Michael J Lyons
Biographic Data
| ID | 198445 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael J Lyons |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael J |
| FAMILY NAME | Lyons |
| SIGNATURE | LYONS M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6516-9219 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Neighborhood disadvantage and cognitive function in older adults: The moderating role of young adult general cognitive ability
Neighborhood disadvantage in later life is associated with poorer cognition and increased vulnerability to dementia. Cognitive reserve (CR), an individual's total cognitive resources, may foster cognitive resilience against dementia in the face of neighborhood disadvantage. However, whether the neighborhood disadvantage-cognition association varies across older adults remains understudied and its moderators remain underexplored. We examined assoc…
Cortical Surface Area Profile Mediates Effects of Childhood Disadvantage on Later-Life General Cognitive Ability
Childhood disadvantage may contribute to later-life GCA differences partly by influencing the spatial patterning of cortical SA in a way that deviates from the normative cortical organizational principle
Predicting Health-Related Quality of Life in Trauma-Exposed Male Veterans in Late Midlife: A 20 Year Longitudinal Study
Trauma-exposed adults with high levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) report poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL), but less is known about the persistence of this relationship over time. Participants from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging reported on PTSS, health, and sociodemographic characteristics at average age 38; 775 participants reported having been exposed to trauma. Later, at average ages 56 and 62, mental and physica…
A longitudinal twin study of general cognitive ability over four decades
In this longitudinal study we examined the stability of general cognitive ability (GCA), as well as heterogeneity and genetic and environmental influences underlying individual differences in change. We investigated GCA from young adulthood through late midlife in 1,288 Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging participants at ages ∼20, ∼56, and ∼62 years. The correlations among the 3 occasions ranged from .73 to .85, reflecting substantial stability. The …
Executive Functioning in Children with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
Individual differences in cognitive ability at age 20 predict pulmonary function 35 years later
BACKGROUND: Poor pulmonary function is associated with mortality and age-related diseases, and can affect cognitive performance. However, extant longitudinal studies indicate that early cognitive ability also affects later pulmonary function. Despite the multifaceted nature of pulmonary function, most longitudinal studies were limited to a single index of pulmonary function: forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). In this study, we examined wheth…
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Individual Differences in Frequency of Play with Pets among Middle-Aged Men: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis
There is growing evidence that pet ownership and human-animal interaction (HAI) have benefits for human physical and psychological well-being. However, there may be pre-existing characteristics related to patterns of pet ownership and interactions with pets that could potentially bias results of research on HAI. The present study uses a behavioral genetic design to estimate the degree to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to indiv…
Genetic Vulnerability and Phenotypic Expression of Depression and Risk for Ischemic Heart Disease in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging
OBJECTIVE: To determine if depression contributes to incident heart disease after accounting for genetic, behavioral, and medical factors associated with both conditions. METHODS: We used a prospective twin study with a 12-year follow-up. In 1992, lifetime diagnosis of depression was assessed in 1159 male-male twins and merged with longitudinal health data from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry Study of Aging. Incident heart disease was defined as ha…
Evidence and a computational explanation of cultural differences in facial expression recognition
Facial expressions are crucial to human social communication, but the extent to which they are innate and universal versus learned and culture dependent is a subject of debate. Two studies explored the effect of culture and learning on facial expression understanding. In Experiment 1, Japanese and U.S. participants interpreted facial expressions of emotion. Each group was better than the other at classifying facial expressions posed by members of…
Educational Attainment and the Heritability of Self-Reported Hypertension Among Male Vietnam-Era Twins
Objective: To investigate the potential for gene × environment interaction in hypertension by examining the extent to which educational attainment modifies the heritability of hypertension in male twins. Prior twin and family studies have established that hypertension runs in families and is heritable. In addition, epidemiological research indicates that the prevalence of hypertension differs by socioeconomic factors, such as educational attainme…
Storage and Executive Components of Working Memory: Integrating Cognitive Psychology and Behavior Genetics in the Study of Aging
We combined experimental cognitive and behavior genetic methods to investigate storage and executive components of working memory in 663 middle-aged male twins. A single latent factor model indicated that digits forward (storage) and two-digit transformation (executive + storage) scores were influenced by the same genes. Additional executive demands in digit transformation appeared to increase the variance of individual genetic differences from 2…
Heritability of SF-36 Among Middle-Age, Middle-Class, Male???Male Twins
OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors for the MOS SF-36; a widely used, valid, and reliable measure of health-related quality of life and to discuss incorporating genetic influences into health services research. DATA SOURCES: Data are from a nationally distributed, nonclinical cohort of 2928 middle age, middle-class, male-male twin members of the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. STUDY DESIGN: This…
A Twin Study of Sexual Behavior in Men
A Twin Study of Depression Symptoms, Hypertension, and Heart Disease in Middle-Aged Men
OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological and clinical studies have established an association between major depression and cardiovascular disease. We utilized a twin design to test whether there are common genetic and environmental risk factors underlying depression symptoms, hypertension and heart disease. METHODS: Association studies were conducted with 6,903 male-male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry who responded to both a 1990 health questionnaire…
A linked aggregate code for processing faces
A model of face representation, inspired by known biology of the visual system, is compared to experimental data on the perception of facial similarity. The face representation model uses aggregate primary visual cortex (V1) cell responses topographically linked to a grid covering the face, allowing comparison of shape and texture at corresponding points in two facial images. When a set of relatively similar faces was used as stimuli, this “linke…
Sexual Orientation and Suicidality: A Co-twin Control Study in Adult Men
BACKGROUND: Several recent studies have found a higher lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts in homosexual males compared with heterosexual control subjects or population rates. These studies used either convenience samples, most without controls, or population-based samples in which confounding factors such as depression and substance abuse were not measured. METHODS: This study used twins from the population-based Vietnam Era Twin Registry, H…
Contribution of Emotionally Traumatic Events and Inheritance to the Report of Current Physical Health Problems in 4042 Vietnam Era Veteran Twin Pairs
OBJECTIVE: To determine the contributions of psychological trauma (exposure to combat during the Vietnam War), genetic factors, childhood experiences shared by twin siblings, and unmeasured experiences not shared by twin siblings to the reporting of current physical health problems a mean of 19 years after military service. METHODS: In 1987, a national sample of 2224 monozygotic and 1818 dizygotic male veteran members of the Vietnam Era Twin Regi…
A key informant needs assessment of an adult population: Application to consultation and prevention programs
Sixty-three key informants first identified the four most important problems confronting adults between the ages of 30 and 40 years and then responded to a series of open-ended questions in relation to the two most important problems identified. Respondents then rated a list of life events and problem areas as to their seriousness and prevalence and identified those they viewed as most important. Respondent-generated problems, in order of importa…
Suicide in later life: Some putative causes with implications for prevention
Research that has examined factors presumed to cause suicide is reviewed. The roles of physical illness, loss and isolation, sex role differences, economic conditions, attitudes, depression and hopelessness, and life satisfaction are considered. The relevance of these factors to a person-environment interaction perspective is discussed. Baechlor has suggested that suicide is always a solution to a problem and the implications of this fomulation f…
British Liberals and Irish Land: The Late Victorian Transformation
(1983). British Liberals and Irish Land: The Late Victorian Transformation. The Historian: Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 167-185
A Twin Study of Sexual Behavior in Men
A longitudinal twin study of general cognitive ability over four decades
In this longitudinal study we examined the stability of general cognitive ability (GCA), as well as heterogeneity and genetic and environmental influences underlying individual differences in change. We investigated GCA from young adulthood through late midlife in 1,288 Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging participants at ages ∼20, ∼56, and ∼62 years. The correlations among the 3 occasions ranged from .73 to .85, reflecting substantial stability. The …
Individual differences in cognitive ability at age 20 predict pulmonary function 35 years later
BACKGROUND: Poor pulmonary function is associated with mortality and age-related diseases, and can affect cognitive performance. However, extant longitudinal studies indicate that early cognitive ability also affects later pulmonary function. Despite the multifaceted nature of pulmonary function, most longitudinal studies were limited to a single index of pulmonary function: forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). In this study, we examined wheth…
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Individual Differences in Frequency of Play with Pets among Middle-Aged Men: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis
There is growing evidence that pet ownership and human-animal interaction (HAI) have benefits for human physical and psychological well-being. However, there may be pre-existing characteristics related to patterns of pet ownership and interactions with pets that could potentially bias results of research on HAI. The present study uses a behavioral genetic design to estimate the degree to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to indiv…
British Liberals and Irish Land: The Late Victorian Transformation
(1983). British Liberals and Irish Land: The Late Victorian Transformation. The Historian: Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 167-185
Suicide in later life: Some putative causes with implications for prevention
Research that has examined factors presumed to cause suicide is reviewed. The roles of physical illness, loss and isolation, sex role differences, economic conditions, attitudes, depression and hopelessness, and life satisfaction are considered. The relevance of these factors to a person-environment interaction perspective is discussed. Baechlor has suggested that suicide is always a solution to a problem and the implications of this fomulation f…
A key informant needs assessment of an adult population: Application to consultation and prevention programs
Sixty-three key informants first identified the four most important problems confronting adults between the ages of 30 and 40 years and then responded to a series of open-ended questions in relation to the two most important problems identified. Respondents then rated a list of life events and problem areas as to their seriousness and prevalence and identified those they viewed as most important. Respondent-generated problems, in order of importa…
Contribution of Emotionally Traumatic Events and Inheritance to the Report of Current Physical Health Problems in 4042 Vietnam Era Veteran Twin Pairs
OBJECTIVE: To determine the contributions of psychological trauma (exposure to combat during the Vietnam War), genetic factors, childhood experiences shared by twin siblings, and unmeasured experiences not shared by twin siblings to the reporting of current physical health problems a mean of 19 years after military service. METHODS: In 1987, a national sample of 2224 monozygotic and 1818 dizygotic male veteran members of the Vietnam Era Twin Regi…
Sexual Orientation and Suicidality: A Co-twin Control Study in Adult Men
BACKGROUND: Several recent studies have found a higher lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts in homosexual males compared with heterosexual control subjects or population rates. These studies used either convenience samples, most without controls, or population-based samples in which confounding factors such as depression and substance abuse were not measured. METHODS: This study used twins from the population-based Vietnam Era Twin Registry, H…
A linked aggregate code for processing faces
A model of face representation, inspired by known biology of the visual system, is compared to experimental data on the perception of facial similarity. The face representation model uses aggregate primary visual cortex (V1) cell responses topographically linked to a grid covering the face, allowing comparison of shape and texture at corresponding points in two facial images. When a set of relatively similar faces was used as stimuli, this “linke…
A Twin Study of Depression Symptoms, Hypertension, and Heart Disease in Middle-Aged Men
OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological and clinical studies have established an association between major depression and cardiovascular disease. We utilized a twin design to test whether there are common genetic and environmental risk factors underlying depression symptoms, hypertension and heart disease. METHODS: Association studies were conducted with 6,903 male-male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry who responded to both a 1990 health questionnaire…
A Twin Study of Sexual Behavior in Men
Heritability of SF-36 Among Middle-Age, Middle-Class, Male???Male Twins
OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors for the MOS SF-36; a widely used, valid, and reliable measure of health-related quality of life and to discuss incorporating genetic influences into health services research. DATA SOURCES: Data are from a nationally distributed, nonclinical cohort of 2928 middle age, middle-class, male-male twin members of the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. STUDY DESIGN: This…
Educational Attainment and the Heritability of Self-Reported Hypertension Among Male Vietnam-Era Twins
Objective: To investigate the potential for gene × environment interaction in hypertension by examining the extent to which educational attainment modifies the heritability of hypertension in male twins. Prior twin and family studies have established that hypertension runs in families and is heritable. In addition, epidemiological research indicates that the prevalence of hypertension differs by socioeconomic factors, such as educational attainme…
Storage and Executive Components of Working Memory: Integrating Cognitive Psychology and Behavior Genetics in the Study of Aging
We combined experimental cognitive and behavior genetic methods to investigate storage and executive components of working memory in 663 middle-aged male twins. A single latent factor model indicated that digits forward (storage) and two-digit transformation (executive + storage) scores were influenced by the same genes. Additional executive demands in digit transformation appeared to increase the variance of individual genetic differences from 2…
Genetic Vulnerability and Phenotypic Expression of Depression and Risk for Ischemic Heart Disease in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging
OBJECTIVE: To determine if depression contributes to incident heart disease after accounting for genetic, behavioral, and medical factors associated with both conditions. METHODS: We used a prospective twin study with a 12-year follow-up. In 1992, lifetime diagnosis of depression was assessed in 1159 male-male twins and merged with longitudinal health data from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry Study of Aging. Incident heart disease was defined as ha…
Evidence and a computational explanation of cultural differences in facial expression recognition
Facial expressions are crucial to human social communication, but the extent to which they are innate and universal versus learned and culture dependent is a subject of debate. Two studies explored the effect of culture and learning on facial expression understanding. In Experiment 1, Japanese and U.S. participants interpreted facial expressions of emotion. Each group was better than the other at classifying facial expressions posed by members of…
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Individual Differences in Frequency of Play with Pets among Middle-Aged Men: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis
There is growing evidence that pet ownership and human-animal interaction (HAI) have benefits for human physical and psychological well-being. However, there may be pre-existing characteristics related to patterns of pet ownership and interactions with pets that could potentially bias results of research on HAI. The present study uses a behavioral genetic design to estimate the degree to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to indiv…
Executive Functioning in Children with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
Individual differences in cognitive ability at age 20 predict pulmonary function 35 years later
BACKGROUND: Poor pulmonary function is associated with mortality and age-related diseases, and can affect cognitive performance. However, extant longitudinal studies indicate that early cognitive ability also affects later pulmonary function. Despite the multifaceted nature of pulmonary function, most longitudinal studies were limited to a single index of pulmonary function: forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). In this study, we examined wheth…
A longitudinal twin study of general cognitive ability over four decades
In this longitudinal study we examined the stability of general cognitive ability (GCA), as well as heterogeneity and genetic and environmental influences underlying individual differences in change. We investigated GCA from young adulthood through late midlife in 1,288 Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging participants at ages ∼20, ∼56, and ∼62 years. The correlations among the 3 occasions ranged from .73 to .85, reflecting substantial stability. The …
Predicting Health-Related Quality of Life in Trauma-Exposed Male Veterans in Late Midlife: A 20 Year Longitudinal Study
Trauma-exposed adults with high levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) report poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL), but less is known about the persistence of this relationship over time. Participants from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging reported on PTSS, health, and sociodemographic characteristics at average age 38; 775 participants reported having been exposed to trauma. Later, at average ages 56 and 62, mental and physica…
Cortical Surface Area Profile Mediates Effects of Childhood Disadvantage on Later-Life General Cognitive Ability
Childhood disadvantage may contribute to later-life GCA differences partly by influencing the spatial patterning of cortical SA in a way that deviates from the normative cortical organizational principle
Neighborhood disadvantage and cognitive function in older adults: The moderating role of young adult general cognitive ability
Neighborhood disadvantage in later life is associated with poorer cognition and increased vulnerability to dementia. Cognitive reserve (CR), an individual's total cognitive resources, may foster cognitive resilience against dementia in the face of neighborhood disadvantage. However, whether the neighborhood disadvantage-cognition association varies across older adults remains understudied and its moderators remain underexplored. We examined assoc…
Psychology (16 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Biology (7 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works) · Twin study (7 works) · Cognition (6 works) · Demography (6 works) · Genetics (6 works)