Some Equalities Are More Equal Than Others: Quality Equality Emerges Later Than Numerical Equality.

By age 6, children typically share an equal number of resources between themselves and others. However, fairness involves not merely that each person receive an equal number of resources ("numerical equality") but also that each person receive equal quality resources ("quality equality"). In Study 1, children (N = 87, 3-10 years) typically split four resources "two each" by age 6, but typically monopolized the better two resources until age 10. In Study 2, a new group of 6- to 8-year-olds (N = 32) allocated resources to third parties according to quality equality, indicating that children in this age group understand that fairness requires both types of equality.

Impaired consciousness in epilepsy investigated by a prospective responsiveness in epilepsy scale (RES).

PURPOSE: Impaired consciousness in epileptic seizures has a major negative impact on patient quality of life. Prior work on epileptic unconsciousness has mainly used retrospective and nonstandardized methods. Our goal was to validate and to obtain initial data using a standardized prospective testing battery. METHODS: The responsiveness in epilepsy scale (RES) was used on 52 patients during continuous video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring. RES begins with higher-level questions and commands, and switches adaptively to more basic sensorimotor responses depending on patient performance. RES continues after seizures and includes postictal memory testing. Scoring was conducted based on video review. KEY FINDINGS: Testing on standardized seizure simulations yielded good intrarater and interrater reliability. We captured 59 seizures from 18 patients (35% of participants) during 1,420 h of RES monitoring. RES impairment was greatest during and after tonic-clonic seizures, less in partial seizures, and minimal in auras and subclinical seizures. In partial seizures, ictal RES impairment was significantly greater if EEG changes were present. Maximum RES impairment (lowest ictal score) was also significantly correlated with long postictal recovery time, and poor postictal memory. SIGNIFICANCE: We found that prospective testing of responsiveness during seizures is feasible and reliable. RES impairment was related to EEG changes during seizures, as well as to postictal memory deficits and recovery time. With a larger patient sample it is hoped that this approach can identify brain networks underlying specific components of impaired consciousness in seizures. This may allow the development of improved treatments targeted at preventing dysfunction in these networks.

Do Dogs Prefer Helpers in an Infant-Based Social Evaluation Task?

Social evaluative abilities emerge in human infancy, highlighting their importance in shaping our species' early understanding of the social world. Remarkably, infants show social evaluation in relatively abstract contexts: for instance, preferring a wooden shape that helps another shape in a puppet show over a shape that hinders another character (Hamlin et al., 2007). Here we ask whether these abstract social evaluative abilities are shared with other species. Domestic dogs provide an ideal animal species in which to address this question because this species cooperates extensively with conspecifics and humans and may thus benefit from a more general ability to socially evaluate prospective partners. We tested dogs on a social evaluation puppet show task originally used with human infants. Subjects watched a helpful shape aid an agent in achieving its goal and a hinderer shape prevent an agent from achieving its goal. We examined (1) whether dogs showed a preference for the helpful or hinderer shape, (2) whether dogs exhibited longer exploration of the helpful or hinderer shape, and (3) whether dogs were more likely to engage with their handlers during the helper or hinderer events. In contrast to human infants, dogs showed no preference for either the helper or the hinderer, nor were they more likely to engage with their handlers during helper or hinderer events. Dogs did spend more time exploring the hindering shape, perhaps indicating that they were puzzled by the agent's unhelpful behavior. However, this preference was moderated by a preference for one of the two shapes, regardless of role. These findings suggest that, relative to infants, dogs show weak or absent social evaluative abilities when presented with abstract events and point to constraints on dogs' abilities to evaluate others' behavior.

Seizures, cognitive abnormalities, and abnormal magnetic resonance imaging findings in a 19-year-old woman.

In this case scenario, the reader has the the opportunity to diagnose the patient described in the title, on the basis of the history, examination results, laboratory evaluations, and neurophysiologic and imaging findings. The diagnosis and a discussion of the case are presented on pages 195-197.