Atypical Trajectories Research Articles

Nemoc z kočičího škrábnutí s méně obvyklou manifestací a průběhem

Nemoc z kociciho skrabnuti je onemocněni nejcastěji způsobene Gram‑negativni bakterii Bartonella henselae. U imunokompetentnich pacientů se větsinou jedna o klinicky mirně probihajici, lokalni, zanětlive postiženi kůže s regionalni lymfadenopatii. U starsich, oslabených ci imunokompromitovaných pacientů může mit atypický klinický obraz i průběh. Popis takoveho připadu je předmětem předkladaneho sděleni.

Received Cradling Bias During the First Year of Life: A Retrospective Study on Children With Typical and Atypical Development.

A population-level left cradling bias exists whereby 60–90% of mothers hold their infants on the left side. This left biased positioning appears to be mutually beneficial to both the mother and the baby's brain organization for processing of socio-emotional stimuli. Previous research connected cradling asymmetries and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), entailing impairment in socio-communicative relationships and characterized by an early hypo-lateralization of brain functions. In this explorative study, we aimed to provide a contribution to the retrospective investigations by looking for early behavioral markers of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD. We hypothesized that an atypical trajectory in maternal cradling might be one of the possible signs of an interference in mother-infant socio-emotional communication, and thus of potential neurodevelopmental dysfunctions. To this aim, we examined photos depicting mother-child early cradling interactions by consulting family albums of 27 children later diagnosed with ASD and 63 typically developing children. As regards the first half of the first year of life, no differences were shown between maternal cradling-side preferences in typical and ASD groups, both exhibiting the left-cradling bias in the 0–3 months period, but not in the 3–6 months period. However, our results show dissimilar patterns of cradling preferences during the second half of the first year of life. In particular, the absence of left-cradling shown in typical mothers was not observed in ASD mothers, who exhibited a significant left-cradling bias in the 6–12 months age group. This difference might reflect the fact that mother-infant relationship involving children later diagnosed with ASD might remain “basic” because mothers experience a lack of social activity in such children. Alternatively, it may reflect the overstimulation in which mothers try to engage infants in response to their lack of responsiveness and social initiative. However, further investigations are needed both to distinguish between these two possibilities and to define the role of early typical and reversed cradling experiences on neurodevelopment.

The association between received maternal cradling and neurodevelopment: Is left better?

The vast majority of women (60–90%) hold infants on their left side. Such a population-level lateral bias has been shown to improve the processing of socio-emotional stimuli in both the woman and the baby. Recently, some studies related cradling lateralization and Autism Spectrum Disorders (which entail socio-communicative deficits and a reduction of the typical lateralization of brain functions), raising the possibility that the asymmetrical cradling behavior experienced during infanthood might be related to the infant’s neurodevelopment. Any progress made towards earlier diagnoses could significantly increase the chance of successful intervention for these patients. We here suggest that a wide retrospective investigation on family photo albums and home movies of children diagnosed with Autism might provide useful data about early behavioral signs of this condition. We hypothesize that an atypical trajectory in maternal cradling might be one of the early signs of interference in dyadic socio-emotional communication, and thus of potential neurodevelopmental dysfunctions.

Profiles and trajectories of impaired social cognition in people with Prader-Willi syndrome.

IntroductionPeople with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) have a distinctive behavioral phenotype that includes intellectual disability, compulsivity, inattention, inflexibility and insistence on sameness. Inflexibility and inattention are at odds with the cognitive flexibility and attention to social cues needed to accurately perceive the social world, and implicate problems in social cognition. This study assessed two social cognition domains in people with PWS; emotion recognition and social perception. We identified changes in social cognition over an approximate two-year time period (M = 2.23 years), relative strengths and weakness in social cognition, and correlates and predictors of social cognition.MethodsEmotion recognition and social perception were examined at two time points in 94 individuals with PWS aged 5 to 62 years (M = 13.81, SD = 10.69). Tasks administered included: standardized IQ testing; parent-completed measures of inattention and inflexibility; standard emotion recognition photos (fear, sadness, anger, happy); and videotaped social perception vignettes depicting negative events with either sincere/benign or insincere/hostile interactions between peers.ResultsAn atypical trajectory of negative emotion recognition emerged, marked by similar levels of poor performances across age, and confusion between sad and anger that is typically resolved in early childhood. Recognition of sad and fear were positively correlated with IQ. Participants made gains over time detecting social cues, but not in forming correct conclusions about the intentions of others. Accurately judging sincere intentions remained a significant weakness over time. Relative to sincere intentions, participant’s performed significantly better in detecting negative social cues, and correctly judging trickery, deceit and lying. Age, IQ, inattention, and recognition of happy and sad accounted for 29% of variance in social perception.ConclusionMany people with PWS have deficits in recognizing sad, anger and fear, and accurately perceiving the sincere intentions of other people. The impact of these deficits on social behavior and relationships need to be better understood.

Early negative affect in males and females with fragile X syndrome: implications for anxiety and autism

BackgroundFragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder that is highly comorbid with anxiety and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Elevated negative affect in young children has been associated with increased risk for both anxiety and ASD; however, these relations remain poorly understood in FXS.MethodsThe present prospective longitudinal study examined the trajectory of negative affect from infancy through preschool in males and females with FXS and typical development and its relation to anxiety and ASD.ResultsResults indicate a complex association reflecting group, developmental, and sex effects. Specifically, the group with FXS displayed a trajectory of increasing negative affect across age that was distinct from the typical controls. This atypical trajectory of negative affect in FXS was driven by sex effects in that males showed lower negative affect during infancy followed by steep increases across the toddler and preschool years whereas the females displayed a flatter trajectory. Finally, elevated negative affect predicted anxiety symptoms in males, but not females, with no relationship to ASD in males or females with FXS.ConclusionsThe current work addresses the importance of studying the development of psychopathology in a specific neurogenetic population. Temperamental negative affect was shown to be an important early marker for anxiety in young children with FXS, with subtle differences observed between males and females.

Translating Developmental Neuroscience to Understand Risk for Psychiatric Disorders.

The transition from childhood to adulthood represents the developmental time frame in which the majority of psychiatric disorders emerge. Recent efforts to identify risk factors mediating the susceptibility to psychopathology have led to a heightened focus on both typical and atypical trajectories of neural circuit maturation. Mounting evidence has highlighted the immense neural plasticity apparent in the developing brain. Although in many cases adaptive, the capacity for neural circuit alteration also induces a state of vulnerability to environmental perturbations, such that early-life experiences have long-lasting implications for cognitive and emotional functioning in adulthood. The authors outline preclinical and neuroimaging studies of normative human brain circuit development, as well as parallel efforts covered in this issue of the Journal, to identify brain circuit alterations in psychiatric disorders that frequently emerge in developing populations. Continued translational research into the interactive effects of neurobiological development and external factors will be crucial for identifying early-life risk factors that may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric illness and provide the key to optimizing treatments.

Identifying atypical change at the individual level from childhood to adolescence.

Identifying change at the individual level is an important goal for researchers, educators, and clinicians. We present a set of statistical procedures for identifying individuals who depart from a normative change. Using Latent Change Scores models (LCS), we illustrate how the Individual Likelihood computed from a statistical model for change (IL) and from an alternative unrestricted model (ILsat) can be used to identify atypical trajectories in situations with several measurement occasions. Using LCS and linear regression, we also show how the observed and latent change residuals can be used to identify atypical individual change between 2 measurement occasions. We apply these methods to a measure of general verbal ability (from WISC-R), from a large sample of individuals assessed every 2 years from Grade 1 to 9. We demonstrate the efficiency of these techniques, illustrate their use to identify individual change in longitudinal data, and discuss potential applications in developmental research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality assessment of intellectually gifted adults: A dimensional trait approach

Personality is often assessed by measuring the severity of dimensional traits regardless of intellectual functioning. However, extreme deviations from average cognitive abilities affect biological, psychological, and social characteristics, to the extent that they may lead to atypical trajectories of development. The present study examined subclinical personality traits of intellectually gifted adults who unlikely fulfill traditional criteria for psychopathological diagnosis.Seventy-five intellectually gifted individuals (i.e., at least one WAIS-IV Index >130) completed the DAPP-BQ. Their scores were compared to a control group. Age range was the same across the two groups (18–45 years). Gender differences were then examined within the gifted group.The group of gifted individuals reported significant higher scores on eight DAPP-BQ scales. A large effect size was found on Rejection trait; medium effect sizes on Narcissism and Low Affiliation traits. Identity Problems, Callousness, Restricted Expression, Compulsivity, and Suspiciousness were associated with small effect sizes. Moreover, gifted women reported higher scores than gifted men.Dysfunctional traits of gifted adults may contribute to interpersonal maladjustments. This may be the consequence of poor emotional attunement and inappropriate support that they received in childhood for their superior intellectual abilities. Sociocultural issues may maintain these psychological vulnerabilities, especially within gifted women.

Thinking in PolAR Pictures: Using Rotation-Friendly Mental Images to Solve Leiter-R Form Completion

The Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised (Leiter-R) is a standardized cognitive test that seeks to "provide a nonverbal measure of general intelligence by sampling a wide variety of functions from memory to nonverbal reasoning." Understanding the computational building blocks of nonverbal cognition, as measured by the Leiter-R, is an important step towards understanding human nonverbal cognition, especially with respect to typical and atypical trajectories of child development. One subtest of the Leiter-R, Form Completion, involves synthesizing and localizing a visual figure from its constituent slices. Form Completion poses an interesting nonverbal problem that seems to combine several aspects of visual memory, mental rotation, and visual search. We describe a new computational cognitive model that addresses Form Completion using a novel, mental-rotation-friendly image representation that we call the Polar Augmented Resolution (PolAR) Picture, which enables high-fidelity mental rotation operations. We present preliminary results using actual Leiter-R test items and discuss directions for future work.

Rare behavior of growth processes via umbrella sampling of trajectories.

We compute probability distributions of trajectory observables for reversible and irreversible growth processes. These results reveal a correspondence between reversible and irreversible processes, at particular points in parameter space, in terms of their typical and atypical trajectories. Thus key features of growth processes can be insensitive to the precise form of the rate constants used to generate them, recalling the insensitivity to microscopic details of certain equilibrium behavior. We obtained these results using a sampling method, inspired by the "s-ensemble" large-deviation formalism, that amounts to umbrella sampling in trajectory space. The method is a simple variant of existing approaches, and applies to ensembles of trajectories controlled by the total number of events. It can be used to determine large-deviation rate functions for trajectory observables in or out of equilibrium.

Leave a Trace - A People Tracking System Meets Anomaly Detection

Video surveillance always had a negative connotation, among others because of the loss of privacy and because it may not automatically increase public safety. If it was able to detect atypical (i.e. dangerous) situations in real time, autonomously and anonymously, this could change. A prerequisite for this is a reliable automatic detection of possibly dangerous situations from video data. This is done classically by object extraction and tracking. From the derived trajectories, we then want to determine dangerous situations by detecting atypical trajectories. However, due to ethical considerations it is better to develop such a system on data without people being threatened or even harmed, plus with having them know that there is such a tracking system installed. Another important point is that these situations do not occur very often in real, public CCTV areas and may be captured properly even less. In the artistic project leave a trace the tracked objects, people in an atrium of a institutional building, become actor and thus part of the installation. Visualisation in real-time allows interaction by these actors, which in turn creates many atypical interaction situations on which we can develop our situation detection. The data set has evolved over three years and hence, is huge. In this article we describe the tracking system and several approaches for the detection of atypical trajectories.

“You’re Not a Real Contemporary Dancer.” Discrepancy and Appropriation of the Artists’ Status by Dancers from a Working Class Background

Summary This article draws on a long-term ethnographical survey. It aims to discuss the social conditions of possibility in the artistic calling of contemporary dancers from working class backgrounds. In this regard, it shades light on the resources – notably cultural – underlying atypical trajectories of mobility – all the more fragile for being reversible. As will be seen, the acquisition of legitimate cultural capital contributes to change aesthetic tastes without excluding discrepancy, most evident during the creative process.

Face perception and learning in autism spectrum disorders.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairment in social communication and restricted and repetitive interests. While not included in the diagnostic characterization, aspects of face processing and learning have shown disruptions at all stages of development in ASD, although the exact nature and extent of the impairment vary by age and level of functioning of the ASD sample as well as by task demands. In this review, we examine the nature of face attention, perception, and learning in individuals with ASD focusing on three broad age ranges (early development, middle childhood, and adolescence/adulthood). We propose that early delays in basic face processing contribute to the atypical trajectory of social communicative skills in individuals with ASD and contribute to poor social learning throughout development. Face learning is a life-long necessity, as the social world of individual only broadens with age, and thus addressing both the source of the impairment in ASD as well as the trajectory of ability throughout the lifespan, through targeted treatments, may serve to positively impact the lives of individuals who struggle with social information and understanding.

Trajectories of child externalizing problems between ages 3 and 10 years: Contributions of children's early effortful control, theory of mind, and parenting experiences.

Preventing problem behavior requires an understanding of earlier factors that are amenable to intervention. The main goals of our prospective longitudinal study were to trace trajectories of child externalizing behavior between ages 3 and 10 years, and to identify patterns of developmentally significant child and parenting risk factors that differentiated pathways of problem behavior. Participants were 218 3-year-old boys and girls who were reassessed following the transition to kindergarten (age 5-6 years) and during the late school-age years (age 10). Mothers contributed ratings of children's externalizing behavior at all three time points. Children's self-regulation abilities and theory of mind were assessed during a laboratory visit, and parenting risk (frequent corporal punishment and low maternal warmth) was assessed using interview-based and questionnaire measures. Four developmental trajectories of externalizing behavior yielded the best balance of parsimony and fit with our longitudinal data and latent class growth analysis. Most young children followed a pathway marked by relatively low levels of symptoms that continued to decrease across the school-age years. Atypical trajectories marked chronically high, increasing, and decreasing levels of externalizing problems across early and middle childhood. Three-year-old children with low levels of effortful control were far more likely to show the chronic pattern of elevated externalizing problems than changing or low patterns. Early parental corporal punishment and maternal warmth, respectively, differentiated preschoolers who showed increasing and decreasing patterns of problem behavior compared to the majority of children. The fact that children's poor effortful regulation skills predicted chronic early onset problems reinforces the need for early childhood screening and intervention services.

Low reliability of sighted-normed verbal assessment scores when administered to children with visual impairments.

The most common and advocated assessment approach when a child cannot access visual materials is to use the verbal subscales of a test the psychologist already has and is familiar with. However, previous research indicates that children with visual impairments experience atypical verbal development. This raises the question of whether verbal subscale scores retain their reliability and interpretation validity when given to children with visual impairments. To answer this question, we administered a vocabulary subscale from a common intelligence test along with several nonverbal subscales to 15 early-blind adolescents (onset of ≤2 years). Reliability of only the vocabulary test scores was insufficient for high-stakes testing. This finding points to the broader issue of difficulties in assessing populations of exceptional children who experience atypical development trajectories, possibly making their assessment with common tests inappropriate. (PsycINFO Database Record

Atypical developmental trajectory of local spontaneous brain activity in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by atypical trajectory of brain maturation, yet the developmental abnormalities in brain function remain unclear. The current study examined the effect of age on amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in ASD and typical controls (TC) using a cross-sectional design. We classified all the participants into three age cohorts: child (<11 years, 18ASD/20TC), adolescent (11–18 years, 28ASD/26TC) and adult (≥18 years, 18ASD/18TC). Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to ascertain main effects and interaction effects on whole brain ALFF maps. Results exhibited significant main effect of diagnosis in ASD with decreased ALFF in the right precuneus and left middle occipital gyrus during all developmental stages. Significant diagnosis-by-age interaction was observed in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) with ALFF lowered in autistic children but highered in autistic adolescents and adults. Specifically, remarkable quadratic change of ALFF with increasing age in mPFC presented in TC group was absent in ASD. Additionally, abnormal ALFF values in diagnosis-related brain regions predicted the social deficits in ASD. Our findings indicated aberrant developmental patterns of spontaneous brain activity associated with social deficits in ASD and highlight the crucial role of the default mode network in the development of disease.

A Gunshot to the Right Arm with Atypical Trajectory: Things are not Always as Simple as they Seem!

A Gunshot to the Right Arm with Atypical Trajectory: Things are not Always as Simple as they Seem!

The large deviations of the whitening process in random constraint satisfaction problems

Random constraint satisfaction problems undergo several phase transitions as the ratio between the number of constraints and the number of variables is varied. When this ratio exceeds the satisfiability threshold no more solutions exist; the satisfiable phase, for less constrained problems, is itself divided in an unclustered regime and a clustered one. In the latter solutions are grouped in clusters of nearby solutions separated in configuration space from solutions of other clusters. In addition the rigidity transition signals the appearance of so-called frozen variables in typical solutions: beyond this threshold most solutions belong to clusters with an extensive number of variables taking the same values in all solutions of the cluster. In this paper we refine the description of this phenomenon by estimating the location of the freezing transition, corresponding to the disappearance of all unfrozen solutions (not only typical ones). We also unveil phase transitions for the existence and uniqueness of locked solutions, in which all variables are frozen. From a technical point of view we characterize atypical solutions with a number of frozen variables different from the typical value via a large deviation study of the dynamics of a stripping process (whitening) that unveils the frozen variables of a solution, building upon recent works on atypical trajectories of the bootstrap percolation dynamics. Our results also bear some relevance from an algorithmic perspective, previous numerical studies having shown that heuristic algorithms of various kinds usually output unfrozen solutions.

Developmental trajectories of executive functions in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

Background22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is a genetic disorder associated with a specific cognitive profile. Higher-order cognitive skills like executive functions (EF) are reported as a relative weakness in this population. The present study aimed to delineate the developmental trajectories of multiple EF domains in a longitudinal sample using a broader age range than previous studies. Given the high incidence of psychotic symptoms in 22q11.2DS, we also compared the development of EF in participants with/without comorbid psychotic symptoms. Given the importance of EF in daily life, the third aim of the study was to characterize the link between EF and adaptive functioning.MethodsThe sample consisted of 95 individuals with 22q11.2DS and 100 typically developing controls aged 6–26 years. A large proportion of the sample (55.38 %) had multiple time points available. Between-group differences in the developmental trajectories of three subdomains of EF (verbal fluency, working memory, and inhibition) were examined using mixed models regression analyses. Analyses were repeated comparing only the 22q11.2DS group based on the presence/absence of psychotic symptoms to investigate the influence of executive dysfunction on the emergence of psychotic symptoms. Hierarchical stepwise regression analyses were also conducted to investigate the predictive value of EF on adaptive functioning.ResultsWe observed lower performance on EF domains, as well as atypical development of working memory and verbal fluency. Participants who presented with negative symptoms exhibited different developmental trajectories of inhibition and working memory. Adaptive functioning level was not significantly predicted by EF scores.ConclusionsThe present study highlighted domain-specific atypical trajectories of EF in individuals with 22q11.DS and explored the link with psychotic symptoms. However, no relation between EF and adaptive functioning was observed.

The lesser of two evils: Atypical trajectories in English dialect evolution

Schneider's Dynamic Model of Postcolonial English Development (2007) suggests that distinct local identities and their associated varieties of English emerge as a result of British colonization, and reach maturity only when ties to the colonial power are finally severed. While this developmental trajectory is well documented in many of the case studies discussed in, and since, Schneider (2007), a comparison of Hong Kong and Gibraltar shows, in certain cases, that association with Britain can be seen as the best guarantor of these local identities and varieties of English. The present article sketches this alternate developmental trajectory, and examines under what circumstances it may emerge and how widely it might be applied.