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The right hemisphere has traditionally been considered as dominant in odor and emotion perception, whereas little is known about odor influence on emotion recognition. This study aimed to examine a possible difference in the recognition of basic emotions presented to the left or the right visual field following short-term left or right nostril treatment with an unpleasant odor. A total of 60 right-handed female participants completed an emotion recognition task in conditions of the right and left nostril treatment with an unpleasant odor (isovaleric acid). Results showed the right hemisphere advantage in speed, but not in the accuracy of basic emotion recognition after the right nostril treatment with an unpleasant odor, while the left nostril treatment had no effect. The right hemisphere and valence-specific hypotheses in emotion recognition were not confirmed, whereas the model of the right hemisphere dominance in odor perception was confirmed. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 179002]

Previous studies have demonstrated a strong association of criminal behavior of juvenile delinquents with delinquents’ personality traits and family interactions. However, little is known about the extent to which family interactions and personality traits are associated with criminal recidivism. The present study aimed to examine these relationships, using the Velikih pet plus dva (Big Five Plus Two) – short version (assessing Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Aggressiveness, Positive Valence, Negative Valence), The Quality of Family Interaction Scale (Satisfaction with family, Mother and Father Acceptance/Rejection), and official data from criminal records. The study included 61 institutionalized delinquents and 64 non-delinquents, 15 to 18 years of age. Neuroticism, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Negative valence, acceptance by father and rejection by mother are statistically significant predictors of criminal recidivism in juvenile delinquents. Delinquents showed higher Neuroticism, lower Conscientiousness and acceptance by mother compared to non-delinquents. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 179002]

Background/Aim. According to currently available data, there is no research dealing with evaluating empathy in adolescents with conduct disorders in our region. The aim of the research was to examine the differences in the severity of cognitive and affective empathy in adolescents with and with no conduct disorder, as well as to examine the relationship between cognitive and affective empathy and the level of externalization in adolescents with conduct disorder. Methods. This research was conducted on 171 adolescents, aged 15 to 18, using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Youth Self- Report and a Questionnaire constructed for the purpose of this research. Results. The results showed that adolescents with conduct disorder had significantly lower scores for Perspective Taking (t = 3.255, p = 0.001), Fantasy (t = 2.133, p = 0.034) and Empathic Concern (t = 2.479, p = 0.014) compared to the adolescents in the control group, while the values for Personal Distress (t = 1.818, p = 0.071) were higher compared to the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant. The study showed a statistically significant negative correlation between Perspective Taking and aggression (r = - 0.318, p = 0.003) and a negative correlation between Perspective Taking and the overall level of externalizing problems (r = -0.310, p = 0.004) in the group of adolescents with conduct disorder. Conclusion. This research contributes to better understanding of behavioral disorders in terms of individual factors, especially empathic reactivity. Preventive work with young people who have behavioral problems associated with empathy deficit disorder proved to be an important tool in preventing the development, or at least relieving the symptoms, of this ever more common disorder.

In this study we were interested in evaluating tablet PC device performances, as well as how the respondents perceived its usability. Usability of this kind of device is furthermore investigated in comparison to the other similar mobile devices. The Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is specifically implemented and its outcomes are compared with the calculated System Usability Scale (SUS) scores. One of the TOPSIS method advantages is its ability to identify the best alternative quickly and precisely, which is also one of the most important features of SUS scale.

Background/Aim. Conduct disorder is characterized by repetitive and persistent presence of dissocial, aggressive and defiant behavioral patterns, thus represents important public issue with comprehensive and far-reaching consequences both for the individual and society. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in sociodemographic family characteristics and the prominence of parental acceptance/rejection dimensions in groups of adolescents with and without conduct disorder, as well as to examine the connection between parental acceptance/rejection dimensions and externalizing symptoms in the group of adolescents with conduct disorder. Methods. This research was conducted on 134 adolescents, aged 15 to 18, using the Parental Acceptance/Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ child), Youth Self-Report (YSR), and a questionnaire constructed for the purpose of this survey. Results. The results showed that the number of adolescents with conduct disorder coming from divorced families was significantly higher than from complete families (44.8% vs 13.4%, respectively; p < 0.001). Also, in this group of adolescents there was a statistically significantly higher number of parents suffering from psychiatric disorders compared to the controls (31.3% vs 8.9%; respectively; p = 0.001). The perceived rejection dimension and the total index of maternal acceptance/ rejection were significantly higher in adolescents with conduct disorder than in those with no such disorder (132.30 ± 38.05 vs 93.91 ± 26.29 respectively; p < 0.001). Similar results were found for paternal acceptance/rejection dimension (129.40 ± 39.58 vs 86.10 ± 15.95 respectively; p < 0.001). Adolescents with conduct disorder and severe perceived maternal and paternal rejection showed a significantly higher average score on the subscale of externalizing symptoms (14.55 ± 4.45 and 13,27 ± 5,05) compared to adolescents with conduct disorder and lower total index of parental acceptance/rejection (8.32 ± 5.05 and 8.28 ± 5.08). Conclusion. The results suggest that adolescents with conduct disorder perceive their parents as more rejecting and less warm and supportive compared to adolescents without conduct disorder. The perception of significant and severe parental rejection was associated with a significantly higher averaged score on the subscale of externalizing symptoms in the group of adolescents with conduct disorder compared to those with no such disorder. It was found that adolescents with conduct disorder most often come from large families, have divorced parents or parents with multiple psychiatric disorders.

The aim of this paper was to explore hairiness of the middle phalanges on both hands of Serbian high school students. The total sample comprised 425 pupils in the town of Niš of Serbian nationality, aged 15-19 years. Hairiness on the middle phalanges of second, third, fourth and fifth fingers was detected by inspection with a magnifying glass. The results showed that hairiness was more frequent on the fifth finger of boys. The investigation of the hairiness on the middle phalanges of both hands in the region of Niš may be, in comparison with anthropological investigations of other regions, important in the investigation of the genetic cause of the hairiness on the middle phalanges. .

The influence of intensive acute hypoxia on the frequency-amplitude formant vocal O characteristics was investigated in this study. Examinees were exposed to the simulated altitudes of 5 500 m and 6 700 m in climabaro chamber and resolved Lotig’s test in the conditions of normoxia, i.e. pronounced the three-digit numbers beginning from 900, but in reversed order. Frequency and intensity values of vocal O (F1, F2, F3 and F4) extracted from the context of the pronunciation of the word eight (osam in Serbian), were measured by spectral speech signal analysis. Changes in frequency values and the intensity of the formants were examined. The obtained results showed that there were no significant changes of the formant frequencies in hypoxia condition compared to normoxia. Though significant changes of formant’s intensities were found compared to normoxia on the cited altitudes. The rise of formants intensities was found at the altitude of 5 500 m. Hypoxia at the altitude of 6 700 m caused the significant fall of the intensities in the initial period, compared to normoxia. The prolonged hypoxia exposure caused the rise of the formant intensities compared to the altitude of 5 500 m. In may be concluded that due to different altitudes, hypoxia causes different effects on the formants structure changes, compared to normoxia.

Previous studies have identified improved cognitive performance from unilateral hand contraction to effect contralateral hemisphere activation. As little is known of whether this activation can improve emotion perception, this study examined any differences in perception accuracy and reaction times of matching photographs of human facial expressions presented to the left or right visual fields after left versus right hemisphere activation triggered by unilateral hand contractions. We used photographs of happy, sad, and neutral facial expressions presented briefly and simultaneously (two photographs in each presentation) either unilaterally (intrahemisphere condition) or bilaterally (interhemisphere condition). We recruited 68 university student participants (aged 19–23 years) and randomly assigned half of them to squeeze a dynamometer with the right hand, while the other half squeezed with the left hand, prior to performing the Dimond face-matching task. Matching of happy faces was faster than matching of sad faces. In females (but not males), perception accuracy was higher when stimuli were presented in the right (vs. left) visual field. We found no difference in emotion perception of photographs in either unilateral (intrahemispheric) or bilateral (interhemispheric) stimuli presentations as a function of hand contractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have shown that left- (vs. right-) hand contractions can improve the performance of global (vs. local) attention, these results were inconsistent in certain behavioral studies in which the left cerebral hemisphere was found to be specialized for local attention, while the right hemisphere was not specialized for global attention. Thus, we reexamined whether different global (vs. local) attention performances follow left- (vs. right-) hand contractions due to right (vs. left) hemisphere activation. We recruited 100 right-handed healthy female, university student (aged 19–26 years) participants. We used the Navon task to present 80 letter-stimuli (40 in the global task; 40 in the local task) to either the participants’ left or right visual fields. Half of the participants (randomly selected) were instructed to squeeze a dynamometer with the left hand, while the other half squeezed with the right hand, prior to completing the Navon task. In line with previous research, we observed a perceptual advantage of global (large letters) over local (small letters) stimuli. Participants who contracted the right hand showed an enhanced local attention performance (from left hemisphere activation), whereas those who contracted the left hand did not improve global attention performance (from right hemisphere activation). Thus, we supported prior behavioral research suggesting that hemispheric asymmetry for attention processing is evident for left but not right cortical hemisphere processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conduct disorder is a heterogeneous disorder in terms of etiology, course and prognosis, and currently, there is no singular model that would describe the development of the disorder. The results of empirical research on males confirm this heterogeneity, as they point out to two possible developmental pathways: childhood-onset and adolescentonset type. This paper presents the basic elements of developmental taxonomic theory which argues that there are two different developmental pathways to conduct disorder which have different causes and serve as the basis for the current typology of conduct disorders in the classification systems. Such a typology of conduct disorders in the diagnostic classification allows better understanding, prognosis and choice of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Acta Medica Medianae is the property of Acta Medica Medianae and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)