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This article describes a parallel and distributed processing model (PDPM) of joint attention, self-referenced processing and autism. According to this model, autism involves early impairments in the capacity for rapid, integrated processing of self-referenced (proprioceptive and interoceptive) and other-referenced (exteroceptive) information. Measures of joint attention have proven useful in research on autism because they are sensitive to the early development of the "parallel" and integrated processing of self- and other-referenced stimuli. Moreover, joint attention behaviors are a consequence, but also an organizer of the functional development of a distal distributed cortical system involving anterior networks including the prefrontal and insula cortices, as well as posterior neural networks including the temporal and parietal cortices. Measures of joint attention provide early behavioral indicators of atypical development in this parallel and distributed processing system in autism. In addition it is proposed that an early, chronic disturbance in the capacity for integrating self- and other-referenced information may have cascading effects on the development of self awareness in autism. The assumptions, empirical support and future research implications of this model are discussed. (Contains 3 figures.)

Background: We examined performance on a self-referenced memory (SRM) task for higher-functioning children with autism (HFA) and a matched comparison group. SRM performance was examined in relation to symptom severity and social cognitive tests of mentalizing. Method: Sixty-two children (31 HFA, 31 comparison; 8-16 years) completed a SRM task in which they read a list of words and decided whether the word described something about them, something about Harry Potter, or contained a certain number of letters. They then identified words that were familiar from a longer list. Dependent measures were memory performance (d') in each of the three encoding conditions as well as a self-memory bias score (d' self-d' other). Children completed The Strange Stories Task and The Children's Eyes Test as measures of social cognition. Parents completed the SCQ and ASSQ as measures of symptom severity. Results: Children in the comparison sample showed the standard SRM effect in which they recognized significantly more self-referenced words relative to words in the other-referenced and letter conditions. In contrast, HFA children showed comparable rates of recognition for self- and other-referenced words. For all children, SRM performance improved with age and enhanced SRM performance was related to lower levels of social problems. These associations were not accounted for by performance on the mentalizing tasks. Conclusions: Children with HFA did not show the standard enhanced processing of self- vs. other-relevant information. Individual differences in the tendency to preferentially process self-relevant information may be associated with social cognitive processes that serve to modify the expression of social symptoms in children with autism. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

Variation in temperament is characteristic of all people but is rarely studied as a predictor of individual differences among individuals with autism. Relative to a matched comparison sample, adolescents with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) reported lower levels of Surgency and higher levels of Negative Affectivity. Variability in temperament predicted symptomotology, social skills, and social-emotional outcomes differently for individuals with HFA than for the comparison sample. This study is unique in that temperament was measured by self-report, while all outcome measures were reported by parents. The broader implications of this study suggest that by identifying individual variability in constructs, such as temperament, that may influence adaptive functioning, interventions may be developed to target these constructs and increase the likelihood that individuals with HFA will achieve more adaptive life outcomes.

Seven hundred seventy-nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and baseline electroencephalogram data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry. Positively reactive infants exhibited significantly more approach behavior than controls and exhibited a pattern of left frontal asymmetry. Results support the notion that approach-withdrawal bias underlies reactivity in infancy. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure, and 1 footnote.)

Children with behavioral inhibition, a temperamental style characterized by infant distress to novelty and childhood social reticence, exhibit both continuity and discontinuity of this behavioral trait over the course of development. However, few researchers have identified factors that might be responsible for these different patterns. In the current study, childcare history, maternal personality, and maternal behavior were examined as moderators of the relations between infant temperament, preschool social reticence, and childhood social wariness. Seventy-seven children participated in this longitudinal study that began in infancy and continued into middle childhood. Maternal negative personality moderated the relation between infant temperament and childhood social wariness. In addition, maternal behavior moderated the relation between preschool social reticence and childhood social wariness. The findings suggest that a complex interplay of within-child and maternal factors affect the development of internalizing behavior in the early school years.

In this paper we review current definitions and measurement approaches used to assess individual differences in children's temperament. We review the neural bases of temperamental reactivity and self-regulation and propose that these constructs provide a framework for examining individual differences and developmental change in emotion-cognition interactions across development. Studies are reviewed in which some well-documented contextual effects on the expression of temperament can be interpreted in terms of the influence of biological and non-biological factors on CNS functioning. We conclude with ideas regarding future directions for the study of individual differences and developmental change in cognition-emotion interactions as they are shaped throughout development.

The study of phenotypic variability in social impairments and comorbid emotional disorders in autism is important because it provides information on phenotypic differences that currently complicate diagnosis, research, and treatment of this disorder. Currently, though, relatively little is known about the processes that contribute to individual differences in social impairments and comorbidity in autism. In this paper, we present a model that suggests modifier processes (MPs), which are not necessarily specific to the syndrome, refract or alter the expression of autism and contribute to fundamental behavioral and psychological differences in children diagnosed with this disorder. One MPs involves the somewhat surprising tendency of some children with higher functioning autism (HFA) to make attributions about other peoples thoughts, although they have social cognitive deficits. Just as in other children, the attributions of children with HFA are linked to some of their behavioral problems. Another MP involves the influence of differences in motivation associated with the behavioral activation and inhibition systems that can be assessed with measures of anterior EEG asymmetry. This dimension of motivation may be linked to how active but inappropriate and withdrawn children with HFA may appear. Third, differences in the self-monitoring of errors among children with HFA appear to be related to individual differences in IQ and social symptom severity in these children. The possible role of these MPs in diagnostic subgroups and differences in treatment responses among children with HFA are discussed. In addition, the role of MPs in understanding the effects associated with specific genetic functions in autism, such as those associated with the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), is discussed. A conclusion of this paper is that the varied expression of autism may require that we understand how autism interacts with other non-syndrome-specific processes that are relatedto individual differences in all people. (Contains 5 figures.)

The purpose of the current study is to describe the development and validation of a new measure of temperament, the Preschool Temperament Classification System (PTCS). The PTCS was developed as a typological measure that identifies children's temperament styles as undercontrolled, resilient, or overcontrolled. The PTCS is a time efficient structured interview assessing children's temperament as it is observed in the classroom environment. During the 20 minute interview, teachers classify all of the children in their class into one of the three temperament styles, rank order children within each temperament group, and assign an intensity rating to each child, indicating how well the child matches his/her assigned temperament group. Data were collected on 196 preschool-age children from 25 Head Start classrooms in an urban area. Teachers assessed children's temperament and peer play behaviors, and trained research assistants assessed children's school readiness. The PTCS classified children into temperament groups that showed expected relations to peer play competence and school readiness after controlling for age and gender, indicating good validity. Test-retest reliability was moderate to high. Overall the PTCS shows promise as a valid and reliable teacher measure of preschool children's temperament.

Children with autism not only display social impairments but also significant individual differences in social development. Understanding the source of these differences, as well as the nature of social impairments, is important for improved diagnosis and treatments for these children. Current theory and research suggests that individual differences in response monitoring, a specific function of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), may contribute to social-emotional and social-cognitive impairments and individual differences in autism. To examine this hypothesis, we used a modified flanker task to assess an ERP index of response monitoring, the error-related negativity (ERN), in a sample of higher function children with autism (HFA) and an IQ-matched control sample. The results revealed a significant Diagnostic group by Verbal IQ interaction on ERN amplitude indicating that the most verbally capable HFA children displayed significantly larger ERN amplitudes than did the control children. Within the HFA sample, greater ERN amplitude was also related to parent reports of fewer symptoms of social interaction impairments, fewer internalizing problems, but more externalizing problems, although these associations were reduced to nonsignificance when medication status was controlled. The latter results complement previous observations from imaging studies of a significant association between ACC activity and social symptoms and impairments in autism. The implications of these results for future research on brain-behavior relations, as well as treatment related research with children with autism are discussed.

Background: There is evidence that ambulatory people with incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) have an impaired ability to control lateral motion of their whole- body center of mass (COM) during walking. This impairment is believed to contribute to functional deficits in gait and balance, however that relationship is unclear. Thus, this cross-sectional study examines the relationship between the ability to control lateral COM motion during walking and functional measures of gait and balance in people with iSCI. Methods: We assessed the ability to control lateral COM motion during walking and conducted clinical gait and balance outcome measures on 20 ambulatory adults with chronic iSCI (C1-T10 injury, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale C or D). To assess their ability to control lateral COM motion, participants performed three treadmill walking trials. During each trial, real-time lateral COM position and a target lane were projected on the treadmill. Participants were instructed to keep their lateral COM position within the lane. If successful, an automated control algorithm progressively reduced the lane width, making the task more challenging. If unsuccessful, the lane width increased. The adaptive lane width was designed to challenge each participant's maximum capacity to control lateral COM motion during walking. To quantify control of lateral COM motion, we calculated lateral COM excursion during each gait cycle and then identified the minimum lateral COM excursion occurring during five consecutive gait cycles. Our clinical outcome measures were Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed Up and Go test (TUG), 10-Meter Walk Test (10MWT) and Functional Gait Assessment (FGA). We used a Spearman correlation analysis (ρ) to examine the relationship between minimum lateral COM excursion and clinical measures. Results: Minimum lateral COM excursion had significant moderate correlations with BBS (ρ=-0.54, =0.014), TUG (ρ=0.59, p = 0.007), FGA (ρ=-0.59, p=0.007), 10MWT-preferred (ρ=-0.59, p = 0.006) and 10MWT-fast (ρ=-0.68, p = 0.001). Conclusion: Control of lateral COM motion during walking is associated with a wide range of clinical gait and balance measures in people with iSCI. This finding suggests the ability to control lateral COM motion during walking could be a contributing factor to gait and balance in people with iSCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant research has produced conflicting findings regarding the link between social fearfulness and prosocial behavior, with some studies reporting negative relations and others reporting null effects. Furthermore, these studies have focused predominantly on toddlerhood, and few have examined prosociality between peers. The present study investigated whether the link between social anxiety and prosocial behavior (i.e., providing encouragement) varied depending on interpersonal and situational factors (i.e., one's familiarity with a peer, and the level of support sought by a peer, respectively). We tested this question using a multimethod approach, which included ecologically valid stress‐inducing task and dyadic design with a sample of 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds (N = 447). Results revealed that social anxiety was related negatively to providing encouragement among familiar and unfamiliar dyads. In familiar dyads, however, this main effect was qualified by an interaction with the level of support sought by one's peer. Compared to those low in social anxiety, children high in social anxiety provided relatively less encouragement in response to higher levels of support seeking from their peers. The findings are considered in relation to theorizing regarding the effect of overarousal on children's prosocial behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral Inhibition is a temperament identified in the first years of life that enhances the risk for development of anxiety during late childhood and adolescence. Amongst children characterized with this temperament, only around 40 percent go on to develop anxiety disorders, meaning that more than half of these children do not. Over the past 20 years, research has documented within‐child and socio‐contextual factors that support differing developmental pathways. This review provides a historical perspective on the research documenting the origins of this temperament, its biological correlates, and the factors that enhance or mitigate risk for development of anxiety. We review as well, research findings from two longitudinal cohorts that have identified moderators of behavioral inhibition in understanding pathways to anxiety. Research on these moderators has led us to develop the Detection and Dual Control (DDC) framework to understand differing developmental trajectories among behaviorally inhibited children. In this review, we use this framework to explain why and how specific cognitive and socio‐contextual factors influence differential pathways to anxiety versus resilience. Read the Commentary on this article at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13771. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews approaches to children's reactions to the unfamiliar, emphasizing how they differ in terms of measurement and interpretation of individual differences. Suggestions are made for school psychologists and educators regarding assessment and modifications of classroom environments to meet the needs of temperamentally diverse students. (Author/JDM)

This manuscript outlines a clinical approach to vasoplegia incorporating the current state of knowledge regarding vasoplegia in pediatric patients immediately post‐transplant and to identify modifiable factors both pre‐ and post‐transplant that may reduce post‐operative morbidity, end‐organ dysfunction, and mortality. Centers participating in the Pediatric Heart Transplant Society (PHTS) were asked to provide their internal protocols and rationale for vasoplegia management, and applicable adult and pediatric data were reviewed. The authors synthesized the above protocols and literature into the following description of clinical approaches to vasoplegia highlighting areas of both broad consensus and of significant practice variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]