María Ángeles Quiroga

Proposal of a socio–cognitive–behavioral structural equation model of internalized stigma in people with severe and persistent mental illness

The social stigma of mental illness has received much attention in recent years and its effects on diverse variables such as psychiatric symptoms, social functioning, self-esteem, self-efficacy, quality of life, and social integration are well established. However, internalized stigma in people with severe and persistent mental illness has not received the same attention. The aim of the present work was to study the relationships between the principal variables involved in the functioning of internalized stigma (sociodemographic and clinical variables, social stigma, psychosocial functioning, recovery expectations, empowerment, and discrimination experiences) in a sample of people with severe and persistent mental illness (N=108). The main characteristics of the sample and the differences between groups with high and low internalized stigma were analyzed, a correlation analysis of the variables was performed, and a structural equation model, integrating variables of social, cognitive, and behavioral content, was proposed and tested. The results indicate the relationships among social stigma, discrimination experiences, recovery expectation, and internalized stigma and their role in the psychosocial and behavioral outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Video-games: Do they require general intelligence?

Here we test if playing video-games require intelligence. Twenty-seven university undergraduate students were trained on three games from Big Brain Academy (Wii): Calculus, Backward Memory and Train. Participants did not have any previous experience with these games. General intelligence was measured by five ability tests before the training session. Training comprised 10 blocks of trials (10 trials per block). Ackermans (Ackerman, P. L. (1988). Individual differences and skill acquisition. In P. L. Ackerman, R. J. Sernberg, & R. Glaser (Eds.), Learning and individual differences: Advances in theory and practice (pp. 165-217). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company) theory of skill learning was used as a framework for the present study. Results show that playing the Train game increases the correlation with general intelligence across blocks of trials. This is not the case for Calculus and Backward Memory. These findings suggest strategies for designing video-games presumably appropriate to stimulate our core cognitive abilities.

Are cognitive sex differences disappearing? Evidence from Spanish populations

Sex differences in cognitive abilities were determined using the norms from two standardizations of the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) and the Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) conducted between 1979 and 1995 in Spain. The standardized sex differences (ds) were computed separately for the DAT and the PMA subscales. Males scored higher in the DAT subscales Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Ability, Spatial Relations and Mechanical Reasoning, as well as in the PMA subscales Numerical Ability and Mental Rotation. Females scored higher in Inductive Reasoning (PMA-R) in the 1979 and 1995 standardizations. Taken together, these data do not support the hypothesis that cognitive sex differences are disappearing: there are still some differences favoring females and still some differences favoring males.

Changes in resting-state functionally connected parietofrontal networks after videogame practice

Neuroimaging studies provide evidence for organized intrinsic activity under task‐free conditions. This activity serves functionally relevant brain systems supporting cognition. Here, we analyze changes in resting‐state functional connectivity after videogame practice applying a test–retest design. Twenty young females were selected from a group of 100 participants tested on four standardized cognitive ability tests. The practice and control groups were carefully matched on their ability scores. The practice group played during two sessions per week across 4 weeks (16 h total) under strict supervision in the laboratory, showing systematic performance improvements in the game. A group independent component analysis (GICA) applying multisession temporal concatenation on test–retest resting‐state fMRI, jointly with a dual‐regression approach, was computed. Supporting the main hypothesis, the key finding reveals an increased correlated activity during rest in certain predefined resting state networks (albeit using uncorrected statistics) attributable to practice with the cognitively demanding tasks of the videogame. Observed changes were mainly concentrated on parietofrontal networks involved in heterogeneous cognitive functions. Hum Brain Mapp 34:3143–3157, 2013.

Reversed hierarchy in the brain for general and specific cognitive abilities: A morphometric analysis

Intelligence is composed of a set of cognitive abilities hierarchically organized. General and specific abilities capture distinguishable, but related, facets of the intelligence construct. Here, we analyze gray matter with three morphometric indices (volume, cortical surface area, and cortical thickness) at three levels of the intelligence hierarchy (tests, first‐order factors, and a higher‐order general factor, g). A group of one hundred and four healthy young adults completed a cognitive battery and underwent high‐resolution structural MRI. Latent scores were computed for the intelligence factors and tests were also analyzed. The key finding reveals substantial variability in gray matter correlates at the test level, which is substantially reduced for the first‐order and the higher‐order factors. This supports a reversed hierarchy in the brain with respect to cognitive abilities at different psychometric levels: the greater the generality, the smaller the number of relevant gray matter clusters accounting for individual differences in intelligent performance. Hum Brain Mapp 35:3805–3818, 2014.

Is there any Relationship between Sexual Attraction and Gender Typology

People can be classified as attracted to both sexes, to men, to women, or to neither sex, and also as instrumental-expressive, instrumental, expressive, or non-instrumental-expressive. The two hypotheses tested herein are, on the one hand, the relative independence between these two typologies and, on the other, the close relation between sexual dimorphism and sexual attraction, in contrast to the relative independence between sexual dimorphism and the instrumental and expressive domains. A total of 503 university students (284 women and 219 men) completed two assessment instruments: The Sexual Attraction Questionnaire (SAQ) and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI, 12 items). Analysis of contingency tables was performed. The results provide empirical support for the hypothesis of independence of the two typologies, solid support for the relation between sexual dimorphism and sexual attraction, and clear support for the independence between the gender domains and sexual dimorphism. The implications of these data for the different outlooks concerning the relations between sex and gender are established.

Is sexual attraction independent of the instrumental and expressive traits

Sexual attraction is an essential part of sex, just as the instrumental and expressive traits are the mainstay of gender. Various hypotheses concerning the dimensionality and independence versus dependence/overlapping of these core entities were tested. A group of 423 university students completed the Sexual Attraction Questionnaire (SAQ; Fernández, Quiroga, and Rodríguez, 2006) and the 12-item Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974). Internal consistency and factor analyses (PAF) were conducted. The results support the dimensionality established for the SAQ and reveal some psychometric and conceptual weaknesses of the 12-item BSRI. The results also support the independence of the two cores: sexual attraction and the instrumental and expressive traits. The logical implications for the different viewpoints of the relations between sex and gender are discussed.

Explicit and implicit assessment of gender roles

BACKGROUND Gender roles have been assessed by explicit measures and, recently, by implicit measures. In the former case, the theoretical assumptions have been questioned by empirical results. To solve this contradiction, we carried out two concatenated studies based on a relatively well-founded theoretical and empirical approach. METHOD The first study was designed to obtain a sample of genderized activities of the domestic sphere by means of an explicit assessment. Forty-two raters (22 women and 20 men, balanced on age, sex, and level of education) took part as raters. In the second study, an implicit assessment of gender roles was carried out, focusing on the response time given to the sample activities obtained from the first study. A total of 164 adults (90 women and 74 men, mean age = 43), with experience in living with a partner and balanced on age, sex, and level of education, participated. RESULTS Taken together, results show that explicit and implicit assessment converge. The current social reality shows that there is still no equity in some gender roles in the domestic sphere. CONCLUSIONS These consistent results show considerable theoretical and empirical robustness, due to the double implicit and explicit assessment.

Individual differences in the dominance of interhemispheric connections predict cognitive ability beyond sex and brain size

ABSTRACT Global structural brain connectivity has been reported to be sex‐dependent with women having increased interhemispheric connectivity (InterHc) and men having greater intrahemispheric connectivity (IntraHc). However, (a) smaller brains show greater InterHc, (b) larger brains show greater IntraHc, and (c) women have, on average, smaller brains than men. Therefore, sex differences in brain size may modulate sex differences in global brain connectivity. At the behavioural level, sex‐dependent differences in connectivity are thought to contribute to men‐women differences in spatial and verbal abilities. But this has never been tested at the individual level. The current study assessed whether individual differences in global structural connectome measures (InterHc, IntraHc and the ratio of InterHc relative to IntraHc) predict spatial and verbal ability while accounting for the effect of sex and brain size. The sample included forty men and forty women, who did neither differ in age nor in verbal and spatial latent components defined by a broad battery of tests and tasks. High‐resolution T1‐weighted and diffusion‐weighted images were obtained for computing brain size and reconstructing the structural connectome. Results showed that men had higher IntraHc than women, while women had an increased ratio InterHc/IntraHc. However, these sex differences were modulated by brain size. Increased InterHc relative to IntraHc predicted higher spatial and verbal ability irrespective of sex and brain size. The positive correlations between the ratio InterHc/IntraHc and the spatial and verbal abilities were confirmed in 1000 random samples generated by bootstrapping. Therefore, sex differences in global structural connectome connectivity were modulated by brain size and did not underlie sex differences in verbal and spatial abilities. Rather, the level of dominance of InterHc over IntraHc may be associated with individual differences in verbal and spatial abilities in both men and women. HIGHLIGHTSWomen have higher ratio inter/intrahemispheric connectivity compared to men.Men have increased global intrahemispheric connectivity compared to women.Sex differences in global connectivity patterns are modulated by brain size.Increased interhemispheric connectivity predicts better spatial and verbal ability.The relationship connectivity‐cognition is not mediated by sex nor brain size.