Bilateral widefield calcium imaging reveals circuit asymmetries and lateralized functional activation of the mouse auditory cortex.

Coordinated functioning of the two cortical hemispheres is crucial for perception. The human auditory cortex (ACx) shows functional lateralization with the left hemisphere specialized for processing speech, whereas the right analyzes spectral content. In mice, virgin females demonstrate a left-hemisphere response bias to pup vocalizations that strengthens with motherhood. However, how this lateralized function is established is unclear. We developed a widefield imaging microscope to simultaneously image both hemispheres of mice to bilaterally monitor functional responses. We found that global ACx topography is symmetrical and stereotyped. In both male and virgin female mice, the secondary auditory cortex (A2) in the left hemisphere shows larger responses than right to high-frequency tones and adult vocalizations; however, only virgin female mice show a left-hemisphere bias in A2 in response to adult pain calls. These results indicate hemispheric bias with both sex-independent and -dependent aspects. Analyzing cross-hemispheric functional correlations showed that asymmetries exist in the strength of correlations between DM-AAF and A2-AAF, while other ACx areas showed smaller differences. We found that A2 showed lower cross-hemisphere correlation than other cortical areas, consistent with the lateralized functional activation of A2. Cross-hemispheric activity correlations are lower in deaf, otoferlin knockout (OTOF-/-) mice, indicating that the development of functional cross-hemispheric connections is experience dependent. Together, our results reveal that ACx is topographically symmetric at the macroscopic scale but that higher-order A2 shows sex-dependent and independent lateralized responses due to asymmetric intercortical functional connections. Moreover, our results suggest that sensory experience is required to establish functional cross-hemispheric connectivity.

Preliminary Cross-Sectional Validation of the CROPS 14-Item for Juvenile Offenders.

The Child Report of Posttraumatic Symptoms (CROPS) is an effective 26-item trauma assessment tool. Research has indicated a 14-item version of the CROPS for juvenile offenders with improved predictive accuracy for detecting trauma exposure among male offenders and commensurate accuracy for female offenders. However, the 14-item scale has yet to be validated for juvenile offenders with an established trauma measure. Cross-sectional retrospective data of 74 adjudicated youth (59.5% male) from the original CROPS 14-item psychometric study sample were used to examine the factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent and divergent validity of the 14-item scale. Findings indicated strong internal consistency and significant correlations with all scales of an established and more extensive trauma measure for children and adolescents. Findings also revealed a CROPS 12-item model explaining 36.9% of variance. Results supported both convergent and divergent validity, suggesting both the CROPS 14-item and 12-item may be used as valid trauma symptom screeners for juvenile offenders.

Subtypes of female juvenile offenders: a cluster analysis of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory.

The current study sought to explore subtypes of adolescents within a sample of female juvenile offenders. Using the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory with 101 female juvenile offenders, a two-step cluster analysis was performed beginning with a Ward's method hierarchical cluster analysis followed by a K-Means iterative partitioning cluster analysis. The results suggest an optimal three-cluster solution, with cluster profiles leading to the following group labels: Externalizing Problems, Depressed/Interpersonally Ambivalent, and Anxious Prosocial. Analysis along the factors of age, race, offense typology and offense chronicity were conducted to further understand the nature of found clusters. Only the effect for race was significant with the Anxious Prosocial and Depressed Intepersonally Ambivalent clusters appearing disproportionately comprised of African American girls. To establish external validity, clusters were compared across scales of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children - Self Report of Personality, and corroborative distinctions between clusters were found here.

Predictive accuracy and factor structure of the Child Report of Posttraumatic Symptoms (CROPS) among adjudicated youth.

OBJECTIVE: Trauma exposure and trauma symptom manifest have been associated with issues unique to the adjudicated youth population (Perkins, Calhoun, Glaser, & Kunemund, 2016), which necessitates accurate screening tools to facilitate appropriate allocation of resources (Briggs et al., 2013; Kerig, Moeddel, & Becker, 2011). The Child Report of Posttraumatic Symptoms (CROPS; Greenwald & Rubin, 1999) is a short and effective trauma assessment tool; however, predictive accuracy of the CROPS in classifying previous trauma exposure(s) as well as the factor structure of the CROPS has not been examined with this population. METHOD: Retrospective data of 215 adjudicated youth (50.2% boys) were used to investigate the predictive accuracy of the CROPS in detecting previous trauma exposures. Further, researchers examined the factor structure of the CROPS to identify principle components that most strongly contributed to accurate classification. RESULTS: Logistic regression analyses indicated moderate predictive accuracy (64.2%) in identifying reported trauma histories for the total sample and among both adjudicated males (61.1%) and females (66.4%). Principle components analyses revealed a stable 3-factor solution (accounting for 47% of total variance) and yielded a 14-item CROPS factor accounting for 32.3% of total variance. The 14-item factor demonstrated improved predictive accuracy over the full 26-item CROPS for the total sample (65.1%) and among adjudicated males (66.7%). CONCLUSION: Overall findings provide moderate support for the utility of the CROPS in accurately identifying previous trauma exposure(s) among adjudicated youth and provide preliminary support for a 14-item version of the CROPS for screening for trauma symptoms in adjudicated youth. (PsycINFO Database Record

Are parental attitudes related to adolescent juvenile offenders' readiness to change?

Contemporary research suggests that many factors contribute to adolescent problematic and delinquent behaviors; however, there is little discussion in the literature related to factors that contribute to an adolescent's willingness to change these maladaptive behaviors. The current study examines the role parental attitudes play in the adolescent juvenile offender's readiness to change. Ninety-five adjudicated adolescents and their parent or legal guardian completed the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) and the Juvenile Offender Parent Questionnaire (JOPQ), respectively. Participants fell into one of two URICA groups: Precontemplative or Contemplative. Parental attitudes (JOPQ) of Exasperation in Regard to the Child and Fear of the Child significantly predicted membership in two of the URICA stages of change groups (Precontemplative and Contemplative) when gender was included in the model. This study has important implications for practitioners developing effective treatments for adjudicated adolescents.

Personality typologies of male juvenile offenders using a cluster analysis of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory introduction.

The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) is a unique adolescent instrument that attempts to delineate between personality and acute symptoms. This study sought to explore typologies based on the Personality Pattern scales of the MACI in a sample of detained male juvenile offenders (N = 103). A Ward's method cluster analysis yielded a four-cluster solution, and each cluster was provided a clinically relevant label: (a) disruptive, antisocials; (b) agreeable, antisocials; (c) anxious, prosocials; and (d) reactive, depressives. The largest group consisted of the reactive depressives (n = 41). This suggests the importance of considering the role of internalizing problems as a conduit to delinquency in addition to antisocial personality. No interaction between cluster membership and offense history or race was found.

Beliefs and practices of the parents of violent and oppositional adolescents: an ecological perspective.

Parenting is a transactional process, influenced by the child's behavior and the environmental context. The present study explores the beliefs and practices of parents of aggressive and oppositional adolescents to understand better the relation among parenting practices, context, and youth violence. Parents of juvenile offenders (N=203) completed assessments of youths' violent and oppositional behaviors, community violence exposure, and their own beliefs and parenting behaviors and perceptions of the juvenile justice system. Parents of youth with the highest levels of violent and oppositional behavior problems reported elevated feelings of hopelessness regarding the child's future, inadequacy as a parent, fear of physical harm by the child, anger toward the child, as well as difficulty monitoring the child. All parents reported relatively high levels of perceived support by the justice system. Parental stress was also examined as a possible influence on the parents' beliefs and behaviors regarding the child. Results suggest that parents' emotional and behavioral responses should be addressed when intervening with juvenile offenders. Editors' Strategic Implications: The authors present evidence to suggest that parents' perceptions of hopelessness/inadequacy and their fear for their child's safety are both by-products of life with an aggressive child as well as contributing factors to that aggressive behavior. Thus, successful interventions must both target the parents as change agents in the youth's life but also include a strong parental support component, so that parents will have an opportunity to orchestrate positive impacts in high-risk environments.