Real-life Activities Research Articles

Virtual-reality based tele-neurorehabilitation: Balancing physical fidelity, challenge and immersion

Tele-rehabilitation refers to the use of information and communication technologies to more efficiently provide rehabilitation services to people remotely in their homes or other community-based settings. The goal is to improve patient access to care by receiving therapy beyond the physical walls of a traditional healthcare facility as well as to increase self-practice thus expanding the continuity of rehabilitation care. The recent developments of advanced sensors, graphic and remote monitoring technologies have enabled development of an increasing number of Virtual Reality (VR)-based tele-rehabilitation applications. The inclusion of VR into tele-neurorehabilitation aims, similar to regular rehabilitation, to increase the physical fidelity of the treatment to enable better generalization to real life activities and to increase engagement and motivation by providing the “right” challenge to users by “immersing” them into the therapeutic task. In addition, it allows implementation of principles to increase neural plasticity by providing opportunities for intensive and goal oriented practice. When delivered remotely, this form of VR intervention is challenging, for example, due to the need of the user to learn complex activities without a therapist physically present. An additional challenge is the need to develop applications that will achieve a balance between physical fidelity, level of challenge to the user and immersion, to assure quality of movements when the therapist is not present. The purpose of this presentation is to show evidence-based examples gleaned from our database of more than 200 users (and 5000 on-line sessions) who have used the CogniMotion VR tele-neurorehabilitation services over the past four years. A discussion will focus on the lessons learned while providing this form of intervention remotely. NA. NA. NA.

Semantic Activity Analytics for Healthy Aging: Challenges and Opportunities

As real-life activity data from many aging individuals become available, insights gleaned from such data could be leveraged to foster healthy aging. The emerging field of semantic activity analytics is addressing this challenge.

Responding to environmental pollution-related online posts: behavior of Web surfers and its influencing factors

The behavior of Web surfers can highlight or suppress environmental pollution-related incidents, so it is important to explore their behavior and the factors that influence them. Thus, based on a questionnaire survey conducted in China, we studied the behavior of Web surfers in response to environmental pollution-related online posts and the factors that influenced them. The results showed that half of the surveyed Web surfers commented on the environmental pollution-related posts. In terms of posts regarding complaints, lawsuits, or mass protests in the virtual community, 16.46% Web surfers answered they would participate in the activities in real life. Furthermore, regression analysis showed that different types of posts had positive correlations with the reposting, commenting, and browsing behaviors of Web surfers, while the sources of posts also had positive correlations with browsing behaviors. The different types and sources of posts both had positive correlations with behavior regarding complaints, lawsuits, or mass protests by Web surfers. Gender only had a positive correlation with the commenting behavior of Web surfers. These findings could support decision-making regarding policies to help prevent environmental pollution-related incidents.

Automatic food detection in egocentric images using artificial intelligence technology.

To develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithm which can automatically detect food items from images acquired by an egocentric wearable camera for dietary assessment. To study human diet and lifestyle, large sets of egocentric images were acquired using a wearable device, called eButton, from free-living individuals. Three thousand nine hundred images containing real-world activities, which formed eButton data set 1, were manually selected from thirty subjects. eButton data set 2 contained 29 515 images acquired from a research participant in a week-long unrestricted recording. They included both food- and non-food-related real-life activities, such as dining at both home and restaurants, cooking, shopping, gardening, housekeeping chores, taking classes, gym exercise, etc. All images in these data sets were classified as food/non-food images based on their tags generated by a convolutional neural network. A cross data-set test was conducted on eButton data set 1. The overall accuracy of food detection was 91·5 and 86·4 %, respectively, when one-half of data set 1 was used for training and the other half for testing. For eButton data set 2, 74·0 % sensitivity and 87·0 % specificity were obtained if both 'food' and 'drink' were considered as food images. Alternatively, if only 'food' items were considered, the sensitivity and specificity reached 85·0 and 85·8 %, respectively. The AI technology can automatically detect foods from low-quality, wearable camera-acquired real-world egocentric images with reasonable accuracy, reducing both the burden of data processing and privacy concerns.

Pilot testing of the spring operated wearable enhancer for arm rehabilitation (SpringWear)

BackgroundRobotic devices for neurorehabilitation of movement impairments in persons with stroke have been studied extensively. However, the vast majority of these devices only allow practice of stereotyped components of simulated functional tasks in the clinic. Previously we developed SpringWear, a wearable, spring operated, upper extremity exoskeleton capable of assisting movements during real-life functional activities, potentially in the home. SpringWear assists shoulder flexion, elbow extension and forearm supination/pronation. The assistance profiles were designed to approximate the torque required to move the joint passively through its range. These three assisted DOF are combined with two passive shoulder DOF, allowing complex multi-joint movement patterns.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study to assess changes in movement patterns when assisted by SpringWear. Thirteen persons with chronic stroke performed range of motion (ROM) and functional tasks, including pick and place tasks with various objects. Sensors on the device measured rotation at all 5 DOF and a kinematic model calculated position of the wrist relative to the shoulder. Within subject t-tests were used to determine changes with assistance from SpringWear.ResultsMaximum shoulder flexion, elbow extension and forearm pronation/supination angles increased significantly during both ROM and functional tasks (p < 0.002). Elbow flexion/extension ROM also increased significantly (p < 0.001). When the subjects volitionally held up the arm against gravity, extension at the index finger proximal interphalangeal joint increased significantly (p = 0.033) when assisted by SpringWear. The forward reach workspace increased 19% (p = 0.002). Nine subjects could not complete the functional tasks unassisted and only one showed improvement on task completion with SpringWear.ConclusionsSpringWear increased the usable workspace during reaching movements, but there was no consistent improvement in the ability to complete functional tasks. Assistance levels at the shoulder were increased only until the shoulder could be voluntarily held at 90 degrees of flexion. A higher level of assistance may have yielded better results. Also combining SpringWear with HandSOME, an exoskeleton for assisting hand opening, may yield the most dramatic improvements in functional task performance. These low-cost devices can potentially reduce effort and improve performance during task practice, increasing adherence to home training programs for rehabilitation.

Civic Engagement in a digital time - Is there a divide in terms of social civic behavior?

ICT’s and social media dramatically reshape the way citizens communicate and get involved into the civic life of a city and country. As a consequence of these developments, we would expect people to be more engaged citizens, active participants in both their online and offline communities. However, two questions arise: do people actually become more civic minded due to the digital evolution? Does social involvement in online virtual communities translate into real life actions? Answering these questions is the aim of the present study, which intends to analyze if there is a divide in terms of social civic behavior on two axes – attitude towards civic engagement and stated civic participation, online and offline behavior. We used survey as main research method in order to answer our research questions, and the study is a descriptive one. The investigated population consisted of a purposive sample of internet users from cities with possible different degrees of civic attitude (measured through a classical Civic Engagement Scale).

The Impact of Osteoarthritis on the Functioning and Health Status of a Low-Income Population: An Example of a Disability Paradox.

The aim of this study was to measure the impact of osteoarthritis on the functioning and health status of individuals living in a low-income urban community in Mexico. We conducted a cross-sectional, community-based study from December 2014 to November 2015, using the Community Oriented Program for Control of Rheumatic Diseases methodology to identify cases of musculoskeletal disease in a sample of adults older than 18 years in Pueblo Nuevo, Apodaca, Mexico. Two rheumatologists confirmed all cases of osteoarthritis (OA) using predefined criteria. Functioning was evaluated through (a) self-report of difficulty doing personal care, work, and leisure activities; (b) the modified Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index; and (c) the Timed Up and Go test. Health status was evaluated using the EuroQoL 5 Dimensions. Statistical analyses were performed using χ tests and logistic regression models. Four hundred thirty-nine individuals with a mean age of 45.2 years were included, and 83 cases of OA were confirmed. The presence of OA was not significantly associated with having difficulties to do personal care, work, or leisure activities, but it was significantly associated with a higher Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index score, longer time to complete the Timed Up and Go, and lower health status. Osteoarthritis is associated with having higher disability and worse health status in the community studied. A disability paradox was detected as some individuals perceived disability for doing standard activities but did not present disability performing their real-life activities. This underlies the importance of addressing the mental dimension during the management of this population.

Response priming with motion primes: negative compatibility or congruency effects, even in free-choice trials.

How actions are chosen, and what they are influenced by, has been the focus of several research traditions. Influences on actions are often studied using compatibility paradigms, such as response priming. Here, a first stimulus (i.e., the prime) is presented shortly before a second stimulus (i.e., the target) which has to be classified. Reaction times to the target are often reduced when primes and targets are compatible compared to incompatible primes and targets-i.e., a positive compatibility effect (PCE). There are, however, some conditions in which reliably negative compatibility effects (NCEs), with faster reactions to incompatible targets, are found. Actions in real life are often influenced by perceived motion and are less determined by following (target) stimuli as it is the case in typical response priming studies with predetermined stimulus-response mappings. Thus, in the current experiment we used motion primes in forced-choice trials (with >> and << as targets) as well as in free-choice trials (with <> and >< as targets). Essentially, we found PCEs in the short-SOA condition and NCEs in the long-SOA condition. The pattern was not qualified by task (i.e., forced choice/free choice). The results provide evidence that NCEs with motion primes are found even without strong links between target stimuli and responses and that especially PCEs can be found with simpler and smaller targets than have been used in previous experiments.

Thermo-physiological comfort of business clothing incorporating phase change materials in a cold environment

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the thermo-physiological comfort of male business garments made of common textiles, as well as business clothing that contains phase change materials (PCMs) as a lining or outerwear material. In view of the fact that people wear business clothing throughout the whole day in different environmental conditions, this study investigate the effect of PCMs incorporated in male business clothing systems on the thermo-physiological comfort of the wearer under different cold environmental conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe influence of particular business garments on the thermo-physiological comfort of the wearer during different physical activities and cold environmental temperatures was determined experimentally with the help of study participants, as a change of two physiological parameters: mean skin temperature and heart rate. A questionnaire and an assessment scale were also used in order to evaluate the wearer’s subjective feeling of comfort. In this investigation, all tests with study participants were performed under artificially created environmental conditions in a climate chamber at different cold environmental temperatures ranging from 10°C to −5°C with increments of 5°C, and different physical activities that simulate as closely as possible real life activities such as sitting and walking.FindingsThe results of the performed research work show that PCMs provide a small temporary thermal effect that is reflected in small increases or decreases in mean skin temperature during changes in activity. Furthermore, it was concluded that the small effect of PCMs in business clothing systems on the thermo-physiological comfort of the wearer in a cold environment, which is shown as a change of mean skin temperature when subjects walk on a treadmill and subsequently move to a sitting position, should not be ignored in a cold environment where low skin temperatures were measured.Practical implicationsThe results of this study demonstrate that the physiological parameters of thermo-physiological comfort, in combination with subjective evaluation, provide valuable information for textile and clothing manufactures as well as scientists and engineers involved in the design and development of new products with thermal comfort as a quality criterion.Originality/valueThe investigation shows that different environmental conditions, activity levels and thermal properties of clothing systems have a considerable impact on the physiological parameters of the subjects and subjective assessment of thermal comfort in a cold environment, and that PCMs incorporated in business clothing systems provide a small temporary thermal effect that is reflected in small increases or decreases in mean skin temperature during changes in activity, such as when subjects walk on a treadmill and subsequently move to a sitting position.

Hidden location prediction using check-in patterns in location-based social networks

Check-in facility in a location-based social network (LBSN) enables people to share location information as well as real-life activities. Analysing these historical series of check-ins to predict the future locations to be visited has been very popular in the research community. However, it has been found that people do not intend to share the privately visited locations and activities in a LBSN. Research into extrapolating unchecked locations from historical data is limited. Knowledge of hidden locations can have a wide range of benefits to society. It may help the investigating agencies in identifying possible places visited by a suspect, a marketing company in selecting potential customers for targeted marketing, for medical representatives in identifying areas for disease prevention and containment, etc. In this paper, we propose an Associative Location Prediction Model (ALPM), which infers privately visited unchecked locations from a published user trajectory. The proposed ALPM explores the association between a user's checked-in data, the Hidden Markov Model and proximal locations around a published check-in for predicting the unchecked or hidden locations. We evaluate ALPM on real-world Gowalla LBSN dataset for the users residing in Beijing, China. Experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the existing state-of-the-art work in the literature.

Abstract P6-14-02: Real-life activity of eribulin among metastatic breast cancer patients in the multicenter national observational ESME program

Abstract Background: In 2014, UNICANCER (composed of 18 French Comprehensive Cancer Centers) launched the Epidemiological Strategy and Medical Economics (ESME) program to investigate real-world data in solid tumors. Real-world data give the opportunity to assess for the activity of specific drugs outside clinical trials. Eribulin is approved for pre-treated metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Marketing authorization has been granted in France in July 2012. However few data are available regarding its efficacy in real life. We evaluated eribulin use as second and third line of chemotherapy in MBC patients from the ESME database. Methods: Data from all newly diagnosed MBC patients having initiated at least one treatment between Jan. 2008 and Dec. 2014 are included in the ESME database. Data were collected retrospectively using a clinical trial-like methodology. Primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), defined from the starting date of second or third line chemotherapy (eribulin versus other chemotherapy). Progression-free survival (PFS) was calculated as a secondary endpoint. Results: Of 16,703 MBC patients included in the ESME database, 7,412 received at least 2 lines of chemotherapy: eribulin/other chemotherapy, total 1,966/5,446, second line 363/5,446, third line 654/2,669. Depending on second or third line chemotherapy use classification, median age was 59 years (range 20-97) and 58 year (range 21 – 94), triple negative tumors accounted for 20% and 19% of cases, and median follow-up reached 26 months and 22 months respectively. Table reports median OS and PFS, according to lines and type of chemotherapy. OS eribulin (months)OS other chemotherapy (months)pPFS Eribulin (months)PFS other chemotherapy (months)pSecond line12.4 (11.3-15.1)11.8 (11.3-12.3)0.4654.1 (3.7-4.9)4.1 (4.0-4.3)0.9225Third line10.3 (9.3-11.5)7.7 (7.3-8.0)&amp;lt;.00013.6 (3.2-3.9)3.0 (2.9-3.2)0.0058 Supportive analyses (using a propensity score for adjustment and as a matching factor for nested case–control analyses) and sensitivity analyses will be available for full presentation at the meeting. Conclusion: In this large-scale real-life setting, MBC patients treated with third line eribulin showed an improved OS and PFS compared with those receiving another chemotherapy. The difference was not statistically significant for second line treatment. Citation Format: Jacot W, Heudel P-E, Fraisse J, Gourgou S, Guiu S, Dalenc F, Pistilli B, Campone M, Levy C, Debled M, Leheurteur M, Chaix M, Lefeuvre C, Goncalves A, Uwer L, Ferrero J-M, Eymard J-C, Petit T, Mouret-Reynier M-A, Courtinard C, Cottu P, Robain M, Mailliez A. Real-life activity of eribulin among metastatic breast cancer patients in the multicenter national observational ESME program [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-14-02.

Disrupted salience processing involved in motivational deficits for real-life activities in patients with schizophrenia

Motivational deficits in patients with schizophrenia adversely affect various domains of daily living. This symptom in everyday life situations manifests in a complex behavioral pattern whose root cannot be simplified to an impaired reward-motivation scheme. This study aimed to identify impairment of the salience network that underlies motivational deficits seen in patients with schizophrenia in real-life situations. During the functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal controls performed a task mimicking real-life situations, in which an avatar proposed participation in a daily activity with either an intrinsic or extrinsic reward. Group and type-of-reward effects were evaluated with respect to brain activity. Further, psychophysiological interactions were analyzed for the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula, which are the key nodes of the salience network. The acceptance of the proposal was significantly higher for intrinsic than for extrinsic rewards in controls, whereas patients showed no difference. The imaging results showed a group effect in the dACC, right insula, thalamus, and lingual gyrus. The dACC showed negative contrast interaction with regions of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the right insula showed positive contrast interaction with the occipital gyrus and precentral gyrus. These results suggest that patients exhibit no different participation behavior between activities with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, which can be explained by the floor effect. Disrupted salience processing in schizophrenia including aberrant salience network and a disconnection of the salience and reward networks may account for the lack of motivation for daily activities.

Investigation of a cantilever structured piezoelectric energy harvester used for wearable devices with random vibration input

Abstract The capability of using a linear kinetic energy harvester – A cantilever structured piezoelectric energy harvester – to harvest human motions in the real-life activities is investigated. The whole loop of the design, simulation, fabrication and test of the energy harvester is presented. With the smart wristband/watch sized energy harvester, a root mean square of the output power of 50 μW is obtained from the real-life hand-arm motion in human’s daily life. Such a power is enough to make some low power consumption sensors to be self-powered. This paper provides a good and reliable comparison to those with nonlinear structures. It also helps the designers to consider whether to choose a nonlinear structure or not in a particular energy harvester based on different application scenarios.

The event of crime as object of criminalistic knowledge

Criminal activity in real life manifests itself in the form of an event of a specific crime. The crime event arises and functions in the form of a system. This system has a criminal nature, which is due to the wrongfulness of the act and the public danger of its consequences. The incipient of the system of the event of a crime is initiated by concrete actions or inaction of the subject. The development of this system is ensured by the interaction of a certain set of elements. Such elements are in the cause-effect relationship (interrelation, interdependence, subordination). These elements form the structure of the system of the crime scene. Depending on the type of crime, the criminal system includes the subject, object, place and time of encroachment, various objects, means, processes (system elements). All of them exist in fact and possess the qualities of objects of the material world. The specifics of the properties of systemic elements determines the peculiarities of the formation of a criminal act. Forensic cognition of the crime (a systemic multifactorial phenomenon of reality) should contribute to the creation of an effective forensic toolkit for the rapid detection of crimes, the optimal preliminary investigation and prevention of criminal acts.

COGNITIVE AND PRAGMATIC ASPECTS OF FOOD REPRESENTATION IN THE BRITISH AND RUSSIAN MEDIA DISCOURSES

The present article is devoted to the problem of representing food in the British and Russian media discourses. The author analyzes social and linguistic factors of food representation in the media discourse, in particular, the ideas and social factors that influence the journalists as well as peculiarities of the linguistic forms of food representation. Particular attention is paid to the cognitive aspects: the author analyzes realization of a specific cognitive model within the media text. The author also studies the cognitive model components, which are foregrounded in the media texts, and the linguistic means used for this purpose. The reasons for this process are also investigated. The connection between cognitive model realization and the journalists pragmatic goal is also studied in the paper. The author comes to a conclusion that a new cognitive model is formed and fixed in the recipients mind, because its components contain information confirmed by data in the media text. The new model can be fixed only if a journalist manages to persuade the recipient using the factual data. We suppose that introduction and placement of a new cognitive model into the recipients mind results in changing his/her attitude towards British food. This can be viewed as a change in social reality, i.e. construction of new social reality, because the recipient in this case acquires a new feature new attitude towards British food that affects his/her actions in real life. The author comes to a conclusion that the process of food representation in the British media discourse is determined by the aim of constructing a specific identity of the British nation, which differs from the identity that has existed before. The author also analyzes the process of constructing a new cognitive model within the Russian media discourse; this model is aimed at assessing the current market trends and economic and social situation in Russia.

Development of the infant foot as a load bearing structure: study protocol for a longitudinal evaluation (the Small Steps study)

BackgroundAn improved understanding of the structural and functional development of the paediatric foot is fundamental to a strong theoretical framework for health professionals and scientists. An infant’s transition from sitting, through crawling and cruising, to walking is when the structures and function of the foot must adapt to bearing load. The adaptation of skin and other hard and soft tissue, and foot and gait biomechanics, during this time is poorly understood. This is because data characterising the foot tissue and loading pre-walking onset does not exist. Of the existing kinematic and plantar pressure data, few studies have collected data which reflects the real-life activities of infants with modern equipment.MethodsThis is a longitudinal study and part of the Great Foundations Initiative, a collaborative project between the University of Brighton and the University of Salford, which is seeking to improve foot health in children. Two cohorts of 50 infants will be recruited at the two sites (University of Brighton, Eastbourne, UK and University of Salford, Salford, UK). Infants will be recruited when they first reach for their feet and attend four laboratory visits at milestones related to foot loading, with experienced independent walking being the final milestone. Data collection will include tissue characteristics (skin thickness, texture, elasticity, pH and tendon thickness and cross-sectional area), plantar pressures and kinematics captured during real world locomotion tasks.DiscussionThis study will provide a database characterising the development of the infant foot as it becomes a weight bearing structure. The data will allow effective comparison and quantification of changes in structure and function due to maturation and loading by measuring pre and post established walking. Additional variables which impact on the development of the foot (gender, ethnicity and body weight) will also be factored into our analysis. This will help us to advance understanding of the determinants of foot development in early childhood.

Modular Bayesian Networks with Low-Power Wearable Sensors for Recognizing Eating Activities.

Recently, recognizing a user’s daily activity using a smartphone and wearable sensors has become a popular issue. However, in contrast with the ideal definition of an experiment, there could be numerous complex activities in real life with respect to its various background and contexts: time, space, age, culture, and so on. Recognizing these complex activities with limited low-power sensors, considering the power and memory constraints of the wearable environment and the user’s obtrusiveness at once is not an easy problem, although it is very crucial for the activity recognizer to be practically useful. In this paper, we recognize activity of eating, which is one of the most typical examples of a complex activity, using only daily low-power mobile and wearable sensors. To organize the related contexts systemically, we have constructed the context model based on activity theory and the “Five W’s”, and propose a Bayesian network with 88 nodes to predict uncertain contexts probabilistically. The structure of the proposed Bayesian network is designed by a modular and tree-structured approach to reduce the time complexity and increase the scalability. To evaluate the proposed method, we collected the data with 10 different activities from 25 volunteers of various ages, occupations, and jobs, and have obtained 79.71% accuracy, which outperforms other conventional classifiers by 7.54–14.4%. Analyses of the results showed that our probabilistic approach could also give approximate results even when one of contexts or sensor values has a very heterogeneous pattern or is missing.

Subjective quality of life in psychosis: Evidence for an association with real world functioning?

Subjective quality of life (SQOL) is an established patient-reported outcome in psychosis. However, current self-report measures of SQOL may be affected by recall bias and may not fully capture dynamic changes in SQOL over time. This study aimed to examine the ecological validity of self-reported and momentary assessment measures of SQOL, and their association with emotional experience, social interaction and activity in real life, in both patients with psychotic disorder (n = 56) and controls (n = 71). Self-reported QOL was assessed with the WHO-QOL, momentary QOL and real life experiences were assessed with the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Results show that both measures were significantly associated in patients and controls, and associations with emotional experience were most relevant, momentary QOL being a stronger predictor than self-reported QOL. The association between momentary QOL and negative affect was stronger in patients than in controls. Overall, momentary QOL was more consistently associated with affect, social interaction and activity, while self-reported QOL displayed a more narrow association with mostly affect. Concluding, concurrent assessment of self-reported QOL and momentary QOL showed that momentary QOL may enhance the ecological validity of SQOL measurement. Experience sampling research may broaden our perspective on SQOL and its associations with real life functioning.

DMCN 2017 highlights: advances in cerebral palsy, encephalitis, paediatric stroke, and more

During the past year, we have refined the editorial processes of Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, in part by optimizing statistical reviews and by setting up a group of systematic review advisors in collaboration with the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. Indeed, we have strengthened links with all the societies for which DMCN is the official journal (see our front cover for details) and were happy in 2017 to welcome the Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine into the fold. We have also enhanced journal content in various ways. Abstracts of all our articles are now provided in Spanish and Portuguese translations, courtesy of the Latin-American Academy of Child Development and Disabilities (ALDID). Our YouTube video channel hosts a growing collection of author and editor podcasts with contributions from eminent experts including Aaron Ciechanower, Nobel prizewinner in Chemistry. Interactivity with the journal's readership has been strengthened through social media and Letters to the Editor are now posted on our website to foster debate and discussion. This year has been marked by clarification of the practical implications of physical activity, participation (which was the topic of a Virtual Issue), the validation of various outcome measures, delineation of the neurophysiological and neuroimaging signature of several neurodevelopmental conditions, refinements in genotype–phenotype associations (‘comorbid’ attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder and autistic features were critically documented in a number of conditions), and more evidence for efficacy and safety for specific modalities of immunotherapy or tone-modulating agents. Alongside excellent original articles and critical commentaries, we have had systematic reviews on a wide range of important topics from immunoglobulins in neurological disorders, to taping procedures and outcome of scoliosis surgery in cerebral palsy. We have also had state-of-the-art reviews on such promising approaches to disability as stem cell treatment and videogame-based therapy. My Editor's Choice for the first issue of the year was a study demonstrating that following a paediatric stroke protocol improves timeliness of accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.1 Other papers in the 2017 volume have presented and discussed new sets of paediatric stroke guidelines and documented various outcome aspects. Assessment and classification of hand function has been another guiding thread throughout the year. One work I particularly liked for its topic, methodology, and useful result – another Editor's Choice – developed a patient-reported outcome measure assessing upper limb function related to real-life activities of individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.2 This measure should usefully document the individual's self-reported evolution and evaluate the efficacy of interventions. The value of several functional classification systems has been established for children in addition to the groups addressed in the original validations, including a Mini-Manual Ability Classification System for hand function in children with cerebral palsy under 4 years and the Communication Function Classification System for communication in preschool children with speech and language disorders. Stability of the Gross Motor Function Classification System over time has been confirmed3 and the validity of the concept of cerebral palsy has also been reaffirmed. An important contribution to the debate on paediatric traumatic brain injury was provided by Minns et al.'s study of the relationship between raised intracranial pressure and retinal haemorrhage,4 and the ensuing discussion. The review on anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor encephalitis following herpes simplex encephalitis5 clarifies the biphasic course of the condition with a parainfectious immune-mediated disorder amenable to immunomodulatory treatment. Looking at the novel findings and advances in the fields of paediatric neurology and neurodisability that made up the fabric of DMCN in 2017, we can foresee further important developments in 2018 and beyond.

A moving story: Whole-body motor training selectively improves the appraisal of action meanings in naturalistic narratives

This study examined whether systematic whole-body stimulation and increased attention to visuospatial motion patterns can enhance the appraisal of action meanings evoked by naturalistic texts. Participants listened to action and neutral (non-action) narratives before and after videogame-based bodily training, and responded to questions on information realized by verbs (denoting abstract and action processes) and circumstances (conveying locative or temporal details, for example). Strategically, we worked with dyslexic children, whose potential comprehension deficits could give room to post-training improvements. Results showed a selective boost in understanding of action information, even when controlling for baseline performance. Also, this effect proved uninfluenced by short-term memory skills, and it was absent when training relied on non-action videogames requiring minimal bodily engagement. Of note, the movements described in the texts did not match those performed by participants, suggesting that well-established effector- and direction-specific language embodiment effects may be accompanied by more coarse-grained sensorimotor resonance, driven by activation of motor and visuospatial sensory systems. In sum, the stimulation of movement-related mechanisms seems to selectively boost the appraisal of actions evoked by naturalistic texts. By demonstrating such links between two real-life activities, our study offers an empirical tie between embodied and situated accounts of cognition.