Background: Childhood obesity is a major health problem. An association between children's body mass index (BMI) and overeating has been established, but mechanisms leading to overeating are poorly understood. The personality characteristics impulsivity and reward responsiveness may be involved in the tendency to overeat. Impulsivity might relate to overeating through poor inhibition of food intake; reward responsiveness through the rewarding value of food. Objective: This study aimed to reveal the relationships between impulsivity, reward responsiveness, overeating and BMI in a sample of 346 Dutch children aged 6-13 years. The BMI distribution in the sample was representative of the BMI distribution in the Dutch pediatric population. Methods: Impulsivity and reward responsiveness were measured with the Dutch version of the parent-report Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire for children. Overeating was assessed with the Dutch translation of the parent-report Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. Results: Overeating, impulsivity and reward responsiveness were significantly associated with childhood BMI. Mediation analysis revealed that impulsivity and reward responsiveness equally and significantly predicted BMI indirectly through overeating. Conclusions: The personality characteristics impulsivity and reward responsiveness predict childhood BMI indirectly through overeating. This suggests that these personality characteristics are risk factors for obesity.

Point mutations in cancer have been extensively studied but chromosomal gains and losses have been more challenging to interpret due to their unspecific nature. Here we examine high-resolution allelic imbalance (AI) landscape in 1699 colorectal cancers, 256 of which have been whole-genome sequenced (WGSed). The imbalances pinpoint 38 genes as plausible AI targets based on previous knowledge. Unbiased CRISPR-Cas9 knockout and activation screens identified in total 79 genes within AI peaks regulating cell growth. Genetic and functional data implicate loss of TP53 as a sufficient driver of AI. The WGS highlights an influence of copy number aberrations on the rate of detected somatic point mutations. Importantly, the data reveal several associations between AI target genes, suggesting a role for a network of lineage-determining transcription factors in colorectal tumorigenesis. Overall, the results unravel the contribution of AI in colorectal cancer and provide a plausible explanation why so few genes are commonly affected by point mutations in cancers.

In this study, heritabilities of several measures of aggression were estimated in a group of 325 Golden Retrievers, using the Restricted Maximum Likelihood method. The studied measures were obtained either through owner opinions or by using the Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire (CBARQ). The aim of the study was to determine which of the aggression measures showed sufficient genetic variation to be useful as phenotypes for future molecular genetic studies on aggression in this population. The most reliable heritability estimates seemed to be those for simple dog owner impressions of human-and dog-directed aggression, with heritability estimates of 0.77 (S.E. 0.09) and 0.81 (S.E. 0.09), respectively. In addition, several CBARQ-derived measures related to human-directed aggression showed clear genetic differences between the dogs. The correlation between the estimated breeding values for owner impressions on human-and dog-directed aggression was relatively low. The low correlation suggests that these two traits have a partially different genetic background. They will therefore have to be treated as separate traits in further genetic studies. #

Behavioral strategies to enhance fear extinction may provide powerful clinical applications to further maximize the efficacy of exposure-based interventions. However, future replications, mechanistic examinations, and translational studies are warranted to verify long-term effects and naturalistic utility. Future directions also comprise the interplay of optimized fear extinction with (avoidance) behavior and motivational antecedents of exposure.

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SUMMARYSeventy-seven healthy Ethiopians were genotyped for polymorphisms in the immunoglobulin G Fc receptors (FccR) FccRIIa, FccRIIIa and FccRIIIb, including the SH allele. The genotype and allele frequencies were compared with those of 96 healthy Norwegians. Ethiopians had higher frequencies of the SH-FccRIIIb (P=0 . 001), FccRIIIa-158 V (P=0 . 026) and FccRIIIb-Na2 (P=0 . 046) alleles. The genotype distributions of FccRIIa, FccRIIIa and FccRIIIb, however, did not differ signi®cantly from those of the Norwegians. The data were also compared with those reported from studies on other ethnic groups. The variation of different polymorphisms both within and between ethnic groups may in¯uence differences in the incidence rates of infectious and autoimmune diseases.

While distributional learning has been successfully demonstrated for auditory categorization, this study tests whether this mechanism also applies to object categorization: Tenmonth-olds (n = 38) were familiarized with either a unimodal or bimodal distribution of a visual continuum. Using automatic eye tracking, we assessed categorization through the alternating/nonalternating paradigm. For infants in the bimodal condition, their average dwell time was larger for alternating trials than for nonalternating trials, while infants in the unimodal condition initially looked equally long at both types of trials. This group difference suggests that the shape of frequency distribution bears on the number of categories that infants construct from a continuum. Later in test, all infants show this alternating preference. We conclude that categorization is a flexible process, continuously adjusting itself to additional input. For infants, each day is filled with novel information. Being able to categorize proves a vital ability in reducing the diversity in the outside world, as it enables infants to put novel objects into familiar categories (Rosch, 1978). Such "perceptual categorization" (Mandler, 2000) is a prerequisite for word learning, as all exemplars within a basic level category share the same linguistic label (Waxman & Lidz, 2006). How do infants build such categories? Certainly, infants can be guided by top-down knowledge, that is, the linguistic label can shape categorization (e.g.

Reliable and valid phenotyping is crucial for our study of genetic factors underlying aggression in Golden Retriever dogs. A mail questionnaire based on the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (CBARQ; Hsu and Serpell, 2003, JAVMA 223(9):1293-1300) was used to assess behavioral phenotypes. Owners of 228 Golden Retrievers completed the questionnaire. These dogs had been referred to our clinic for aggression problems several years earlier or they were related to aggressive dogs. In this paper, three sets of results are presented, which indicate that behavior scores from the CBARQ can be applied to genetic studies. First, factor analysis demonstrated that CBARQ items can be grouped into 10 behavioral traits, including three types of aggression: stranger-directed aggression, owner-directed aggression, and dog-directed aggression. The results were remarkably similar to those reported by Hsu and Serpell. The aggression scores showed considerable variation in our dog families, which is a prerequisite for genetic studies. Second, retrospective questions enabled us to study changes in the aggressive behavior of the dogs in the course of time. After an average time interval of 4.3 years, over 50% of the dogs had become less aggressive. Third, we analyzed data obtained with an aggression test of 83 dogs. Two out of the three CBARQ aggression factors were also found in the aggression test data.