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Motor disturbance and altered motor networks are commonly reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been suggested that electroencephalogram (EEG) can be used to provide exquisite temporal resolution for understanding motor control processes in ASD. However, the variability of study design and EEG approaches can impact our interpretation. Here, we conducted a systematic review on recent 11 EEG studies that involve motor observation and/or execution tasks and evaluated how these findings help us understand motor difficulties in ASD. Three behavior paradigms with different EEG analytic methods were demonstrated. The main findings were quite mixed: children with ASD did not always show disrupted neuronal activity during motor observation. Additionally, they might have intact ability for movement execution but have more difficulties in neuronal modulation during movement preparation. We would like to promote discussions on how methodological selections of behavioral tasks and data analytic approaches impact our interpretation of motor deficits in ASD. Future EEG research addressing the inconsistency across methodological approaches is necessary to help us understand neurophysiological mechanism of motor abnormalities in ASD.

IntroductionThe need for an efficient, low-cost, comprehensive measure to track infant/toddler development and treatment outcomes is critical, given the importance of early detection and monitoring. This manuscript describes the protocol for the development and testing of a novel measure, PediaTrac, that collects longitudinal, prospective, multidomain data from parents/caregivers to characterise infant/toddler developmental trajectories in term and preterm infants. PediaTrac, a web-based measure, has the potential to become the standard method for monitoring development and detecting risk in infancy and toddlerhood.Methods and analysesUsing a multisite, prospective design, primarcaregivers will complete PediaTrac V.3.0, a survey tool that queries core domains of early development, including feeding/eating/elimination, sleep, sensorimotor, social/sensory information processing, social/communication/cognition and early relational health. Information also will be obtained about demographic, medical and environmental factors and embedded response bias indices are being developed as part of the measure. Using an approach that systematically measures infant/toddler developmental domains during a schedule that corresponds to well-child visits (newborn, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 months), we will assess 360 caregiver/term infant dyads and 240 caregiver/preterm infant dyads (gestational age Ethics and disseminationThis investigation has single Institutional Review Board (IRB) multisite approval from the University of Michigan (IRB HUM00151584). The results will be presented at prominent conferences and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Approximately 5-10% of children exhibit developmental deviations in motor skills or other domains; however, physicians detect less than one-third of these abnormalities. Systematic tracking and early identification of motor deviations are fundamental for timely intervention.Term and preterm neonates were prospectively assessed at the newborn (NB) period in a study of the psychometric properties of the Motor (MOT) domain of PediaTracIn a cohort of 571 caregiver/infant dyads (331 term, 240 preterm), NB MOT domain reliability was high (rho = 0.94). Item discrimination and item difficulty of each of the 15 items could be reliably modeled across the range of motor ability. EFA confirmed that the items constituted a single dimension with second-order factors, accounting for 43.20% of variance.The latent trait, motor ability, could be reliably estimated at the NB period.The caregiver-reported Motor domain of PediaTrac provides a reliable estimate of the latent trait of motor ability during the newborn period. This is the first known caregiver-reported instrument that can assess motor ability in the newborn period with high reliability in term and preterm infants. Item response theory methods were employed that will allow for future characterization of developmental subgroups and motor trajectories. The PediaTrac Motor domain can support early identification of at-risk infants. Including caregivers in digital reporting and child-centered monitoring of motor functioning may improve access to care.

Objective: Postpartum anxiety impacts 3-40% of caregivers (Glasheen et al., 2009) and caregivers report sleeping about 20% less compared to other periods (Deepika et al., 2007). Since sleep problems exacerbate anxiety symptoms, targeting sleep problems in postpartum may reduce caregiver psychopathology. We hypothesized anxiety would decline from 6- to 12-months and that better sleep would predict lower levels of anxiety especially for caregivers of preterm infants. Method: Caregivers provided data with PediaTracTM (Lajiness-O’Neill et al., 2021), an online tool, at 6-, 9-, and 12-months from a larger longitudinal study of term (n=299) and preterm (n=218) infants recruited from three academic hospitals. Caregivers were sociodemograhpically diverse (Black/African American=33%, White=56%, multiracial=6%, other=4%; census-based area deprivation ADI M=5.14, SD=3.32) with 2 children (SD=1.21) in the home. Caregivers self-reported anxiety (Brief Symptom Inventory; Derogatis, 1977) and sleep quality (average of 4 PediaTracTM items: difficulty falling asleep, night awakenings, sleep quality satisfaction, morning fatigue) with higher scores indicating better sleep quality. Results: A multilevel model, accounting for nested observations, (R^2 = .06) was significant with sleep quality predicting anxiety, beta= -.22, p Conclusion: Though anxiety did not decline over postpartum, those with better sleep reported lower anxiety symptoms suggesting sleep interventions may reduce anxiety symptoms. Surprisingly, neither psychosocial stressors nor term status predicted anxiety severity. Other factors, e.g., parenting stress, should be considered in understanding differences in postpartum anxiety.

Introduction The error‐related negativity (ERN) is a neural response that reflects error monitoring. Contradictorily, an enlarged (more negative) ERN has been cited as both a risk factor and a protective factor, which hinders its utility as a predictive indicator. The aim of the current study was to examine the associations between ERN measured in early childhood with the development of cognitive control (CC), emotion regulation, and internalizing/externalizing symptoms over 1–2 years. Methods When children were ages 5–7, EEG was collected during a Go/No‐Go task. A subset of the original participants (n = 30) were selected based on their baseline ERN in an extreme‐case design: half with high‐amplitude ERN, matched by age and sex with another group with low‐amplitude ERN. Results At follow‐up, children in the High‐Amplitude group showed better executive function, less self‐reported anxiety and depression, less affect dysregulation, more parent‐rated CC, less lability/negativity, and fewer parent‐reported externalizing problems. Many results held even when accounting for baseline levels. Further, emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between the ERN and both anxiety and externalizing problems, while CC mediated the ERN's relationship with externalizing problems only. Conclusions These results can inform identification and intervention efforts for children at risk for psychopathology., High‐amplitude error‐related negativity (ERN), measured in early childhood, predicts better self‐control, including executive function and cognitive control and less affect dysregulation in middle childhood, and predicts fewer anxiety, depression, and externalizing symptoms over time. Emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between the ERN and both anxiety and externalizing problems, while cognitive control mediated the ERN's relationship with externalizing problems only.

Children’s sensitivity to regularities within the linguistic stream, such as the likelihood that syllables co-occur, is foundational to speech segmentation and language acquisition. Yet, little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying speech segmentation in typical development and in neurodevelopmental disorders that impact language acquisition such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we investigate the neural signals of statistical learning in 15 human participants (children ages 8–12) with a clinical diagnosis of ASD and 14 age-matched and gender-matched typically developing peers. We tracked the evoked neural responses to syllable sequences in a naturalistic statistical learning corpus using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in the left primary auditory cortex, posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), across three repetitions of the passage. In typically developing children, we observed a neural index of learning in all three regions of interest (ROIs), measured by the change in evoked response amplitude as a function of syllable surprisal across passage repetitions. As surprisal increased, the amplitude of the neural response increased; this sensitivity emerged after repeated exposure to the corpus. Children with ASD did not show this pattern of learning in all three regions. We discuss two possible hypotheses related to children’s sensitivity to bottom-up sensory deficits and difficulty with top-down incremental processing.

OBJECTIVES: Changes in body weight, length and head circumference have long been indicators of infant growth and development. PediaTrac™ is a web-based measure designed to engage caregivers in the gathering of longitudinal, real-time, multi-domain data on infant/toddler growth and development at time periods corresponding to well-child visits. The purpose of this study was to assess the changes in growth (weight, length, head circumference) between the newborn and 6 m time periods for both term and pre-term (

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show a range of language production deficits, however, language comprehension in ASD remains under-studied in part because co-morbid social deficits affect behavioural compliance. This challenge can be overcome by engaging participants in a naturalistic task while passively collecting neural signals. To test predictive processing with naturalistic language, we collect MEG data while 16 8–12-year-old high-functioning participants with a clinical diagnosis of ASD and 16 age- and gender-matched typically developing peers listen to an audiobook story. The neuromagnetic signals are correlated with word-by-word states from a computational model that quantifies incremental sentence predictions in terms of surprisal. Consistent with prior eye-tracking work, our results are compatible with predictive parsing that is equivalent between high-functioning individuals with ASD and TD peers.

Disrupted neural synchrony may be a primary electrophysiological abnormality in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), altering communication between discrete brain regions and contributing to abnormalities in patterns of connectivity within identified neural networks. Studies exploring brain dynamics to comprehensively characterize and link connectivity to large-scale cortical networks and clinical symptoms are lagging considerably. Patterns of neural coherence within the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Salience Network (SN) during resting state were investigated in 12 children with ASD (MAge = 9.2) and 13 age and gender-matched neurotypicals (NT) (MAge = 9.3) with magnetoencephalography. Coherence between 231 brain region pairs within four frequency bands (theta (4-7 Hz), alpha, (8-12 Hz), beta (13-30 Hz), and gamma (30-80 Hz)) was calculated. Relationships between neural coherence and social functioning were examined. ASD was characterized by lower synchronization across all frequencies, reaching clinical significance in the gamma band. Lower gamma synchrony between fronto-temporo-parietal regions was observed, partially consistent with diminished default mode network (DMN) connectivity. Lower gamma coherence in ASD was evident in cross-hemispheric connections between: angular with inferior/middle frontal; middle temporal with middle/inferior frontal; and within right-hemispheric connections between angular, middle temporal, and inferior/middle frontal cortices. Lower gamma coherence between left angular and left superior frontal, right inferior/middle frontal, and right precuneus and between right angular and inferior/middle frontal cortices was related to lower social/social-communication functioning. Results suggest a pattern of lower gamma band coherence in a subset of regions within the DMN in ASD (angular and middle temporal cortical areas) related to lower social/social-communicative functioning. Autism Res 2018, 11: 434-449. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY Communication between different areas of the brain was observed in children with ASD and neurotypical children while awake, but not working on a task. Magnetoencephalography was used to measure tiny magnetic fields naturally generated via brain activity. The brains of children with ASD showed less communication between areas that are important for social information processing compared to the brains of neurotypical children. The amount of communication between these areas was associated with social and social communication difficulties.

OBJECTIVES: Achieving sensorimotor (SEM) milestones is one measure of early infant brain development promoted through higher docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels. Both breastmilk and formula contain DHA, with a global level of 0.32% in breastmilk and many formula brands. However, a 2017 study of Midwestern U.S. mothers found significantly lower breastmilk DHA levels. It was thus hypothesized that infants fed formula would have higher SEM scores. The objective of this study was to measure differences in SEM development between infants fed breastmilk, formula, or a combination in participants of the PediaTrac™ Project. PediaTrac is a web-based measure providing longitudinal, real time, multidomain data on infant and toddler growth and development at time periods corresponding to well child visits. METHODS: Using PediaTrac, data were collected from 548 caregiver-infant dyads across multiple Midwestern sites. Caregivers reported the primary nutrition source as breastfeeding, formula or combination. Their responses to gross and fine motor function questions were used to create a SEM composite, Percent of Maximum Possible (POMP) score at newborn (NB), 2-, 4- and 6-months. Data were analyzed via ANOVA and Tukey test using SPSS. RESULTS: Infants fed formula had statistically higher mean SEM scores at NB (M = 0.618(Formula), M = 0.590(Breast), p = 0.017), 2- (M = 0.706(Formula), M = 0.680(Breast), p = 0.006) and 6-months (M = 0.727(Formula), M = 0.696(Breast), p = 0.014) compared to breastfed infants. Mean SEM scores of combination fed infants were higher than breastfed infants at 2- (M = 0.701(Combination), M = 0.680(Breast), p = 0.184), 4- (M = 0.684(Combination,) M = 0.673(Breast,) p = 0.573) and 6-months (M = 0.704(Combination), M = 0.696(Breast), p = 0.895), despite no significant differences between scores. CONCLUSIONS: Formula fed infants showed consistently higher SEM scores than breastfed infants in the first 6-months. These findings contradict previous research, indicating a need for further investigation into variables contributing to these discrepancies such as maternal breastmilk DHA concentrations, socioeconomic factors, site specific confounds, accuracy of parent reports of motor development, etc. FUNDING SOURCES: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. EMU College of Health & Human Services Research Support Award.

22q11.2 Deletion syndrome is a genetic disorder characterized by physiological and psychological symptoms. This study investigated the role of cortisol on the social and cognitive impairments in children with 22q11.2. A total of 11 children with 22q11.2 were assessed for baseline cortisol levels and received broad neuropsychological testing. Results were compared with 11 controls. Children with 22q11.2 had significantly higher cortisol levels. A significant negative correlation was observed between the general memory and attention/concentration indices of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning, 2nd edition and cortisol concentrations in the control population. These data provide evidence of a possible causal mechanism that underlies social impairments in stress disorders.

New approaches to understanding language and reading acquisition propose that the human brain's ability to synchronize its neural firing rate to syllable-length linguistic units may be important to children's ability to acquire human language. Yet, little evidence from brain imaging studies has been available to support this proposal. Here, we summarize three recent brain imaging (functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and magnetoencephalography (MEG)) studies from our laboratories with young English-speaking children (aged 6-12 years). In the first study (fNIRS), we used an auditory beat perception task to show that, in children, the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) responds preferentially to rhythmic beats at 1.5 Hz. In the second study (fMRI), we found correlations between children's amplitude rise-time sensitivity, phonological awareness, and brain activation in the left STG. In the third study (MEG), typically developing children outperformed children with autism spectrum disorder in extracting words from rhythmically rich foreign speech and displayed different brain activation during the learning phase. The overall findings suggest that the efficiency with which left temporal regions process slow temporal (rhythmic) information may be important for gains in language and reading proficiency. These findings carry implications for better understanding of the brain's mechanisms that support language and reading acquisition during both typical and atypical development.

Much has been gained in our understanding of the psychopathology, assessment, and treatment of TBI. Still lacking is the breadth and depth that an integrative and multi-disciplinary approach to TBI portends. While there is a greater awareness of a need for such a systems-based approach as evidenced by the number of professional organizations and government agencies recently advocating a need for standardization in the collection data in TBI, the application of multi-dimensional approach, and the development novel strategies to deliver prevention, assessment and treatment to large, diverse populations, we are still in the early stages in making this important shift. In the nearer term, there are clinical assessment and interventional programs that can be developed and empirically validated to bring us closer to this integrative, multi-disciplinary ideal. The following review calls for a universal diagnostic classification system for TBI, integration of pathophysiology and pharmacological and rehabilitative therapies, development of treatments addressing disorders comorbid with TBI, and the delivery of assessment and treatment services to large underserved populations.

Objective PediaTrac™, a 363-item web-based tool to track infant development, administered in modules of ∼40-items per sampling period, newborn (NB), 2­-, 4­-, 6­-, 9­- and 12­-months was validated. Caregivers answered demographic, medical, and environmental questions, and questions covering the sensorimotor, feeding/eating, sleep, speech/language, cognition, social-emotional, and attachment domains. Methods Expert Panel Reviews and Cognitive Interviews (CI) were conducted to validate the item bank. Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) methods were employed to examine the dimensionality and psychometric properties of PediaTrac with pooled longitudinal and cross-sectional cohorts (N = 132). Results Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for the Expert Panel Review revealed moderate agreement at 6 ­months and good reliability at other sampling periods. ICC estimates for CI revealed moderate reliability regarding clarity of the items at NB and 4 months, good reliability at 2-­, 9­- and 12­-months and excellent reliability at 6 ­months. CTT revealed good coefficient alpha estimates (α ≥ 0.77 for five of the six ages) for the Social-Emotional/Communication, Attachment (α ≥ 0.89 for all ages), and Sensorimotor (α ≥ 0.75 at 6-months) domains, revealing the need for better targeting of sensorimotor items. IRT modeling revealed good reliability (r = 0.85–0.95) for three distinct domains (Feeding/Eating, Social-Emotional/Communication and Attachment) and four subdomains (Feeding Breast/Formula, Feeding Solid Food, Social-Emotional Information Processing, Communication/Cognition). Convergent and discriminant construct validity were demonstrated between our IRT-modeled domains and constructs derived from existing developmental, behavioral and caregiver measures. Our Attachment domain was significantly correlated with existing measures at the NB and 2-month periods, while the Social-Emotional/Communication domain was highly correlated with similar constructs at the 6-, 9- and 12-month periods. Conclusion PediaTrac has potential for producing novel and effective estimates of infant development via the Sensorimotor, Feeding/Eating, Social-Emotional/Communication and Attachment domains.

Continuous performance tests (CPT) provide a useful paradigm to assess vigilance and sustained attention. However, few established methods exist to assess the validity of a given response set. The present study examined embedded validity indicators (EVIs) previously found effective at dissociating valid from invalid performance in relation to well-established performance validity tests in 104 adults with TBI referred for neuropsychological testing. Findings suggest that aggregating EVIs increases their signal detection performance. While individual EVIs performed well at their optimal cutoffs, two specific combinations of these five indicators generally produced the best classification accuracy. A CVI-5A ≥3 had a specificity of .92-.95 and a sensitivity of .45-.54. At ≥4 the CVI-5B had a specificity of .94-.97 and sensitivity of .40-.50. The CVI-5s provide a single numerical summary of the cumulative evidence of invalid performance within the CPT-II. Results support the use of a flexible, multivariate approach to performance validity assessment.

The Recognition Memory Test (RMT) was compared to the Word Choice Test (WCT) within the same fixed neuropsychological battery administered to a mixed clinical sample of 237 adults to empirically evaluate the psychometric equivalence of these two instruments. On average, there was a 3-point difference in raw scores between the two instruments (M RMT = 44.3, SD RMT = 6.8; M WCT = 47.1, SD WCT = 4.6; p

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an etiologically and clinically heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders, diagnosed exclusively by the behavioral phenotype. The neural basis of altered social, communicative, somatosensory, and restricted and repetitive behaviors remains largely unknown. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides a vital method of inquiry to identify the neurophysiological mechanisms of ASD, better illuminate etiologically distinct subgroups, understand the developmental trajectories of aberrant connectivity and track outcome. MEG is a neuroimaging methodology that can localize sources of electrical activity within the brain with millisecond resolution by noninvasively measuring the magnetic fields arising from such activity. This review addresses the central MEG findings exploring auditory, visual and somatosensory processing, higher-order/executive functioning, and resting state in individuals with ASD over the past decade and a half. We offer a summary of emerging trends related to neurophysiological alterations, aberrant hemispheric specialization and connectivity, as well as limitations in the literature and recommendations for future MEG investigations.

Objective Previous literature linked secure infant attachment to subsequent communication competency (Murray & Yingling, 2000). Less is known about that relationship in families of varying SES. This study explores how attachment and income at newborn, two, and four months correspond with communication development at nine and twelve months. Methods Longitudinal (n = 30) and cross-sectional (n = 102) reports from PediaTrac□, a parent-report web-based survey to track development (Lajiness-O’Neill, et al., 2018), were collected at newborn (NB; n = 41), two (2m; n = 38), four (4m; n = 37), nine (9m; n = 38), and twelve months (12m; n = 36). The cross-sectional sample had higher income (p = .01). Attachment was measured using PediaTrac□ and the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ; Brockington, Fraser & Wilson, 2006). Communication was measured using PediaTrac□. Results A linear regression model predicted communication development at 9m and 12m from attachment and income at NB, 2m, and 4m. PBQ attachment at 2m significantly predicted communication at 9m (b = 0.12, t = 2.28, p = .049). However, income was not significant, and neither attachment nor income at NB, 2m, or 4m predicted communication at 12m. Conclusions More secure attachment at two months was related to better communication outcomes at nine months regardless of SES. This finding highlights the importance of parent-infant relationships at two months of age on development, indicating further research on methods to promote secure attachment and positive parent-infant interaction in families of varying SES.

This study investigates the functional connectivity of neuronal networks critical for working memory in individuals with dyslexia by means of magnetoenchephalographic (MEG) coherence imaging. Individuals with dyslexia showed an early onset of activation in anterior cortical regions (precentral gyrus and the superior frontal gyrus), which differed from controls where activation initiated in posterior cortical regions (supramarginal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus). Further, individuals with dyslexia showed lower brain activity in the right superior temporal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus than controls during a spatial working memory (SWM) task. In contrast, during a verbal working memory (VWM) task, individuals with dyslexia showed lower activity in the right insular cortex and right superior temporal gyrus and higher, likely compensatory, activity in the right fusiform gyrus, left parahippocampal gyrus, and left precentral gyrus. When performing a SWM task, individuals with dyslexia showed significantly lower coherent activity and synchronization in 1) right frontal connectivity, 2) right fronto-temporal connectivity, 3) left and right frontal connectivity, 4) left temporal and right frontal connectivity, and 5) left occipital and right frontal connectivity. MEG coherence source imaging (CSI) by frequency bands showed lower mean coherence values in individuals with dyslexia compared to controls for each frequency range during the SWM task. In contrast, during the VWM task, individuals with dyslexia showed higher coherent low frequency (3 - 15 Hz) and lower coherent high frequency (30 - 45 Hz) synchronization than control subjects. Logistic regression of coherent activity by group membership was significant, with an overall predictive success of 84.4% (88.9% for controls and 77.8% for dyslexia). Coherence between the right lateral orbitofrontal and middle orbitofrontal gyri pair substantially contributed to group membership. The results suggest a pattern of aberrant connectivity as evidenced by the early onset and reliance on prefrontal cortical areas, the differential activation of fronto-temporal brain systems, and an altered pattern of functional connectivity in the frontotemporal pathways mediating these behaviors.

Orienting to eye gaze is a vital social skill that is absent or developmentally delayed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Neural synchrony in the gamma frequency band is believed to be involved in perceptual and cognitive functions such as eye-gaze processing, and has been found to be abnormal in ASD. The current study used magnetoencephalography to measure neural synchrony in the gamma frequency band in neurotypicals (n=8) and individuals with ASD (n=10) while performing a directional eye-gaze processing task. Results support impaired generation of neural synchrony in the gamma frequency band during eye-gaze processing in ASD. Impaired gamma oscillatory activity in the prefrontal cortex may be associated with impairments in social cognitive functions such as eye-gaze processing in ASD.

Neuroscientific evidence points toward atypical auditory processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and yet, the consequences of this for receptive language remain unclear. Using magnetoencephalography and a passive listening task, we test for cascading effects on speech sound processing. Children with ASD and age-matched control participants (8-12 years old) listened to nonce linguistic stimuli that either did or did not conform to the phonological rules that govern consonant sequences in English (e.g. legal 'vimp' vs. illegal 'vimk'). Beamformer source analysis was used to isolate evoked responses (0.1-30 Hz) to these stimuli in the left and the right auditory cortex. Right auditory responses from participants with ASD, but not control participants, showed an attenuated response to illegal sequences relative to legal sequences that emerged around 330 ms after the onset of the critical phoneme. These results suggest that phonological processing is impacted in ASD, perhaps because of cascading effects from disrupted initial acoustic processing.

Visual and auditory verbal learning using a selective reminding format was studied in a mixed clinical sample of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 42), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 83), velocardiofacial syndrome (n = 17) and neurotypicals (n = 38) using the Test of Memory and Learning to (1) more thoroughly characterize and examine the integrity of learning and memory processes, (2) to better understand the mechanisms of learning impairment, and (3) to inform instructional practices in ASD. Contrary to expectations, children with ASD demonstrated a relative weakness in the rate of acquisition of visual in contrast to verbal learning compared to neurotypicals. They also showed a complex pattern of consolidation. Overall, between-group differences were more likely to emerge during the visual learning task, suggesting that it may be more sensitive for detecting neurodevelopmental differences. The heuristic value of assessing memory and learning across multiple trials and comparing performance during immediate and delayed recall is discussed.

Critical factors affecting traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcome in children and adolescents are explored with an emphasis on an examination of age at injury as a predictor of memory functioning. Age at injury and other injury-related and demographic predictors (i.e., severity, time postinjury, gender, and socioeconomic status [SES]) of memory and achievement outcome were examined in 65 children and adolescents post-TBI compared to 65 age-matched noninjured controls. Although robust findings have been found for age at injury as a general predictor of outcome, age was not found to be a significant predictor of memory functioning following pediatric TBI. Structural equation modeling suggests that the most parsimonious model of post-TBI outcome contains two causally related latent variables: one defined by gender, SES, injury severity, and age at injury, and one defined by general cognitive functioning.

This article reviews empirically supported assessment methods to examine impairments in memory and learning following pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Critical factors affecting outcome are explored with an emphasis on an examination of age at injury. The article closes with discussion of current evidence-based interventions for deficits in memory and learning following pediatric TBI.

The prevalence of late effects following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), a curative treatment for pediatric leukemia, is high: 79% of HCT recipients experience chronic medical conditions. The few extant studies of cognitive late effects have focused on intelligence and are equivocal about HCT neurotoxicity. In an archival study of 30 children (mean transplant age = 6 years), we characterize neuropsychological predictors of academic outcomes. Mean intellectual and academic abilities were average, but evidenced extreme variability, particularly on measures of attention and memory: ∼25% of the sample exhibited borderline performance or lower. Medical predictors of outcome revealed paradoxically better memory associated with more severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and associated with steroid treatment. Processing speed and memory accounted for 69% and 61% of variance in mathematics and reading outcomes, respectively. Thus, our findings revealed neurocognitive areas of vulnerability in processing speed and memory following HCT that contribute to subsequent academic difficulties.

Abnormal visual attention has been frequently observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Abnormal shifting of visual attention is related to abnormal development of social cognition and has been identified as a key neuropsychological finding in ASD. Better characterizing attention shifting in ASD and its relationship with social functioning may help to identify new targets for intervention and improving social communication in these disorders. Thus, the current study investigated deficits in attention shifting in ASD as well as relationships between attention shifting and social communication in ASD and neurotypicals (NT).To investigate deficits in visual attention shifting in ASD, 20 ASD and 20 age- and gender-matched NT completed visual search (VS) and Navon tasks with attention-shifting demands as well as a set-shifting task. VS was a feature search task with targets defined in one of two dimensions; Navon required identification of a target letter presented at the global or local level. Psychomotor and processing speed were entered as covariates. Relationships between visual attention shifting, set shifting, and social functioning were also examined.ASD and NT showed comparable costs of shifting attention. However, psychomotor and processing speed were slower in ASD than in NT, and psychomotor and processing speed were positively correlated with attention-shifting costs on Navon and VS, respectively, for both groups. Attention shifting on VS and Navon were correlated among NT, while attention shifting on Navon was correlated with set shifting among ASD. Attention-shifting costs on Navon were positively correlated with restricted and repetitive behaviors among ASD.Relationships between attention shifting and psychomotor and processing speed, as well as relationships between measures of different aspects of visual attention shifting, suggest inefficient top-down influences over preattentive visual processing in ASD. Inefficient attention shifting may be related to restricted and repetitive behaviors in these disorders.

New approaches to understanding language and reading acquisition propose that the human brain's ability to synchronize its neural firing rate to syllable-length linguistic units may be important to children's ability to acquire human language. Yet, little evidence from brain imaging studies has been available to support this proposal. Here, we summarize three recent brain imaging (functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and magnetoencephalography (MEG)) studies from our laboratories with young English-speaking children (aged 6-12 years). In the first study (fNIRS), we used an auditory beat perception task to show that, in children, the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) responds preferentially to rhythmic beats at 1.5 Hz. In the second study (fMRI), we found correlations between children's amplitude rise-time sensitivity, phonological awareness, and brain activation in the left STG. In the third study (MEG), typically developing children outperformed children with autism spectrum disorder in extracting words from rhythmically rich foreign speech and displayed different brain activation during the learning phase. The overall findings suggest that the efficiency with which left temporal regions process slow temporal (rhythmic) information may be important for gains in language and reading proficiency. These findings carry implications for better understanding of the brain's mechanisms that support language and reading acquisition during both typical and atypical development.

Children with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS; N = 14) and a comparison group of siblings (N = 8) underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment to examine the relationship between cognitive functioning and psychopathology. Significant group differences were obtained on tests of full scale and verbal intellectual functioning and perceptual–motor skills. With the exception of performance on tests of attention and executive functioning, children with VCFS displayed a profile consistent with nonverbal learning disability (NLD). However, within group comparisons revealed significantly poorer visuospatial intellectual and nonverbal memory functioning in sibling controls as well. No significant group differences were obtained on tests of motor speed, academic, language, attention, memory, or executive functioning, with significant variability in children with VCFS frequently accounting for the lack of robust differences. Parent-report measures revealed profiles consistent with ADHD. No clinically significant symptoms of psychosis, depression or anxiety were noted on either self- or parent-report measures. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance was found to be highly and negatively correlated with the Thought Problems subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for VCFS children only, suggesting a possible at-risk indicator for later onset psychopathology. © 2005 National Academy of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study examined memory functioning in children and adolescents with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (DS; velocardiofacial syndrome). An overall verbal better than nonverbal memory pattern was evident on the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL), with children with 22q11.2 DS performing significantly below their siblings and children with low average IQ but similar to children with autism on facial memory. Children with 22q11 DS also performed significantly below their siblings on tests of verbal working memory. Children with autism performed significantly poorer than the siblings of children with 22q11.2 DS only on their recall of stories. Delayed recall was significantly poorer in children with 22q11.2 DS and children with autism, compared to sibling controls. Although there were no significant group differences on tests of multiple trial verbal or visual learning, a relative weakness was noted with multiple trial visual learning in children with 22q11.2 DS and their siblings, suggesting that an alternative or interactive factor other than the deletion may account for the relatively better verbal compared to nonverbal memory abilities. Deficits in facial memory in children with both 22q11.2 DS and autism suggest disruptions in ventral temporal pathways such as between fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal/hippocampal regions whereas deficits in verbal working memory in children with 22q11.2 DS implicates dorsolateral prefrontal regions, both intimating aberrant white matter pathways.

This paper presents a fast method for delineation of activated areas of the brain from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time series data. The steps of the work accomplished are as follows. 1) It is shown that the detection performance evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve is directly related to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the composite image generated in the detection process. 2) Detection and segmentation of activated areas are formulated in a vector space framework. In this formulation, a linear transformation (image combination method) is shown to be desirable to maximize the SNR of the activated areas subject to the constraint of removing inactive areas. 3) An analytical solution for the problem is found. 4) Image pixel vectors and expected time series pattern (signature) for inactive pixels are used to calculate weighting vector and identify activated regions. 5) Signatures of the activated regions are used to segment different activities. 6) Segmented images by the proposed method are compared with those generated by the conventional methods (correlation, t-statistic, and z statistic). Detection performance and SNRs of the images are compared. The proposed approach outperforms the conventional methods of fMRI analysis. In addition, it is model-independent and does not require a priori knowledge of the fMRI response to the paradigm. Since the method is linear and most of the work is done analytically, numerical implementation and execution of the method are much faster than the conventional methods.

Hamartoses (HM) are defined as disorders involving nonneoplastic tissue overgrowth. Studies have examined the neuropsychological profiles of children with common HM, such as neurofibromatosis type 1. Limited information is known regarding neuropsychological profiles of rare HM such as Osteochondromatosis Syndrome (OS) and Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome (KTS). The current investigation is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to define the cognitive phenotypes in two boys with OS and KTS. Results revealed significantly greater impairments involving sensorimotor and visuospatial skills, while verbal memory and language skills appeared relatively preserved. Significant neurobehavioral problems and marked social difficulties were evident. These findings suggest that these syndromes are on a Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) continuum, with varying degrees of severity.

The objective of this study was to replicate an earlier study on the effect of the administration sequence on Conners' Continuous Performance Test-Second Edition (CPT-II) scores (Erdodi, Lajiness-O'Neill,Saules, 2010 ). Participants were recruited at a university training clinic (13 males, 12 females; M(age) = 26.7 years, SD = 13.3), and they were administered the CPT-II twice in the same day: at the beginning and at the end of the testing session. The overall trends described in the original study were observed in the present sample. However, order effects were generally less pronounced. The pre-post contrast on the Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Index score was not statistically significant. The Neurological Index was more impaired at Time 2 (M = 36.3, SD = 19.7) compared with Time 1 (M = 33.3, SD = 19.9): t(17) = 1.63, p = .06, d = 0.38. Likewise, pre-post changes were detected in the number of T-scores60 from Time 1 (M = 1.6, SD = 2.1) to Time 2 (M = 2.3, SD = 2.8): t(23) = 2.53, p.05, d = 0.52. Time-related changes in the CPT-II scores appear to be reliable and are likely mediated by the presence of ADHD, perhaps as a precipitator of mental fatigue. Order effects have the potential to function as an emergent diagnostic marker of ADHD.

Recent neuroradiologic and brain imaging technologies, along with methods for displaying electrophysiologic data, have promulgated active exploration in the assessment of learning disability with attempts to improve diagnostic precision and elucidate the neurobiological substrates of learning disorders. The following article reviews these techniques and explores the research that has been conducted in this area over the past two decades. Initial investigations attempted to elucidate irregularities or abnormalities of brain morphology in individuals with learning disability utilizing computerized tomography (CT). The current standard for structural imaging of the brain is magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, which has allowed for greater specificity in identifying brain abnormalities. More recently, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been postulated as holding some promise in distinguishing anatomic/function differences in LD. Electrophysiological (EEG) and metabolic imaging techniques offer methods by which human brain activity can be studied during cognitive processes. Computerized EEG studies including evoked potentials (EP) or event-related potentials (ERP), spectral EEG analysis, and topographic EEG brain mapping have also identified a number of brain irregularities in individuals with learning disabilities, though no consistent exemplars have emerged. Studies with positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) have also demonstrated a number of abnormalities and inconsistencies in individuals with learning disabilities, but, again, no systematic research has demonstrated specific diagnostic abnormalities. Though inroads and some consistent patterns have begun to emerge in the assessment of learning disability with the preceding technologies, a number of challenges persist with neuroimaging and neurophysiological and metabolic imaging techniques. To date, no diagnostic conclusions have been drawn utilizing these methods in the assessment of the neurobiologic basis to LD.

Three samples (English, Hungarian and bilingual speakers, N = 91) were asked to rate 32 jokes covering various topics. Funniness ratings revealed several between- and within-group differences. Hungarians perceived jokes with ethnic stereotypes to be funnier than did either bilingual or English speakers. Bilinguals with Hungarian dominance rated jokes presented in Hungarian higher than jokes presented in English. No such preference was observed in bilinguals with English dominance. The implications of the findings to multicultural research and clinical practice are discussed.

Atypical hemispheric lateralization during language tasks has been reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Six participants with ASD and eight neurotypical controls underwent MEG while performing a gaze cueing task. Participants indicated whether a character’s gaze shifted congruently or incongruently to targets (asterisk), words, or faces. We hypothesized similar aberrant activity and contextual differences would be evident during joint attention, suggesting fundamental cognitive processing biases in regions necessary for either verbal or nonverbal communication. Data were analyzed with MR-FOCUSS [1]. Results revealed higher mean amplitudes in left occipital and parietal brain regions during gaze shifts to both targets and faces in ASD while higher mean amplitudes in right inferior temporal and medial orbitofrontal regions was evident in controls. Pronounced amplitudes were noted in left angular regions during gaze shifts to faces in ASD. Latency data further reveals contextual differences and a possible double dissociation in brain regions recruited for joint attention. While controls displayed an earlier onset in activation to words in frontal regions and later activation to faces in inferior temporal regions, ASD demonstrated the opposite pattern; an earlier activation in inferior temporal regions and later activation in frontal regions to words. Results suggest atypical hemispheric specialization for joint attention with ASD recruiting left posterior hemispheric regions during gaze shifts to social stimuli while controls recruit right inferior temporal and medial orbitofrontal regions. Consistent with aberrant connectivity and a “crowding” hypothesis, ASD subjects appear to be using regions that underlie reading such as posterior parietal and occipital regions for joint attention. This is the first study to reveal these deficits in ASD children and adolescents with neuroimaging.