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Background: There is an alarming and constant worldwide progression of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors in children and adolescents. The present paper summarizes findings from France’s 2020 Report Card on physical activity for children and youth, comparing its results to its 2 previous editions (2016 and 2018). Methods: France’s 2020 Report Card follows the standardized methodology established by the Active Healthy Kids Global Matrix, grading 10 common physical activity indicators using the best available evidence. The grades were informed by national surveys, peer-reviewed literature, government and nongovernment reports, and online information. Results: The expert panel awarded the following grades: Overall Physical Activity: D; Organized Sport Participation and Physical Activity: C−; Active Play: INC; Active Transportation: C−; Sedentary Behaviors: D−; Family and Peers: D−; Physical Fitness: D; School: B−; Community and the Built Environment: F; Government: C. Conclusions: This 2020 edition of France’s Report Card again highlights the alarming levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviors among French children and adolescents, calling for the development of effective national action. It also draws attention to the particular deleterious effects of the COVID-19 confinement on youth’s movement behaviors, which significantly worsened the situation.

International audience; Studies have suggested a dysfunction in oculomotor skills in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). It has been proposed that the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test is useful in testing the dyslexics' (DD) oculomotor behavior during reading, in a simple and indirect manner. The present study aimed at exploring the oculomotor behavior in children with DCD as assessed with the DEM test. Furthermore, we compared children with DCD to children with DD and to children with both DCD and DD in order to investigate the specificity of the oculomotor difficulties, as measured by the DEM test. Results showed that 1) children with DCD presented mild atypical performances at the DEM test (error z-score only), 2) children with DD presented particularly poor performance on the DEM test, and 3) the co-morbid condition (DCD+DD) did not add to the severity of atypical performance obtained on the DEM test. In sum, children with DCD were the less affected according to the DEM test, and children with DD (isolated or comorbid) presented the most atypical performance. Results at the DEM test did not allow making emerge clear oculomotor atypicalities in DCD. We thus conclude that more research using eye-tracking techniques is needed to explore the nature of oculomotor atypicalities in DCD children, to distinguish DD and DCD oculomotor behavior, and to understand the profile of children with dual diagnosis.

International audience; Family components can play roles both as protective factors and maintenance mechanisms of eating disorders. We aimed to investigate the role of food in the family relationships of adolescents with anorexia nervosa and bulimia in northeastern Brazil. Using photo elicitation, a visual narrative method that gives insight into the participants' perspective through photograph, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 people: four teenage girls with anorexia, four with bulimia, eight mothers, four fathers, five grandmothers, and one sister. Data were analyzed using the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, which highlighted the following themes: control of the parent-adolescent relationship through food; food as a mean of experiencing parental presence-absence; food as the focus of conflict in the nuclear family, and food as a source of three-generational conflict. Food seemed to be a means for teens and parents to express physical suffering and psychological violence. Moreover, mourning appeared to influence the girls' relationships with food. Conflict in these families is not focused solely on food, but extends to other subjects, and teenagers' emotional reactivity concerning their relationship with their parents and food during family mealtimes varied. These features reinforced the cultural aspect and influences of eating experiences among adolescent girls with eating disorders. Remarkable disparities exist in the generations' views on what rules and rituals these adolescents must follow at meals. These disparities can obfuscate generational boundaries in these families. Our data reinforce the need to focus on the adolescent's autonomy in the family setting and on family identity as related to food among three generations. These findings necessitate a reorganization of boundaries between these generations.

Background An estimated 30% of women in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from soil-transmitted helminth infection during pregnancy (SHIP), which has been shown to increase risk of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and maternal anemia. A previous study in Benin found that SHIP was associated with impaired cognitive and gross motor development scores in 635 one-year-old children. The objective of the present study was to follow children prospectively to investigate whether the association between SHIP and child neurocognitive and behavioral development persisted at age six. Principal findings Our prospective child cohort included 487 live-born singletons of pregnant women enrolled in the Malaria in Pregnancy Preventive Alternative Drugs clinical trial in Allada, Benin. SHIP was assessed at three antenatal visits (ANVs) through collection and testing of stool samples. Neurocognitive and behavioral development was assessed in six-year-old children by trained investigators using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children 2nd edition and the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Multiple linear regression models generated coefficients and 95% confidence intervals and potential mediating factors were tested. Prevalence of SHIP was 13% at the 1st ANV, 9% at the 2nd ANV, and 1% at delivery. SHIP was not associated with low neurocognitive scores in children at six years. Higher SDQ internalizing scores, indicating increased emotional impairments in children, were associated with helminth infection at the 2nd ANV/delivery 1.07 (95% CI 0.15, 2.00) and at least once during pregnancy 0.79 (95% CI 0.12, 1.46) in adjusted models. Mediation analysis did not reveal significant indirect effects of several mediators on this association. Conclusions Our study shows that while SHIP is not associated with impaired long-term neurocognitive development, infections may have significant negative impacts on emotional development in six-year-old children. SHIP remains a critical public health issue, and adequate prevention and treatment protocols should be enforced in low- and middle-income countries., Author summary Soil-transmitted helminth infections impact 1.5 billion individuals, primarily in low- and middle- income countries, each year and contribute to malnutrition, anemia, and impaired neurocognitive development in children. However, these infections in pregnancy and their impact on offspring have been less studied. One previous study found associations between soil-transmitted helminth infection during pregnancy and impaired cognitive functioning in offspring one year after birth. The current study aimed to follow these children prospectively until six years in order to confirm whether these associations persisted or not. Infections during pregnancy were no longer associated with cognitive or motor functioning in children; however, infections were associated with impaired behavioral development. Animal-based models have hypothesized maternal inflammation and poor birth outcomes to be the mechanisms behind this relationship; however, our findings did not support these mechanisms. This is one of very few prospective cohort studies in Sub-Saharan Africa to investigate these associations, and more research is needed to corroborate results. Limitations include limited power and the possibility that results are due to chance from multiple statistical tests. Adequate and accessible prevention and treatment efforts in pregnancy and childhood should be provided to populations in low- and middle- income countries at high risk of infection.

International audience

Background It is essential to investigate the experiences behind why adolescents start and continue to self-harm in order to develop targeted treatment and prevent future self-harming behaviours. Aims The aims of this study are to understand the motivations for initiating and repeating nonfatal self-harm, the different methods used between first-time and repeated self-harm and the reasons that adolescents do not seek help from health services. Methods Adolescents with repeated nonfatal self-harm experiences were recruited to participate in individual, semi-structured qualitative interviews. The interviews were analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results We found that nonfatal self-harm among adolescents occurred comparatively early and was often triggered by specific reasons. However, the subsequent nonfatal self-harm could be causeless, with repeated self-harm becoming a maladaptive coping strategy to handle daily pressure and negative emotions. The choice of tools used was related to the ease of accessibility, the life-threatening risk and the size of the scars. Adolescents often concealed their scars on purpose, which made early identification insufficient. Peer influence, such as online chat groups encouraging self-harm by discussing and sharing self-harm pictures, could also lead to increased self-harm. The results also included participants’ opinions on how to stop nonfatal self-harm and their dissatisfaction with the current healthcare services. Conclusions The current study provides important implications both for early identification and interventions for adolescents who engage in repeated nonfatal self-harm, and for individualising treatment planning that benefits them. It is also worthwhile to further investigate how peer influence and social media may affect self-harm in adolescents.

International audience; Difficulty modulating sensory information has been described in children with developmental disorders. However, the relation of sensory processing difficulties (SPD) to emotional regulation problems remains poorly understood. The aim of this study is to determine the rate and patterns of SPD in youth with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). Participants were DMDD patients aged 6-16 years presenting at a university hospital in outpatient or inpatient facilities (n = 30). For each participant, the parent-reported Sensory Profile, the Affective Lability Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18, and the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version were completed. The scores of the Sensory Profile of the DMDD youths were compared to those obtained in a clinical control group and to the manual scores for same-age typically developing youths. SPD were reported in 53% of the subjects in the DMDD group compared to 33% in the clinical control group (p = 0.405). Youths with DMDD showed a significant difference on almost all items of the Sensory Profile compared to typically developing youth. The Sensory Profile was found to discriminate best between the participants with DMDD and those in the clinical control group with regard to the category "Behavioral outcomes of sensory processing" and the factor "Fine motor/perceptual behavior." All types of sensory processing patterns were reported in the DMDD youths: sensation avoiding (40%), low registration (27%), sensory sensitivity (20%), and sensation seeking (10%). As a group, youths with DMDD have significantly more SPD when compared to typical youths. Therefore, SPD could be an important factor to consider in youths with DMDD when providing comprehensive assessment and therapeutic interventions.

Oteros, Jose/0000-0002-9369-8633; Fonseca, Joao Almeida/0000-0002-0887-8796; Alvarez-Perea, Alberto/0000-0001-7417-7309; Oteros, Jose/0000-0002-9369-8633; Gevaert, Philippe/0000-0002-1629-8468; Antolin, Dario/0000-0001-5699-4022; Apfelbacher, Christian/0000-0003-3805-8219; Buters, Jeroen/0000-0003-3581-5472; Berger, Uwe E./0000-0002-9265-2131; Blank, Simon/0000-0002-5649-1078; Cardona, Victoria/0000-0003-2197-9767; Dramburg, Stephanie/0000-0002-9303-3260 WOS: 000486665800001 PubMed: 31230373 Mobile health (mHealth) uses mobile communication devices such as smartphones and tablet computers to support and improve health-related services, data and information flow, patient self-management, surveillance, and disease management from the moment of first diagnosis to an optimized treatment. The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology created a task force to assess the state of the art and future potential of mHealth in allergology. The task force endorsed the "Be He@lthy, Be Mobile" WHO initiative and debated the quality, usability, efficiency, advantages, limitations, and risks of mobile solutions for allergic diseases. The results are summarized in this position paper, analyzing also the regulatory background with regard to the "General Data Protection Regulation" and Medical Directives of the European Community. The task force assessed the design, user engagement, content, potential of inducing behavioral change, credibility/accountability, and privacy policies of mHealth products. The perspectives of healthcare professionals and allergic patients are discussed, underlining the need of thorough investigation for an effective design of mHealth technologies as auxiliary tools to improve quality of care. Within the context of precision medicine, these could facilitate the change in perspective from clinician- to patient-centered care. The current and future potential of mHealth is then examined for specific areas of allergology, including allergic rhinitis, aerobiology, allergen immunotherapy, asthma, dermatological diseases, food allergies, anaphylaxis, insect venom, and drug allergy. The impact of mobile technologies and associated big data sets are outlined. Facts and recommendations for future mHealth initiatives within EAACI are listed.

ObjectiveAdolescent migrants present psychological disorders more frequently than the corresponding host population but their access to care and to follow-up are less effective. The French method of transcultural psychotherapy (TPT) was conceived to respond to these problems. Our objective is to assess how these adolescents and their families perceive the experience and effectiveness of TPT.MethodWe conducted semistructured interviews with the families of adolescents seen for TPT. The data were analyzed by a qualitative thematic methodology.ResultsWe spoke to 21 participants in 8 families. The families came to TPT with a sense that the teen's current treatment was at an impasse. During the follow-up, they noted that family communication and relationships had improved, as had their connection to their culture of origin. Besides commenting on what they perceived as limitations, families identified specific elements of TPT as therapeutic.ConclusionThe pronounced diversity of the group and the use of both multiperspective narration and an interpreter were specific elements driving the construction of a good therapeutic alliance, despite the initial barriers. Pursuit of the evaluation of TPT is essential to advance the psychiatric care of adolescent migrants.

International audience; Children with hearing loss (HL), in spite of early cochlear implantation, often struggle considerably with language acquisition. Previous research has shown a benefit of rhythmic training on linguistic skills in children with HL, suggesting that improving rhythmic capacities could help attenuating language difficulties. However, little is known about general rhythmic skills of children with HL and how they relate to speech perception. The aim of this study is twofold: (1) to assess the abilities of children with HL in different rhythmic sensorimotor synchronization tasks compared to a normal-hearing control group and (2) to investigate a possible relation between sensorimotor synchronization abilities and speech perception abilities in children with HL.Design: A battery of sensorimotor synchronization tests with stimuli of varying acoustic and temporal complexity was used: a metronome, different musical excerpts, and complex rhythmic patterns. Synchronization abilities were assessed in 32 children (aged from 5 to 10 years) with a severe to profound HL mainly fitted with one or two cochlear implants (n = 28) or with hearing aids (n = 4). Working memory and sentence repetition abilities were also assessed. Performance was compared to an age-matched control group of 24 children with normal hearing. The comparison took into account variability in working memory capacities. For children with HL only, we computed linear regressions on speech, sensorimotor synchronization, and working memory abilities, including device-related variables such as onset of device use, type of device, and duration of use.Results: Compared to the normal-hearing group, children with HL performed poorly in all sensorimotor synchronization tasks, but the effect size was greater for complex as compared to simple stimuli. Group differences in working memory did not explain this result. Linear regression analysis revealed that working memory, synchronization to complex rhythms performances, age, and duration of device use predicted the number of correct syllables produced in a sentence repetition task. Conclusion: Despite early cochlear implantation or hearing aid use, hearing impairment affects the quality of temporal processing of acoustic stimuli in congenitally deaf children. This deficit seems to be more severe with stimuli of increasing rhythmic complexity highlighting a difficulty in structuring sounds according to a temporal hierarchy.

This paper assesses the potential cohesion effect of a physical activity (PA) school-based intervention potentiated using text messages (SMS) through analyzing longitudinally the friendship network structure and the mechanisms of the formation and dissolution of friendships. Three schools (n = 125 participants) in Bogot&aacute, Colombia, were randomly assigned into three groups: Modulo Activo Recreo Activo (MARA) + SMS (networks 1 and 2), MARA (networks 3 and 4), and control (no intervention: networks 5&ndash, 7). We collected socio-economic, health-related, network structure, and intervention satisfaction variables in the baseline and after 10 weeks on July&ndash, November 2013. For each classroom network, we conducted four models using a temporal and static network approach to assess (1) temporal social network changes, (2) friendship homophily, (3) friendship formation and dissolution mechanisms, and (4) effect of SMS on the networks&rsquo, cohesion. We found that (1) social cohesion emerged in the four intervened networks that were measured over time with transitivity and homophily driven by clustering, (2) the intervention affected the mechanisms of friendship formation and dissolution, and (3) MARA + SMS on average created more social cohesion and 3.8 more friendships than the program alone. Potentially, school-based interventions with information and communication technologies (ICT) such as MARA + SMS could encourage social cohesion among children. The particular characteristics of each school network need to be considered when developing school-based interventions.

International audience; Background: Irritability is frequently comorbid with ADHD. Although irritability alone has been linked to deleterious mental health and adaptive issues, the joint developmental course of ADHD and irritability symptoms during childhood as well as its association with later mental health and suicidal outcomes is not fully understood. We aimed to describe the developmental trajectories of childhood ADHD and irritability symptoms and to quantify their association with adolescent mental health and suicidal outcomes.Methods: The Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) included 1407 participants from the general population followed up from age 5 months to 17 years. We used a multitrajectory approach to identify developmental trajectories of childhood (6-12 years) ADHD and irritability symptoms. Outcome measures were adolescent (13-17 years) mental health (psychiatric symptoms/functional impairment) and suicidal outcomes.Results: We identified distinct developmental profiles: combined absent or very low ADHD and absent or very low irritability (940 [66.8%]; reference group), moderately high irritability and low ADHD (158 [11.2%]), moderately high ADHD and low irritability (198 [14.1%]), and combined high ADHD and high irritability (111 [7.9%]). Multivariate modeling showed that, compared to children in the reference group, those in the combined high ADHD and high irritability profile showed higher levels of ADHD continuity (d ranges = 0.40-0.50), externalizing (d ranges = 0.25-0.59), internalizing (d ranges = 0.20-0.29), and functional impairments (d ranges = 0.17-0.48) and suicidal behaviors (odds ratio (OR) = 2.12, confidence interval (CI) = 1.47-3.06) in adolescence.Conclusions: The presence of persistently high levels of irritability along with ADHD symptoms during childhood significantly predicts adolescent ADHD continuity, externalizing, internalizing, and suicidal outcomes. Systematic consideration of irritability when assessing and treating ADHD may improve long-term mental health outcomes.

International audience; In everyday life, our activities frequently involve the simultaneous performance of two or more tasks. Sharing attention between two concurrent tasks may result in a decrease in performance specifically among children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The objective of the study was to determine whether the influence of postural conditions (sitting condition, single task; standing condition, dual task) on eye movement performances on three visual tasks with high attentional load (visually-guided saccade task, memory-guided saccade task and fixation task) was different in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (attention deficit and hyperactive disorder, dyslexia, and high functioning autism spectrum disorder) when compared to typically developing children. One hundred and four children (26 per group, sex-age-and IQ-matched groups) were evaluated. We found that for the fixation task only, the three groups of children with neurodevelopmental disorders had poorer eye movements performances in the standing condition compared to the sitting condition while no such difference was found for typically developing children. We suggest that children with neurodevelopmental disorders have fewer attentional resources available for performing correctly oculomotor tasks with high atten-tional load leading to impairment of these tasks for maintaining a good level of postural stability.

International audience; There is limited data on long-term outcome of ASD with co-occurring intellectual disabilities (ID) and challenging behaviours in France. The EpiTED period cohort is a 15 years longitudinal study of the developmental trajectories of 281 children initially recruited at mean age of 5 years. Two contrasted developmental trajectories were identified. Low cognitive level, absence of language, and higher ASD scores at baseline were predictive of low growth at follow-up. As adults the participants were predisposed to persistent co-occurring challenging behaviours as well as underlying ID impacting their ability to function independently. The results underscore the need for development of services and supports for adults with ASD in France who may also have already lacked access to adequate interventions and support services.

Background In low-resource settings, the lack of mental health professionals and cross-culturally validated screening instruments complicates mental health care delivery. This is especially the case for very young children. Here, we aimed to develop and cross-culturally validate a simple and rapid tool, the PSYCa 6–36, that can be administered by non-professionals to screen for psychological difficulties among children aged six to 36 months. Methods A primary validation of the PSYCa 6–36 was conducted in Kenya (n = 319 children aged 6 to 36 months; 2014), followed by additional validations in Kenya (n = 215; 2014) Cambodia (n = 189; 2015) and Uganda (n = 182; 2016). After informed consent, trained interviewers administered the PSYCa 6–36 to caregivers participating in the study. We assessed the psychometric properties of the PSYCa 6–36 and external validity was assessed by comparing the results of the PSYCa 6–36 against a clinical global impression severity [CGIS] score rated by an independent psychologist after a structured clinical interview with each participant. Results The PSYCa 6–36 showed satisfactory psychometric properties (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.60 in Uganda and > 0.70 in Kenya and Cambodia), temporal stability (intra-class correlation coefficient [ICC] > 0.8), and inter-rater reliability (ICC from 0.6 in Uganda to 0.8 in Kenya). Psychologists identified psychological difficulties (CGIS score > 1) in 11 children (5.1%) in Kenya, 13 children (8.7%) in Cambodia and 15 (10.5%) in Uganda, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.65 in Uganda and 0.80 in Kenya and Cambodia. Conclusions The PSYCa 6–36 allowed for rapid screening of psychological difficulties among children aged 6 to 36 months among the populations studied. Use of the tool also increased awareness of children’s psychological difficulties and the importance of early recognition to prevent long-term consequences. The PSYCa 6–36 would benefit from further use and validation studies in popula`tions with higher prevalence of psychological difficulties. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12887-019-1461-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

International audience; OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the association between negative feelings about the first intercourse timing and sociodemographic and contextual factors. We hypothesized that girls and adolescents with an older first sexual partner will be more likely to report negative feelings and that prevalence of those feelings will vary across countries.METHODS: Adolescents (N = 6073, mean age = 15.6 ± 0.34), from Bulgaria, France, Ireland, and Scotland, taking part in the 2013/2014 HBSC study, were asked about sexual initiation, their age and partner's age at first intercourse, and their feeling about the timing of first intercourse.RESULTS: One-fifth of the 1321 adolescents who had had sexual intercourse reported negative feelings about the first intercourse timing. Girls, adolescents from low affluent families, and those with an older first partner were more likely to report negative feelings. However, after adjustment for covariates, only girls and those from less affluent families had significantly higher odds of reporting negative feelings.CONCLUSIONS: Sexual education programmes need to explicitly address decision-making around timing of first intercourse in order to reduce negative feelings, with a special attention to gender and social inequalities.

Background The 2005–06 chikungunya virus (CHIKV) outbreak in La Réunion suggested that mothers could transmit CHIKV to their neonates while viremic during the intrapartum period, and more than half of the infected neonates showed impaired neurodevelopment at two years of age. However, data sparsity precluded an overview of the developmental impact of vertical infection within the whole prenatal period. Objective & methods The current study assessed two-year old children born to mothers who were infected during the 2014 CHIKV outbreak in Grenada to determine the neurodevelopmental impact of perinatal CHIKV infection throughout gestation. Mother and child infection status were confirmed by serologic testing (IgG and IgM) for CHIKV. Cognitive, fine motor, gross motor, language and behavioral outcomes were assessed at two years of age on the INTERGROWTH-21st Neurodevelopment Assessment (INTER-NDA). Results No differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes were observed between two-year-old children born to mothers infected with CHIKV during gestation (n = 149) and those born to mothers not infected with CHIKV (n = 161). No differences were found in INTER-NDA scores between children infected with CHIKV (n = 47) and children not infected with CHIKV (n = 592). Likewise, there were no differences between children infected with CHIKV post-partum (n = 19) versus children not infected with CHIKV (n = 592). Conclusion Our findings suggest that children exposed and/or infected with CHIKV outside of the intrapartum period experience no significant neurodevelopmental delay at two years of age, as measured by the INTER-NDA, compared to their unexposed and/or uninfected peers. These results complement those of previous studies which showed a neurodevelopmental risk only for children infected during the intrapartum period, while the mother was highly viremic. These results might be reassuring for women of childbearing age and public health officials in CHIKV-endemic regions., Author summary The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) can negatively impact fetal neurodevelopment and consequent neurocognitive functioning in young children. Studies from La Réunion island demonstrated that, compared to their uninfected counterparts, children infected by CHIKV during the intrapartum period were at increased risk for deficiencies in the frontal lobes where the language and coordination centers are located, as well as slight deficits in other neurocognitive skills like sociability, movement and posture. The current study assessed two-year old children born to mothers infected during the 2014 CHIKV outbreak in Grenada to determine the neurodevelopmental impact of perinatal infection throughout gestation. No differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes were observed between two-year-old children born to mothers infected with CHIKV during gestation and those born to mothers not infected with CHIKV, nor between children infected with CHIKV and children not infected with CHIKV. Our results support previous findings that a small proportion of children born in CHIKV-endemic regions are at risk as only mothers viremic during the intrapartum period are at risk of infecting their neonates. Healthcare providers in CHIKV-endemic regions may wish to monitor for CHIKV symptoms when pregnant women are near term. The relatively high symptomatic rate seen with CHIKV infection (75%) makes such monitoring feasible.

Purpose The objective of this study was to explore vertical binocular coordination in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children during saccades and post-saccadic fixation period while reading a text. Methods Binocular eye movements were recorded by an infrared system (Mobile T2®, SuriCog) in thirty-six dyslexic children from 7.3 to 13.6 years of age (mean age: 10.4 ± 0.3 years) who were asked to silently read a four-line text during binocular viewing. Data were compared to those of thirty-six age-matched non-dyslexic children. Results Vertical disconjugacy during post-saccadic fixation was higher in dyslexic children with respect to non-dyslexic children group. Vertical disconjugacy was not age-dependent either for dyslexic children or for non-dyslexic children. Conclusions The poor binocular vertical coordination observed in dyslexic children while reading could suggest a deficiency in the cerebellum and/or extra-ocular muscles involved in vertical eye alignment. Moreover, the fact that this vertical binocular coordination was not age-dependent could be due to an abnormal eye position and/or to a dysfunction of midbrain structures involved in vertical vergences.

International audience; The goal of this study is to explore eye movement recordings during the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. Thirteen children with dyslexia, 13 non-dyslexic chronological age-and IQ-matched children and 13 non-dyslexic reading age-and IQ-matched children were examined. Test C of the DEM test was performed with and without eye movement recordings (eye tracker by SuriCog). The results of the three groups were compared. Children with dyslexia and non-dyslexic children of equivalent reading age have significant longer fixation time and take longer to read Test C of the DEM test than non-dyslexic children of similar chronological age. A significant correlation was also found between the fixation time and the number of words read in one minute with the total time to read Test C of the DEM test. DEM test is a useful test for exploring the oculomotor behavior of dyslexic children during reading. The maturation of cortical structures controlling fixation capability appears to play a crucial role in reading skills.

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-05T01:12:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-11-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) In this study, we investigated the eye movement and postural control performance in dyslexic children while reading text and performing Landolt reading when sitting and standing. Fifteen dyslexic and 15 non-dyslexic children were asked to sit in a chair while the eye movements were recorded, and were then asked to stand on an unstable platform while eye movements and postural sway were recorded simultaneously at the time of Landolt reading and text reading. Eye movements were recorded binocularly by Mobile EyeBrain Tracker (MobileT2 (R), SuriCog) and center of pressure excursions were recorded by Multitest Equilibre (by Framiral (R)). The dependent variables for visual performance in the reading tasks were: total reading time, mean duration of fixation, number of pro- and retro-saccades, and amplitude of pro-saccades. The dependent variable for postural performance was the center of pressure area. The results showed that dyslexic children spent more time reading the text compared to non-dyslexic children (p < 0.02). However, no difference was observed for the Landolt reading task (p > 0.05). Dyslexic children performed longer fixations in the sitting condition as compared to the standing (p < 0.03), namely, higher number of pro- (p < 0.001) and retro- saccades (p < 0.001), and smaller pro-saccades amplitude (p < 0.001). Therefore, when the linguistic and semantic requirements are not involved in the reading task, dyslexic children perform similar to non-dyslexic children even in different task requirements (p > 0.05). Finally, postural performance was poorer in dyslexic children than in non-dyslexic children in both the reading tasks (p < 0.02). However, postural control performance, which was poor in dyslexic children, is not related to lexical and semantic reading requirements. Paris Diderot Univ, Robert Debre Hosp, INSERM, UMR 1141, Paris, France Univ Cruzeiro Sul, Inst Phys Act & Sport Sci, Rua Galvao Bueno 868, BR-01506000 Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Sao Paulo State Univ, Inst Biosci, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Robert Debre Hosp, Child & Adolescent Psychiat Dept, Paris, France Sao Paulo State Univ, Inst Biosci, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil FAPESP: 2016/05602-7

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-05T04:11:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-12-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of colored filters on reading performance and eye movement control in children with and without dyslexia. Methods: Eighteen children with dyslexia and 18 children without dyslexia were seated on a chair with their heads stabilized by a forehead and chin support. The children read different texts under the following three filter conditions: no filter, yellow filter, and green filter. The children's eye movements were recorded with a Mobile EyeBrain Tracker. Reading total time, duration of fixation between two successive saccades, pro-saccades amplitude and number of pro- and retro-saccades were obtained. Results: Children with dyslexia read the fastest and had the shortest fixation time in the green filter condition compared with the other conditions. Furthermore, children with dyslexia showed the shortest fixation time in the green filter condition with respect to the other conditions. Conclusions: Taken together, these results suggested that the green filter improved reading performance in children with dyslexia because the filter most likely facilitated cortical activity and decreased visual distortions. Paris Diderot Univ, UMR 1141, INSERM, Robert Debre Hosp, Paris, France Univ Cruzeiro Sul, Inst Phys Act & Sport Sci, Rua Galvao Bueno 868, BR-01506000 Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Sao Paulo State Univ, Inst Biosci, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Robert Debre Hosp, Child & Adolescent Psychiat Dept, Paris, France Sao Paulo State Univ, Inst Biosci, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil FAPESP: 2016/05602-7 FAPESP: 2013/25653-7

Un article correspondant à cette présentation devrait paraître en 2017 dans Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism.Un article correspondant à cette présentation devrait paraître en 2017 dans Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism.; Eating habits form early during childhood and are likely to track until the beginning of adulthood. Thus, understanding the formation of eating habits is important. In the HabEat* project we focused on the development of preferences for vegetables since they are the less liked foods for children. Based on the analyses of data from different European cohorts, HabEat found that breast milk may facilitate the consumption of vegetables in later childhood. HabEat found some evidence that introducing a variety of different vegetables in the complementary feeding period increases later acceptance of novel foods. Habeat also found that repeated exposure is as much or more efficient than flavour-flavour learning to increase vegetable intake even for 2- to 6-year-old children who are more likely to be neophobic. Food intake adjustment in young children (aged 3 to 6 years) was also studied. HabEat found that when children ate a preload of energy-dense food less than one hour before a meal, they ate less during the meal but adjusted their food intake only partially for the energy ingested from the preload. HabEat found that when palatable foods were available freely after a meal, most children ate in the absence of hunger and consumed extra energy, and the extra-consumption was higher for children whose parents who used ‘Food as a reward' than for children whose parents did not use this practice. * The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under the grant agreement n.FP7-245012-HabEat.

International audience; Background: There are relatively few studies of saccadic eye movements in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim of this study was to examine inhibitory abilities of eye movements in children with ADHD and to explore the effect of methylphenidate (MPH) on eye movement performance.Methods: Thirty-one children with ADHD (mean age 9.9-0.4 years) and 31 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched children with normal development were examined. Saccades elicited not only by the gap, step, overlap, and antisaccade paradigms but also a simple fixation paradigm have been recorded using an eye tracker. The latency of each type of saccade, the error rate of antisaccades, and the number of saccades made during fixation have been measured.Results: Children with ADHD and naive to treatment with respect to controls showed significantly shorter mean latency of voluntary saccades (overlap paradigm), more frequent errors during the antisaccade paradigm, and higher number of saccades made during fixation. After 1 month of MPH treatment, all these parameters changed significantly and reached control values.Conclusion: Taken together, these results suggest that oculomotor abilities are poor in children with ADHD, which may correlate with deficits in inhibitory mechanisms. Treatment with MPH improves oculomotor performances through adaptive strategies, which may involve brain structures related to cognitive inhibition.

International audience

Resume Introduction L’allongement de la survie des patients et l’evolution des relations soignants–patients contribuent au developpement de l’education therapeutique du patient (ETP) en onco-hematologie, necessaire notamment pour les patients adolescents et jeunes adultes (AJA) ayant une moindre observance et des difficultes organisationnelles dans leurs parcours de soins. La societe savante « Go-AJA » a structure un groupe de travail assurant la promotion et la structuration d’une demarche d’ETP adaptee aux AJA atteints de cancer. Materiel et methodes Ce groupe de travail national a pu federer des equipes multidisciplinaires formees et engagees dans des actions educatives aupres des AJA et s’est reuni periodiquement entre 2012 et 2015. Resultats Un referentiel de competence a ete construit et adapte a la population des AJA atteints de cancer. Des outils ont ete valides afin d’aider dans les 4 etapes classiques de l’ETP : le diagnostic educatif, l’alliance therapeutique, la mise en œuvre, et l’evaluation. Les competences d’auto-soins ont ete renforcees grâce a des ateliers individuels et/ou collectifs et le developpement des competences d’adaptation a ete integre a ce programme, afin d’ameliorer la coordination et le vecu des therapies. Discussion et conclusion Quels que soient les structures et lieux de soins, l’ETP doit s’integrer dans la prise en charge des AJA en onco-hematologie afin d’ameliorer leur implication et leur vecu de la maladie. Cette premiere experience nationale merite d’etre poursuivie et confortee par des etudes evaluant plus precisement l’impact de tels programmes d’ETP integres au parcours de soins de ces patients AJA atteints de cancer.

International audience; The objective of this study was to use secondary data from the Preparing for Life (PFL) trial to test (1) the impact of a prenatal-to-age-five intervention targeting women from a disadvantaged Irish community on the quality of the home environment; (2) whether any identified changes in the home environment explain the positive effects of the PFL program on children's cognitive and emotional development at school entry which have been identified in previous reports of the PFL trial (ES = .72 and .50, respectively). Pregnant women were randomized into a treatment (home visits, baby massage, and parenting program, n = 115) or control (n = 118) group (trial registration: ISRCTN04631728). The home environment was assessed at 6 months, 1½, and 3 years using the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (responsiveness, acceptance, organization, learning material, involvement, variety). Cognitive skills were assessed at 5 years using the British Ability Scales. Emotional problems were teacher-reported at 5 years using the Short Early Development Inventory. Latent growth modeling was used to model changes in the home environment, and mediation analyses to test whether those changes explained children outcomes. Compared to controls, treatment children were exposed to more stimulating environments in terms of learning material (B = -1.62, p = 0.036) and environmental variety (B = -1.58, p = 0.009) at 6 months, but these differences faded at 3 years. Treatment families were also more likely to accept suboptimal child behaviors without using punishment (acceptance score, B = 1.49, p = 0.048) and were more organized at 3 years (B = 1.08, p = 0.033). None of the changes mediated children's outcomes. In conclusion, we found that the program positively impacted different home environment dimensions, but these changes did not account for improvements in children's outcomes. Exploratory analyses suggest that the impact of improvements in the home environment on child outcomes may be limited to specific groups of children. Limitations of the study include the potential lack of generalizability to other populations, the inability to assess the individual treatment components, and sample size restrictions which precluded a moderated mediation analysis.

International audience; We explore the influence of a secondary cognitive task on concurrent postural control in dyslexic children. Seventeen children with dyslexia (DYS) were compared with thirteen non-dyslexic children (NDYS). Postural control was recorded in Standard Romberg (SR) and Tandem Romberg (TR) conditions while children, in separate sessions, have to fixate on a target and name simple objects appearing consecutively on a computer screen. The surface, the length and the mean speed of the center of pressure were analyzed; the percentage of correct responses to the cognitive task was also measured. DYS are significantly more unstable than NDYS. The secondary cognitive task significantly decreases the postural stability in DYS only. For both children postural performances in the TR condition is significantly worse than in the SR condition. The percentage of wrong responses to the cognitive task is significantly higher in DYS. Postural instability observed in DYS supports the hypothesis that there is a deficit of automatic integration of visual information and postural control in these children. This result is in line with the U-shaped non linear model showing that a secondary task performed during a postural task leads to an impaired postural stability probably due to focus attention on the cognitive task.

International audience; Prior studies have pointed toward a link between the saccadic and vergence systems, coordinating binocular saccadic movements. Recent studies have shown that vergence deficits in children induce poor binocular coordination during saccades, but none of them have studied ocular motility in children during a daily task such as reading. The present study tests whether vergence deficits in children perturb binocular coordination of saccades and fixation during reading. Our second objective was to explore whether vergence training could improve the quality of binocular coordination. Twelve patients (from 7.3 to 13.4 years old) complaining from vertigo but without vestibular and neurological pathology underwent orthoptic tests and were selected for our study when they presented vergence deficits. Eye movements were recorded during a reading task with a Mobile EyeBrain® Tracker video-oculography system. Data were compared to twelve age-matched controls with normal orthoptic values. While there was no statistically significant difference in saccade amplitudes between the two groups (p = 0.29), patients showed higher disconjugacy during and after the saccades compared to controls (p < 0.001). After orthoptic training, six patients out of the first 12 examined came back for a second oculomotor test. All showed a significant improvement of their binocular saccade coordination. We suggest that the larger disconjugacy during reading observed in patients before training could be due to poor vergence as initially assessed by orthoptic examination. Such findings support the hypothesis of a tight relationship between the saccadic and vergence systems for controlling the binocular coordination of saccades. The improvement reported after orthoptic training is in line with the hypothesis of an adaptative interaction on a premotor level between the saccadic and vergence system.

International audience; To our knowledge, behavioral studies recording visual fixations abilities in dyslexic children are scarce. The object of this article is to explore further the visual fixation ability in dyslexics compared to chronological age-matched and reading age-matched non-dyslexic children. Fifty-five dyslexic children from 7 to 14 years old, 55 chronological age-matched non-dyslexic children and 55 reading age-matched non-dyslexic children participated to this study. Eye movements from both eyes were recorded horizontally and vertically by a video-oculography system (EyeBrain T2). The fixation task consisted in fixating a white-filled circle appearing in the center of the screen for 30 s. Results showed that dyslexic children produced a significantly higher number of unwanted saccades than both groups of non-dyslexic children. Moreover, the number of unwanted saccades significantly decreased with age in both groups of non-dyslexic children, but not in dyslexics. Furthermore, dyslexics made more saccades during the last 15 s of fixation period with respect to both groups of non-dyslexic children. Such poor visual fixation capability in dyslexic children could be due to impaired attention abilities, as well as to an immaturity of the cortical areas controlling the fixation system.

The development of cognitive functions during childhood relies on several neuroanatomical maturation processes. Among these processes is myelination of the white matter pathways, which speeds up electrical conduction. Quantitative indices of such structural processes can be obtainedin vivowith diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), but their physiological significance remains uncertain. Here, we investigated the microstructural correlates of early functional development by combining DTI and visual event-related potentials (VEPs) in 15 one- to 4-month-old healthy infants. Interindividual variations of the apparent conduction speed, computed from the latency of the first positive VEP wave (P1), were significantly correlated with the infants' age and DTI indices measured in the optic radiations. This demonstrates that fractional anisotropy and transverse diffusivity are structural markers of functionally efficient myelination. Moreover, these indices computed along the optic radiations showed an early wave of maturation in the anterior region, with the posterior region catching up later in development, which suggests two asynchronous fronts of myelination in both the geniculocortical and corticogeniculate fibers. Thus, in addition to microstructural information, DTI provides noninvasive exquisite information on the functional development of the brain in human infants.

International audience; Purpose To analyse postural performances of strabismic children, both in the spatial and the temporal domains, by wavelet transformation, comparing both stable and unstable situations.Methods Twenty-six strabismic children aged from 4 to 11 years old and 26 age-matched normal children participated in the study. Postural performances were evaluated using the Framiral® platform. Posture was recorded in the following conditions: eyes open fixating a target and eyes closed on stable and unstable platforms.Results For both strabismic and non-strabismic children, the surface and the mean velocity of the center of pressure (CoP) were significantly larger in the eyes closed on unstable platform condition, but this was much more pronounced in case of strabismus. Spectral power index and cancelling time were also found to be altered in strabismic children compared to non-strabismic children.Conclusions This data demonstrates poor postural stability for both groups on an unstable platform with the eyes closed. However, strabismic children had significantly worse performance than non-strabismic children. Strabismic children also engage more energy to stabilize their posture by using visuo-vestibular sensory inputs to compensate their altered vision due to strabismus, in comparison to non-strabismic children.

International audience; Purpose: We compared postural stability and subjective visual vertical performance in a group of very preterm-born children aged 3-4 years and in a group of age-matched full-term children.Materials and Methods: A platform (from TechnoConcept) was used to measure postural control in children. Perception of subjective visual vertical was also recorded with posture while the child had to adjust the vertical in the dark or with visual perturbation. Two other conditions (control conditions) were also recorded while the child was on the platform: for a fixation of the vertical bar, and in eyes closed condition.Results: Postural performance was poor in preterm-born children compared to that of age-matched full-term children: the surface area, the length in medio-lateral direction and the mean speed of the center of pressure (CoP) were significantly larger in the preterm-born children group (p < 0.04, p < 0.01, and p < 0.04, respectively). Dual task in both groups of children significantly affected postural control. The subjective visual vertical (SVV) values were more variable and less precise in preterm-born children.Discussion-Conclusions: We suggest that poor postural control as well as perception of verticality observed in preterm-born children could be due to immaturity of the cortical processes involved in the motor control and in the treatment of perception and orientation of verticality

International audience; Dual task is known to affect postural stability in children. We explored the effect of visual tasks on postural control in thirty dyslexic children. A selected group of thirty chronological age-matched non-dyslexic children (mean age: 9.92 ± 0.35 years) and a group of thirty reading age-matched non-dyslexic children (mean reading age: 7.90 ± 0.25 years) were chosen for comparison. All children underwent ophthalmologic and optometric evaluation. Eye movements were recorded by a video-oculography system (EyeBrain ® T2) and postural sway was recorded simultaneously by a force platform (TechnoConept ®). All children performed fixations, pursuits, pro-and anti-saccades tasks. Dyslexic children showed significantly poor near fusional vergence ranges (convergence and divergence) with respect to the non-dyslexic children groups. During the postural task, quality of fixation and anti-saccade performance in dyslexic children were significantly worse compared to the two non-dyslexic children groups. In contrast, the number of catch-up saccades during pursuits and the latency of pro-and anti-saccades were similar in the three groups of children examined. Concerning postural quality, dyslexic children were more unstable than chronological age-matched non-dyslexic children group. For all three groups of children tested we also observed that executing saccades (pro-and anti-saccades) reduced postural values significantly in comparison with fixation and pursuit tasks. The impairment in convergence and divergence fusional capabilities could be due to an immaturity in cortical structures controlling the vergence system. The poor oculomotor performance reported in dyslexic children suggested a deficit in allocating visual attention and their postural instability observed is in line with the cerebellar impairment previously reported in dyslexic children. Finally, pro-or anti-saccades reduce postural values compared to fixation and pursuit tasks in all groups of children tested, suggesting a different influence of visual tasks on postural control according to their attentional demand.

International audience; Studies dealing with developmental aspects of binocular eye movement behavior during reading are scarce. In this study we have explored binocular strategies during reading and visual search tasks in a large population of dyslexic and typical readers. Binocular eye movements were recorded using a video-oculography system in 43 dyslexic children (aged 8-13) and in a group of 42 age-matched typical readers. The main findings are: (i) ocular motor characteristics of dyslexic children are impaired in comparison to those reported in typical children in reading task; (ii) a developmental effect exists in reading in control children, in dyslexic children the effect of development was observed only on fixation durations; and (iii) ocular motor behavior in the visual search tasks is similar for dyslexic children and for typical readers, except for the disconjugacy during and after the saccade: dyslexic children are impaired in comparison to typical children. Data reported here confirms and expands previous studies on children's reading. Both reading skills and binocular saccades coordination improve with age in typical readers. The atypical eye movement's patterns observed in dyslexic children suggest a deficiency in the visual attentional processing as well as an impairment of the ocular motor saccade and vergence systems interaction.

International audience; The objective was to explore how face exploration affects postural control in healthy children. The novelty here is that eye movements and posture were simultaneously recorded. Three groups of children participated in the study: 12 children of 7.8±0.5 years old, 13 children of 10.4±0.5 years old and 12 children of 15.7±0.9 years old. Eye movements were recorded by video-oculography and postural stability was recorded by a platform. Children were invited to explore five emotional faces (neutral, happy, sad fear and angry). Analysis of eye movements was done on saccadic latency, percentage of exploration time spent and number of saccades for each specific region of interest (ROI): eyes, nose and mouth. Analysis of posture was made on surface area, sway length and mean velocity of the center of pressures (CoP). Results showed that visual strategies, exploration and postural control develop during childhood and adolescence. Indeed, after nine years-old, children started to look the eyes ROI firstly, then the nose ROI and finally the mouth ROI. The number of saccades decreased with the age of children. The percentage of exploration time spent in eyes ROI was longer than the others ROIs and greater for unpleasant faces (sad, fear and angry) with respect to pleasant emotional face (happy). We found that in front of sad and happy faces the surface area of the CoP was significantly larger compared to other faces (neutral and angry). These results suggest that visual strategies and postural control change during children's development and can be influenced by the emotional face.

International audience; Vertical saccades have never been studied in dyslexic children. We examined vertical visually guided saccades in fifty-six dyslexic children (mean age: 10.5 ± 2.56 years old) and fifty-six age matched non dyslexic children (mean age: 10.3 ± 1.74 years old). Binocular eye movements were recorded using an infrared video-oculography system (mobileEBT®, e(ye)BRAIN). Dyslexic children showed significantly longer latency than the non dyslexic group, also the occurrence of anticipatory and express saccades was more important in dyslexic than in non dyslexic children. The gain and the mean velocity values were significantly smaller in dyslexic than in non dyslexic children. Finally, the up–down asymmetry reported in normal population for the gain and the velocity of vertical saccades was observed in dyslexic children and interestingly, dyslexic children also reported an up–down asymmetry for the mean latency. Taken together all these findings suggested impairment in cortical areas responsible of vertical saccades performance and also at peripheral level of the extra-ocular oblique muscles; moreover, a visuo-attentionnal bias could explain the up–down asymmetry reported for the vertical saccade triggering.

International audience; Purpose: The objective of our study was to examine horizontal smooth pursuit performance in strabismic children and in children with vergence deficits, and to compare these data with those recorded in a group of control age-matched children.Methods: Binocular eye movements were recorded by video-oculography in ten strabismic children (mean age: 9.860.8) and seven children with vergence deficits (mean age: 10.860.6). Data were compared to that of age-matched control children (mean age: 9.860.8 years).Results: Catch-up saccades amplitude in strabismic children and in children with vergence deficits were significantly higher than in control age-matched children. Moreover, in strabismic children the amplitude of catch-up saccades was significantly higher in rightward than in leftward direction. The number of catch-up saccades was also significantly higher in rightward than in leftward direction. The gain value of pursuits in rightward direction was significantly higher in the right eye than in the left one; for the right eye, the gain value was significantly higher in rightward than in leftward direction. Binocular coordination of pursuit was better in control age-matched children than in children with vergence deficits and than in strabismic children.Conclusions: Binocular coordination of pursuit is abnormal in children with vergence deficits and worse in strabismic children. Binocular vision plays an important role in improving binocular coordination of pursuit.

International audience; Studies comparing binocular eye movements during reading and visual search in dyslexic children are, at our knowledge, inexistent. In the present study we examined ocular motor characteristics in dyslexic children versus two groups of non dyslexic children with chronological/reading age-matched. Binocular eye movements were recorded by an infrared system (mobileEBTH, e(ye)BRAIN) in twelve dyslexic children (mean age 11 years old) and a group of chronological age-matched (N = 9) and reading age-matched (N = 10) non dyslexic children. Two visual tasks were used: text reading and visual search. Independently of the task, the ocular motor behavior in dyslexic children is similar to those reported in reading agematched non dyslexic children: many and longer fixations as well as poor quality of binocular coordination during and after the saccades. In contrast, chronological age-matched non dyslexic children showed a small number of fixations and short duration of fixations in reading task with respect to visual search task; furthermore their saccades were well yoked in both tasks. The atypical eye movement's patterns observed in dyslexic children suggest a deficiency in the visual attentional processing as well as an immaturity of the ocular motor saccade and vergence systems interaction.

International audience; The purpose of this study was to examine the postural control in children with strabismus before and after eye surgery. Control of posture is a complex multi-sensorial process relying on visual, vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Reduced influence of one of such systems leads to postural adaptation due to a compensation of one of the other systems [3]. Nine children with strabismus (4-8 years old) participated in the study. Ophthalmologic, orthoptic, vestibular and postural tests were done before and twice (2 and 8 weeks) after eye surgery. Postural stability was measured by a platform (TechnoConcept): two components of the optic flux were used for stimulation (contraction and expansion) and two conditions were tested eyes open and eyes closed. The surface area of the center of pressure (CoP), the variance of speed of the CoP and the frequency spectrum of the platform oscillations by fast Fourier transformation were analysed. Before surgery, similar to typically developing children, postural stability was better in the eyes open condition. The frequency analysis revealed that for the low frequency band more energy was spent in the antero-posterior direction compared to the medio-lateral one while the opposite occurred for the middle and the high frequency bands. After surgery, the eye deviation was reduced in all children and their postural stability also improved. However, the energy of the high frequency band in the medio-lateral direction increased significantly. These findings suggest that eye surgery influences somatosensory properties of extra-ocular muscles leading to improvement of postural control and that binocular visual perception could influence the whole body.

International audience; Purpose: Early studies reported some abnormalities in saccade and vergence eye movements in children with vertigo and vergence deficiencies. The purpose of this study was to further examine saccade and vergence performance in a population of 44 children (mean age: 12.361.6 years) with vertigo symptoms and with different levels of vergence abnormalities, as assessed by static orthoptic examination (near point of convergence, prism bar and cover-uncover test).Methods: Three groups were identified on the basis of the orthoptic tests: group 1 (n = 13) with vergence spasms and mildly perturbed orthoptic scores, group 2 (n = 14) with moderately perturbed orthoptic scores, and group 3 (n = 17) with severely perturbed orthoptic scores. Data were compared to those recorded from 28 healthy children of similar ages. Latency, accuracy and peak velocity of saccades and vergence movements were measured in two different conditions: gap (fixation offset 200 ms prior to target onset) and simultaneous paradigms. Binocular horizontal movements were recorded by a photoelectric device.Results: Group 2 of children with vergence abnormalities showed significantly longer latency than normal children in several types of eye movements recorded. For all three groups of children with vergence abnormalities, the gain was poor, particularly for vergence movement. The peak velocity values did not differ between the different groups of children examined.Interpretation: Eye movement measures together with static orthoptic evaluation allowed us to better identify children with vergence abnormalities based on their slow initiation of eye movements. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis of a central deficit in the programming and triggering of saccades and vergence in these children.

International audience; Postural control in quiet stance although simple still requires some cognitive resources; dual cognitive tasks influence further postural control. The present study examines whether or not dyslexic teenagers experience postural instability when performing a Stroop dual task for which their performances are known to be poor. Fifteen dyslexics and twelve nondyslexics (14 to 17 years old) were recruited from the same school. They were asked to perform three tasks: (1) fixate a target, (2) perform an interference Stroop test (naming the colour or the word rather than reading the word), (3) performing flexibility Stroop task: the subject performed the interference task as in (2) except when the word was in a box, in which case he had to read the word. Postural performances were measured with a force platform. The results showed a main task effect on the variance of speed of body sway only: such variance was higher in the flexibility task than for the other two tasks. No group effect was found for any of the parameters of posture (surface, mediolateral and anteroposterior sway, variance of speed). Further wavelet analysis in the time-frequency domain revealed an increase in the spectral power of the medium frequency range believed to be related to cerebellum control; an accompanying increase in the cancellation time of the high frequency band related to reflexive loops occurred for non-dyslexics only. These effects occurred for the flexibility task and could be due to its high cognitive difficulty. Dyslexics displayed shorter cancellation time for the medium frequency band for all tasks, suggesting less efficient cerebellar control, perhaps of eye fixation and attention influencing body sway. We conclude that there is no evidence for a primary posture deficit in 15 year old teenagers who come from the general population and who were recruited in schools.

Background: Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are the main cause of Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in industrialized countries. This includes the frequently occurring but understudied situation of parents learning that their children were injured. However, unlike in other types of trauma survivors, little is known about the predictors of PTSD symptoms in mothers whose child has suffered an MVA. Methods: A group of 72 mothers and 28 fathers were prospectively assessed for peritraumatic distress, peritraumatic dissociation, and PTSD symptoms 1 and 5 weeks after their child had suffered an MVA. Results: Levels of peritraumatic distress and dissociation were comparable to other trauma victims, 18% of the mothers were considered to be suffering from probable PTSD. In mothers, significant positive correlations were found between PTSD symptoms and peritraumatic distress (r=.34) and dissociation (r=.37), whereas mothers' PTSD symptoms were associated with decreased peritraumatic dissociation in fathers (r=-.37). Even after controlling for covictim/witness status, peritraumatic distress was a predictor of mothers' PTSD symptoms, explaining 14% of the variance. Conclusions: Peritraumatic response and PTSD symptoms should be routinely assessed among parents whose child has experienced a traumatic event. Depression and Anxiety 0:1-6, 2009. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Language: en

International audience; That emotional memory enhancement is compromised in adult patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), particularly in the case of early cerebral damage, has been suspected. We conducted a study in which we compared 20 children and adolescents aged 11–15 years with early TLE with 40 healthy control subjects. We studied the effect of emotional information on verbal memory performance using story recall and word list learning tasks. Our results highlighted the existence of emotional memory facilitation in healthy subjects, whereas there was no beneficial impact of emotional material on memory in young patients with TLE. Our study suggests that early TLE can impair the development of emotional memory processes.

International audience; Both language capacity and strongly lateralized hand preference are among the most intriguing particularities of the human species. They are associated in the adult brain with functional and anatomical hemispheric asymmetries in the speech perception-production network and in the sensori-motor system. Only studies in early life can help us to understand how such asymmetries arise during brain development, and to which point structural left-right differences are the source or the consequence of functional lateralization. In this study, we aimed to provide new in vivo structural markers of hemispheric asymmetries in infants from 1 to 4 months of age, with diffusion tensor imaging. We used 3 complementary analysis methods based on local diffusion indices and spatial localizations of tracts. After a prospective approach over the whole brain, we demonstrated early leftward asymmetries in the arcuate fasciculus and in the cortico-spinal tract. These results suggest that the early macroscopic geometry, microscopic organization, and maturation of these white matter bundles are related to the development of later functional lateralization.

International audience; The influence of a secondary task on concurrent postural control was explored in twenty-one dyslexic children (mean age: 10.460.3 years). Data were compared with twenty age-matched non-dyslexic children. As a secondary task, a modified Stroop test was used, in which words were replaced with pictures of fruits. The postural control of children was recorded in standard Romberg condition as the children were asked to name the colour of fruits appearing consecutively on a computer screen. Two conditions were tested: a congruent condition, in which the fruit was drawn in its natural ripe colour, and a non-congruent colour condition (NC), in which the fruit was drawn in three abnormal colours. A fixating condition was used as baseline. We analyzed the surface, length and mean speed of the center of pressure and measured the number of correct responses in the Stroop-like tasks. Dyslexic children were seen to be significantly more unstable than non-dyslexic ones. For both groups of children, the secondary task significantly increased postural instability in comparison with the fixating condition. The number of correct responses in the modified Stroop task was significantly higher in the non-dyslexic than in the dyslexic group. The postural instability observed in dyslexic children is in line with the cerebellar hypothesis and supports the idea of a deficit in automatic performance in such children. Furthermore, in accordance with cross domain competition model, our findings show that attentional resources are used to a greater extent by the secondary task than in controlling body stability.

International audience; PURPOSE. To compare the amount, the retention, and the extinction of saccadic adaptation in two groups: 9 adults (23-36 years old) and 9 children (11-14 years old).METHODS. The paradigm used was a classical double-step target to elicit the shortening of saccade gains in response to a 2°b ackward step (20% of target eccentricity). Two conditions were run in the pre-and postadaptation phases without and with postsaccadic visual feedback, to allow examination of the retention and the extinction of saccadic adaptation.RESULTS. Adaptation of reactive saccades occurred in children as well as adults. Both groups showed a progressive shortening of saccade amplitude and good retention. The main difference concerned the speed of extinction, i.e., return to baseline, which was slower for children.CONCLUSIONS. Cerebral structures involved in human short-term adaptation of reactive saccades are functional in regard to adaptive shortening of saccade amplitude. Divergent patterns in the extinction of adaptation between children and adults suggested that lengthening of saccade gain is not yet well established in children. Further investigation is needed to clarify whether processes responsible for backward adaptation are mature before those for forward adaptation.