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The development of copying behaviours of a group of infants from 9 to 15 months of age is analysed. These behaviours are classified according to their type (mimetic or imitated) and function (instrumental, social or hybrid). The function of the behaviours is derived from observable indicators linked to dyadic interaction. Mimetic behaviours are maintained from 9 to 15 months, while imitative behaviours increase in frequency. The elicited copying situation promotes more behaviours with instrumental function, while other functions appear spontaneously. The concurrent and prospective relationships between copying behaviours -- frequency, type and function- and receptive and expressive language are different through development. This study proposes an innovative definition of the functions of copying behaviours that is based on dynamic variables linked to interaction, in contrast to previous work that derives function from static variables such as context, object use and/or the body part performing the movement.

In spite of the relevant role of prosody in communication, and in contrast with other linguistic components, there is paucity of research in this field for Williams syndrome (WS). Therefore, this study performed a systematic assessment of prosodic abilities in WS. The Spanish version of the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication battery was administered to 27 Spanish-speaking adolescents and adults with WS and a control group of 54 typically developing participants matched for chronological age (CA). Participants with WS presented prosodic deficits, relative to their CA, to comprehend and express prosodic cues both on a function and a form level. These difficulties were mainly due to their cognitive impairments. In addition, the areas of understanding and expressing the prosodic function of segmentation and the expression of the nonfinal contrastive focus were found to be particularly impaired in WS. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

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The development of copying behaviours of a group of infants from 9 to 15 months of age is analysed. These behaviours are classified according to their type (mimetic or imitated) and function (instrumental, social or hybrid). The function of the behaviours is derived from observable indicators linked to dyadic interaction. Mimetic behaviours are maintained from 9 to 15 months, while imitative behaviours increase in frequency. The elicited copying situation promotes more behaviours with instrumental function, while other functions appear spontaneously. The concurrent and prospective relationships between copying behaviours – frequency, type and function- and receptive and expressive language are different through development. This study proposes an innovative definition of the functions of copying behaviours that is based on dynamic variables linked to interaction, in contrast to previous work that derives function from static variables such as context, object use and/or the body part performing the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annette Karmiloff-Smith's perspective places development at the very core of of the explanation of psychological functioning. Her neuroconstructivist model involves several fundamental assumptions, as follows: (a) functional specificity is acquired through interactive experience with the environment through a process of progressive specialization; (b) the influence of each level of explanation in human development (i.e., genetic, cellular, neural, cognitive, behavioural and environmental) inter-depends on the others; (c) there is no one-to-one correspondence between the level of observable behaviours and the level of cognitive processes and mental representations; and (d) interaction with caregivers is the privileged development context. There is an urgency to translate these assumptions into practices that enable the optimization of developmental contexts; this paper addresses this urgency by suggesting the implications of this neuroconstructivist model for the assessment and design of support for children at risk of atypical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From our deep interest in the neuroconstructivist framework, we would like to comment on two fundamental aspects of Mareschal et al.'s work: the role of neuroconstructivism for clinical work with people suffering from developmental disorders; and the relation between the process of progressive specialization and the increasing abstraction of representations in development.

Anecdotal reports have described children with Williams syndrome (WS) as presenting outstanding skills for recognizing environmental sounds by their timbre. This has led to suggest that the skills for environmental sound recognition by timbre are highly developed in WS. Furthermore, the term hypertimbria has been proposed to refer to this feature. However, no academic research has assessed these skills in WS. This study therefore aimed to contrast the reports on the highly developed skills for environmental sound recognition by timbre in children with WS. An environmental sound recognition task was administered to children with WS, children with Down syndrome of the same chronological age and cognitive level, and chronological age-matched typically developing children. Participants with WS performed significantly lower than their typically developing peers and no significant differences were found between the WS and Down syndrome groups. Unlike previous reports, this study points out that in WS environmental sound recognition by timbre does not constitute a phenotypic strength either in absolute or relative terms. Results suggest that children with WS do not present hypertimbria or preserved skills for timbre recognition. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of cognitive modularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, we raise two issues. First we argue that in any species, the comparative study of metacognitive abilities must he approached from a developmental perspective and not solely from the adult end state. This makes it possible to explore the trajectories by which different species reach their phenotypic outcome and whether different cognitive systems interact over developmental time. Second, using our research comparing different genetic disorders in humans, we challenge the authors' claim that it is unparsimonious to interpret the same performance in humans and animals in qualitatively different ways, because even the same overt behaviour in different groups of humans can be sustained by different underlying cognitive processes.

Neuroconstructivism can provide Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) with a developmental framework to understand mental disorders. Neuroconstructivism proposes that mental disorders are the outcome of a developmental trajectory. Based on this assumption, symptoms would reveal the system's adaptation to optimize functioning according to the system's experience of the physical and social contexts. RDoC adopts a translational research approach with the aim of detecting, curing, and preventing mental illness. More specifically this involves to: (a) identify early signs of mental disorders, (b) find the optimal patient‐treatment fit, and (c) design efficient interventions to prevent the system's eventual pathological functioning. We propose that meeting RDoC's threefold objective necessarily involves predicting the system's developmental trajectory. Such endeavor requires counting with assessment tools that are sensitive to both the process of development and its different contexts; the measures provided by these tools will allow identifying the risk and protective factors that make the system vulnerable to depart from a typical developmental trajectory. Including vectors relative to time and contexts in a relevant part of the matrix will make of RDoC a truly integrative model, which considers the relationships between behavior and neural circuits throughout the developmental pathway. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Brain Function and DysfunctionNeuroscience > Clinical NeuroscienceNeuroscience > Development RDoC meets neuroconstructivism: Development as the axis to organizing a new conceptualization of mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between February and June 2010, 113 fiddler crabs Uca spinicarpa were collected from the Chuburna lagoon system on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, México. Of the 68 crabs gathered outside their burrows, 13 were infected with 25 cystacanths of Hexaglandula corynosoma (intensity of infection from 1 to 5) and the remaining 55 crabs were uninfected. The other 45 crabs were found inside their burrows and only one was found infected with 1 cystacanth of H. corynosoma. Serotonin (5-HT) levels were higher in the group of crabs infected with H. corynosoma in contrast to the group of uninfected crabs and the group of those infected with other parasites. A redundancy analysis corroborated a positive relationship between 5-HT and the intensity of infection with H. corynosoma. In contrast, dopamine levels remained similar among different groups of crabs.