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Molecular Autism 2016Impaired orienting to social stimuli is one of the core early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, in contrast to faces, name processing has rarely been...
BACKGROUND
Impaired orienting to social stimuli is one of the core early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, in contrast to faces, name processing has rarely been studied in individuals with ASD. Here, we investigated brain activity and functional connectivity associated with recognition of names in the high-functioning ASD group and in the control group.
METHODS
EEG was recorded in 15 young males with ASD and 15 matched one-to-one control individuals. EEG data were analyzed with the event-related potential (ERP), event-related desynchronization and event-related synchronization (ERD/S), as well as coherence and direct transfer function (DTF) methods. Four categories of names were presented visually: one's own, close-other's, famous, and unknown.
RESULTS
Differences between the ASD and control groups were found for ERP, coherence, and DTF. In individuals with ASD, P300 (a positive ERP component) to own-name and to a close-other's name were similar whereas in control participants, P300 to own-name was enhanced when compared to all other names. Analysis of coherence and DTF revealed disruption of fronto-posterior task-related connectivity in individuals with ASD within the beta range frequencies. Moreover, DTF indicated the directionality of those impaired connections-they were going from parieto-occipital to frontal regions. DTF also showed inter-group differences in short-range connectivity: weaker connections within the frontal region and stronger connections within the occipital region in the ASD group in comparison to the control group.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest a lack of the self-preference effect and impaired functioning of the attentional network during recognition of visually presented names in individuals with ASD.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Autistic Disorder; Brain; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials; Humans; Male; Names; Recognition, Psychology; Young Adult
PubMed: 27602201
DOI: 10.1186/s13229-016-0102-z -
Medical Humanities Dec 2021The word 'compassion' is ubiquitous in modern healthcare. Yet few writers agree on what the term means, and what makes it an essential trait in nursing. In this article,...
The word 'compassion' is ubiquitous in modern healthcare. Yet few writers agree on what the term means, and what makes it an essential trait in nursing. In this article, I take a historical approach to the problem of understanding compassion. Although many modern writers have assumed that compassion is a universal and unchanging trait, my research reveals that the term is extremely new to healthcare, only becoming widely used in 2009. Of course, even if compassion is a new term in nursing, the concept could have previously existed under another name. I thus consider the emotional qualities associated with the ideal nurse during the interwar period in the UK. While compassion was not mentioned in nursing guidance in this era another term, 'sympathy', made frequent appearance. The interwar concept of sympathy, however, differs significantly from the modern one of compassion. Sympathy was not an isolated concept. In the interwar era, it was most often linked to the nurse's tact or diplomacy. A closer investigation of this link highlights the emphasis laid on patient management in nursing in this period, and the way class differentials in emotion between nurse and patient were considered essential to the efficient running of hospitals. This model of sympathy is very different from the way the modern 'compassion' is associated with patient satisfaction or choice. Although contemporary healthcare policy assumes 'compassion' to be a timeless, personal characteristic rooted in the individual behaviours and choices of the nurse, this article concludes that compassionate nursing is a recent construct. Moreover, the performance of compassion relies on conditions and resources that often lie outside of the nurse's personal control. Compassion in nursing-in theory and in practice-is inseparable from its specific contemporary contexts, just as sympathy was in the interwar period.
Topics: Delivery of Health Care; Emotions; Empathy; Humans
PubMed: 32732261
DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2019-011842 -
PloS One 2022Both immigration and a troubling housing deficit have increased rapidly in Sweden over the past 20 years. In this internet-based field experiment, we investigated...
Both immigration and a troubling housing deficit have increased rapidly in Sweden over the past 20 years. In this internet-based field experiment, we investigated whether there exists discrimination in the Swedish private rental housing market based on the names of apartment seekers. We used a correspondent test by randomly submitting equivalent applications from four fictitious, highly educated, and seemingly "well-behaved" male applicants in response to a number of randomly selected private housing ads. Each advertising landlord received applications from two applicants with names signaling Swedish, Arab/Muslim, Eastern European, or East Asian ethnicity. Our results show that the person with a name associated with the dominant ethnic group received most callbacks from the landlords, while the persons with Eastern European- and East Asian sounding names, and especially the Arab/Muslim-sounding name, yielded significantly lower callback rates. Moreover, each applicant's callback rates are about the same regardless of whom he was paired with, reinforcing our result that a person's name clearly matters when applying for an apartment. The comparisons with previous discrimination research focusing on the Swedish housing market show that the situation for a male person with an Arabic/Muslim-sounding name has at least not improved in Sweden in the past decade.
Topics: Ethnicity; Housing; Humans; Internationality; Male; Names; Sweden
PubMed: 35675272
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268840 -
Behavior Research Methods Apr 2022Researchers studying social networks and inter-personal sentiments in bounded or small-scale communities face a trade-off between the use of roster-based and...
DieTryin: An R package for data collection, automated data entry, and post-processing of network-structured economic games, social networks, and other roster-based dyadic data.
Researchers studying social networks and inter-personal sentiments in bounded or small-scale communities face a trade-off between the use of roster-based and free-recall/name-generator-based survey tools. Roster-based methods scale poorly with sample size, and can more easily lead to respondent fatigue; however, they generally yield higher quality data that are less susceptible to recall bias and that require less post-processing. Name-generator-based methods, in contrast, scale well with sample size and are less likely to lead to respondent fatigue. However, they may be more sensitive to recall bias, and they entail a large amount of highly error-prone post-processing after data collection in order to link elicited names to unique identifiers. Here, we introduce an R package, DieTryin, that allows for roster-based dyadic data to be collected and entered as rapidly as name-generator-based data; DieTryin can be used to run network-structured economic games, as well as collect and process standard social network data and round-robin Likert-scale peer ratings. DieTryin automates photograph standardization, survey tool compilation, and data entry. We present a complete methodological workflow using DieTryin to teach end-users its full functionality.
Topics: Fatigue; Humans; Mental Recall; Names; Social Networking; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 34341963
DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01606-5 -
The Psychiatric Quarterly Sep 2019Transgender adolescents may require for inpatient psychiatric care, and have unique healthcare needs and can face barriers to quality care. This study sought to address...
Transgender adolescents may require for inpatient psychiatric care, and have unique healthcare needs and can face barriers to quality care. This study sought to address limited understanding of the inpatient experience of transgender adolescents. This study uses qualitative methods to gain insight into the experience of transgender adolescents and psychiatric care providers on an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit in the northeast United States. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients (9 total, ages 13-17) and unit care providers (18 total). These interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Patients and providers generally reported a supportive inpatient environment. Factors that contributed to this environment were efforts by care providers to respect patients regardless of gender identity, to use patient's preferred identifiers, and to acknowledge mistakes in identifier use. Barriers to consistently supportive interactions were also identified, including a lack of consistent identification of a patient's transgender identity in a supportive manner during the admission intake, challenges associated with the presence of birth-assigned name and gender within the care system (e.g. in the electronic medical record, identifying wristbands, attendance rosters), and a lack of formal training of care providers in transgender cultural competency. Interviews also provided insight into how providers grapple with understanding the complexities of gender identity. Findings suggest that gender-affirming approaches by providers are experienced as supportive and respectful by transgender adolescent patients, while also identifying barriers to consistently supportive interactions that can be addressed to optimize care.
Topics: Adolescent; Cultural Competency; Female; Gender Identity; Health Personnel; Hospitals, Psychiatric; Humans; Inpatients; Male; Qualitative Research; Transgender Persons
PubMed: 31209713
DOI: 10.1007/s11126-019-09653-0 -
The Journals of Gerontology. Series B,... Mar 2021Episodic memory is age-sensitive but can be strengthened by targeted training interventions. The method of loci (MoL) is a classic mnemonic which if successfully...
OBJECTIVES
Episodic memory is age-sensitive but can be strengthened by targeted training interventions. The method of loci (MoL) is a classic mnemonic which if successfully implemented greatly improves memory performance. We developed and investigated the effects of a MoL training program implemented in a smart phone application (app) with the aim of studying usage of the application, training effect and its modifiability by age, predictors for MoL proficiency, transfer effects to a face-name memory task, and perceived benefit in everyday memory.
METHOD
A total of 359 adults participated. Instruction and training of the MoL, transfer test (face-name paired associates cued recall task), and surveys were performed in an in-house developed app.
RESULTS
The app interested people across the adult life span. Older adults practiced the most, whereas younger and young-old participants showed the highest level of MoL proficiency. Level of proficiency was modulated by amount of practice, but in the oldest participants this effect was less pronounced. Greater self-rated health was associated with higher level of proficiency. No transfer effect was observed. Among those who answered the survey, about half expressed that MoL training had benefitted memory in their everyday life.
DISCUSSION
App-based memory training in the MoL can be delivered successfully via an app across the adult life span. Level of performance reached in training is variable but generally high, and mainly influenced by amount of training and age of the participants. Our data suggest plasticity across the life span, but to a lesser degree for adults between 70 and 90 years.
Topics: Aged; Cognition; Cognitive Aging; Cues; Facial Recognition; Female; Humans; Learning; Male; Memory, Episodic; Mental Recall; Names; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Smartphone; Software; Task Performance and Analysis
PubMed: 33480435
DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa216 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2020Despite the obvious personal relevance of some musical pieces, the cerebral mechanisms associated with listening to personally familiar music and its effects on...
Despite the obvious personal relevance of some musical pieces, the cerebral mechanisms associated with listening to personally familiar music and its effects on subsequent brain functioning have not been specifically evaluated yet. We measured cerebral correlates with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while composers listened to three types of musical excerpts varying in personal familiarity and self (familiar own/composition, familiar other/favorite or unfamiliar other/unknown music) followed by sequences of names of individuals also varying in personal familiarity and self (familiar own/own name, familiar other/close friend and unfamiliar other/unknown name). Listening to music with autobiographical contents (familiar own and/or other) recruited a fronto-parietal network including mainly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the supramarginal/angular gyri and the precuneus. Additionally, while listening to familiar other music (favorite) was associated with the activation of reward and emotion networks (e.g. the striatum), familiar own music (compositions) engaged brain regions underpinning self-reference (e.g. the medial prefrontal cortex) and visuo-motor imagery. The present findings further suggested that familiar music with self-related reference (compositions) leads to an enhanced activation of the autobiographical network during subsequent familiar name processing (as compared to music without self-related reference); among these structures, the precuneus seems to play a central role in personally familiar processing.
Topics: Adult; Auditory Perception; Brain Mapping; Emotions; Female; Humans; Male; Music; Names; Prefrontal Cortex; Recognition, Psychology; Young Adult
PubMed: 32908227
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71855-5 -
JAMA Pediatrics May 2020This survey study assesses preferences concerning name and pronoun documentation in the electronic medical record and investigates how these preferences differ by...
This survey study assesses preferences concerning name and pronoun documentation in the electronic medical record and investigates how these preferences differ by demographic and gender-related characteristics among transgender youths seeking care at a specialty gender clinic.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Electronic Health Records; Female; Humans; Male; Names; Transgender Persons; United States
PubMed: 32091546
DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.6071 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2022Population structure is a confounder on pathways linking genotypes to health outcomes. This study examines whether the historical, geographical origins of British... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
Population structure is a confounder on pathways linking genotypes to health outcomes. This study examines whether the historical, geographical origins of British surnames are associated with health outcomes today. We coded hospital admissions of over 30 million patients in England between 1999 and 2013 to their British surname origin and divided their diagnoses into 125 major disease categories (of which 94 were complete-case). A base population was constructed with patients' first admission of any kind. Age- and sex-standardised odds ratios were calculated with logistic regression using patients with ubiquitous English surnames such as "Smith" as reference (alpha = .05; Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) = .05). The results were scanned for "signals", where a branch of related surname origins all had significantly higher or lower risk. Age- and sex-standardised admission (alpha = .05) was calculated for each signal across area deprivation and surname origin density quintiles. Signals included three branches of English surnames (disorders of teeth and jaw, fractures, upper gastrointestinal disorders). Although the signal with fractures was considered unusual overall, 2 out of the 9 origins in the branch would only be significant at a FDR > .05: OR 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.86-0.98) and 0.70 (0.55-0.90). The risk was only different in the quintile with the highest density of that group. Differential risk remained when studied across quintiles of area deprivation. The study shows that surname origins are associated with diverse health outcomes and thus act as markers of population structure over and above area deprivation.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; England; Female; Fractures, Bone; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Geography; Health Status; Hospitalization; Humans; Jaw Diseases; Male; Middle Aged; Names; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Socioeconomic Factors; Tooth Diseases; Young Adult
PubMed: 35140220
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05651-8 -
PLoS Biology Mar 2021Allowing for invisible name changes is a matter of dignity for trans researchers. This would prevent their own publication record from outing them without their consent....
Allowing for invisible name changes is a matter of dignity for trans researchers. This would prevent their own publication record from outing them without their consent. A single, centralized name change request through ORCID iD would alleviate the burden of changing each publication individually.
Topics: Female; Humans; Male; Names; Research Personnel; Scholarly Communication; Transgender Persons
PubMed: 33690606
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001104