In this review, we discuss the usefulness of the distinction between fear and anxiety. The clinical use of the labels is ambiguous, often defining one in terms of the other. We first consider what a useful, objective, and scientifically valid definition would entail and then evaluate several fear/anxiety distinctions that have been made in the…

The role of empathy in human social interaction has been examined in several research fields, including medical education (ME) and social neuroscience (SN). SN yields insights into empathy based on neurobiological processes, and such information may also be relevant to ME. In this reflection article, the authors first critically review current…

At the present, human capital theory (HCT) and neuroscience reasoning are dominant frameworks in early childhood education and care (ECEC) worldwide. Popular since the 1960s, HCT has provided an economic understanding of human beings and offered strategies to manage the population with the promise of bringing improvements to nations. Neuroscience…

It is now well-established that intrinsic variations in human neural and behavioral activity tend to exhibit scaling laws in their fluctuations and distributions. The meaning of these scaling laws is an ongoing matter of debate between isolable causes versus pervasive causes. A spiking neural network model is presented that self-tunes to critical…

Three levels of investigation underlie all biologically based attempts at classification of behaviorally defined developmental and psychiatric disorders: Level A, pseudo-categorical classification of mostly dimensional descriptions of behaviors and their disorders included in the 2013 American Psychiatric Association's Fifth Edition of the…

We present a neural network model that aims to bridge the historical gap between dynamic and structural approaches to personality. The model integrates work on the structure of the trait lexicon, the neurobiology of personality, temperament, goal-based models of personality, and an evolutionary analysis of motives. It is organized in terms of two…

The aims of this article are to review the multiple relations between creativity and personality, exploring the measurement instruments that have been used to identify them. Specific personality characteristics and traits found in highly creative individuals and the interaction of these traits with the creative process are described. In addition,…

A fundamental claim associated with parallel distributed processing (PDP) theories of cognition is that knowledge is coded in a distributed manner in mind and brain. This approach rejects the claim that knowledge is coded in a localist fashion, with words, objects, and simple concepts (e.g. "dog"), that is, coded with their own dedicated…

Objective: Child and adolescent psychiatry is rife with examples of the sustained effects of early experience on brain function. The study of behavioral genetics provides evidence for a relation between genomic variation and personality and with the risk for psychopathology. A pressing challenge is that of "conceptually" integrating findings from…

Despite decades of research, the causal mechanisms of hot flashes are not adequately understood, and a biopsychosocial perspective on hot flashes remains underdeveloped. This article explores overlooked parallels between hot flashes and panic attacks within 5 areas: course and symptomatology, physiological indicators, neurocircuitry and…

This study reviews recent research related to the neurobiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) an provides an empirical analysis of current assessment practices. Data were collected through a survey of 117 school psychologists. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS), and Gilliam Asperger's Disorder Scale…

Patient H.M. can form new memories and maintain them for a few seconds before they fade away. From a neurobiological perspective, this amnesia is usually attributed to the absence of memory consolidation, that is, memory storage. An alternative view holds that this impairment reflects that the memory is present but cannot be retrieved. This debate…

The use of narrative within interactive learning environments (ILEs) is widespread. Reviewing recent research in the fields of ethnography, cognitive psychology, neurobiology, discourse analysis, and education, this paper proposes a rationale for the use of narrative in ILEs. Starting with a description of the origin of narrative in the brain, the…

Parenting behavior critically shapes human infants' current and future behavior. The parent-infant relationship provides infants with their first social experiences, forming templates of what they can expect from others and how to best meet others' expectations. In this review, we focus on the neurobiology of parenting behavior, including our own…

Neural networks are applied to a theoretical subject in developmental psychology: modeling developmental transitions. Two issues that are involved will be discussed: discontinuities and acquiring qualitatively new knowledge. We will argue that by the appearance of a bifurcation, a neural network can show discontinuities and may acquire…