Background-Despite its critical role in performance-monitoring, the development of posterior medial prefrontal cortex (pMFC) in goal-directed behaviors remains poorly understood. Performance monitoring depends on distinct, but related functions that may differentially activate the pMFC, such as monitoring response conflict and detecting errors. Developmental differences in conflict-and error-related activations, coupled with age-related changes in behavioral performance, may confound attempts to map the maturation of pMFC functions. To characterize the development of pMFC-based performance monitoring functions, we segregated interference and error-processing, while statistically controlling for performance.

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that hypochondriacal individuals commonly use reports of physical illness and symptoms as a strategy to control attributions made about their performances in evaluative settings (i.e., self-handicapping strategies). Specifically, it was predicted that hypochondriacal individuals would report more recent physical illness and complaints and more current physical symptoms in an evaluative setting in which poor health could serve as an alternative explanation for poor performance than would either individuals in an evaluative setting in which poor health was precluded as an excuse or individuals in a nonevaluative setting. As predicted, results supported this self-protective pattern of complaints in a hypochondriacal sample but not in a nonhypochondriacal group. The self-protective role of hypochondriacal behavior is discussed in relation to other theory and research on the nature and treatment of hypochondriasis.

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The relation between history of violence exposure and the development of academic and mental health problems is explored. Violence exposed children have an increased risk of developing school-related problems including: mental health problems, learning disabilities, language impairments, and other neurocognitive problems. These problems interact to create a complex web of deficits and disabilities where intervention access points are difficult to assess. Often mental health problems and academic problems develop in parallel. Timing of violence exposure and the developmental stage of the child during exposure complicate our understanding of the underlying mechanism. A model is presented that explores pathways linking violence exposure to aspects of school-related functioning, both academically and behaviorally. Early life stress, in the form of violence exposure, is related to neurocognitive deficits, including executive functioning and problems in self-regulation. Deficits in self-regulation at the level of behavior, and cognitive control and executive functioning, at the level of brain processing, are related to both academic and mental health problems, suggesting a possible psychological mechanism. Biological mechanisms are also included in the model to illustrate the contribution of the stress response, neuroendocrine system response, and neuroanatomical structural and functional impairments associated with violence exposure.