Research into genetic, psychosocial, and cognitive explanations for depression (biopsychosocial models) provides support for the role of these variables in the etiology of depression. Regularly identified as basic to depression is loss, and the experience of loss has been found to be more influential than genetic factors in the causation of…

Offers a study guide for translating the work of Gregory Bateson and Humberto R. Maturana. Demonstrates that their work is highly compatible. Highlights their essential message: social systems and all human endeavor must be understood in light of our existence as biological entities. (BH)

Suggests that each dimension of perceived family environment appears to be influenced by a different combination of underlying factors: acceptance-rejection by genetic and specific environmental factors and restrictiveness-permissiveness by shared and specific environmental factors. (RH)

The author reviews the theories of S. Orton relating neurological factors to dyslexia. He further considers possible advantages of a predisposition to dyslexia, including the possession of talents. He answers four common critiques of Orton's biological approach to dyslexia, and suggests instead, the advantages of such an approach. (CL)

The author traces the origin of his thinking on a biobehavioral systems approach to human sociobiology and argues that it is a fruitful alternative to sociobiological models derived from population biology and genetics. Available from Behavioral Science, Systems Science Publications, University of Louisville, Louisvilly, KY 40208; sc $3.75.…

Explores the relationships between nutrition, stimulation, brain development, and learning. Consequences of malnutrition on learning include loss of learning time, interference with learning during critical periods of development, and motivation and personality changes. (Author/DB)

The 1954 article by Eliot Stellar provided the theoretical focus for a great deal of research on the biological bases of human behavior. Future attention to the infrastructure of behaviors being studied, combined with reductionistic studies of neurons, will fulfill the potential contribution to behavioral neuroscience implicit in Stellar's…

Discusses cognitive scientists' and psycholinguists' theories of the origins of consciousness and linguistic expression. Suggests that the hand is key in the development of human intelligence and in the origin of language. Maintains that the mutual influence of hand and brain reveals the subtleties of cause and effect, stories, and the…

Background: Pain interferes with the functioning of typical children, but no study has examined its effect on children with pre-existing intellectual disabilities (ID). Methods: Caregivers of 63 children observed their children for 2-h periods and recorded in 1-week diaries: pain presence, cause, intensity and duration. Caregivers also recorded…

The central nervous system transmitter serontonin may be altered in aggressive/impulsive and suicidal behaviors in humans. These reports are largely consistent with animal data, and constitute one of the most highly replicated set of findings in biological psychiatry. Suggests that some suicidal behavior may be a special kind of aggressive…

Research on risk factors for schizophrenia is reviewed with emphasis on children of schizophrenic parents. Four areas of biobehavioral functioning that have been examined in high-risk research are discussed. Three of these are considered compatible with hypothesis neurointegrative defect underlying schizophrenic-proneness. (Author/CL)

Presents a perspective on evolution which includes an explanation of the textbook theory of evolution, a review of evolutionary theory before Darwin, and an outline of Darwin's early theories. Describes a rethinking of evolutionary theory to include natural selection, conservative selection, discontinous evolution, catastrophism, and the…

Proposes a theory of development in which experience is directed by genotypes and in which genotypic differences affect phenotypic differences, both directly and through experience, via three kinds of genotype-environment effects. The theory adapts the three kinds of genotype-environment correlations in a developmental model used to explain…

The article describes a study being conducted to explore the hypothesis that genetic and/or congenital factors are etiologically significant in certain persons with the syndrome of autism. Preliminary data suggest a larger than expected number of families with multiple incidence of autism. (Author/DB)