Nonsocial Stimuli Research Articles

A Scalable Off-the-Shelf Framework for Measuring Patterns of Attention in Young Children and its Application in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with deficits in the processing of social information and difficulties in social interaction, and individuals with ASD exhibit atypical attention and gaze. Traditionally, gaze studies have relied upon precise and constrained means of monitoring attention using expensive equipment in laboratories. In this work we develop a low-cost off-the-shelf alternative for measuring attention that can be used in natural settings. The head and iris positions of 104 16-31 months children, an age range appropriate for ASD screening and diagnosis, 22 of them diagnosed with ASD, were recorded using the front facing camera in an iPad while they watched on the device screen a movie displaying dynamic stimuli, social stimuli on the left and nonsocial stimuli on the right. The head and iris position were then automatically analyzed via computer vision algorithms to detect the direction of attention. Children in the ASD group paid less attention to the movie, showed less attention to the social as compared to the nonsocial stimuli, and often fixated their attention to one side of the screen. The proposed method provides a low-cost means of monitoring attention to properly designed stimuli, demonstrating that the integration of stimuli design and automatic response analysis results in the opportunity to use off-the-shelf cameras to assess behavioral biomarkers.

The emergence of a theta social brain network during infancy

Infants’ socio-cognitive ability develops dramatically during the first year of life. From the perspective of ontogeny, the early development of social behavior allows for parent-child attachment, which in turn enhances survival. Thus, it is theorized that the development of social behavior, driven by social brain networks, forms the core of developmental acquisitions during this period. Further, understanding the maturation within the neural networks during social development is crucial to obtain a better grasp of the development of social developmental disorders. Therefore, we performed a longitudinal study in 854 infants measured at around 5 and 10 months to map the development of functional networks in the brain when infants were processing social and non-social videos. Using EEG, we focused on the frequency bands most commonly connected to social behavior: theta and alpha. We found that alpha networks remained relatively stable over the first year of life and showed no selectivity for social versus non-social stimuli, theta networks, showed strong global reconfigurations. The development of the theta networks progressed from a parietal occipital network in early infancy to a frontoparietal network towards the end of the first year of life. This reconfiguration coincided with selectivity for social versus non-social stimuli, with infants approaching the end of their first year of life showing increased synchronicity of theta communication when watching social videos versus non-social videos. Our findings provide strong evidence for the involvement of a frontoparietal theta network in the development of the social brain.

The malfunction of domain-specific attentional process in social anxiety: attentional process of social and non-social stimuli

ABSTRACT Socially anxious people have a malfunction in attentional systems. However, it is uncertain whether the malfunction of the attentional system is a domain-specific process to social stimuli or a domain-general process to non-social stimuli. Therefore, we investigated the effects of social anxiety on the domain specificity of the attentional process using a spatial Stroop paradigm. We conducted two identical experiments with a total of 153 university students including men and women (61 students in Experiment 1 and 92 students in Experiment 2), in which the levels of social anxiety were assessed using specific instruments. The results showed that social anxiety scores were negatively correlated with the reversed spatial Stroop effect for social stimuli, but not for non-social stimuli (Experiment 1). The findings of the first experiment were successfully replicated in Experiment 2. Our results suggested that the malfunction of the attentional system is a domain-specific process to socially threatening stimuli in socially anxious individuals.

Reward processing in autism spectrum disorder and psychopathy: a systematic review

AimsEmerging research suggests that aberrant reward processing may underpin much of the social dysfunction we see in psychiatric disorders. Two conditions associated with marked social dysfunction are Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Psychopathy. However, no review to date has directly contrasted reward processing in both conditions and incorporated literature on social and non-social rewards. This systematic review aims to: (i) identify and compare reward processing abnormalities in ASD and Psychopathy as demonstrated in task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies; and (ii) identify correlations between fMRI reward processing abnormalities and manifested symptoms, with a focus on those giving rise to social dysfunction.MethodThe electronic databases PubMed, PsycINFO and EMBASE were searched to identify studies satisfying the following criteria: (i) a validated measure was used to assess ASD or Psychopathy; (ii) the study was published in an English language peer review journal; (iii) the age of participants was 18 years or older; (iv) individuals participated in a reward-based experimental paradigm; and (v) the response to the reward was measure using fMRI.ResultA total of 12 articles were identified that satisfied inclusion criteria. Six studies examined reward processing in ASD and six studies examined reward processing in Psychopathy. All studies in both conditions indicated some degree of abnormal reward-related neural response. The most replicated findings were aberrant responses in the Ventral Striatum (VS). Autism Spectrum Disorder was typified by VS hypoactivation to social and non-social reward, while Psychopathy was associated with VS hyperactivation in response to non-social reward anticipation. No studies were identified of social reward in Psychopathy.ConclusionThe reported fMRI findings correlate with clinical observations in both conditions. Reduced reward response in ASD to a range of social and non-social stimuli would provide a parsimonious account of the social and non-social deficits that characterise the condition. Enhanced responses to the anticipation of reward in Psychopathy provides an account of the ruthless and destructive pursuit of reward-driven behaviours not inhibited by immoral or aversive signals. If, as the literature suggests, reward circuitry dysfunction plays a role in the development and manifestation of symptoms in both conditions, reward processing and its underlying neural circuitry may represent important targets for the development of novel treatment strategies.

Keeping in time with social and non-social stimuli: Synchronisation with auditory, visual, and audio-visual cues

Everyday social interactions require us to closely monitor, predict, and synchronise our movements with those of an interacting partner. Experimental studies of social synchrony typically examine the social-cognitive outcomes associated with synchrony, such as affiliation. On the other hand, research on the sensorimotor aspects of synchronisation generally uses non-social stimuli (e.g. a moving dot). To date, the differences in sensorimotor aspects of synchronisation to social compared to non-social stimuli remain largely unknown. The present study aims to address this gap using a verbal response paradigm where participants were asked to synchronise a ‘ba’ response in time with social and non-social stimuli, which were presented auditorily, visually, or audio-visually combined. For social stimuli a video/audio recording of an actor performing the same verbal ‘ba’ response was presented, whereas for non-social stimuli a moving dot, an auditory metronome or both combined were presented. The impact of autistic traits on participants’ synchronisation performance was examined using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Our results revealed more accurate synchronisation for social compared to non-social stimuli, suggesting that greater familiarity with and motivation in attending to social stimuli may enhance our ability to better predict and synchronise with them. Individuals with fewer autistic traits demonstrated greater social learning, as indexed through an improvement in synchronisation performance to social vs non-social stimuli across the experiment.

Mother brain is wired for social moments.

Reorganization of the maternal brain upon childbirth triggers the species-typical maternal social behavior. These brief social moments carry profound effects on the infant's brain and likely have a distinct signature in the maternal brain. Utilizing a double-blind, within-subject oxytocin/placebo administration crossover design, mothers' brain was imaged twice using fMRI while observing three naturalistic maternal-infant contexts in the home ecology; 'unavailable', 'unresponsive', and 'social', when mothers engaged in synchronous peek-a-boo play. The social condition elicited greater neural response across the human caregiving network, including amygdala, VTA, hippocampus, insula, ACC, and temporal cortex. Oxytocin impacted neural response primarily to the social condition and attenuated differences between social and non-social stimuli. Greater temporal consistency emerged in the 'social' condition across the two imaging sessions, particularly in insula, amygdala, and TP. Findings describe how mother's brain varies by caregiving experiences and gives salience to moments of social synchrony that support infant development and brain maturation.

Social Attention Deficits in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Task Dependence of Objects vs. Faces Observation Bias.

Social attention deficits represent a central impairment of patients suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the nature of such deficits remains controversial. We compared visual attention regarding social (faces) vs. non-social stimuli (objects), in an ecological diagnostic context, in 46 children and adolescents divided in two groups: ASD (N = 23) and typical neurodevelopment (TD) (N = 23), matched for chronological age and intellectual performance. Eye-tracking measures of visual scanning, while exploring and describing scenes from three different tasks from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), were analyzed: “Description of a Picture,” “Cartoons,” and “Telling a Story from a Book.” Our analyses revealed a three-way interaction between Group, Task, and Social vs. Object Stimuli. We found a striking main effect of group and a task dependence of attentional allocation: while the TD attended first and longer to faces, ASD participants became similar to TD when they were asked to look at pictures while telling a story. Our results suggest that social attention allocation is task dependent, raising the question whether spontaneous attention deficits can be rescued by guiding goal-directed actions.

Socialization in Commercial Breeding Kennels: The Use of Novel Stimuli to Measure Social and Non-Social Fear in Dogs.

Simple SummaryOwner-based reports of dogs presumed to come from commercial breeding kennels (CBKs) suggest high levels of fear in this population. Fear in kenneled dogs is a serious behavioral welfare concern as it may lead to both acute and chronic stress. Novel social and non-social stimuli have been shown to elicit behaviors associated with fear in animals. New knowledge on the levels of fear in dogs from CBKs could be used to further refine protocols intended for assessment of welfare in CBKs and to improve breeders’ management practices. The aim of this study, therefore, was to evaluate how dogs from CBKs reacted to social (i.e., a person approaching) and non-social (i.e., a traffic cone and a dog statue) stimuli, and to perform a preliminary evaluation of how these responses might be used as indicators of dogs’ overall socialization levels in kennels. Results revealed that dogs had primarily mildly fearful responses to the stimuli presented. These findings are encouraging as extreme fearful reactions were rarely recorded. Nevertheless, there is a clear margin for commercial breeders to improve the socialization protocols in their kennels to better incorporate both social and non-social stimuli.Understanding the behavioral welfare of dogs in commercial breeding kennels (CBKs) is important for improving breeders’ management practices as well as dog welfare. In the current study, breeding dogs from CBKs were exposed to novel stimuli to evaluate their behavioral responses, with emphasis on indicators of fear. Subjects were presented with a standard stranger-approach test, a traffic cone, and a realistic dog statue. Sixty dogs were exposed to the three stimuli and behavioral responses were scored using an ethogram developed for this study. Dogs spent significantly more time investigating the environment, staying further away from the stimulus, and they took longer to approach and investigate when presented with the cone than with the dog statue or stranger (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that the cone elicited more fear-related behaviors than the dog statue and stranger. Given these results, in addition to socializing their dogs to unfamiliar people and other dogs within their kennels, commercial breeders should be encouraged to increase the exposure of their dogs to more diverse novel stimuli to reduce non-social fear and support the welfare of dogs while they reside in the kennel and when they transition to new homes.

Comparing behavioural characteristics of Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs, German shepherds and Labrador retrievers in Italy and the Czech Republic

Through domestication and subsequent selection dogs’ morphological and behavioural traits have been selected for functional purposes beyond companionship. Since dogs are kept as pets worldwide and live in close contact with humans, gathering information on the behavioural characteristics of breeds either potentially problematic or obtained through hybridization appears particularly relevant. In the current study, the C-BARQ questionnaire was used to examine the behaviour of the Czechoslovakian wolfdog, a recent breed obtained through hybridization of the Carpathian wolf and the German shepherd dog and rapidly growing in popularity. One thousand four hundred twenty owners, 1119 from Italy and 301 from the Czech Republic completed the online questionnaire providing data on Czechoslovakian wolfdogs (CWDs), their sister breed, i.e. German shepherd dogs (GSs), and Labrador retrievers (LRs).Overall some behavioural differences among the breeds emerged together with discrepancies between Italian and Czech owners in the evaluation of some behavioural traits.Italian owners outlined only a few breeds and/or sex differences. Regardless of breed and training male dogs were rated as more aggressive towards other dogs, more excitable and active, more prone to show attention-seeking behaviour, less trainable, and less prone than females to engage in chasing than females. CWDs showed less stranger-directed fear than GSs and LRs and less non-social fear than GSs. According to Czech owners, males were generally more aggressive than females and CWDs and GSs were significantly more aggressive towards strangers and other dogs than LRs. CWDs showed more stranger-directed fear and separation-related behaviour and were less trainable than both GSs and LRs. The training was generally reported to reduce aggressive and separation-related behaviour, fear of strangers and non-social stimuli, and chasing tendencies. Taken together these findings suggest that CWDs could be more similar to ancient breeds (more wolf-like) for some behavioural traits and like modern breeds for others. Different breeding practices and/or social/environmental conditions such as socialization, handling, training methods but also owners’ perceptions and expectations about a given breed could explain the differences in rating that emerged between the two countries.

Autistic differences in the temporal dynamics of social attention.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders typically exhibit reduced visual attention towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. Importantly, however, attention is not a static process, and it remains unclear how such effects may manifest over time. Exploring these momentary changes in gaze behaviour can more clearly illustrate how individuals respond to social stimuli and provide insight into the mechanisms underlying reduced social attention in autism spectrum disorder. Using a simple passive eye-tracking task with competing presentations of social and nonsocial stimuli, we examine the different ways in which attention to social stimuli evolves over time in neurotypical adults and adults with and autism spectrum disorders. Our temporal modelling of gaze behaviour revealed divergent temporal profiles of social attention in neurotypical and observers with autism. Neurotypical data showed an initial increase in social attention, a ‘decay’ and subsequent ‘recovery’ after prolonged viewing. By contrast, in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, social attention decayed over time in a linear fashion without recovery after prolonged viewing. We speculate that the ‘gaze cascade’ effect that maintains selection of social stimuli in neurotypical observers is disrupted in individuals with high autistic traits. Considering these temporal components of gaze behaviour may enhance behavioural phenotypes and theories of social attention in autism spectrum disorder.Lay abstractOne behaviour often observed in individuals with autism is that they tend to look less towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. For instance, many eye-tracking studies have shown that individuals with autism will look less towards people and more towards objects in scenes. However, we currently know very little about how these behaviours change over time. Tracking these moment-to-moment changes in looking behaviour in individuals with autism can more clearly illustrate how they respond to social stimuli. In this study, adults with and without autism were presented with displays of social and non-social stimuli, while looking behaviours were measured by eye-tracking. We found large differences in how the two groups looked towards social stimuli over time. Neurotypical individuals initially showed a high probability of looking towards social stimuli, then a decline in probability, and a subsequent increase in probability after prolonged viewing. By contrast, individuals with autism showed an initial increase in probability, followed by a continuous decline in probability that did not recover. This pattern of results may indicate that individuals with autism exhibit reduced responsivity to the reward value of social stimuli. Moreover, our data suggest that exploring the temporal nature of gaze behaviours can lead to more precise explanatory theories of attention in autism.

Anticipation to Social and Nonsocial Dynamic Cues in Preschool-Age Children.

The ability to learn from expectations is foundational to social and nonsocial learning in children. However, we know little about the brain basis of reward expectation in development. Here, 3- to 4-year-olds (N=26) were shown a passive associative learning paradigm with dynamic stimuli. Anticipation for reward-related stimuli was measured via the stimulus preceding negativity (SPN). To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure an SPN in children younger than age 6. Our findings reveal distinct anticipatory neural signatures for social versus nonsocial stimuli, consistent with previous research in older children. This study suggests an SPN can be elicited in preschoolers and is larger for social than nonsocial stimuli.

All contexts are not created equal: Social stimuli win the competition for organizing reinforcement learning in 9-month-old infants.

Previous work has shown that infants as young as 8months of age can use certain features of the environment, such as the shape or color of visual stimuli, as cues to organize simple inputs into hierarchical rule structures, a robust form of reinforcement learning that supports generalization of prior learning to new contexts. However, especially in cluttered naturalistic environments, there are an abundance of potential cues that can be used to structure learning into hierarchical rule structures. It is unclear how infants determine what features constitute a higher-order context to organize inputs into hierarchical rule structures. Here, we examine whether 9-month-old infants are biased to use social stimuli, relative to non-social stimuli, as a higher-order context to organize learning of simple visuospatial inputs into hierarchical rule sets. Infants were presented with four face/color-target location pairings, which could be learned most simply as individual associations. Alternatively, infants could use the faces or colorful backgrounds as a higher-order context to organize the inputs into simpler color-location or face-location rules, respectively. Infants were then given a generalization test designed to probe how they learned the initial pairings. The results indicated that infants appeared to use the faces as a higher-order context to organize simpler color-location rules, which then supported generalization of learning to new face contexts. These findings provide new evidence that infants are biased to organize reinforcement learning around social stimuli.

Interspecific two-dimensional visual discrimination of faces in horses (Equus caballus).

In social animals, recognizing conspecifics and distinguishing them from other animal species is certainly important. We hypothesize, as demonstrated in other species of ungulates, that horses are able to discriminate between the faces of conspecifics and the faces of other domestic species (cattle, sheep, donkeys and pigs). Our hypothesis was tested by studying inter-and intra-specific visual discrimination abilities in horses through a two-way instrumental conditioning task (discrimination and reversal learning), using two-dimensional images of faces as discriminative stimuli and food as a positive reward. Our results indicate that 8 out of 10 horses were able to distinguish between two-dimensional images of the faces of horses and images showing the faces of other species. A similar performance was obtained in the reversal task. The horses' ability to learn by discrimination is therefore comparable to other ungulates. Horses also showed the ability to learn a reversal task. However, these results were obtained regardless of the images the tested horses were exposed to. We therefore conclude that horses can discriminate between two dimensional images of conspecifics and two dimensional images of different species, however in our study, they were not able to make further subcategories within each of the two categories. Despite the fact that two dimensional images of animals could be treated differently from two dimensional images of non-social stimuli, our results beg the question as to whether a two-dimensional image can replace the real animal in cognitive tests.

Lack of drug- and cue-stimulated emissions of ultrasonic vocalizations in C57BL/6J mice repeatedly treated with amphetamine

The emission of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) is thought to communicate the behavioral and emotional states elicited in rodents by social and non-social stimuli. On this basis, studies of psychopharmacology in rats are increasingly utilizing USVs as a behavioral marker to evaluate the effects of drugs on the emotional state. Conversely, very limited information is available as to whether psychoactive drugs influence USV emissions in mice. To provide new insights in this respect, we evaluated the emission of USVs in C57BL/6J mice subjected to repeated treatment with the dopaminergic psychostimulant of abuse amphetamine. Mice were first allowed to perform social contacts in dyads, and 2 days later they received amphetamine (1−4 mg/kg, i.p.) in a test cage (× 5 administrations) on alternate days. Seven days after treatment discontinuation, mice were re-exposed to the test cage to evaluate whether the presentation of drug-paired environmental cues elicited calling behavior, and thereafter received an amphetamine challenge. An additional group of animals received the dopamine receptor agonist apomorphine (1−4 mg/kg, i.p.), to further clarify the role of dopamine transmission in calling behavior of mice. C57BL/6J mice emitted USVs during social contacts, but did not significantly vocalize after amphetamine administration, in response to amphetamine-paired environmental cues, and after apomorphine administration. These results indicate that C57BL/6J mice may respond differently to social and pharmacological stimuli in terms of USV emissions, and may lay the foundation for future studies aimed at clarifying whether USVs may be a useful behavioral marker in studies of psychopharmacology in mice.

Visual Attention Patterns of Socially Anxious Individuals When Using Facebook: An Eye Tracking Study

Social networking sites (SNSs) are an increasingly used medium for social interactions. For socially anxious individuals, SNS-based communication is often preferred over traditional face-to-face socializing. Yet, research on SNSs usage and social anxiety is still less common, with extant studies being mostly correlational among healthy nonanxious participants. Conversely, here, we examined differences in actual gaze patterns to social and nonsocial stimuli between socially anxious and nonanxious individuals while using Facebook. Socially anxious and nonanxious student participants freely viewed a genuine Facebook profile page designed for the present study, for 3.5 minutes, containing 12 social and 12 nonsocial picture stimuli. Gaze patterns on social and nonsocial areas of interest (AOIs) were explored. Subjective uneasiness experienced when viewing the social pictures and state anxiety were also assessed. Finally, 2 weeks following the task, we evaluated participants’ willingness to participate in a follow-up (fictitious) study that required them to passively view their own Facebook profile, and then to actively use it. Results showed that compared with nonanxious participants, socially anxious participants demonstrated a viewing pattern less favoring social pictures, reflecting an attentional avoidance tendency. A significant inverse correlation between subjective uneasiness and percent of dwell time spent on the social AOI emerged. Socially anxious participants also reported higher levels of state anxiety, which was significantly positively correlated with uneasiness scores. Finally, socially anxious participants were also less willing to actively use their Facebook profile page. This study suggests that social anxious individuals are characterized by attentional and behavioral avoidance tendencies when using Facebook.

The functional neural architecture of dysfunctional reward processing in autism

Functional imaging studies have found differential neural activation patterns during reward-paradigms in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to neurotypical controls. However, publications report conflicting results on the directionality and location of these aberrant activations. We here quantitatively summarized relevant fMRI papers in the field using the anatomical likelihood estimation (ALE) algorithm.Patients with ASD consistently showed hypoactivations in the striatum across studies, mainly in the right putamen and accumbens. These regions are functionally involved in the processing of rewards and are enrolled in extensive neural networks involving limbic, cortical, thalamic and mesencephalic regions.The striatal hypo-activations found in our ALE meta-analysis, which pooled over contrasts derived from the included studies on reward-processing in ASD, highlight the role of the striatum as a key neural correlate of impaired reward processing in autism. These changes were present for studies using social and non-social stimuli alike. The involvement of these regions in extensive networks associated with the processing of both positive and negative emotion alike might hint at broader impairments of emotion processing in the disorder.

Attend Less, Fear More: Elevated Distress to Social Threat in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Differential emotional reactivity to social and nonsocial stimuli has been hypothesized but rarely examined empirically in ASD despite its potential importance for development of social motivation, cognition, and comorbid psychopathology. This study examined emotional reactivity, regulation, and attention to social and nonsocial threat in toddlers with ASD (n= 42, Mage : 22 months) and typically developing (TD) toddlers (n= 22, Mage : 23 months), and their mutual associations with autism symptom severity. Participants were exposed to social (stranger), nonsocial (mechanical objects), and ambiguous (masks) threats, and their intensity of distress (iDistress), attention to threat (Attention), and presence of emotion regulation (ER) strategies were measured. Autism symptom severity was quantified using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2. In response to social threat, toddlers with ASD exhibited elevated iDistress (P< 0.038) but lower Attention (P< 0.002) and a wider variety of ER strategies (P< 0.040) compared to TD controls, though their ER strategies were less likely to be social. However, nonsocial and ambiguous threat elicited lower iDistress in ASD than in TD toddlers (P= 0.012 and P= 0.034, respectively), but comparable Attention and ER strategy use. Autism severity was not associated with iDistress. The study demonstrates elevated emotional salience but diminished attentional salience of social threat in ASD. A failure to attend adequately to social threats may restrict opportunities to appraise their threat value and engender often observed in ASD negative emotional responses to novel social situations. Early atypical emotional reactivity may independently contribute to the shaping of complex autism phenotypes and may be linked with later emerging affective and behavioral symptoms. LAY SUMMARY: Compared to typically developing toddlers, toddlers with ASD show diminished attention yet enhanced distress in response to social threat. Poor attention to potential social threat may limit opportunities to assess its threat value and thus contribute to often observed negative emotional responses to novel social situations. Identifying the precursors of atypical emotional reactivity in infancy and its links with later psychopathology will inform about novel treatment targets and mechanisms of change in the early stages of ASD. Autism Res 2021, 14: 1025-1036. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, LLC.

The Benefit Assessment of the Physiotherapy Sessions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background. Children with autism disorder show atypical preference for non-social stimuli. Therefore, the deficits of social communication and social interest are primary and usually named features for the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The main idea of the present work was to show that the physiotherapy sessions (PS) were some of the ways that could improve the physical condition of children with ADS. Moreover, the application of such programs increased self-esteem, communication skills and permitted a better adaptation and integration within society.&#x0D; Methods. Eleven children attending kindergarten for children with special needs participated in this investigation. The inclusion criteria were a clinical diagnosis of ASD. All participants had F 84.0 code in their cases and were specified for grade II autism disorder according to the American Psychiatric Association (2014). The investigation process consisted of four stages: the initial testing, the application of the physiotherapy program (PS), the post-application testing and the analysis, interpretation and comparison of obtained results. The investigation process was applied for six weeks.&#x0D; Results. After PS applications, the children’s balance improved by 21.32%, coordination – 23.36%, physical and functional abilities such as speed (13.18%) and explosive leg strength (37.14%).&#x0D; Conclusions. The physiotherapy sessions improved the physical condition of children with ADS: balance, coordination, functional abilities and the explosive leg strength. The capability to do physical exercises in a group, at home or in individual sessions with specialist improved as well.&#x0D; Keywords: pre-school children, individual physiotherapy program, social skills.

A pupillometry study of multisensory social and linguistic processing in autism and typical development.

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. Many studies have demonstrated atypical responses to audiovisual sensory inputs, particularly those containing sociolinguistic information. It is currently unclear whether these atypical responses are due to the linguistic nature of the inputs or the social aspect itself. Further, it is unclear how atypical sensory responses to sociocommunicative stimuli intersect with autism symptomatology. The current study addressed these outstanding questions by using pupillometry in mental age-matched children with and without autism (N = 71) to examine physiological responses to dynamic, audiovisual stimuli including social, sociolinguistic, socioemotional, and nonsocial stimuli, as well as to temporally manipulated stimuli. Data revealed group differences in pupillary responses with social stimuli but not nonsocial stimuli and, importantly, showed no variation through the inclusion of linguistic or emotional information. This suggests that atypical sensory responses are driven primarily by the inclusion of social information broadly. Further, individual responses to social stimuli were significantly correlated with a wide range of autism spectrum disorder symptomatology, including social communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and sensory processing issues. Pupillary responses to social but not nonsocial presentation were also capable of predicting diagnosis with a high level of selectivity, but only with marginal sensitivity. Finally, responses to the temporal manipulation did not yield any group differences, suggesting that while atypical multisensory temporal processing has been well documented in autism at the level of behavior and perception, these issues may be intact at the physiological level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A projection from the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus to the shell of the nucleus accumbens contributes to footshock stress-induced social avoidance

The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is an area of the dorsal midline thalamus that contributes to footshock induced anxiety. The PVT sends a dense projection to the shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAcSh) and the present study explored if this projection is involved in the behavioral changes produced by a single exposure of rats to inescapable footshocks. The inhibitory Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) hM4Di was transduced in PVT neurons that project to the NAcSh. Rats were exposed to an episode of moderately intense footshock (1.5 mA × 2 s × 5) and assigned to either high-responder (HR) or low-responder groups (LR) according to their level of fear generalization 24 h later. The effect of chemogenetic inhibition of the PVT-NAcSh projection on anxiety- and fear-like behaviors was assessed at approximately 2 weeks post-footshock. HR showed a higher level of social avoidance compared to non-shocked animals and LR. The elevated level of social avoidance was attenuated in the HR treated with the hM4Di agonist clozapine (0.01 mg/kg, i.p.) or clozapine N-oxide (CNO) administrations in the NAcSh while avoidance of open spaces and contextual fear expression were not affected. Analysis of protein product of the early to immediate gene cfos indicated that these effects were mediated by dynorphin neurons in the NAcSh. This study provides evidence for a role of a projection from the PVT to the NAcSh in stress-induced social avoidance independent of anxiety to non-social stimuli and contextual fear mechanisms.