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Impaired facial affect recognition (FAR) is observed in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and has been linked to amygdala and fusiform gyrus dysfunction. ASD patient's impairments seem to be more pronounced during implicit rather than explicit FAR, whereas for schizophrenia data are inconsistent. However, there are no studies comparing both patient groups in an identical design. The aim of this three-group study was to identify (i) whether FAR alterations are equally present in both groups, (ii) whether they are present rather during implicit or explicit FAR, (iii) and whether they are conveyed by similar or disorder-specific neural mechanisms. Using fMRI, we investigated neural activation during explicit and implicit negative and neutral FAR in 33 young-adult individuals with ASD, 20 subjects with paranoid-schizophrenia and 25 IQ- and gender-matched controls individuals. Differences in activation patterns between each clinical group and controls, respectively were found exclusively for implicit FAR in amygdala and fusiform gyrus. In addition, the ASD group additionally showed reduced activations in medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), bilateral dorso-lateral PFC, ventro-lateral PFC, posterior-superior temporal sulcus and left temporo-parietal junction. Although subjects with ASD showed more widespread altered activation patterns, a direct comparison between both patient groups did not show disorder-specific deficits in neither patient group. In summary, our findings are consistent with a common neural deficit during implicit negative facial affect recognition in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is yet unknown whether individuals with and without savant abilities being affected by the same mental disorder display differences with regard to their intelligence profile. To examine this issue, we compared the test performance of 33 savant and 26 nonsavant autistic subjects using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales-Revised for children or adults (WISC-R/WAIS-R). Data analysis revealed inconsistent results with rather negligible differences concerning the compound of cognitive capacities. However, savant and nonsavant individuals with autism exhibited a significant mean difference on the subscale Digit Span. This finding may indicate less impaired working memory and executive function in autistic savants or rote memory and low-level processing being core savant skills. Several limitations of the study are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In typical infant development, parents and their children jointly contribute to establishing frequent episodes of joint attention that boost language acquisition and shape social cognition. Here we used novel live eye-tracking technology to evaluate the degree to which autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is related to reduced responding to others' joint attention bids in infancy (RJA) and to a reduced tendency to initiate joint attention episodes (IJA). Because young infants use their gaze for both RJA and IJA, this approach allowed us to quantify these elusive processes early in life. The final sample consisted of 112 infants (54 boys and 58 girls), of whom 81 were at familial risk for ASD and 31 were typically developing low-risk infants. At follow-up (36 months of age), 22 children in the high-risk group were diagnosed with ASD. At 10 months of age, rates of IJA were lower in infants later diagnosed with ASD than in the comparison groups (effect sizes d = 0.78–0.95) and followed an atypical developmental trajectory from 10 to 18 months (p <.002). RJA distinguished infants based on familial ASD risk, albeit not ASD diagnosis. The differences in IJA could not be explained by overall looking time, social preference, eye movement latencies, or number of fixations. This live eye-tracking study suggests that during an important period for the development of social cognition (10–18 months of age), infants later diagnosed with ASD show marked atypicalities in IJA but not in RJA. The results indicate that IJA is an important target for future prodromal intervention trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Social Skills group training: Kontakt for children and adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: A pragmatic multicenter and randomized controlled trial" by Sven Bölte is presented.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "The Social Communications Questionnaire (SCQ) as a Screener for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Additional Evidence And Cross-Cultural Validity," by Chandler and colleague in the October 2007 issue.

Presents a letter to the editor in response to an article on diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder by M. Fitzgerald and G. Kewley in the March 2005 issue of the journal "Child & Adolescent Psychiatry."

Altered resting-state functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) is characteristic of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Standard analytical pipelines for resting-state functional connectivity focus on linear correlations in activation time courses between neural networks or regions of interest. These features may be insensitive to temporally lagged or nonlinear relationships. In a twin cohort study comprising 292 children, including 52 with a diagnosis of ASD and 70 with a diagnosis of ADHD, we applied nonlinear analytical methods to characterize periodic dynamics in the DMN. Using recurrence quantification analysis and related methods, we measured the prevalence, duration, and complexity of periodic processes within and between DMN regions of interest. We constructed generalized estimating equations to compare these features between neurotypical children and children with ASD and/or ADHD while controlling for familial relationships, and we leveraged machine learning algorithms to construct models predictive of ASD or ADHD diagnosis. In within-pair analyses of twins with discordant ASD diagnoses, we found that DMN signal dynamics were significantly different in dizygotic twins but not in monozygotic twins. Considering our full sample, we found that these patterns allowed a robust predictive classification of both ASD (81.0% accuracy; area under the curve = 0.85) and ADHD (82% accuracy; area under the curve = 0.87) cases. These findings indicate that synchronized periodicity among regions comprising the DMN relates both to neurotypical function and to ASD and/or ADHD, and they suggest generally that a dynamical analysis of network interconnectivity may be a useful methodology for future neuroimaging studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims The pharmacological treatment of individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and severe substance use disorder (SUD) is controversial, and few studies have examined the long-term psychosocial outcome of these treatments. Our aim was to investigate whether pharmacological treatment was associated with improved long-term psychosocial outcomes. Methods The present naturalistic study consisted of a long-term follow-up of 60 male patients with ADHD and comorbid severe SUD; all participants had received compulsory inpatient treatment due to severe substance abuse. The average interval between inpatient discharge and follow-up was 18.4 months. Thirty patients had received pharmacological treatment for ADHD, and 30 patients were pharmacologically untreated. The groups were compared with respect to mortality and psychosocial outcomes operationalized as substance abuse status, ongoing voluntary rehabilitation, current housing situation and employment status. Results The groups were comparable with regard to the demographic and background characteristics. Overall, mortality was high; 8.3% of the participants had deceased at follow-up (one in the pharmacologically treated group and four in the untreated group; the between-group difference was not significant). The group that received pharmacological treatment for ADHD exhibited fewer substance abuse relapses, received more frequently voluntary treatments in accordance with a rehabilitation plan, required less frequent compulsory care, were more frequently accommodated in supportive housing or a rehabilitation center, and displayed a higher employment rate than the non-treated group. Conclusions The recommendations for the close clinical monitoring of high-risk populations and the prevention of misuse and drug diversion were fulfilled in the structured environment of compulsory care for the treated group. Pharmacological treatment of ADHD in individuals with severe SUD may decrease the risk of relapse and increase these patients' ability to follow a non-pharmacological rehabilitation plan, thereby improving their long-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigated the association between the ability to maintain prolonged fixation ADHD traits in childhood using a twin design. • More intrusive saccades during the task was associated with higher level of parent-reported ADHD traits. • There was a moderate genetic correlation between number of intrusive saccades and ADHD. • This study suggests that inability to maintain ocular fixation for longer times is etiologically linked to ADHD traits. This study investigated the association between the ability to maintain prolonged (2-minute) fixation on a visual target and ADHD traits in a sample consisting of 120 monozygotic and 120 dizygotic twin pairs, aged 9 to 14 years. More intrusive saccades during the task was associated with higher level of parent-reported ADHD traits. Both intrusive saccades and ADHD symptoms had high heritability estimates, and there was a moderate genetic correlation between number of intrusive saccades and ADHD. This study suggests that inability to maintain ocular fixation for longer times is etiologically linked to ADHD traits in the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Retrospective research has not provided clear answers on regression as ASD subtype. • The historic division between early onset and regression is insufficient. • Retrospective results on etiology, early development and outcomes are mixed. • Research on onset patterns needs to be more systematic in definitions and methods. • The combination of a categorical and dimensional approach provides a new framework. Historically, two onset patterns in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were described: early onset of symptoms and regression in which one-third appear to show a loss of previously established skills in the second year of life. Since this phenomenon could represent a distinct ASD subtype and provide more insight into the etiology, diagnosis, and prognosis, many studies have compared these two groups. The present review discusses definitions, etiology, and methods used in research with a retrospective design and provides an overview of the results on early development and outcomes. However, retrospective research has not provided clear answers on regression as a distinct subtype of ASD and the historic division between early onset and regression does not seem to fit the empirical findings. Based on inconsistent results, future research on onset patterns in ASD needs to be more systematic on the definitions and methods used. Several recommendations to enhance the reliability of future retrospective results are discussed. The combination of a categorical and dimensional approach provides a new interesting framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early speech-language development of individuals with Rett syndrome (RTT) has been repeatedly characterised by a co-occurrence of apparently typical and atypical vocalisations.Aims: To describe specific features of this intermittent character of typical versus atypical early RTT-associated vocalisations by combining auditory Gestalt perception and acoustic vocalisation analysis.Methods and Procedures: We extracted N = 363 (pre-)linguistic vocalisations from home video recordings of an infant later diagnosed with RTT. In a listening experiment, all vocalisations were assessed for (a)typicality by five experts on early human development. Listeners' auditory concepts of (a)typicality were investigated in context of a comprehensive set of acoustic time-, spectral- and/or energy-related higher-order features extracted from the vocalisations.Outcomes and Results: More than half of the vocalisations were rated as 'atypical' by at least one listener. Atypicality was mainly related to the auditory attribute 'timbre', and to prosodic, spectral, and voice quality features in the acoustic domain.Conclusions and Implications: Knowledge gained in our study shall contribute to the generation of an objective model of early vocalisation atypicality. Such a model might be used for increasing caregivers' and healthcare professionals' sensitivity to identify atypical vocalisation patterns, or even for a probabilistic approach to automatically detect RTT based on early vocalisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Responding to one's own name (RtN) has been reported as atypical in children with developmental disorders, yet comparative studies on RtN across syndromes are rare.Aims: We aim to (a) overview the literature on RtN in different developmental disorders during the first 24 months of life, and (b) report comparative data on RtN across syndromes.Methods and Procedures: In Part 1, a literature search, focusing on RtN in children during the first 24 months of life with developmental disorders, identified 23 relevant studies. In Part 2, RtN was assessed utilizing retrospective video analysis for infants later diagnosed with ASD, RTT, or FXS, and typically developing peers.Outcomes and Results: Given a variety of methodologies and instruments applied to assess RtN, 21/23 studies identified RtN as atypical in infants with a developmental disorder. We observed four different developmental trajectories of RtN in ASD, RTT, PSV, and FXS from 9 to 24 months of age. Between-group differences became more distinctive with age.Conclusions and Implications: RtN may be a potential parameter of interest in a comprehensive early detection model characterising age-specific neurofunctional biomarkers associated with specific disorders, and contribute to early identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infants with Rett syndrome (RTT) may have subtle anomalies in their prelinguistic vocalisations but the detection of these is difficult, since their conspicuous vocalisations are often interspersed with inconspicuous ones. Extending a previous study with predominantly non-parents, the present study sampled parents of children with RTT and aimed to examine their gestalt perception of prelinguistic vocalisations. Parents (n = 76) of female children with RTT listened to vocalisation recordings from RTT and typically developing (TD) infants, including an inconspicuous vocalisation from a RTT girl. For each recording, parents indicated if the vocalisation was produced by a RTT or a TD child. Overall correct to incorrect identification rate was 2:1, which was comparable to that of the previous study. Intriguingly, parents of RTT children seemed to be sensitive to features characterising the vocalisations of RTT infants, which has especially influenced their perception of the inconspicuous vocalisation from a RTT girl. These results invite further research on the potential characterising differences between vocalisations from TD infants and infants with divergent neurodevelopment. • Parents are insightful informants in identifying neurodiversity. • Parents of RTT children differentiate prelinguistic vocalisations made by RTT versus TD infants. • Inconspicuous vocalisations from RTT infants may still bear origin-telling features. • Parents may help to refine our understanding of (in)conspicuousness in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While behavioural difficulties in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been observed in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), behavioural studies alone are not suited to elucidate the specific nature of FER challenges in ASD. Eye tracking (ET) and electroencephalography (EEG) provide insights in to the attentional and neurological correlates of performance, and may therefore provide insight in to the mechanisms underpinning FER in ASD. Given that these processes develop over the course of the developmental trajectory, there is a need to synthesise findings in regard to the developmental stages to determine how the maturation of these systems may impact FER in ASD. We conducted a systematic review of fifty-four studies investigating ET or EEG meeting inclusion criteria. Findings indicate divergence of visual processing pathways in individuals with ASD. Altered function of the social brain in ASD impacts the processing of facial emotion across the developmental trajectory, resulting in observable differences in ET and EEG outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Facial Affect Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Typical Development" by Steve Berggren and colleagues is presented.

Objective: Social skills group training (SSGT) for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely applied, but effectiveness in real-world practice has not yet been properly evaluated. This study sought to bridge this gap.Method: This 12-week pragmatic randomized controlled trial of SSGT compared to standard care alone was conducted at 13 child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient units in Sweden. Twelve sessions of manualized SSGT ("KONTAKT") were delivered by regular clinical staff. Participants (N = 296; 88 females and 208 males) were children (n = 172) and adolescents (n = 124) aged 8 to 17 years with ASD without intellectual disability. The primary outcome was the Social Responsiveness Scale rating by parents and blinded teachers. Secondary outcomes included parent- and teacher-rated adaptive behaviors, trainer-rated global functioning and clinical severity, and self-reported child and caregiver stress. Assessments were made at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Moderator analyses were conducted for age and gender.Results: Significant treatment effects on the primary outcome were limited to parent ratings for the adolescent subgroup (posttreatment: -8.3; 95% CI = -14.2 to -1.9; p = .012, effect size [ES] = 0.32; follow-up: -8.6; 95% CI = -15.4 to -1.8; p = .015, ES = 0.33) and females (posttreatment: -8.9; 95% CI = -16.2 to -1.6; p = .019, ES = 0.40). Secondary outcomes indicated moderate effects on adaptive functioning and clinical severity.Conclusion: SSGT for children and adolescents with ASD in regular mental health services is feasible and safe. However, the modest and inconsistent effects underscore the importance of continued efforts to improve SSGT beyond current standards.Clinical Trial Registration Information: Social Skills Group Training ("KONTAKT") for Children and Adolescent With High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders; https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT01854346. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the first half year of life of individuals later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). There is even a complete lack of observations on the first 6 months of life of individuals with transient autistic behaviours who improved in their socio-communicative functions in the pre-school age.Aim: To compare early development of individuals with transient autistic behaviours and those later diagnosed with ASD.Study Design: Exploratory study; retrospective home video analysis.Subjects: 18 males, videoed between birth and the age of 6 months (ten individuals later diagnosed with ASD; eight individuals who lost their autistic behaviours after the age of 3 and achieved age-adequate communicative abilities, albeit often accompanied by tics and attention deficit).Method: The detailed video analysis focused on general movements (GMs), the concurrent motor repertoire, eye contact, responsive smiling, and pre-speech vocalisations.Results: Abnormal GMs were observed more frequently in infants later diagnosed with ASD, whereas all but one infant with transient autistic behaviours had normal GMs (p<0.05). Eye contact and responsive smiling were inconspicuous for all individuals. Cooing was not observable in six individuals across both groups.Conclusions: GMs might be one of the markers which could assist the earlier identification of ASD. We recommend implementing the GM assessment in prospective studies on ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared early markers of social reciprocity in children with typical Rett syndrome (RTT) and in those with the preserved speech variant (PSV) of RTT. Retrospective video analysis of 10 toddlers with typical RTT and five with PSV investigated participants’ orientation to their name being called between the ages of 5 and 24 months, prior to their diagnosis. From analysis of the recordings two distinct profiles were apparent. Although response rate was higher in girls with typical RTT than PSV at 5 to 8 months this noticeably reversed from 9 to 12 months onwards. By two years of age there was a markedly higher rate and range of responses from girls with PSV. This study contributes to the delineation of different profiles for the variants of RTT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined, for the first time, the impact of implementation intentions on prospective memory (PM) performance in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and further explored the role of retrospective memory for PM in ASD. PM was assessed with Virtual Week, a computerized game simulating upcoming everyday-life tasks. Twenty-seven adults with ASD and 27 age- and ability-matched controls were included. Half of the participants were instructed to form implementation intentions (i.e., encoding PM tasks in form of if-then statements), while the rest received simple PM instructions. Results provide first tentative evidence for beneficial effects of implementation intentions and PM tasks with low demands on retrospective memory for adults with ASD's PM. Overall, results point to the importance of planning and retrospective memory for successful prospective remembering in ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) share deficits in emotion processing. In order to identify convergent and divergent mechanisms, we investigated facial emotion recognition in SZ, high-functioning ASD (HFASD), and typically developed controls (TD). Different degrees of task difficulty and emotion complexity (face, eyes; basic emotions, complex emotions) were used. Two Benton tests were implemented in order to elicit potentially confounding visuo-perceptual functioning and facial processing. Nineteen participants with paranoid SZ, 22 with HFASD and 20 TD were included, aged between 14 and 33 years. Individuals with SZ were comparable to TD in all obtained emotion recognition measures, but showed reduced basic visuo-perceptual abilities. The HFASD group was impaired in the recognition of basic and complex emotions compared to both, SZ and TD. When facial identity recognition was adjusted for, group differences remained for the recognition of complex emotions only. Our results suggest that there is a SZ subgroup with predominantly paranoid symptoms that does not show problems in face processing and emotion recognition, but visuo-perceptual impairments. They also confirm the notion of a general facial and emotion recognition deficit in HFASD. No shared emotion recognition deficit was found for paranoid SZ and HFASD, emphasizing the differential cognitive underpinnings of both disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health problems are common among tertiary education students, with concerning levels of suicide ideation frequently observed in this population. There is a need for evidence-based mental health education and suicide prevention programs designed to meet the specific needs of these students. The "Talk-to-Me" Mass Open Online Course (MOOC) is a strengths-based mental health education program underpinned by a six-phase model for managing a suicidal crisis. To evaluate the efficacy of the "Talk-to-Me" MOOC in improving student knowledge of appropriate responses to suicide crisis via a randomised control trial (RCT) comparing tertiary education health science and education students attending the program to a waitlist control group. Overall, 170 will be screened and randomly allocated to either the "Talk-to-Me" MOOC or a waitlist control group, with data collection occurring at three-time points (baseline, 10-weeks and 24-weeks from baseline) over one year. The primary outcome will be participants' knowledge and responses to suicidal statements as measured by the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory. Secondary outcomes will be knowledge of mental health and coping skills as well as the overall utility of the program. This pragmatic RCT will demonstrate the efficacy of the "Talk-to-Me" MOOC in improving the students' ability to respond to suicidal and mental health concerns compared to the waitlist group. This design will enable rigorous evaluation of the "Talk-to-Me" MOOC, contributing to a greater understanding of the online-delivered safe-paced suicide prevention programs for tertiary students. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): #12619000630112. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are frequently co-occurring conditions. Carefully diagnosing ASD in individuals with ID would allow for more tailored clinical interventions that would improve mental health and quality of life. In this study, we evaluated the psychometric properties of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) in a clinical sample of 79 adults with ID who were suspected of also having ASD. In the testable cases (68%), the ADOS was over-inclusive (specificity 45%) but highly sensitive (100%) of ASD. In the ADI-R, the feasibility was 37%, with a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 80%. Previously proposed adaptations of the ADOS algorithm were evaluated, and new items and tasks were suggested. The ADOS and the ADI-R were found to be valuable diagnostic tools for adults with ID. Adjustments of the setting and the tasks may further improve their feasibility and specificity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate intact or superior local processing of visual-spatial tasks. We investigated the hypothesis that in a disembedding task, autistic individuals exhibit a more local processing style than controls, which is reflected by altered electromagnetic brain activity in response to embedded stimuli and enhanced activity of early visual areas. Ten autistic and ten matched control participants underwent 151-channel whole-head magnetoencephalography. Participants were presented with 400 embedded or isolated letters (‘S’ or ‘H’) and asked to indicate which of the two letters was shown. Performance was equal in both groups, but event-related magnetic fields differed between groups in an early (100–150ms) and a later (350–400ms) time window. In the early time window, autistic individuals differed from control participants in the embedded, but not in the isolated condition, reflecting reduced processing of the irrelevant context in autistic individuals. In the later time window, amplitude differences between the embedded and isolated conditions were measured in control participants only, suggesting that “disembedding” processes were not required in autistic individuals. Source localisation indicated that activity in individuals with ASD peaked in the primary visual cortex in both conditions and time windows indicating an effortless (automatic, bottom-up) local process, whereas activity in controls peaked outside the visual cortex. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: About 10% of autistic individuals exhibit some form of islets of abilities in the face of serious intellectual or mental disability (“savant syndrome”). The aim of this study was to investigate brain mechanisms in a sample of autistic subjects with outstanding memory. We investigated seven mnemonist savants with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and seven matched controls with 151-channel whole-head magnetencephalography in a continuous old–new paradigm. They were presented with 300 pseudowords and 300 shapes and had to indicate by button press, whether the presented stimulus had been shown before. Unexpectedly, mnemonist savants did not perform better than controls, but were outperformed in the recognition of pseudowords. Accordingly, event-related magnetic fields elicited by pseudowords showed widespread old–new effects in controls, but not in savants. A source analysis of its early components revealed right occipital activation in savants, but left parietal activation in controls. This might be related to a visual processing style in mnemonist savants that proved to be inefficient in this task. During the possibly familiarity-based recognition of shapes, there were earlier and more widespread bilateral old–new effects in mnemonist savants, what might reflect their experience with figural material. In a neuropsychological test battery, mnemonist savants performed comparably to autistic people without special memory skills. However, a different factor structure of these tests pointed to a different organization of memory in mnemonist savants compared to controls that is characterized by its relative independence of general intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual attention plays a key role in infants' interaction with the environment, and shapes their behavioral and brain development. As such, early problems with flexibly switching gaze from one stimulus to another (visual disengagement) have been hypothesized to lead to developmental difficulties (e.g. joint attention and social skills) over time. This study aimed to identify cross-sectional associations between performance in the Gap task (gaze shift latencies and visual attention disengagement) and measures of development and adaptive behavior in conjunction to any sex or socioeconomic status effects in infancy. We measured visual attention disengagement in 436 5-month-old infants and calculated its association with cognitive developmental level, adaptive behaviours, socioeconomic status (SES) and biological sex. In the Gap task, participants must redirect their gaze from a central stimulus to an appearing peripheral stimulus. The three experimental conditions of the task (Gap, Baseline and Overlap) differ on the timepoint when the central stimuli disappears in relation to the appearance of the peripheral stimulus: 200 ms before the peripheral stimulus appears (Gap), simultaneously to its appearance (Baseline), or with peripheral stimulus offset (Overlap). The data from the experimental conditions showed the expected pattern, with average latencies being the shortest in the Gap and longest in the Overlap condition. Females were faster (p = .004) than males in the Gap condition, which could indicate that arousal-related effects differ as a function of biological sex. Infants from higher SES were slower (p = .031) in the Overlap condition compared to lower SES infants. This suggests that basic visual attention may differ by socio-cultural background, and should be considered when studying visual attention and its developmental correlates. We observed no significant association to concurrent developmental level or adaptive function. Given its large sample size, this study provides a useful reference for future studies of visual disengagement in early infancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The clinical and scientific value of Prechtl general movement assessment (GMA) has been increasingly recognised, which has extended beyond the detection of cerebral palsy throughout the years. With advancing computer science, a surging interest in developing automated GMA emerges.Aims: In this scoping review, we focused on video-based approaches, since it remains authentic to the non-intrusive principle of the classic GMA. Specifically, we aimed to provide an overview of recent video-based approaches targeting GMs; identify their techniques for movement detection and classification; examine if the technological solutions conform to the fundamental concepts of GMA; and discuss the challenges of developing automated GMA.Methods and Procedures: We performed a systematic search for computer vision-based studies on GMs.Outcomes and Results: We identified 40 peer-reviewed articles, most (n = 30) were published between 2017 and 2020. A wide variety of sensing, tracking, detection, and classification tools for computer vision-based GMA were found. Only a small portion of these studies applied deep learning approaches. A comprehensive comparison between data acquisition and sensing setups across the reviewed studies, highlighting limitations and advantages of each modality in performing automated GMA is provided.Conclusions and Implications: A "method-of-choice" for automated GMA does not exist. Besides creating large datasets, understanding the fundamental concepts and prerequisites of GMA is necessary for developing automated solutions. Future research shall look beyond the narrow field of detecting cerebral palsy and open up to the full potential of applying GMA to enable an even broader application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights from the article: B Background: b Social skill group training (SSGT) is one of the most common interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is a neurodevelopmental disorder influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Additionally, we have performed exome sequencing for the same individuals and will then build a comprehensive genetic model including all level genetic variants to better understand the individual treatment responses for SSGT in ASD. B Results: b The patients who carry large CNVs (> 500kb) showed significant worse outcome at 12 weeks post-treatment ( = 15.35, p = 0.017) and 3-months follow-up ( = 14.19, p = 0.028).