Doctors, nurses and other health care providers are making observational associations that individuals with existing disabilities or those who may be medically fragile are susceptible to adverse effects from toxic exposures than the general population. Because of this, the American Association on Mental Retardation has launched an Environmental…

Purpose: To provide descriptive and qualitative information about communication in young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and about how families react to and accommodate communication differences in their children. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 mothers of young children with FXS. Interviewers asked mothers to describe…

Background: This article provides an introduction to current models of working and short-term memory, their links with learning, and diagnosis of impairments. The memory impairments associated with a range of neurodevelopmental disorders (Down's syndrome, Williams syndrome, Specific Language Impairment, and attentional deficits) are discussed.…

Disorders of white matter are some of the most commonly encountered conditions in the practice of child neurology. For a child presenting with evidence of neurological impairment, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain is usually performed and often proves informative in suggesting the diagnosis. Traditionally, primary white matter…

Background: People with autism or Asperger Syndrome (AS) show altered patterns of brain activity during visual search and emotion recognition tasks. Autism and AS are genetic conditions and parents may show the "broader autism phenotype." Aims: (1) To test if parents of children with AS show atypical brain activity during a visual search…

A large number of national and geographic population samples were used to test the hypothesis that the variation in mean values of skin color in the diverse populations are consistently correlated with the mean measured or estimated IQs of the various groups, as are some other physical variables, known as an ecological correlation. Straightforward…

Classical fear conditioning requires the recognition of conditioned stimuli (CS) and the association of the CS with an aversive stimulus. We used Affymetrix oligonucleotide microarrays to characterize changes in gene expression compared to naive mice in both the amygdala and the hippocampus 30 min after classical fear conditioning and 30 min after…

In this article, we describe an exploratory study of a small-scale, concept-driven, voluntary laboratory component of Introductory Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We wished to investigate whether students' attitudes toward biology and their understanding of basic biological principles would improve through concept-based…

This paper presents a lifespan perspective of sexuality issues for individuals with developmental disabilities. Individuals with developmental disabilities are human beings who have historically been denied the right to express their sexuality or engage in sexual relationships due to misconceptions or negative attitudes. Using a hypothetical case…

Objective: Although attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is frequently comorbid with Tourette's disorder (TD), it is unclear whether they have a common genetic etiology. Familial relationships between DSM-IVADHD and TD are studied in TD + ADHD, TD-only (TD-ADHD), ADHD-only (ADHD-TD), and control groups. Method: Case-control,…

Subcellular processes like meiosis are frequently problematic for learners because they are complex and, except for the extent that they can be observed under a light microscope, occur outside of our direct experience. More detailed characterization of what underlies various degrees of student understanding of a process is required to more fully…

This paper deals with growing ethical dilemmas in sport as technology advances. Three aspects of sport are discussed: (l) the perpetual conflict between process (training) and product (the actual contest); (2) technophobia, the fear of the new world of technology; and (3) "technosport" or technological training. It is necessary to understand that…

Presented both in English and Spanish, the brochure is primarily concerned with biological and developmental characteristics of the person with Down's syndrome. An emphasis is on the valuable humanizing influence these individuals have on society. Brief sections in the document discuss the delayed developmental aspects of Down's syndrome; the…

Describes an experiment demonstrating genetic transformation that opens up many areas of laboratory work and discussion with students. (LS)

Shows that one of the most general processes in the development of cognitive structures consists in replacing exogenous knowledge by endogenous reconstructions that reconstitute the same forms but incorporate them into systems whose internal composition is a pre-requisite. Biologically equivalent process is discussed. (Author/AM)