP pesticide exposure were strongly correlated with childhood IQ, exposure to pesticides after birth was not. This suggests that exposure during fetal brain development was more critical than childhood exposure.

Maternal DAP levels in the UC Berkeley study were somewhat higher than average compared with the general population, but they were not out of the range of measurements found among women in a national study.

“These findings are likely applicable to the general population,” said Bouchard, who is currently a researcher at the University of Montreal’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. “In addition, the other two studies being published were done in New York City, so the connection between pesticide exposure and IQ is not limited to people living in an agricultural community.”

People are exposed to OP pesticides by eating foods that come from chemically treated crops. Farm workers, gardeners, florists, pesticide applicators and manufacturers of these insecticides may be at greater risk than the average person.

“Many people are also exposed when pesticides are used around homes, schools or other buildings,” said study co-author Asa Bradman, associate director of the Center for Environmental Research in Children’s Health at UC Berkeley.

The researchers recommend that consumers thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables—to go beyond a quick rinse and use a soft brush when practical. Consumers should also consider buying organic produce as a way to reduce pesticide exposure from food, they said.

“I’m concerned about people not eating right based on the results of this study,” said Eskenazi. “Most people already are not getting enough fruits and vegetables in their diet, which is linked to serious health problems in the United States. People, especially those who are pregnant, need to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.”

The new IQ findings come less than a year after another CHAMACOS study discovered a link between prenatal pesticide exposure and attention problems in 5-year-old children.

Source:  University of California

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A Swedish study finds that premature birth — even by as little as a few weeks — is linked to a greater likelihood of later being prescribed medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to new research. The study adds to previous research that has demonstrated that both severe prematurity and low birth weight are risk factors for ADHD.

ADHD impairs a person’s ability to concentrate and pay attention to things in their environment. They often have a hard time staying on task, and may also have difficulties with impulsive behavior. The disorder is usually treated with psychotherapy and psychiatric medications.

In the current study, Swedish researchers led by Karolina Lindström, M.D., analyzed a Swedish database of 1,242,459 children aged 6 to 19 years.

Since the researchers did not have access to actual diagnostic information about the children in their study, they used a stand-in for an ADHD diagnosis — whether the child was prescribed a medication typically used for ADHD. They found that 7,506 of the children in the study had received such a prescription for an ADHD medication.

Severe prematurity — being born between 23 and 28 weeks — was found to put an infant at the greatest risk for later developing attention deficit disorder. Babies born at this stage were more than two-and-a-half times more likely to later be prescribed a medication for ADHD.

But even mild prematurity — being born in weeks 37 or 38 — was found to confer an elevated 20 percent increased risk for later prescription of an ADHD medication.

Fifteen out of every 1,000 babies born at an extreme premature age and seven out of every 1,000 children born moderately premature (37-38 weeks) were prescribed ADHD drugs. Only six out of every 1,000 babies born between 39 and 41 weeks of pregnancy later received an ADHD prescription.

But being born a preemie isn’t the only factor that impacts the risk of a later attention deficit disorder diagnosis. Factors such as genetics and a mother’s smoking habits also play a role in a child’s risk of later developing ADHD.

The study is published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Source: Pediatrics

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They weren’t looking for the next “American Idol,” but scientists at the University of California recorded volunteers belting out “My Girl” by the Temptations, and then had them listen to their own voice without the accompanying music. 

The researchers wanted to determine which parts of the brain are actually responsible for the uncomfortable feeling of embarrassment.

Then, to get an even better idea of the brain areas involved, the scientists recruited volunteers with neurodegenerative disease. When comparing the two groups, researchers were able to determine that embarrassment is rooted in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex — a small bit of tissue in the right hemisphere of the front part of the brain. 

The degree of the participants’ embarrassment depended on how well this region was functioning.

“In healthy people, watching themselves sing elicits a considerable embarrassment reaction,” said Dr. Virginia Sturm, a postdoctoral fellow at UC-San Francisco. Their blood pressure rises, their heart rate increases, and their breathing changes, she explained. People who had neurological damage in the medial frontal cortex, however, reacted more indifferently.

“This brain region predicted the behavior,” said Sturm. “The smaller the region, the less embarrassed the people were.”

Knowing that people with certain neurodegenerative diseases lose their ability to be embarrassed and also knowing which part of the brain governs that emotion may help with an earlier diagnosis of the disease.

Neurologists have long documented that people with frontotemporal dementia act in ways that would embarrass healthy people. This is caused by a progressive degeneration of the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain, which play a major role in decision-making and expression of emotion and language, including complex emotions like embarrassment.

As these parts of the brain weaken, people may behave oddly and lose their ability to interact with others. Growing evidence from research at UCSF and other medical centers has linked the loss of particular brain structures and neuronal networks to specific behavioral changes.

In the karaoke study, the researchers asked 79 people — most with neurodegenerative diseases — to sing the song as their vital signs were measured and cameras recorded their expressions.

The participants’ singing was played back to the singers at normal speed without the accompanying music. Then Sturm and her team assessed the volunteers’ embarrassment based on facial expressions and physiological markers, such as sweating and heart rate.

All of the participants had MRIs as well, which produced very accurate maps of their brains. The researchers used these maps to measure the volumes of the different regions of the brain and analyzed  whether the sizes of those regions could predict embarrassment.

They found that those with significant neurodegeneration in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex were less likely to get embarrassed. In fact, the more deterioration they had in this part of the brain, the less embarrassed they became.  The volunteers were also given a “startle” test of in which they sat quietly in a room until startled by the sound of a loud gunshot.

“They do jump, and they are afraid,” said Sturm, “so it’s not like they don’t have any emotional reactions at all. But patients with loss in this brain region seem to lose these more complicated social emotions. Emotions like embarrassment are particularly vulnerable in neurodegenerative diseases that target the frontal lobes.”

Source:  University of California

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