Books on the topic 'Lead exposure; cognitive; development'

Prenatal exposure to ethanol can result in a wide range of clinical presentations that are grouped under the term “Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders” (FASD). The direct cellular teratogenic effects of ethanol on fetal neurodevelopment include damage to cell survival, proliferation, and migration mechanisms. Dysregulation of neurotransmission and alteration of genetic transcription have also been implicated in the neurotoxic effects of prenatal ethanol exposure. These deleterious events lead to brain volume reduction, corpus callosum dysgenesis, cerebellar, and other neuroanatomical anomalies that have been observed in individuals with FASD. Beyond direct ethanol-induced insults, the impact that ethanol has on maternal nutrition, metabolism, hormonal regulation, and placental physiology also adversely effects fetal development. The complex interactions between numerous neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms that hinder optimal fetal neurodevelopment are reflected by the heterogeneous clinical presentation of FASD, including impaired growth, dysmorphic facial features, and cognitive and behavioral disorders.

Prenatal exposure to teratogens may alter fetal development and significantly impact later life. Perhaps the best known teratogen is alcohol; prenatal alcohol exposure causes a broad range of effects that can cause lifelong impairment. Of greatest significance are the functional impairments in behavior and cognition. Recognition of these impairments led to the inclusion of the neurobehavioral disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders under “conditions for further study.” This proposed diagnosis captures the significant neurodevelopmental and mental health impacts associated with prenatal alcohol exposure and requires impairment in neurocognitive functioning, self-regulation, and adaptive functioning. This chapter reviews clinical impacts of prenatal alcohol exposure, with particular focus on ND-PAE. Methods for comprehensively assessing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, specifically ND-PAE, are discussed as well as preliminary evidence for implementing effective interventions with these individuals.

This chapter begins with a discussion of recent vascular research that has unveiled the complex interaction between exposure to risk factors and pathological changes at the vessel wall. Risk factors such as smoking or hyperlipidaemia first cause a pre-morbid phenotype with reversible dysfunction of flow-mediated vasodilation, known as endothelial dysfunction (ED). If exposure to risk factor(s) does not cease, ED develops into the first morphological vascular changes that finally lead to atherosclerosis. Cholesterol crystals have been shown to lead to pro-inflammatory activation of macrophages. Progression from stable coronary plaques to the plaque rupture that underlies the acute coronary syndrome is discussed in detail. The chapter provides a basic up-to-date concept of the development and progression of atherosclerosis and highlights the stages where preventive measures may still be effective.

The increasing utilization of radiation for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures has provided impetus for improved strategies of radiation protection for interventionalists. The associated discomfort, disability, and career-shortening effects of lead aprons for heavy fluoroscopy users have served as an impetus for the development of lighter and more comfortable models. A suspended radiation protection system employs the use of a “weightless” shield resembling a thick large lead apron with head shield and arm shields. The shield moves with the operator like a garment, providing extensive protection without orthopedic strain or discomfort while maintaining full user functionality. Utilization of a suspended radiation protection system provides the operator with optimum radiation protection, without any additional weight, and maintains procedural flexibility.

This chapter describes the therapeutic approach of exposure and response prevention (ERP) for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). ERP is one of the most successful interventions for any psychological problem. The derivation of this tandem of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral procedures from early animal research and research on humans with obsessional problems and compulsive behaviors transformed OCD from an intractable condition to a remarkably treatable one during the latter half of the 20th century. This chapter provides an overview of the development and delivery of this therapy and review the latest treatment-related research. It begins with a brief synopsis of how ERP was developed, followed by a description of the contemporary approaches to using this set of techniques. Evidence for its efficacy and effectiveness is presented, followed by a discussion of future directions.

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is one of the oldest and most effective treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder. The present chapter describes the empirical foundations, development, delivery, and latest research on ERP. Commonly used methods and procedural variants of ERP are described, along with findings concerning the underlying mechanisms of action. The efficacy of ERP in relation to other treatments is discussed, in addition to research on the long-term effects of ERP and its effects in non-research settings. Pretreatment predictors of the outcome of treatments using ERP are also considered. Efforts to improve treatment outcome are discussed, including research into the benefits of combining ERP with other psychosocial interventions such as cognitive therapy, or with particular medications. The chapter concludes by considering important future research directions for improving the outcome of treatment packages that include ERP.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that is tailored to the unique clinical features of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is currently the psychosocial treatment of choice for BDD. Researchers have made great strides in understanding the cognitive-behavioral processes that contribute to the development and maintenance of BDD. CBT for BDD is based on this theoretical understanding and has been shown to be highly effective in reducing BDD symptom severity and associated symptoms. The key components of CBT include identifying and rationally disputing maladaptive appearance-related thoughts, and exposure with response prevention for feared and avoided situations. CBT for BDD also integrates educating the patient on the mental and behavioral processes involved in the BDD experience with mindfulness/perceptual retraining (e.g., techniques aimed at helping patients to view their appearance with a neutral, global, and aware perspective) to augment the therapeutic process. Advanced cognitive strategies are used to address negative core beliefs. Because BDD is typically characterized by poor or absent insight, motivational interviewing is often needed to overcome ambivalence towards treatment.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) represent a range of physical, mental, and behavioral disabilities caused by alcohol use during pregnancy, or prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). FASDs are considered to be one of the leading preventable causes of developmental disability. Despite its high prevalence, FASD is often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, making interventions more challenging or delayed. Earlier diagnosis yields greater benefits for affected children, which include a reduction in secondary disabilities such as substance use disorders and learning and cognitive disabilities leading to school failure, and improved life outcomes. Most importantly, diagnosis provides a context for understanding a child’s behavior. When the environment surrounding a child with an FASD opts to focus on the child’s strengths as a means for intervention, there is a greater likelihood of that child achieving success as an adult. Diagnosis of FASD is further beneficial to the extent that it leads to a reduction of future births of children with FASD. This publication was initially developed for use in Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas and is intended to serve as a training workbook for providers of various disciplines to learn about the fundamentals of diagnosing FASD and to apply them to several case scenarios. It also discusses ethical implications of diagnosing FASD to the mother and child. Target audiences include physicians, psychologists, allied health professionals, social workers, and other providers that may encounter individuals affected by FASD. It is ideally used as a supplement for in-person training by experts in the fields of dysmorphology, epidemiology, and neuropsychology.

This chapter describes neurologic disorders related primarily to occupational exposures along with presenting signs and symptoms. Acute or subacute occupational exposure to high levels of neurotoxic compounds, which occurred in the past and resulted in unique presentations of neurological disorders, occur infrequently today. Sections include the evaluation of toxic neuropathies and the approach to neurobehavioral impairment along with the cognitive domains commonly affected with exposure to neurointoxicants. A section describes the approach to a patient with exposure to neurointoxicants that includes the need for a temporal association between exposure and effect, a dose-effect relationship, biological plausibility, and other causes eliminated Effects of selected neurotoxins are described, including carbon monoxide, lead, organic solvents, and manganese.

The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are believed to reflect an inadequate adaptation of neurobiological systems to exposure to severe stressors. A vast number of studies have revealed multiple alterations in neuroendocrine and neurochemical systems in patients with PTSD. It is now evident that certain neurobiological changes in PTSD actually reflect preexisting vulnerability factors that contribute to maladaptive physiological and behavioral responses to traumatic exposure, as well as altered learning and extinction of fear memories. These results suggest the development of novel pathophysiology-driven strategies for intervention that directly target the neurobiological mechanisms that lead to stress sensitization, increased fear memories, and arousal.

The introduction provides a case study illustrating the complexities of the interface between learning disabilities and psychiatric comorbidity. Educational challenges can exacerbate and muddy the presentation of psychiatric difficulties and lead to diagnostic disagreement and less than optimal treatment efforts. Clinicians may have limited exposure to learning disorders, relevant cognitive functioning, and appropriate assessments. When learning disabilities are accurately recognized and diagnosed, educational supports and interventions can play their roles in improving the long-term emotional outlook for a student and enhance future educational and vocational opportunities. The purpose of this book is to provide information about diagnosing learning disabilities as clearly as possible so that clinicians will gain confidence in advocating for appropriate cognitive and educational evaluations that will enhance the accuracy of their clinical conclusions.

Concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury, is common, and occurs both in sport and as a result of falls or accidents. Concussion has become an increasingly recognized public health concern, largely driven by prominent media coverage of athletes who have sustained concussion. Although much has been written about this condition, its natural history is still not well understood, and practitioners are only now beginning to recognize that concussion often manifests in different clinical domains. These may require targeted treatment in and of themselves; otherwise, persistent post-concussive symptoms may develop. Although most individuals who sustain a concussion recover, and although concussion is a treatable condition, it is important that concussion be managed early and comprehensively to avoid a more prolonged clinical trajectory. A relatively recent term often used in the setting of concussion is repetitive head impact exposure—a biomechanical force applied to the head that does not generate a clinical manifestation of concussion, but may result in structural brain changes. Although it is often assumed that repetitive head impact exposure leads to long-term neurological sequelae, the science to document this assumption is in its infancy. Repeated concussions may lead to depression or cognitive impairment later in life, and there is an emerging literature that repeated concussion and repetitive head impact exposure are associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy or other neurodegenerative diseases. Currently there is no known causal connection between concussion, repetitive head impact exposure, and neurodegeneration, although this research is also still in its infancy.

Exposure to drugs of abuse can be a reinforcing experience that, in vulnerable individuals, can lead to continued use and the development of an addiction disorder. Evidence indicates that the escalation in use and compulsive motivation to obtain the drug is linked to long-lasting cellular changes within the brain reward neurocircuitry. In this chapter we describe the stages of transition in use from social use to habitual relapse, and within that context we describe the implicated neurocircuitry, and the enduring cellular and molecular changes that occur within that circuitry, that may mediate the preoccupation with drug seeking in addiction-vulnerable individuals.

Evidence for the importance of the long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in fetal and infant development is growing, as is interest in what constitutes an appropriate intake from sources such as oily fish or dietary supplements for pregnant women and/or infants. Polyunsaturated fatty acids have been implicated in maternal mental health and aspects of infant development, including cognitive and visual function, adiposity, and allergy. Western diets have become imbalanced with regard to the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids, and recommendations to correct this imbalance include increasing the maternal intake of oily fish. However, this recommendation needs to be evaluated in light of the increased risk of exposure to contaminants such as mercury. Vegetable oils and cereals are important sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids for vegetarians.

Women experience as many symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress during pregnancy as in the postnatal period. This can affect not only the woman herself but also the development of her fetus, and have long-term effects on several different outcomes including the cognitive ability and behaviour of her child, although most children are not affected. The particular outcomes affected may depend on the timing of the exposure, specific genetic vulnerabilities, and the quality of postnatal care provided. Recent research has shown that increased maternal anxiety is associated with altered placental function, and a greater association between maternal and fetal cortisol. This interrelationship of hormonal associations during the fetal stage could potentially impact on fetal/infant outcomes, and supports the need for continuing research in the field. Chapter 3 covers studies on maternal mood in pregnancy and explores the underlying mechanisms and types of stress.

This chapter discusses how children’s conceptual representations of the mind make contact with language. It focuses on two domains: the understanding of the conditions that lead to knowledge, and the ability to attribute knowledge to oneself and others. Specifically, it asks whether language provides the representational resources necessary for representing mental states and whether cross-linguistic differences in encoding of mental states influence sensitivity to the features that distinguish the conditions that allow people to gain knowledge. Empirical findings in these domains strongly suggest that language scaffolds the development of these cognitive abilities without altering the underlying conceptual representations of mental states.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a prevalent and costly disorder with a broad range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral symptoms. Despite the absence of a clear final common molecular pathway in depression, many molecular systems have been implicated in MDD. In particular, disruptions in molecular systems like serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, and other neurotransmitters, as well as in stress hormones, cytokines, neurotrophins, and neuropeptides, may contribute to MDD. To link the symptoms of MDD with molecular dysfunction, this article examines these molecules in the context of three symptom clusters of MDD: cognitive/affective symptoms, volitional/behavioral symptoms, and homeostatic/vegetative symptoms. It examines how these molecules and their receptor, transport, and regulatory systems contribute to MDD and to the development of specific symptom clusters. It presents two possible frameworks of molecular dysfunction in MDD that encompass the interactions between vulnerability phenotypes and biochemical perturbations that may lead to the heterogeneous symptoms of this disorder.

This chapter provides an overview of what the contemplative founders stood for and why they sought to spread meditation into professional sectors. From the beginning, contemplative leaders sought to legitimize and popularize Buddhist-inspired meditation by institutionalizing their programs in powerful organizations and institutional fields in order to initiate progressive social change. The contemplative movement is an alterative one, operating on the theory that partial change in individuals’ cognitive patterns and behavior will gradually lead them to fully transform. The movement leaders hoped that spreading contemplative practices would promote and increase personal development and awareness of interdependence with others. They thought that this, in turn, would aid democratic processes and counter materialism and greed.

Confusion is a non-specific, non-diagnostic term to describe a patient with disorientation, impaired memory, or abnormal thought process. Agitation describes an increased level of psychomotor activity, and anxious or aggressive behaviour. Many agitated patients may also be delirious, yet they only represent a minority of all delirious patients. ICU delirium is an acute cognitive disorder of both consciousness and content of thought. The hallmark of ICU delirium is a fluctuating mental status, inattention, and an altered level of consciousness. Delirium is the end product of a sequence of insults and injury that lead to a common measurable manifestation of end-organ brain injury. It does not have a single aetiology, but often has multiple different and potentially interacting aetiologies. Both non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors play important roles in the development of delirium. Importantly, the new onset of delirium should prompt the physician to investigate the underlying cause. Cognitive impairment and age are among the most important non-modifiable risk factors, whereas administration of benzodiazepines is the greatest. The alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonist dexmedetomidine shows promise as a sedative reducing the risk for delirium when compared with benzodiazepines.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a key cognitive construct in the maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Whereas most individuals feel “certain-enough” that situations are relatively safe, those with OCD who have elevated IU have difficulty managing the feeling of not knowing “for sure” whether a feared outcome may occur. As a result, they engage in compulsive rituals (e.g., checking, reassurance seeking) with the aim of restoring a sense of certainty. Given the pervasiveness of uncertainty in daily life, these doubts and rituals can lead to heightened daily distress for individuals with OCD. Accordingly, the present chapter reviews the following: (a) a comprehensive definition of IU, (b) the conceptualization of IU as important in the development and maintenance of OCD across various symptom presentations, (c) the measurement of IU using both self-report and behavioral methods, and (d) recommendations for the consideration of IU in OCD treatment.

The development of clinical depression is common during palliative care, adversely affects quality of life and adherence to medical treatments, yet regrettably can pass unrecognized. Screening for distress as the sixth vital sign is therefore highly recommended. Demoralization is another form of distress where the apparent pointlessness of continued life may lead to suicidal thinking. As the mental condition deteriorates, co-morbid states of anxiety, depression, and demoralization become more likely. Rates of suicide are increased with advanced cancer and poor symptom control. Fortunately, combined treatment with medication and counselling is effective in ameliorating depression, demoralization, and suicidality. Meta-analyses of psychotherapy trials confirm clear benefits, with behavioural activation, supportive, interpersonal, and cognitive behavioural therapies all making contributions. Group, couple, and family therapies optimize support for all involved. All members of the multidisciplinary team contribute to the active treatment of depression, demoralization, and the prevention of suicide.

Action and Interaction is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the nature of action, starting with questions about action individuation, context, the notion of ?basic action? and the temporal structure of action. The importance of circumstance for understanding action is stressed. These topics lead to questions about intention and the sense of agency and ultimately to the idea that we need to consider action in the social contexts of interaction. The second part looks at the role of interaction in discussions of social cognition, building a contrast between standard theory- of-mind approaches and embodied/enactive accounts. Gallagher defends an enactive-interactionist account drawing on evidence from both phenomenology and empirical studies of development, ecological psychology, and studies of communicative and narrative practices, especially in more complex social practices. The third part transitions from considerations that focus on social-cognitive issues to understanding their implications for concepts that are basic to the development of a critical theory that addresses social and political issues, especially with respect to basic concepts of autonomy, recognition and justice, and the effects of norms and social institutions on our actions and interactions

How do the sciences of mind and brain—neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence (AI)—stand in relation to each other in the 21st century? This chapter proposes that despite our knowledge expanding at ever-accelerating rates, our understanding of the relationship between mind and brain is, in some important sense, becoming less and less. An increasing explanatory gap can only be bridged by a multi-tiered and integrated theoretical framework that recognizes the value of developing explanations at different levels, combining these into cross-level integrated theories, and directly contributing to new technologies that improve the human condition. Development of technologies that instantiate principles gleaned from the study of the mind and brain, or biomimetic technologies, is a key part of the validation process for scientific theories of mind and brain. We call this strategy for the integration of science and engineering a Living Machines approach. Following this path can lead not only to better science, and useful engineering, but also a richer view of human experience and of relationships between science, engineering, and art.

This richly evidenced study of American manufacturing documents how one of the central dynamics shaping organizations today is a contradiction managers face between ensuring workforce discipline and harnessing worker creativity. This contradiction has been intensifying over the last four decades as employee involvement has become increasingly important in response to rapid technical change, requirements for flexibility, and demands for continuous improvement. Global best practice in manufacturing includes lean production with substantive worker empowerment: cross training in enlarged tasks and inclusion in problem solving and decision making. Yet, facing conflicting pressures, many managers satisfice by training workers in narrow tasks and using them exclusively for manual labor. Vidal presents a synthetic theory called organizational political economy, integrating concepts from organization theory—institutional logics, organizational fields, managerial satisficing, and operational routines—into a classical marxist framework. Rather than theorizing managers as preoccupied with controlling labor to maximize exploitation, the theory emphasizes how contradictory developments—conflicting pressures and competing logics of labor management—lead management to be divided. Some managers adopt best practice by substantively empowering their workforce while others settle for good enough. Capitalist management is increasingly a source of organizational inefficiency. The argument is not limited to manufacturing or to lean production. Managers experience contradictory pressures—for standardization versus discretion, deskilling versus upskilling, and routine manual versus abstract cognitive labor—in a wide range of occupations, including social services, education, healthcare, office and administrative support, and software development.

Almost any neurological disorder can produce a disorder of movement but the ‘movement disorders’ include the akinetic rigid syndromes, hyperkinesias, and some tremors. It can sometimes seem, especially with the use of videotape recordings, that diagnosis of movement disorders is mainly a matter of correct visual recognition. Such an approach is not recommended and can lead to mistakes unless, as in other areas of medicine, the history is considered first and the physical signs second. Obvious examples include the family history in Huntington’s disease, developmental history in dystonic cerebral palsy, and neuroleptic drug treatment in patients with tardive dyskinesia. In addition, a single disorder may give rise to several different types of involuntary movement. For example, Huntington’s disease may give rise to an akinetic rigid state, chorea, myoclonus, tics, or dystonia. Patients with Parkinson’s disease taking levodopa may show different types of movement disorder at different times of the day.In akinetic rigid states the diagnostic issue will be whether the patient has idiopathic Parkinson’s disease or one of the other Parkinsonian syndromes. With involuntary movements, the first step in diagnosis is to classify these as dystonia, tics, tremor, chorea, or myoclonus. It must be remembered that involuntary movements are merely physical signs, not diagnostic entities, and that they do not always occur in a pure form; for example, patients with dystonia may have additional choreiform movements or tremor. If more than one form of abnormal movement seems to be present, the diagnosis should be based on the most obvious one. The next step is to decide on the cause of the movements and at this stage the diagnosis must be based upon an accurate and complete history as noted above.The movement disorders are often associated with abnormalities of the basal ganglia and, to some extent, vice versa. This is not entirely correct. Disturbances of basal ganglia function certainly have profound effects on movement with the development of bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor, or the various forms of dyskinesia. However, it is not correct when considering the pathophysiology of movement disorders to regard the basal ganglia as an isolated movement control centre. In fact, they are an important but poorly understood component of a much wider motor system. It is also important to remember that the basal ganglia are involved in the processing of limbic and other cognitive processes which may also be disturbed by basal ganglia dysfunction.

The monograph reflects the problems of Russian psycholinguistics from the moment of its inception in Russia to the present day and presents its main directions that are currently developing. In addition, theoretical developments and practical results obtained in the framework of different directions and research centers are described in a concise form. The task of the book is to reflect, as far as it is possible in one edition, firstly, the history of the formation of Russian psycholinguistics; secondly, its methodology and developed methods; thirdly, the results obtained in different research centers and directions in different regions of Russia; fourthly, to outline the main directions of the further development of Russian psycholinguistics. There is no doubt that in the theoretical, methodological and applied aspects, the main problems and the results of their development by Russian psycholinguistics have no analogues in world linguistics and psycholinguistics, or are represented by completely original concepts and methods. We have tried to show this uniqueness of the problematics and the methodological equipment of Russian psycholinguistics in this book. The main role in the formation of Russian psycholinguistics was played by the Moscow psycholinguistic school of A.A. Leontyev. It still defines the main directions of Russian psycholinguistics. Russian psycholinguistics (the theory of speech activity - TSA) is based on the achievements of Russian psychology: a cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena L.S. Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontyev. Moscow is the most "psycholinguistic region" of Russia - INL RAS, Moscow State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, RUDN, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Sechenov University, Moscow State University and other Moscow universities. Saint Petersburg psycholinguists have significant achievements, especially in the study of neurolinguistic problems, ontolinguistics. The most important feature of Russian psycholinguistics is the widespread development of psycholinguistics in the regions, the emergence of recognized psycholinguistic research centers - St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Perm, Ufa, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Kursk, Chelyabinsk; psycholinguistics is represented in Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Volgograd, Vyatka, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Abakan, Maikop, Barnaul, Ulan-Ude, Yakutsk, Syktyvkar, Armavir and other cities; in Belarus - Minsk, in Ukraine - Lvov, Chernivtsi, Kharkov, in the DPR - Donetsk, in Kazakhstan - Alma-Ata, Chimkent. Our researchers work in Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, China, France, Switzerland. There are Russian psycholinguists in Canada, USA, Israel, Austria and a number of other countries. All scientists from these regions and countries have contributed to the development of Russian psycholinguistics, to the development of psycholinguistic theory and methods of psycholinguistic research. Their participation has not been forgotten. We tried to present the main Russian psycholinguists in the Appendix - in the sections "Scientometrics", "Monographs and Manuals" and "Dissertations", even if there is no information about them in the Electronic Library and RSCI. The principles of including scientists in the scientometric list are presented in the Appendix. Our analysis of the content of the resulting monograph on psycholinguistic research in Russia allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about some of the distinctive features of Russian psycholinguistics: 1. cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena of L.S.Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontiev as methodological basis of Russian psycholinguistics; 2. theoretical nature of psycholinguistic research as a characteristic feature of Russian psycholinguistics. Our psycholinguistics has always built a general theory of the generation and perception of speech, mental vocabulary, linked specific research with the problems of ontogenesis, the relationship between language and thinking; 3. psycholinguistic studies of speech communication as an important subject of psycholinguistics; 4. attention to the psycholinguistic analysis of the text and the development of methods for such analysis; 5. active research into the ontogenesis of linguistic ability; 6. investigation of linguistic consciousness as one of the important subjects of psycholinguistics; 7. understanding the need to create associative dictionaries of different types as the most important practical task of psycholinguistics; 8. widespread use of psycholinguistic methods for applied purposes, active development of applied psycholinguistics. The review of the main directions of development of Russian psycholinguistics, carried out in this monograph, clearly shows that the direction associated with the study of linguistic consciousness is currently being most intensively developed in modern Russian psycholinguistics. As the practice of many years of psycholinguistic research in our country shows, the subject of study of psycholinguists is precisely linguistic consciousness - this is a part of human consciousness that is responsible for generating, understanding speech and keeping language in consciousness. Associative experiments are the core of most psycholinguistic techniques and are important both theoretically and practically. The following main areas of practical application of the results of associative experiments can be outlined. 1. Education. Associative experiments are the basis for constructing Mind Maps, one of the most promising tools for systematizing knowledge, assessing the quality, volume and nature of declarative knowledge (and using special techniques and skills). Methods based on smart maps are already widely used in teaching foreign languages, fast and deep immersion in various subject areas. 2. Information search, search optimization. The results of associative experiments can significantly improve the quality of information retrieval, its efficiency, as well as adaptability for a specific person (social group). When promoting sites (promoting them in search results), an associative experiment allows you to increase and improve the quality of the audience reached. 3. Translation studies, translation automation. An associative experiment can significantly improve the quality of translation, take into account intercultural and other social characteristics of native speakers. 4. Computational linguistics and automatic word processing. The results of associative experiments make it possible to reveal the features of a person's linguistic consciousness and contribute to the development of automatic text processing systems in a wide range of applications of natural language interfaces of computer programs and robotic solutions. 5. Advertising. The use of data on associations for specific words, slogans and texts allows you to predict and improve advertising texts. 6. Social relationships. The analysis of texts using the data of associative experiments makes it possible to assess the tonality of messages (negative / positive moods, aggression and other characteristics) based on user comments on the Internet and social networks, in the press in various projections (by individuals, events, organizations, etc.) from various social angles, to diagnose the formation of extremist ideas. 7. Content control and protection of personal data. Associative experiments improve the quality of content detection and filtering by identifying associative fields in areas subject to age restrictions, personal information, tobacco and alcohol advertising, incitement to ethnic hatred, etc. 8. Gender and individual differences. The data of associative experiments can be used to compare the reactions (and, in general, other features of thinking) between men and women, different social and age groups, representatives of different regions. The directions for the further development of Russian psycholinguistics from the standpoint of the current state of psycholinguistic science in the country are seen by us, first of all:  in the development of research in various areas of linguistic consciousness, which will contribute to the development of an important concept of speech as a verbal model of non-linguistic consciousness, in which knowledge revealed by social practice and assigned by each member of society during its inculturation is consolidated for society and on its behalf;  in the expansion of the problematics, which is formed under the influence of the growing intercultural communication in the world community, which inevitably involves the speech behavior of natural and artificial bilinguals in the new object area of psycholinguistics;  in using the capabilities of national linguistic corpora in the interests of researchers studying the functioning of non-linguistic and linguistic consciousness in speech processes;  in expanding research on the semantic perception of multimodal texts, the scope of which has greatly expanded in connection with the spread of the Internet as a means of communication in the life of modern society;  in the inclusion of the problems of professional communication and professional activity in the object area of psycholinguistics in connection with the introduction of information technologies into public practice, entailing the emergence of new professions and new features of the professional ethos;  in the further development of the theory of the mental lexicon (identifying the role of different types of knowledge in its formation and functioning, the role of the word as a unit of the mental lexicon in the formation of the image of the world, as well as the role of the natural / internal metalanguage and its specificity in speech activity);  in the broad development of associative lexicography, which will meet the most diverse needs of society and cognitive sciences. The development of associative lexicography may lead to the emergence of such disciplines as associative typology, associative variantology, associative axiology;  in expanding the spheres of applied use of psycholinguistics in social sciences, sociology, semasiology, lexicography, in the study of the brain, linguodidactics, medicine, etc. This book is a kind of summarizing result of the development of Russian psycholinguistics today. Each section provides a bibliography of studies on the relevant issue. The Appendix contains the scientometrics of leading Russian psycholinguists, basic monographs, psycholinguistic textbooks and dissertations defended in psycholinguistics. The content of the publications presented here is convincing evidence of the relevance of psycholinguistic topics and the effectiveness of the development of psycholinguistic problems in Russia.