Search

Fredric Schiffer,1,2 Alaptagin Khan,1,2 Kyoko Ohashi,1,2 Laura C Hernandez Garcia,1,2 Carl M Anderson,1,2 Lisa D Nickerson,1,3 Martin H Teicher1,2 1Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 2Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA; 3McLean Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USACorrespondence: Fredric Schiffer, Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA, Tel +1 617 855 2970, Fax +1 617 855 3712, Email fschiffer@mclean.harvard.eduPurpose: Conventional theories of hemispheric emotional valence (HEV) postulate fixed hemispheric differences in emotional processing. Schiffer’s dual brain psychology proposes that there are prominent individual differences with a substantial subset showing a reversed laterality pattern. He further proposed that hemispheric differences were more akin to differences in personality than in emotional processing. This theory is supported by findings that unilateral treatments, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, are effective if they accurately target individual differences in laterality. The aim of this paper was to assess if a computer test of hemispheric emotional valence (CTHEV) could effectively identify individual differences in HEV and to ascertain if these individual differences were associated with underlying differences in brain structure and connectivity.Patients and Methods: The CTHEV was administered to 50 (18 male/32 female) right-handed participants, aged 18– 19 years, enrolled in a study assessing the neurobiological effects of childhood maltreatment. Based on a literature review, we determined whether CTHEV correlated with lateralized volumes of the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus, and subgenual anterior cingulate as well as volume of the corpus callosum.Results: CTHEV scores correlated with laterality indices of the nucleus accumbens (p = 0.00016), amygdala (p = 0.0138) and hippocampus (p = 0.031)

In Jul 2005, Packery Channel was opened by Hurricane Emily during the second year of its construction. This inlet connects Corpus Christi Bay and Upper Laguna Madre to the Gulf of Mexico, and it is the first artificially cut inlet in Texas in 17 years. The inlet has remained open and navigable for shallow-draft recreational boats despite construction delays, and its parallel dual jetties were completed in Sep 2006. A physical process monitoring program was initiated prior to construction in 2003 to track the evolution of the channel, surrounding nearshore, and adjacent beaches. Maximum ebb current in the inlet often exceeds 1 m/s, and an ebb shoal has not yet formed. The shorelines adjacent to the jetties, as well as the seaward longshore bars, respond to seasonal changes in wind direction, hence direction of longshore sand transport. Shoreline change varies seasonally, but adjacent to the inlet the shoreline is nearly symmetrical., Presented at the Coastal Sediments Conference, held in New Orleans, LA on 13-17 May 2007. Published in the Proceedings of the Coastal Sediments Conference, p1529-1542, 2007. The original document contains color images.