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FPR-Ã山ǿ¼é Social & Cultural Neuroscience Workshop

JuneÌý17 - 21, 2019

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PDF icon Social and Cultural Neuroscience 2019 Program


Social Context in Neuroscience: The Socially Situated Brain - Ian Gold

Many neuroscientists believe that explanations of mental life will eventually be provided in exclusively neural terms. Even in the domain of social neuroscience—where interactions among minds are the primary phenomena to be explained—it is widely assumed that theories will ultimately be couched in terms the dynamics of neurons, neural circuits, and brain function. In this lecture we’ll consider some reasons for scepticism about this assumption. We will focus, in particular, on the idea that the brain operates in a context, especially of other people, and that context may be ineliminable if we hope to understand what the brain is doing. We will explore this “situatedness†of the brain and its implications for the future of social neuroscientific theory.

Readings

*Boydell, J., McKenzie, K. (2008.) Society, place and space. In C. Morgan, K. McKenzie, & P. Fearon (Eds.), Society and Psychosis (pp. 77-94). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Clark, A, & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. Analysis, 58, 7-19.

Darley, J, Batson C. (1973). "From Jerusalem to Jericho": A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 100-8.

*Gold, I. (2009). Reduction in psychiatry. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54, 6-12.

Gold, I., & Stoljar, D. (1999). A neuron doctrine in the philosophy of neuroscience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 809-30.

*Hutchins, E. (1995). How a cockpit remembers its speeds. Cognitive Science, 19, 265-88.


The Bayesian Brain: Active Inference Across Scales - Maxwell J. D. Ramstead & Samuel Veissière

Contemporary approaches to cognition in computational neuroscience cast the brain as prediction machine. On this view, the brain is understood as engaging in a process of inference, through which it determines the causes of its sensations and selects the most appropriate action. According to the Bayesian brain perspective, the signals processed by the brain are predictions and prediction errors, which measure the difference between the way the world was expected to be sensed (i.e., predictions) and the way it was sensed to be. The expectations of the brain are modelled as Bayesian prior beliefs or probabilities, which are combined with prediction errors to refine an estimation of what is going on; i.e., a posterior belief, an estimate of what should be the case, given what I knew before observing anything and what I sense now. The Bayesian brain is hierarchically structured, with each layer providing contextualizing information (i.e., predictions based on Bayesian prior beliefs) to the dynamics at the layer below; and with each layer, reciprocally, sending prediction errors to the layer above. We will examine the Bayesian brain in light of social and cultural neuroscience. We will see that the Bayesian brain provides a framework to understand the brain as an organ of context, that is, as the organ responsible for context-sensitive decision making and action selection – which dovetails with findings from social and cultural neuroscience. We thus set up the following discussion on cultural affordances, which applies this model to cultural cognition and interaction in human beings.

Readings

*Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(3), 181-204.

Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127.

Friston, K. (2011). Embodied inference: Or I think therefore I am, if I am what I think. In W. Tschacher & C. Bergomi (Eds.), The implications of embodiment: Cognition and communication (pp. 89-125). Exeter, England: Imprint Academic.

Hohwy, J. (2014). The neural organ explains the mind. Open MIND. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: MIND Group.

Hohwy, J. (2016). The selfâ€evidencing brain. Noûs, 50(2), 259-285.

Ramstead, M. J., Kirchhoff, M. D., Constant, A., & Friston, K. J. (2019). Multiscale integration: Beyond internalism and externalism. Synthese, 1-30.


Affective Neuroscience - Maria Gendron

Affective phenomena have traditionally been considered in a separate sphere from cognitive phenomena such as memory, perception, and decision making. This legacy of partitioning the brain into “emotional†circuits that are separate from “cognitive†regions is being actively dismantled with emerging neuroscience research on the network structure and function of the brain. This research has led to several key insights. First, affective phenomena are pervasive due to the core biological task of predictively regulating the body (allostasis) and representing the sensory consequences of that bodily regulation (interoception). Emerging research suggests that the experience of affective qualities (pleasure, displeasure) is a low-dimensional representation of these processes in consciousness. Second, emotional experiences and perceptions also involve a set of regions that implement conceptual processing, which serve to bring online past experience to guide actions and give sensations meaning. This finding suggests that affective neuroscience must be fused with cognitive neuroscience to make progress on understanding the nature of affect and emotion. A third, and final insight, is that diversity in emotional phenomena, across individuals and societies, may be unpacked by considering how the conceptual system guides the implementation of allostasis in a manner that is tuned to the demands and opportunities of an individual’s ecological, social and developmental niche. As a consequence, the entry point for measurement of affective and emotional phenomena in neuroscience research will be enhanced by considering conceptual frameworks for affect and emotion within a given (cultural) context.

Readings

Adolphs, R. (2017). How should neuroscience study emotions? By distinguishing emotion states, concepts, and experiences. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(1), 24-31.

Atzil, S., Gao, W., Fradkin, I., & Barrett, L. F. (2018). Growing a social brain. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 624-636.

*Barrett, L. F. (2017). The theory of constructed emotion: An active inference account of interoception and categorization. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(11), 1833.

*Barrett, L. F. & Satpute, A. B. (2017). Historical pitfalls and new directions in the neuroscience of emotion. Neuroscience Letters, 693, 9-18.

Brooks, J. A., Shablack, H., Gendron, M., Satpute, A. B., Parrish, M. J., & Lindquist, K. A. (2017). The role of language in the experience and perception of emotion: A neuroimaging meta-analysis. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12, 169-183.

Critchley, H. D., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2017). Interoception and emotion. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 7-14.

Kleckner, I. R., Zhang, J., Touroutoglou, A., Chanes, L., Xia, Chengie, . . . Barrett, L. F. (2017). Evidence for a large-scale brain system supporting allostasis and interoception in humans. Nature Human Behaviour, 1,0069.

Ledoux, J. E., & Brown, R. (2017). A higher-order theory of emotional consciousness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(10), E2016-E2025.

Somerville, L. H. (2016). Emotional development in adolescence. In L. F. Barrett, M. Lewis, & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotion (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.


Oxytocin & the Neuroscience of Affiliation - Jennifer Bartz

The field of social neuroscience has led to important insights about the biological basis of several social psychological processes (e.g., cooperation, empathy, prejudice). To date, work has largely employed imaging techniques to identify the brain regions/circuits involved in social cognition and behavior. Another important but less studied question concerns the neurochemical bases of social psychological processes. Neuromodulators (e.g., serotonin, oxytocin) alter nerve impulse transmission and allow for neuronal communication; because they diffuse through large areas of the brain, neuromodulators can impact the activity of diverse populations of neurons and have fairly widespread effects on the brain’s inherent functioning. Ultimately, these signaling molecules are thought to set in motion processes that facilitate the organism’s ability to respond adaptively to the demands of the current context. In this presentation, I will focus on the role of the hormone and neuromodulator oxytocin, which, over the last 15 years, has emerged as a key variable in the regulation of human social cognition and behavior. Although popularly dubbed the “love hormone†empirical work reveals that the social effects of oxytocin are often nuanced—sometimes facilitating prosocial cognition and behavior, but at other times, or for other individuals, producing null and even “anti-social†effects. In fact, such variability may offer clues about the more basic mechanisms by which oxytocin modulates human sociality. One hypothesis that will be discussed is that oxytocin may alter specific motivational and/or perceptual states that make social cues more salient. Appreciating oxytocin’s nuanced social effects is important for i) advancing our understanding of the neuroscience and psychology of affiliation, and ii) researchers considering oxytocin as a therapeutic for disorders marked by impaired social functioning.

Readings

*Bartz, J. A., Zaki, J., Bolger, N., & Ochsner, K. N. (2011). Social effects of oxytocin in humans: context and person matter. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(7), 301-309.

Carter, C. S. (1998). Neuroendocrine perspectives on social attachment and love. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 23(8), 779-818, AND Insel, T. R., & Young, L. J. (2001). The neurobiology of attachment. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(2), 129-136. Two historical classics that raised attention about the role of oxytocin in attachment.

Carter, C. S. (2014). Oxytocin pathways and the evolution of human behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 17-39. A thorough, far-reaching theoretical analysis of oxytocin and human behavior.

Heinrichs, M., von Dawans, B., & Domes, G. (2009). Oxytocin, vasopressin, and human social behavior. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 30(4), 548-557. A clearly written, relatively comprehensive review for readers who wish to expand their knowledge on oxytocin and affiliation in humans.

*Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P. J., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 435(7042), 673-676.

Landgraf, R., & Neumann, I. D. (2004). Vasopressin and oxytocin release within the brain: a dynamic concept of multiple and variable modes of neuropeptide communication. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 25(3-4), 150-176. A comprehensive review for readers who wish to expand their knowledge on oxytocin release within the brain.

Marlin, B. J., Mitre, M., D'Amour J, A., Chao, M. V., & Froemke, R. C. (2015). Oxytocin enables maternal behaviour by balancing cortical inhibition. Nature, 520(7548), 499-504. An elegant illustration of the social salience hypothesis in non-human animals.

*Ross, H. E., & Young, L. J. (2009). Oxytocin and the neural mechanisms regulating social cognition and affiliative behavior. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 30(4), 534-547. A clearly written and relatively comprehensive review for readers who wish to expand their knowledge on oxytocin and affiliation in non-human animals.


The Brain in the Social World: Integrating Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology and Social Network Analysis - Carolyn Parkinson

The cognitive demands of navigating large groups comprised of many varied, intense, and enduring social bonds are thought to have significantly shaped human brain evolution. Yet, much remains to be understood about how the human brain tracks, encodes, and is influenced by the structure of the social networks in which it is embedded. This talk will cover recent work integrating theory and methods from psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and social network analysis, as well as the motivation for combining these lines of inquiry. One set of studies tests if, when, and how the human brain retrieves knowledge of familiar others’ positions in one’s social network when encountering them. Related research tests how this knowledge, once retrieved, shapes downstream processing and behavior. An additional set of studies tests if human social networks exhibit assortativity in how their members perceive, interpret, and respond to their environment. Consistent with this possibility, inter-subject similarities of fMRI responses to naturalistic stimuli accurately predict the distance between individuals in their shared social network, such that friends have exceptionally similar neural responses to the world around them. All human cognition is embedded within social networks, but research on neural information processing within individuals has progressed largely separately from research on the social networks that those individuals inhabit. The set of findings to be reviewed in this talk suggests that integrating approaches from social network analysis and cognitive neuroscience can provide new insights into how individuals perceive, shape, and are shaped by the structure of their social world.

Readings

*Weaverdyck, M. E. & Parkinson, C. (2018). The neural representation of social networks. Current Opinion in Psychology, 24, 58-66.

Parkinson, C., Kleinbaum, A. M., & Wheatley, T. (2018). Similar neural responses predict friendship. Nature Communications, 9, 332.

Parkinson, C., Kleinbaum, A. M., & Wheatley, T. (2017). Spontaneous neural encoding of social network position. Nature Human Behaviour, 1, 72.

Parkinson, C., Liu, S., & Wheatley, T. (2014). A common cortical metric for spatial, temporal, and social distance. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(5), 1979–1987.


The Voices of God and the Voices of Psychosis in the U.S., Ghana, and India - Tanya Luhrman

This talk examines the phenomenological features of voice-hearing among many different kinds of people. I draw from hundreds and hundreds of interviews with people who do, and do not, meet criteria for serious psychotic disorder and who have experiences of hearing voices, and from research that sought to train non-clinical subjects to have more sensory experiences of God. I found that specific practices—inner sense cultivation, or the practice of attending to inner sensory experience—increased the likeliness that people in the non-clinical population would report that they had a sensory or quasi sensory experience of God. I also found that local models of mind affected the frequency with which the nonclinical religious population reported hearing God’s auditory voice, and the content of voices heard by the clinical population. This suggested that perceptual experiences can be altered to some degree by culture.

Readings

Luhrmann, T. M., Padmavati, R., Tharoor, H., & Osei, A. (2015). Differences in voice-hearing experiences of people with psychosis in the USA, India and Ghana: interview-based study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206(1), 41-44.

*Luhrmann, T. M. (2017). Diversity within the psychotic continuum. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 43(1), 27-31.

Luhrmann, T. M., Alderson-Day, B., Bell, V., Bless, J. J., Corlett, P., Hugdahl, K., . . . & Peters, E. (2019). Beyond trauma: A multiple pathways approach to auditory hallucinations in clinical and nonclinical populations. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 45(Supplement_1), S24-S31.


How Religious Practice May Change Psychotic Experience - Tanya Luhrman

When anthropology was a young discipline, people smitten with the romance of cultural relativism argued that those who were diagnosed with schizophrenia in our society would simply be artists or shamans in another. When the biomedical model began to dominate psychiatry, it seemed clear that this romantic vision was a mistake. In recent decades, however, not only anthropologists but also psychiatrists have begun to wonder whether forms of cultural practice might alter the experience of even so profound an illness as schizophrenia in powerful ways. In this talk I present the best evidence for this possibility that I have yet encountered by examining a spirit possession practice in Ghana.

Readings

Luhrmann, T. M., Padmavati, R., Tharoor, H., & Osei, A. (2015). Differences in voice-hearing experiences of people with psychosis in the USA, India and Ghana: interview-based study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206(1), 41-44.

*Luhrmann, T. M. (2017). Diversity within the psychotic continuum. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 43(1), 27-31.

Luhrmann, T. M., Alderson-Day, B., Bell, V., Bless, J. J., Corlett, P., Hugdahl, K., . . . & Peters, E. (2019). Beyond trauma: A multiple pathways approach to auditory hallucinations in clinical and nonclinical populations. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 45(Supplement_1), S24-S31.


Hypnosis & Suggestion - Amir Raz

What’s the relationship between hypnosis and placebo? After all, both seem to draw on top-down control fueled by expectation and suggestion. Why do red placebos stimulate whereas blue placebos calm? Why do more placebos work better than few? And why do more expensive placebos work better than cheaper ones? These are some of the key questions that often come to mind when we consider the slippery and counterintuitive field of symbolic thinking. Research with the living human brain unravels some of the mysteries so key to the field of ‘hypnobo’ — hypnosis and placebo.

Readings

*Evers, A. W. M., Colloca, L., Blease, C., Annoni, M. Atlas, L. Y., Benedetti, F., . . . Kelly, J. M. (2018). Implications of placebo and nocebo effects for clinical practice: Expert Consensus. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 87(4), 204-210.

Raz, A. (2007). Hypnobo: Perspectives on hypnosis and placebo. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 50(1), 29-36.

Terhune DB, Cleeremans A, Raz A, Lynn SJ. (2017). Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 81(Part A), 59-74..

*Thibault, R. T., & Raz, A. (2017). The psychology of neurofeedback: Clinical intervention even if applied placebo. American Psychologist, 72(7), 679-688.

Thibault, R. T., Veissière S., Olson, J. A., Raz, A. (2018). Treating ADHD with suggestion: Neurofeedback and placebo therapeutics. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22(8), 707-711.

Thibault, R. T., Lifshitz, M., & Raz, A. (2018). The climate of neurofeedback: Scientific rigour and the perils of ideology. Brain, 141(2), e11.


Cultural Neurophenomenology of Hypnosis and Meditation - Michael Lifshitz & Samuel Veissière

Hypnosis and meditation offer powerful tools for regulating subjective experience, attaining personal insight, and treating a range of clinical conditions. This talk will explore the current scientific understanding of these practices—outlining what we know about the underlying mechanisms and exploring emerging questions in the scientific literature. In particular, we will address the intersections of hypnosis and meditation, and discuss how these two research fields, with two distinct yet overlapping collections of practices, can enter into a productive dialog. For example, whereas research on meditation tends to emphasize the role of individual cognitive training and neuroplasticity, the science of hypnosis typically focuses on the importance of social suggestions, individual differences, and alterations in the sense of agency. We will discuss how integrating these complementary theoretical and methodological perspectives can lead to a more wholistic appreciation of the mechanisms of self-regulation.

Readings

*Dahl, C. J., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). Reconstructing and deconstructing the self: cognitive mechanisms in meditation practice. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(9), 515-523.

Lifshitz, M. (2016). Contemplative experience in context: Hypnosis, meditation, and the transformation of consciousness. In A. Raz & M. Lifshitz (Eds.), Hypnosis and meditation: Towards an integrative science of conscious planes (pp. 3-16). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Lifshitz, M., & Thompson, E. (2019). What’s wrong with “the mindful brain� Moving past a neurocentric view of meditation. In A. Raz & R. T. Thibault (Eds.), Casting light on the dark side of brain imaging (pp. 123-128). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

*Terhune, D. B., Cleeremans, A., Raz, A., & Lynn, S. J. (2017). Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 81, 59-74.

Van Dam, N. T., van Vugt, M. K., Vago, D. R., Schmalzl, L., Saron, C. D., Olendzki, A., ... & Fox, K. C. (2018). Mind the hype: a critical evaluation and prescriptive agenda for research on mindfulness and meditation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(1), 36-61.


Field Methods - Jeffrey Snodgrass

This session will present methods for assessing neuroendocrinal and epigenetic processes in field settings, with special attention to techniques appropriate for investigating interrelationships between culture, stress, the HPA axis, and human health. Examples will be drawn primarily from the session leader’s own mixed methods ethnographic research with the indigenous Sahariya “conservation refugees†of central India, and with global gamers playing in online virtual worlds. Initial focus will be on choosing appropriate biomarkers for the research question, highlighting key issues related to the collection, handling, and analysis of those markers. The session will then emphasize the importance of using ethnography—participant-observation, interviews, field surveys, network interviews—to situate stress and other biomarkers within relevant local contexts. Success in that regard rests on careful study design, exploratory and confirmatory phases of research, mixing qualitative and quantitative methods, and working collaboratively in teams. The session will conclude with the presentation of an integrated cognitive anthropological approach to culture and health. Examples will be given on the role that culturally normative frames of meaning—“cultural modelsâ€â€”play in regulating linked mental and physical well-being. These models can be captured in culturally-sensitive scale measures, constructed via specialized “cultural domain analysis†techniques, including free-lists, pile-sorts, and cultural consensus/consonance analysis.

Readings

*Zahran, S., Snodgrass, J. G., Maranon, D. G., Upadhyay, C., Granger, D. A., & Bailey, S. M. (2015). Stress and telomere shortening among central Indian conservation refugees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(9), E928-E936.

*Snodgrass, J. G., Most, D., & Upadhyay, C. (2017). Religious ritual is good medicine for indigenous Indian conservation refugees: Implications for global mental health." Current Anthropology,58(2), 257-84.

*Snodgrass, J. G., Dengah II, H. J. F., Lacy, M. G., Else, R. J., Polzer, E. R., Arevalo, J. M. G., & Cole, S. W. (2018). Social genomics of healthy and disordered internet gaming." American Journal of Human Biology, e23146.

Snodgrass, J. G., Lacy, M. G. & Upadhyay, C. (2017) Developing culturally sensitive affect scales for global mental health research and practice: Emotional balance, not named syndromes, in Indian adivasi subjective well-being. Social Science & Medicine, 187, 174-183.

Snodgrass, J. G., Dengah II, H. J. F., Lacy, M. G., Bagwell, A., Van Oostenburg, M., & Lende, D. (2017). Online gaming involvement and its positive and negative consequences: A cognitive anthropological “cultural consensus†approach to psychiatric measurement and assessment. Computers in Human Behavior, 66, 291-302. [Supplementary material discusses the interview analysis informing the scales.]

Snodgrass, J. G. (2014). Ethnography of online cultures. In H. R. Bernard & C. C. Gravlee (Eds.), Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology (pp. 465-496). London, England: Rowman and Littlefield.


Social and Cultural Neuroscience in Global Mental Health - Brandon Kohrt

In low- and middle-income countries around the world, the number of people with mental illness receiving minimally adequate care ranges from 1 out of 25 to 1 out of a 100. Given this major treatment gap, the World Health Organizations and other institutions are advocating delivery of mental health care by primary care workers and non-specialist members of the community. However, there here has been limited delivery of appropriate services after these primary care and community health workers are trained in mental health. One reason for this lack of appropriate service delivery is that training programs have focused on increasing while not attending to motivation and attitudes. Social neuroscience can inform how to improve mental health training by addressing affect and motivation of non-specialist health workers. Social neuroscience highlights the need to reduce anxiety and threat among health workers while promoting empathy and reducing between-group identity distinctions. In addition, promoting health worker self-efficacy and therapeutic allegiance increases the likelihood that services will be delivered and will beneficially impact patients. Addressing motivation and affect may also mitigate the association of implicit biases with attitudes and behavior. Ultimately, social neuroscience theories can strengthen strategies to increase mental health services for persons living in low resource settings around the world.

Readings

*Kohrt, B. A., Jordans, M. J. D., Turner, E. L., Sikkema, K. J., Luitel, N. P., Rai, S., . . . Patel, V. (2018). Reducing stigma among healthcare providers to improve mental health services (RESHAPE): Protocol for a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial of a stigma reduction intervention for training primary healthcare workers in Nepal. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 4(1), 36.

*Griffith, J. L., & Kohrt, B. A. (2016). Managing stigma effectively: What social psychology and social neuroscience can teach us. Academic Psychiatry, 40(2), 339-47.

*Kohrt, B. A., Maharjan, S. M., Timsina, D., & Griffith. J. L. (2012). Applying Nepali ethnopsychology to psychotherapy for the treatment of mental illness and prevention of suicide among Bhutanese refugees. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 36(1), 88-112.

van Brakel, W. H., Cataldo, J., Grover, S., Kohrt, B. A., Nyblade, L. Stockton, M., . . . Yang, L. H. (2019). Out of the silos: Identifying cross-cutting features of health-related stigma to advance measurement and intervention. BMC Medicine, 17(1), 13.

Kohrt, B. A., Mutamba, B. B., Luitel, N. P., Gwaikolo, W., Onyango, M., Nakku, J., . . . Baingana, F. (2019). How competent are non-specialists trained to integrate mental health services in primary care? Global health perspectives from Uganda, Liberia, and Nepal. International Review of Psychiatry, 1-17.

Kohrt, B. A., Worthman, C. M., Adhikari, R. P., Luitel, N. P., Arevalo, J. M. G. , Ma, J., . . . Cole, S. W. (2016). Psychological resilience and the gene regulatory impact of posttraumatic stress in Nepali child soldiers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(29), 8156-61.

Kohrt, B. A., Jordans, M. J. D., Koirala, S., & Worthman, C. M. (2015). Designing mental health interventions informed by child development and human biology theory: A social ecology intervention for child soldiers in Nepal. American Journal of Human Biology, 27(1), 27-40.

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