OBJECTIVES Infant temperament is thought to provide one of the fundamental bases for social and emotional development. Few studies have examined the direct and indirect influences of early temperament and physiological disposition on later development. METHOD This article presents results of a longitudinal study that took place between the years 1989 and 1996 in which the relations between ma...

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder involving a characteristic cardiac defect, typical facial appearance, and an uneven profile of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. WS is caused by a hemizygous deletion in chromosome band 7q11.23, including the gene for elastin (ELN). Typically, individuals with WS seem driven to greet and interact with strangers. The goal of the present study w...

Cells are interactive living systems where proteins movements, interactions and regulation are substantially free from centralized management. How protein physico-chemical and geometrical properties determine who interact with whom remains far from fully understood. We show that characterizing how a protein behaves with many potential interactors in a complete cross-docking study leads to a sha...

Social platform services have transformed the lifestyles of individuals and the entire information and communication technology (ICT) ecosystem. The growth of the social networking market and the evolution of social networking sites (SNSs) have promoted a new wave of social network applications such as social network games (SNGs). SNGs are online or mobile games played through social networking...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess correlations between various factors and the physical and mental development of 4-month-old infants using a multi-faceted evaluation approach. METHODS A total of 1,402 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to consenting mothers of infants who had undergone a 4-month health checkup in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan. The questionnaires incl...

Previous studies have shown that social withdrawal in the phencyclidine (PCP) rat model of schizophrenia results from deficient endocannabinoid-induced activation of CB1 receptors. To understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms of the social deficit in PCP-treated rats, we examined the impact of pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid system on sociability (i.e. social approach) ...

The balance of cation-chloride co-transporters, particularly KCC2 and NKCC1, is critical for GABAergic inhibitory signaling. However, KCC2/NKCC1 balance is disrupted in many neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, correlations between chronic stress, KCC2 and NKCC1 in the hippocampus remain poorly understood. Despite the fact that emotional disorders in humans are far more prevalent in women, the...

Theories and empirical studies of adolescent sexual behavior have identified the contributions of personal attributes and social experiences; however, it is rare that models have clarified developmental pathways to adolescent sexual behavior that include (1) factors assessed prior to and early in adolescence and (2) dyadic experiences in adolescence that provide the opportunity for sexual behav...

Despite common stereotypes about those who use different types of online dating, psychological research on online dating agency users’ characteristics is actually very limited, and no scientific study has yet examined the individual characteristics of TinderTM users. The current exploratory study aimed to investigate why individuals use these services, and how they differ in terms of sociabilit...

Mice are a nocturnal species, whose social behaviors occur primarily during the dark phase of the circadian cycle. However, laboratory rodents are frequently tested during their light phase, for practical reasons. We investigated the question of whether light phase testing presents a methodological pitfall for investigating mouse social approach behaviors. Three lines of mice were systematicall...