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Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) can affect social interaction and communication as well as motor and cognitive processes. Speech is affected in PD, as is the control of voluntary eye movements which are thought to play an important role in 'turn taking' in conversation. Aims: This study aimed to measure eye movements during spoken conversation in PD to assess whether differences in patterns of eye gaze are linked to disrupted turn taking and impaired communication efficiency. Methods & Procedure: Eleven participants with mild PD and 14 controls completed a two‐player guessing game. During each 3 min game turn, one of the players had to guess the names of as many objects as possible based only on the other player's description. Eye movements were recorded simultaneously in both participants using mobile eye trackers along with speech onset and offset times. Outcomes & Results: When people with PD played the role of describer, the other player guessed fewer objects compared to when controls described objects. When guessing objects, people with PD performed just as well as controls. Analysis of eye fixations showed that people with PD made longer periods of fixation on the other player's face relative to controls and a lower number of such 'gaze on face' periods. Conclusions & Implications: A combination of oculomotor, cognitive and speech abnormalities may disrupt communication in PD. Better public awareness of oculomotor, speech and other deficits in the condition could improve social connectedness in people with Parkinson's. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject?: Parkinson's disease is known to affect the control of voluntary eye movements. Direction of eye gaze is important in spoken conversation as a cue to turn‐taking, but no studies have examined whether eye movements are different during communication in people with Parkinson's. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: People with Parkinson's showed longer periods of eye fixation during conversations compared to controls. Delays and overlaps between speech turns were also affected in patients. What are the clinical implications of this work?: Better knowledge of the effect of the disease on eye gaze control amongst clinicians may help improve communication and social connectedness for patients in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found that music brings back more vivid and emotional autobiographical memories than various other retrieval cues. However, such studies have often been low in ecological validity and constrained by relatively limited cue selection and predominantly young adult samples. Here, we compared music to food as cues for autobiographical memories in everyday life in young and older adults. In two separate four‐day periods, 39 younger (ages 18–34) and 39 older (ages 60–77) adults recorded their music‐ and food‐evoked autobiographical memories in paper diaries. Across both age groups, music triggered more frequent autobiographical memories, a greater proportion of involuntary memories, and memories rated as more personally important in comparison to food cues. Age differences impacted music‐ and food‐evoked memories similarly, with older adults consistently recalling older and less specific memories, which they rated as more positive, vivid, and rehearsed. However, young and older adults did not differ in the number or involuntary nature of their recorded memories. This work represents an important step in understanding the phenomenology of naturally occurring music‐evoked autobiographical memories across adulthood and provides new insights into how and why music may be a more effective trigger for personally valued memories than certain other everyday cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Very young children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often show poorer language development. Whilst there have been attempts to provide early intervention programmes, these sometimes miss the most disadvantaged groups. Aims: This report presents preliminary feasibility and effectiveness data for a novel language intervention designed for parents of toddlers in the United Kingdom. Methods and Procedures: In total, 43 UK families of 2–4‐year‐olds were recruited to the study, half of whom completed an 8‐week course (Tots Talking) focussed on parent interaction, and half of whom acted as wait‐list controls. Results and Outcomes: Results suggest that such programmes are feasible for families with 86% staying in the intervention. In addition, greater changes in underlying communication skills such as joint attention and gesture were evident compared to wait‐list controls. Conclusions and Implications: We conclude that pre‐verbal skills may be more important to measure as initial outcomes than language or vocabulary change in this population. What This Paper Adds: What is already known on the subject: Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are at higher risk of communication difficulties and there is a need for community intervention programmes for very young children. What this study adds: This study suggests that such programmes can be feasible and effective, but that very early/basic communicative skills (such as joint attention) may be boosted first rather than language or vocabulary. What are the clinical implications of this work?: Children's centres and other community services could feasibly run short parent facing courses emphasising contingent communication in low SES families and other diverse groups. These may be more successful run with younger preschoolers. Joint attention may be a better focus of intervention before expecting vocabulary or language change. Community health professionals may find this information useful in referring and supporting families in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formula fed infants experience gastrointestinal infections at higher rates than breastfed infants, due in part to bacteria in powdered infant formula (PIF) and bacterial contamination of infant feeding equipment. The United Kingdom National Health Service (UK NHS) has adopted the World Health Organization recommendation that water used to reconstitute PIF is ≥70°C to eliminate bacteria. We used community science methods to co‐design an at home experiment and online questionnaire ('research diary') to explore the safety of PIF preparation compared to UK NHS guidelines. 200 UK‐based parents of infants aged ≤12 months were recruited; 151 provided data on PIF preparation, and 143 were included in the analysis of water temperatures used to reconstitute PIF. Only 14.9% (n = 11) of 74 PIF preparation machines produced a water temperature of ≥70°C compared with 78.3% (n = 54) of 69 kettle users (p < 0.001). The mean temperature of water dispensed by PIF preparation machines was 9°C lower than kettles (Machine M = 65.78°C, Kettle M = 75.29°C). Many parents did not always fully follow NHS safer PIF preparation guidance, and parents did not appear to understand the potential risks of PIF bacterial contamination. Parents should be advised that the water dispensed by PIF preparation machines may be below 70°C, and could result in bacteria remaining in infant formula, potentially leading to gastrointestinal infections. PIF labelling should advise that water used to prepare PIF should be ≥70°C and highight the risks of not using sufficiently hot water, per WHO Europe advice. There is an urgent need for stronger consumer protections regarding PIF preparation devices. Key points: Only 14.9% (n = 11) of 74 PIF preparation machines produced a water temperature of ≥70°C compared with 78.3% (n = 54) of 69 kettle users (p < 0.001).The mean temperature of water dispensed by PIF preparation machines was 9°C lower than kettles (Machine M = 65.78°C, Kettle M = 75.29°C).Most parents routinely washed and sterilised bottles and teats.Many parents did not always fully follow NHS safer PIF preparation guidance, including 21.8% washing their hands half the time or less, and 14.6% regularly pre‐preparing bottles.Most parents did not appear to understand the risks of PIF bacterial contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whole university approaches to student mental health and well‐being increasingly involve university counselling and mental health services (UCMHSs) as key stakeholders in higher education and the fulfilment of good academic outcomes. However, previous research using routine outcome measures has focussed on psychological distress only. Research is needed to demonstrate the value of university counselling on academic outcomes. This study aimed at profiling the psychological distress of a student sample according to the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation—Outcome Measure (CORE‐OM); measuring the change in perceived impact of problems on academic outcomes, and measuring the perceived impact of counselling on academic outcomes. Students from two UK university counselling services completed the CORE‐OM and the Counselling Impact on Academic Outcomes (CIAO) questionnaire as part of routine practice. After counselling, 67.4% (n = 323) of students with planned endings to counselling showed at least reliable improvement on the CORE‐OM. Significant reductions in the perceived impact of problems on all academic outcomes were also found. On average, 83% (n = 398) of students found counselling helpful for academic outcomes to at least a limited extent. University counselling was found to reduce psychological distress and the impact of problems on academic outcomes. Psychometric examination of the CIAO tool is warranted to strengthen its use. The need for robust data across UCMHSs is demonstrated by both the strengths and limitations of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that the effects of (non‐transparent) nudges can spill over to later similar decisions without nudges. In the current study, we aimed to determine whether such nudge temporal spillover effects are affected by making nudges transparent. The latter is recommended to (partly) mitigate ethical concerns surrounding the use of nudges. In two experiments, we nudged participants to complete a longer version of a survey. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control, a non‐disclosed nudge (using a default to promote taking the longer survey) condition or a disclosed nudge (in which the use of the default nudge was explained) condition. In both Study 1 (N = 1270) and Study 2 (N = 1258) we observed a temporal spillover effect of the disclosed nudge, suggesting that transparency does not negatively affect the temporal spillover effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]