Internet Addiction in adolescence: Neurobiological, psychosocial and clinical issues.

Despite it has not been formally included in DSM-5 as a disorder, 'Internet addiction (IA)' has become a worldwide issue. It can be broadly defined as a non-chemical, behavioral addiction, which involves human-machine interaction. We pinpoint it as an "instrumental" form of social interaction (i.e. mediated by machines), a notion that appears useful for the sake of possible preclinical modeling. The features of Internet use reveals as addictive when this comes at the expense of genuine real-life sociability, with an overlap towards the hikikomori phenomenon (i.e., extreme retreat to one's own room). Due to the specific neuro-developmental plasticity in adolescence, IA poses risks to youths' mental health, and may likely produce negative consequences in everyday life. The thwarted development of adolescents' identity, self-image and adaptive social relationships is discussed: the IA adolescents often suffer loss of control, feelings of anger, symptoms of distress, social withdrawal, and familial conflicts. Further, more severe clinical conditions are also associated to IA, such as dysthymic, bipolar, affective, social-anxiety disorders, as well as major depression. This paper overviews the literature on IA, from neuro-biological, psycho-social and clinical standpoints, taking into account recent debates on diagnostic criteria, nosographic label and assessment tools. Neuroimaging data and neurochemical regulations are illustrated with links to pathogenetic hypotheses, which are amenable to validation through innovative preclinical modeling.

Neural basis of maternal communication and emotional expression processing during infant preverbal stage.

During the first year of life, exchanges and communication between a mother and her infant are exclusively preverbal and are based on the mother's ability to understand her infant's needs and feelings (i.e., empathy) and on imitation of the infant's facial expressions; this promotes a social dialog that influences the development of the infant self. Sixteen mothers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while observing and imitating faces of their own child and those of someone else's child. We found that the mirror neuron system, the insula and amygdala were more active during emotional expressions, that this circuit is engaged to a greater extent when interacting with one's own child, and that it is correlated with maternal reflective function (a measure of empathy). We also found, by comparing single emotions with each other, that joy expressions evoked a response mainly in right limbic and paralimbic areas; by contrast, ambiguous expressions elicited a response in left high order cognitive and motor areas, which might reflect cognitive effort.

Internal working models of attachment during late childhood and early adolescence: an exploration of stability and change.

This article addresses the question of how the transition from late childhood to early adolescence influences the organization of attachment. The applicability of a measure for attachment representations in early adolescence, the Attachment Interview for Childhood and Adolescence (AICA), was explored. The AICA is based on the Adult Attachment Interview, which was adapted in minor ways to the early adolescent age-group. It was hypothesized that attachment shows considerable stability from late childhood to early adolescence, although some changes might become manifest especially because distancing mechanisms toward the parents may be activated in this period. Also, stability may be different for the various secure and insecure attachment classifications. Lastly, because gender differences become larger during the transition from childhood to adolescence, attachment differences between boys and girls were explored. The same 31 Italian participants (14 girls, 17 boys) completed the AICA at 10 years and at 14 years of age. The AICA attachment classification distributions did not differ from Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) distributions in comparable but older adolescent or young adult samples. The stability of attachment security was considerable: 74% (k = .48). The stability of the dismissing and secure categories was somewhat higher than the stability of the (small) preoccupied and unresolved categories. The participants tended to show more dismissing strategies across the four years, and to report more rejection from their parents. It was suggested that the activation of dismissing defense mechanisms might be necessary to keep parental figures at some distance in order to achieve a more definite personal identity. Finally, no significant gender differences in attachment emerged during the transition from late childhood to early adolescence.

[Maternal representations during pregnancy and early mother-infant interactions]. / Représentations maternelles pendant la grossesse et interactions précoces mère-enfant.

In this paper we aim to explore how maternal representations during pregnancy influence the early mother-infant interactions and the style of attachment of the baby. Two different cases are presented in order to focus on how maternal representations of herself as a mother and of the future baby influence the early interactions and the style of attachment of the children. It is stressed in one case the particular fixity of the maternal phantasmatic world and in the other the modifiability which can be influenced, in the latter case, by the conscious fantasies and the relationship with her own family and her own child.

Loneliness in the female adolescent.

The purpose of our study is to explore and describe loneliness in female adolescence as distinct from solitude and isolation. In keeping with other works by Ostrov and Offer [(1978) "Loneliness and the Adolescent,Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 6, p. 34], our concern is to define the preeminent aspects of the unfolding and evolving cycle of loneliness, and the features they may take on in adolescents in the 1980s, within the social context of Central and Southern Italy. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire or self-descriptive questionnaire developed by Offeret al. [(1981)The Adolescent. A Psychology Self-Portrait. Basic Books, New York] has been applied to a sample of 804 female adolescents, with ages ranging from 13 to 18 years. The data were analyzed using factor analysis. Three main components were identified: (1) the area of the coping self and the psychopathological self; (2) an emotional layout characterized by a poor self-acceptance and a reduced self-confidence; (3) interpersonal relationships focusing on peer relations. Furthermore, the variance analysis shows that loneliness increases with age, and is more evident in small towns as opposed to medium-sized or larger metropolitan areas.