Soon-Hyung Yi

The cultural context of talk about the past: Implications for the development of autobiographical memory ☆ ☆☆

Abstract Recent research shows that adults engage children in a process of “co-constructing” memories by guiding them in the production of verbal accounts of their experiences. Such talk about past events may influence the development of autobiographical memory by teaching children that memories of personal experiences are valued, and further, which aspects of experience are considered memorable. It has been suggested that cultures may differ in the amount and content of these interactions. Sixteen mother and 3-year-old dyads (8 Korean and 8 Caucasian) were tape-recorded during naturally occurring conversations. The Caucasian dyads engaged in talk about past events nearly three times as often as the Korean dyads. This difference, as well as content differences in the talk, are discussed in light of socialization goals. Combined with previous research showing that Caucasian adults report earlier childhood memories than Asians, these findings support the theory that early linguistic experience may be related to the development of autobiographical memory.

Reduced orbitofrontal cortical thickness in male adolescents with internet addiction

BackgroundThe orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has consistently been implicated in the pathology of both drug and behavioral addictions. However, no study to date has examined OFC thickness in internet addiction. In the current study, we investigated the existence of differences in cortical thickness of the OFC in adolescents with internet addiction. On the basis of recently proposed theoretical models of addiction, we predicted a reduction of thickness in the OFC of internet addicted individuals.FindingsParticipants were 15 male adolescents diagnosed as having internet addiction and 15 male healthy comparison subjects. Brain magnetic resonance images were acquired on a 3T MRI and group differences in cortical thickness were analyzed using FreeSurfer. Our results confirmed that male adolescents with internet addiction have significantly decreased cortical thickness in the right lateral OFC (p<0.05).ConclusionThis finding supports the view that the OFC alterations in adolescents with internet addiction reflect a shared neurobiological marker of addiction-related disorders in general.

A selective involvement of putamen functional connectivity in youth with internet gaming disorder.

Brain cortico-striatal circuits have consistently been implicated in the pathology of addiction related disorders. We applied a reliable seed-based analysis of the resting-state brain activity to comprehensively delineate the subdivisions of striatal functional connectivity implicated in internet gaming disorder. Among twelve right-handed male adolescents with internet gaming disorder and 11 right-handed and gender-matched healthy controls, we examined group differences in the functional connectivity of dorsal and ventral subdivisions of the caudate nucleus and putamen, as well as the association of these connectivity indices with behavioral measures of internet use. Adolescents with internet gaming disorder showed significantly reduced dorsal putamen functional connectivity with the posterior insula-parietal operculum. More time spent playing online games predicted significantly greater functional connectivity between the dorsal putamen and bilateral primary somatosensory cortices in adolescents with internet gaming disorder, and significantly lower functional connectivity between the dorsal putamen and bilateral sensorimotor cortices in healthy controls. The dorsal putamen functional connectivity was significantly and specifically different in adolescents with internet gaming disorder. The findings suggest a possible biomarker of internet gaming disorder.

Decreased thalamic volumes in adolescent inhalant users from Korea and Australia.

Abstract Objectives. Research investigating the impact of inhalant misuse on brain structure suggests abnormalities in subcortical regions. We investigated the association between inhalant misuse and subcortical brain volumes in adolescents. Methods. Based on a collaborative dataset from South Korea (inhalant users: N = 15, mean age = 16.7, SD = 1.1; controls: N = 15, mean age = 15.4, SD = 1.2) and Australia (inhalant users: N = 7, mean age = 18.2, SD = 1.4; controls: N = 7, mean age = 18.9, SD = 2.6), the volumes of caudate nucleus, putamen, pallidum, amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus were estimated in adolescent inhalant users and healthy adolescents using FreeSurfer. Results. The results revealed a significantly decreased right thalamic volume in adolescent inhalant users (P = 0.042), along with a trend-level decrease in left thalamic volume (P = 0.061). A negative correlation (r = –0.544; P = 0.036) between thalamic volume and severity of inhalant use (i.e., reduced volumes associated with greater use) was identified among Korean participants. Conclusions. These findings suggest that compared with other subcortical structures, the thalamus is particularly sensitive to damage following chronic inhalant exposure during adolescence.

The Differences in Children's Story Comprehension According to the Types of Reading Media:Paperback Books vs. Electronic Books*

ABSTRACT This study investigated differences in children’s story comprehension as they related to the types of reading media. The participants comprised 62 four-years-olds from two child-care centers located in a middle-income region of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. In order to control the experience effect, newly developed stories published into two formats of reading media (paperback books and electronic books) were provided to the participants. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in children’s story comprehension depending on the types of reading media. Paperback book readers and electronic book readers did not show any significant difference in story comprehension, which consists of recall, recognition and reasoning tasks. As literature pertaining to children’s usage of electronic books is limited, the present study offers guidelines for the development of children’s reading media and may serve as a useful resource for future studies. Keywords：읽기매체(reading media), 종이책(paperback book), 전자책(electronic book, e-book), 이야기 이해(story comprehension).

What are Computer Games for Adolescents

In this study, we tried to find out various characteristics of adolescents` computer game using out of functionalism. We used in-depth interviews to 18 adolescents to investigate what they think about games and how they use games. Adolescents showed positive perspectives and had mature attitudes to games. Games are leisure activities which can be carried out only after finishing homework, the fiction which is less important than the reality, something that needs proper restriction. Also, peer group strongly affected their game using.

Gaming-addicted teens identify more with their cyber-self than their own self: Neural evidence

According to existing neuroimaging studies of social cognition, individuals use knowledge about themselves to infer the mental states of others and to mentalize in a different way when the other is perceived to be similar versus dissimilar to oneself. In this study, we examined whether adolescent boys make mental state inferences for their online game characters and whether adolescents who were diagnosed as addicted to the internet game perceived their personal game character to be similar to themselves. Twelve internet-addicted adolescents and fifteen adolescents without addiction reported whether short phrases described themselves, a well-known historical person, or their own game character while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Different patterns of activity emerged for adolescents with internet game addiction compared to healthy adolescents when they were thinking about themselves, another person, and their game characters. Specifically, when addicted adolescents were thinking about their own game characters, more global and significant medial prefrontal (MPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) activations were observed, than even when compared to thinking about themselves. The ACC activation was correlated with the symptom severity. The activation patterns demonstrated that addicted adolescents were most attached to their game characters and equated their game characters to human.

The neural correlates of attachment security in typically developing children

HIGHLIGHTSAttachment security is detected as a different brain activity in typically developing children.The quality of attachment configures the approach and avoidance motivational system in our brain.Striatum, strongly linked to reward and motivational processing, showed the largest effects. ABSTRACT This study investigated neural correlates of childrens attachment security using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fifty‐one boys’ attachment styles (age mean=9.5years, SD=0.61) were assessed with the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT). We created an fMRI version of the SAT to activate childrens attachment system in fMRI environment and contrasted two conditions in which children were instructed to infer the specific feeling of the boy in the picture or to identify objects or physical activities. In the final fMRI analysis (N=21), attachment security could be detected at the neural level corresponding to the behavioural differences in the attachment interview. Securely attached children showed greater activation in the frontal, limbic and basal ganglia area which included the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, amygdala, cingulate cortex and striatum, compared to other children who had lower quality of attachment. These regions have a key role in socio‐emotional information processing and also represent a brain network related to approach and avoidance motivation in humans. Especially the striatum, strongly linked to reward processing underpinning social approach and avoidance motivation, showed the largest effects in these differences and also positively correlated with emotional openness scores in SAT. This suggests that the quality of attachment configures the approach and avoidance motivational system in our brain mediated by the striatum.