A Bayesian approach for exploring person × environment interaction within the environmental sensitivity meta-framework.

BACKGROUND: For investigating the individual-environment interplay and individual differences in response to environmental exposures as captured by models of environmental sensitivity including Diathesis-stress, Differential Susceptibility, and Vantage Sensitivity, over the last few years, a series of statistical guidelines have been proposed. However, available solutions suffer of computational problems especially relevant when sample size is not sufficiently large, a common condition in observational and clinical studies. METHOD: In the current contribution, we propose a Bayesian solution for estimating interaction parameters via Monte Carlo Markov Chains (MCMC), adapting Widaman et al. (Psychological Methods, 17, 2012, 615) Nonlinear Least Squares (NLS) approach. RESULTS: Findings from an applied exemplification and a simulation study showed that with relatively big samples both MCMC and NLS estimates converged on the same results. Conversely, MCMC clearly outperformed NLS, resolving estimation problems and providing more accurate estimates, particularly with small samples and greater residual variance. CONCLUSIONS: As the body of research exploring the interplay between individual and environmental variables grows, enabling predictions regarding the form of interaction and the extent of effects, the Bayesian approach could emerge as a feasible and readily applicable solution to numerous computational challenges inherent in existing frequentist methods. This approach holds promise for enhancing the trustworthiness of research outcomes, thereby impacting clinical and applied understanding.

Maternal dispositional mindfulness and mother-child relationship: The mediating role of emotional control during parenting.

BACKGROUND: The literature supports the role of parental dispositional mindfulness on parent-child relationship quality. However, little is known about the connection between these two aspects. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether emotion regulation during parenting, that is, the ability to control negative emotions, mediated the association between parental dispositional mindfulness and parent-child relationship quality. The study also explored the moderation role of child age on the association between parental dispositional mindfulness and parent's ability to control negative emotions during parenting. METHODS: Participants were 635 mothers of children aged between 12 months and 5 years. Mothers completed self-report questionnaires to measure maternal dispositional mindfulness, mother-child relationship quality and maternal control of negative emotions during parenting. RESULTS: Results showed that maternal ability to control negative emotions during parenting partially mediated the association between maternal dispositional mindfulness and mother-child relationship quality. Moreover, the moderation role of child age indicated that the association between maternal dispositional mindfulness and maternal ability to control negative emotions during parenting was stronger for older children's mothers. CONCLUSION: Dispositional mindfulness has a protective role for the quality of parenting and the mother-child relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The interplay between parenting and environmental sensitivity in the prediction of children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors during COVID-19.

The interplay of parenting and environmental sensitivity on children's behavioral adjustment during, and immediately after, the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions was investigated in two longitudinal studies involving Italian preschoolers (Study 1, N = 72; 43% girls, Myears = 3.82(1.38)) and primary school children (Study 2, N = 94; 55% girls, Myears = 9.08(0.56)). Data were collected before and during the first-wave lockdown (Studies 1 and 2) and one month later (Study 1). Parental stress and parent-child closeness were measured. Markers of environmental sensitivity in children were temperamental fearfulness and Sensory Processing Sensitivity. Results showed little change in externalizing and internalizing behaviors over time, but differences emerged when considering parenting and children's environmental sensitivity. In preschoolers, greater parenting stress was related to a stronger increase in internalizing and externalizing behaviors, with children high in fearful temperament showing a more marked decrease in externalizing behaviors when parenting stress was low. In school-aged children, parent-child closeness emerged as a protective factor for internalizing and externalizing behaviors during COVID-19, with children high in Sensory Processing Sensitivity showing a marked decrease in internalizing behaviors when closeness was high. Implications for developmental theory and practice in times of pandemic are discussed.

Time reproduction, bisection and doubling: a novel paradigm to investigate the effect of the internal clock on time estimation.

Time perception is not always veridical, but it can be modulated by changes in internal and external context. The most-acknowledged theory in this regard hypothesises the existence of an internal clock allowing us to subjectively estimate time intervals. The aim of the present study is to investigate the possible effect of such an internal clock, measured as the ability to reproduce a target duration, in the mental manipulation of time: 63 healthy participants were asked to Bisect and to Double reference time intervals, besides Reproducing them. Moreover, to investigate whether time processing might be predicted by individual differences, handedness, anxiety, and personality traits were also assessed by means of standardized questionnaires. Results show that participants correctly Reproduce time intervals (internal clock), but they overestimate time intervals during Bisection and underestimate them during Doubling. We explain this unexpected pattern of results as a kind of aftereffect, due to the short-term retention (adaptation) to the subjective representation of shorter (Bisection) vs longer (Doubling) intervals, respectively. Moreover, hierarchic regression models reveal that some personality traits can predict Bisection accuracy, but they clearly show that the best predictor for both Bisection and Doubling is the accuracy in Reproducing time intervals, confirming the fundamental role of the internal clock in time estimation. We conclude that time estimation is a unique skill, mostly independent from inter-individual differences, and the new paradigms introduced here (bisection vs doubling) reveal that the correct functioning of the internal clock also explains the ability to mentally manipulate the time.

Parental relationships, emotion regulation and orthorexia: A study on adolescent athletes.

Background: This study seeks to further our understanding of the factors associated with adolescent athletes and disordered eating, by expanding current research into a less-explored eating disorder known as orthorexia. Aim: The aim of the study is to explore the impact of parents' relationships and emotional regulation on the orthorexia nervosa (ON) tendencies of adolescent athletes. Methods: The participants were 303 adolescents, ranging from 15 to 17 years old, of which 139 participated in competitive sport, and 164 did not. Three self-report questionnaires were administered to assess orthorexia (ORTO-15), relationship with parents (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment) and emotion regulation (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire). Results: The results highlight that those who practice sports report higher levels of orthorexia, inadequate relationships with parents, as well as greater emotional regulation difficulties. Furthermore, inadequate parents' relationship predicts orthorexia while expressive emotional regulation mediates this relationship. Conclusion: These findings highlight how ON tendencies in athletes are linked to poor management of emotions combined with inadequate relationships with parents in terms of communication and affection. Implications for practice and support for athletes are discussed.

Phase-dependent local brain states determine the impact of image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation on motor network electroencephalographic synchronization.

Recent studies have synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) application with pre-defined brain oscillatory phases showing how brain response to perturbation depends on the brain state. However, none have investigated whether phase-dependent TMS can possibly modulate connectivity with homologous distant brain regions belonging to the same network. In the framework of network-targeted TMS, we investigated whether stimulation delivered at a specific phase of ongoing brain oscillations might favour stronger cortico-cortical (c-c) synchronization of distant network nodes connected to the stimulation target. Neuronavigated TMS pulses were delivered over the primary motor cortex (M1) during ongoing electroencephalography recording in 24 healthy individuals over two repeated sessions 1 month apart. Stimulation effects were analysed considering whether the TMS pulse was delivered at the time of a positive (peak) or negative (trough) phase of µ-frequency oscillation, which determines c-c synchrony within homologous areas of the sensorimotor network. Diffusion weighted imaging was used to study c-c connectivity within the sensorimotor network and identify contralateral regions connected with the stimulation spot. Depending on when during the µ-activity the TMS-pulse was applied (peak or trough), its impact on inter-hemispheric network synchrony varied significantly. Higher M1-M1 phase-lock synchronization after the TMS-pulse (0-200 ms) in the µ-frequency band was found for trough compared to peak stimulation trials in both study visits. Phase-dependent TMS delivery might be crucial not only to amplify local effects but also to increase the magnitude and reliability of the response to the external perturbation, with implications for interventions aimed at engaging more distributed functional brain networks. KEY POINTS: Synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses with pre-defined brain oscillatory phases allow evaluation of the impact of brain states on TMS effects. TMS pulses over M1 at the negative peak of the µ-frequency band induce higher phase-lock synchronization with interconnected contralateral homologous regions. Cortico-cortical synchronization changes are linearly predicted by the fibre density and cross-section of the white matter tract that connects the two brain regions. Phase-dependent TMS delivery might be crucial not only to amplify local effects but also to increase the magnitude and reliability of within-network synchronization.

Investigating sensitivity through the lens of parents: validation of the parent-report version of the Highly Sensitive Child scale.

Children differ in their environmental sensitivity (ES), which can be measured observationally or by self-report questionnaire. A parent-report scale represents an important tool for investigating ES in younger children but has to be psychometrically robust and valid. In the current multistudy, we validated the parent-report version of the Highly Sensitive Child (HSC-PR) scale in Italian children, evaluating its factorial structure (Study 1, N = 1,857, 6.2 years, age range: 2.6-14 years) through a multigroup Confirmatory Factory Analysis in preschoolers (n = 1,066, 4.2 years) and school-age children (n = 791, 8.8 years). We then investigated the HSC-PR relationship with established temperament traits (Study 2, N = 327, 4.3 years), before exploring whether the scale moderates the effects of parenting stress on children's emotion regulation (Study 3, N = 112, 6.5 years). We found support for a bi-factor structure in both groups, though in preschoolers minor adaptations were suggested for one item. Importantly, the HSC-PR did not fully overlap with common temperament traits and moderated the effects of parenting stress on children emotion regulation. To conclude, the HSC-PR performs well and appears to capture ES in children.

"When did you see it?" The effect of emotional valence on temporal source memory in aging.

Previous studies consistently showed age-related differences in temporal judgment and temporal memory. Importantly, emotional valence plays a crucial role in older adults' information processing. In this study, we examined the effects of emotions at the intersection between time and memory, analysing age-related differences in a temporal source memory task. Twenty-five younger adults (age range 18-35), 25 old adults (age range 65-74), and 25 old-old adults (age range 75-84) saw a series of emotional pictures in three sessions separated by a one-day rest period. In the fourth session, participants were asked to indicate in which session (1, 2, or 3) they saw each picture. Results showed that old-old adults tended to collocate negative pictures distant in time, while positive stimuli were remembered as more recent than real, compared to neutral pictures. To a lower extent, people over 65 showed the same pattern of results. In contrast, emotional valence did not affect younger adults' temporal positioning of stimuli. Current findings fit well with the Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory's assumptions and extended the literature on the positivity effect to temporal source memory.

Protective and risk activities for emotional and behavioural well-being of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown.

BACKGROUND: The lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic brought deep changes in the daily life of Italian children and adolescents, increasing the time spent at home. This study aims to explore how activities that children and adolescents carried out at home during the lockdown were related to their emotional and behavioural well-being. METHOD: Parents completed an anonymous online survey on how much time their children and adolescents dedicated to social networks, solitary screen time, play time and to a series of parent-child dyadic activities. They also reported on their offspring's emotional difficulties and behavioural problems. RESULTS: The use of social networks had a negative impact on children's emotional difficulties, while it promoted well-being in adolescents. Pertaining to solitary screen activities, these were associated with more behavioural problems in both children and adolescents. Regarding parent-child dyadic activities, get along with the parent was associated with less emotional difficulties and behavioural problems in children and with less behavioural problems in adolescents. Furthermore, for adolescents, the more they talked with the parent, the less behavioural problems they evidenced. CONCLUSION: The current study may help to identify activities that could be promoted and those that should be limited to effectively menage home time, in order to ultimately safeguard the emotional and behavioural well-being of children and adolescents.

Verbal - prosodic association when narrating early caregiving experiences during the adult attachment interview: differences between secure and dismissing individuals.

Previous studies reported an inconsistency between verbal extracts and emotional physiological activation in dismissing individuals when narrating their early caregiving experience at the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). This study aimed to explore this discrepancy by analyzing the degree of concordance between verbal content and prosodic characteristics, index of physiological activation, when dismissing and secure individuals discuss negative childhood memories during the AAI. Results showed that secure participants presented a high coherence between verbal content and emotional activation, as expressed by prosody, revealing a reprocess of negative experiences that is the core feature of the development of secure working models. In contrast, dismissing participants' prosodic characteristics were discrepant with the verbal content. These individuals downplayed the nature and impact of negative experiences and emotions, but used a prosody that revealed a high emotional arousal. The difference between the two groups was more evident for participants who had experienced more rejecting parents.

Singing to infants matters: Early singing interactions affect musical preferences and facilitate vocabulary building.

This research revealed that the frequency of reported parent-infant singing interactions predicted 6-month-old infants' performance in laboratory music experiments and mediated their language development in the second year. At 6 months, infants (n = 36) were tested using a preferential listening procedure assessing their sustained attention to instrumental and sung versions of the same novel tunes whilst the parents completed an ad-hoc questionnaire assessing home musical interactions with their infants. Language development was assessed with a follow-up when the infants were 14-month-old (n = 26). The main results showed that 6-month-olds preferred listening to sung rather than instrumental melodies, and that self-reported high levels of parental singing with their infants [i] were associated with less pronounced preference for the sung over the instrumental version of the tunes at 6 months, and [ii] predicted significant advantages on the language outcomes in the second year. The results are interpreted in relation to conceptions of developmental plasticity.

Sing for me, Mama! Infants' discrimination of novel vowels in song.

When adults speak or sing with infants, they sound differently than in adult communication. Infant-directed (ID) communication helps caregivers to regulate infants' emotions and helps infants to process speech information, at least from ID-speech. However, it is largely unclear whether infants might also process speech information presented in ID-singing. Therefore, we examined whether infants discriminate vowels in ID-singing, as well as potential differences with ID-speech. Using an alternating trial preference procedure, infants aged 4-6 and 8-10 months were tested on their discrimination of an unfamiliar non-native vowel contrast presented in ID-like speech and singing. Relying on models of early speech sound perception, we expected that infants in their first half year of life would discriminate the vowels, in contrast to older infants whose non-native sound perception should deteriorate, at least in ID-like speech. Our results showed that infants of both age groups were able to discriminate the vowels in ID-like singing, while only the younger group discriminated the vowels in ID-like speech. These results show that infants process speech sound information in song from early on. They also hint at diverging perceptual or attentional mechanisms guiding infants' sound processing in ID-speech versus ID-singing toward the end of the first year of life.

Parenting Stress During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Socioeconomic and Environmental Risk Factors and Implications for Children Emotion Regulation.

The COVID-19 outbreak imposed to Italian families many changes in their daily life increasing the risk of developing psychological problems. The present study explored risk factors associated with parenting stress and implications for children's emotion regulation in families with different socioeconomic risks. Parents of 2-14 years old children completed a survey reporting difficulties experienced due to the lockdown, level of household chaos, parenting stress, parent involvement in the child's daily life, and children emotion regulation competences. The general mean levels of parenting stress and children emotion regulation abilities were not at clinical level compared with Italian norms. Household chaos predicted higher levels of parenting stress, which, in turn, was associated with less effective emotion regulation in children through the mediating role of parental involvement. More stressed parents were less involved in their children's activities, decreasing children's effective emotion regulation. Only for SES no-risk families, the lockdown constraints increased parenting stress. For SES at-risk families, the impact of parenting stress and involvement on children regulation strategies was stronger, with a protective role played by parental involvement on children's negativity not evident for SES no-risk families. Dealing with the lockdown is a stressful experience for parents who have to balance personal life, work, and children upbringing, without other help. This situation potentially impairs their ability to be supportive caregivers and is consequently detrimental for children well-being. Policies should take into consideration the implications of the lockdown for families' mental health and tailor supportive interventions according to family's risk factors.

El brote de la COVID-19 impuso a las familias italianas muchos cambios en su vida cotidiana, los cuales aumentaron el riesgo de desarrollar problemas psicológicos. El presente estudio analizó los factores de riesgo asociados con el estrés de la crianza y las consecuencias para la regulación emocional de los hijos en familias con diferentes riesgos socioeconómicos. Un grupo de padres de niños de entre dos y 14 años contestó una encuesta donde informó las dificultades vividas debido al confinamiento, el nivel de caos en el hogar, el estrés en la crianza, la participación de los padres en la vida diaria de los hijos y las competencias de los hijos para regular sus emociones. Los niveles promedio generales de estrés en la crianza y las habilidades de regulación emocional en los niños no estuvieron a nivel clínico en comparación con las normas italianas. El caos en el hogar predijo niveles más altos de estrés en la crianza, el cual, a su vez, estuvo asociado con una menor regulación emocional eficaz en los niños mediante el rol mediador de la participación de los padres. Los padres más estresados participaron menos en las actividades de sus hijos, lo cual disminuyó la regulación emocional eficaz en los niños. Solo en los casos de las familias sin riesgo socioeconómico las limitaciones del confinamiento aumentaron el estrés en la crianza. Para las familias de riesgo socioeconómico, el efecto del estrés en la crianza y la participación en las estrategias de regulación emocional de los niños fue más profundo, y en el caso de las familias sin riesgo socioeconómico, no se evidenció el papel protector desempeñado por la participación de los padres en la negatividad de los niños. Lidiar con el confinamiento es una experiencia estresante para los padres que tienen que compatibilizar la vida personal, el trabajo y la educación de los niños sin ninguna otra ayuda. Esta situación puede deteriorar su capacidad de ser cuidadores comprensivos y, como consecuencia, ser perjudicial para el bienestar de los niños. Las políticas deberían tener en cuenta las consecuencias del confinamiento en la salud mental de las familias y adaptar intervenciones de apoyo de acuerdo con los factores de riesgo de las familias.

Infant-directed speech as a simplified but not simple register: a longitudinal study of lexical and syntactic features.

Infant-directed speech (IDS) is a specific register that adults use to address infants, and it is characterised by prosodic exaggeration and lexical and syntactic simplification. Several authors have underlined that this simplified speech becomes more complex according to the infant's age. However, there is a lack of studies on lexical and syntactic modifications in Italian IDS during the first year of an infant's life. In the present study, 80 mother-infant dyads were longitudinally observed at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months during free-play interactions. Maternal vocal productions were subsequently coded. The results show an overall low lexical variability and syntactic complexity that identify speech to infants as a simplified register; however, the high occurrence of complex items and well-structured utterances suggests that IDS is not simple speech. Moreover, maternal IDS becomes more complex over time, but not linearly, with a maximum simplification in the second half of the first year.

It is a matter of how you say it: Verbal content and prosody matching as an index of emotion regulation strategies during the Adult Attachment Interview.

Emotional activation can be detected by the prosodic properties of the voice. This study aimed to explore the match between the valence of the words used by secure and dismissing women in describing the relationship with their parents during the Adult Attachment Interview and their emotional activation as expressed through the prosody of the voice. Contrary to what observed for secure women, a discrepancy emerged in dismissing individuals between the content of their verbal reports during the interview and the emotional activation of their voice while speaking. Negative experiences, usually cognitively minimised and normalised, were expressed with high emotional arousal, while positive descriptors, often exaggerated semantically, were expressed with neutral arousal. Therefore, the defensive inhibition strategy seems to control the content but not the prosody of narratives and prosody has the potential to allow a better understanding of the emotion regulation strategies used by individuals while discussing their caregiving histories.

Prosodic skills in children with Down syndrome and in typically developing children.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have analysed language development in children with Down syndrome to understand better the nature of their linguistic delays and the reason why these delays, particularly those in the morphosyntactic area, seem greater than their cognitive impairment. However, the prosodic characteristics of language development in children with Down syndrome have been scarcely investigated. AIMS: To analyse the prosodic skills of children with Down syndrome in the production of multi-word utterances. Data on the prosodic skills of these children were compared with data on typically developing children matched on developmental age and vocabulary size. Between-group differences and the relationships between prosodic and syntactic skills were investigated. METHODS & PROCEDURES: The participants were nine children with Down syndrome (who ranged in chronological age from 45 to 63 months and had a mean developmental age of 30 months) and 12 30-month-old typically developing children. The children in both groups had a vocabulary size of approximately 450 words. The children's spontaneous productions were recorded during observations of mother-child play sessions. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Data analyses showed that despite their morphosyntactic difficulties, children with Down syndrome were able to master some aspects of prosody in multi-word utterances. They were able to produce single intonation multi-word utterances on the same level as typically developing children. In addition, the intonation contour of their utterances was not negatively influenced by syntactic complexity, contrary to what occurred in typically developing children, although it has to be considered that the utterances produced by children with Down syndrome were less complex than those produced by children in the control group. However, children with Down syndrome appeared to be less able than typically developing children to use intonation to express the pragmatic interrogative function. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The findings are discussed considering the effects of social experience on the utterance prosodic realization.

The contribution of Sensory Processing Sensitivity and internalized attachment representations on emotion regulation competencies in school-age children.

Introduction: As captured by the individual trait of Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS), highly sensitive children perceive, process, and responds more strongly to stimuli. This increased sensitivity may make more demanding the process of regulating and managing emotions. Yet, developmental psychology literature also showed that other variables, as those related to the rearing environment, are likely to contribute to the process of regulating emotions. With the current contribution, we aim to bridge two lines of research, that of attachment studies and that of SPS, by investigating the additive and interactive contribution of SPS and internal working models of attachment representations on emotion regulation competencies in school-aged children. Method: Participants were N = 118 Italian children (mean age: 6.5, SD = 0.58 years, and 51.8% female) with their mothers. Children's positive attachment representations were rated observationally through the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task procedure during an individual session at school. Mothers reported on children SPS trait and emotion regulation competencies completing the Highly Sensitive Child Scale-parent report and the Emotion Regulation Checklist. We performed and compared a series of main and interaction effect models. Results: SPS was not directly associated with emotion regulation but it was significantly associated with positive attachment representations in predicting emotion regulation. Highly sensitive children showed poorer emotion regulation when the internalized representations were low in maternal warmth and responsiveness. When driven by sensitive and empathic attachment representation, highly sensitive children showed better emotion regulation than less-sensitive peers, suggesting a for better and for worse effect. Discussion: Highly sensitive children are not only more vulnerable to adversities but also show better emotion regulation competencies when supported by positive internal working models of attachment relationships. Overall, findings shed light on the link between SPS and attachment and suggest that working for promoting secure attachment relationships in parent-child dyads may promote better emotion regulation competences, particularly in highly sensitive children.

The Role of Psychological Parental Control and Internalizing Problems in the Etiology of Vigorexia and Orthorexia in Adolescence.

The present study aims to explore the forms of psychological parental control that are interconnected with dysfunctional emotional states (i.e., anxiety and depression), and how these internalizing problems may manifest as distorted behaviors (i.e., vigorexic and orthorexic behaviors) during adolescence. Participants included 403 Italian adolescent athletes (231 boys and 172 girls) aged 14 to 18 years. The participants completed self-report questionnaires designed to assess psychological parental control oriented towards dependence and achievement, anxiety and depression, and vigorexia and orthorexia. The results highlight how both forms of psychological parental control predict anxiety and depression. Furthermore, anxiety was found to be linked to both vigorexic and orthorexic behaviors, while depression is connected only to vigorexia. This study delves into the intricacies of parental influence on adolescents, revealing that both dependency-oriented and success-oriented psychological parental control have notable implications for the mental well-being of adolescents. The findings underscore the interconnectedness of these factors, demonstrating that anxiety can set off a chain reaction, leading to engagement in vigorexic and orthorexic behaviors. On the other hand, depression appears to be uniquely associated with vigorexia. These insights contribute to our understanding of the complex dynamics between parental control and adolescent mental health. The implications of this research extend to both theoretical frameworks and practical interventions, emphasizing the need for a nuanced approach to supporting adolescents in navigating these challenges.

What Factors Predict Adaptive Functioning in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Longitudinal Study.

Adaptive functioning constitutes a fundamental aspect of the phenotype associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in preschool-aged children, exerting a significant influence on both the child and the family's overall quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of the adaptive functioning domains in preschool-age children with ASD at two time points, providing a snapshot of this fundamental developmental step. Methods: Ninety-five children with ASD (M = 3.89, SD = 1.13) were included in the study and longitudinal data (the mean length of the longitudinal data collection was 1 year) on ASD features such as social communication and social interaction, repetitive and restricted behavior, cognitive level, and adaptive functioning were collected. We considered autistic features, cognitive level, and sociodemographic factors as possible predictors of the different adaptive functioning domains one year later. Results: Data obtained showed a worsening of the ASD features and adaptive functioning after one year. Furthermore, the severity of repetitive and restricted behavior predicted adaptive functioning, especially in the social and practical domains of the child, one year later. This prediction was observed alongside the child's cognitive level. Conclusions: The study identifies some potential predictive factors of specific adaptive functioning domains in preschoolers with ASD. Considering how critical adaptive functioning is for the well-being of both the child and their family, it becomes imperative to design early-stage interventions focused on nurturing adaptive skills in children with ASD.

Alpha and theta brain activity in 9-month-old infants during a live referential gaze paradigm.

The ability to establish a connection between the direction of the other's gaze and the object that is observed has important implications in the development of social cognition and learning. In this study, we analyzed alpha and theta band oscillations in one group of 9-month-old infants by implementing a face-to-face live paradigm, which presented the infants with a triadic social interaction with a real human being. We compared neural activations in two experimental conditions: Congruent and Incongruent gaze shift following the appearance of an object. In the Incongruent object-gaze shift condition, we observed an increase of the theta power in comparison with the Congruent condition. We also found an enhancement of the alpha activity during the Congruent versus the Incongruent object-gaze condition. These findings confirm the involvement of the theta and alpha band activity in the detection of the gaze of others when it shifts toward a referential target. We consider that the theta band modulation could be associated with the processing of unexpected events. Furthermore, the increase of the alpha band activity during the Congruent object-gaze condition seems to be in agreement with prior findings on the mechanisms of internally controlled attention that emerge before the first year of life. The implementation of a live paradigm elicited a partially different oscillatory pattern in comparison with non-live standard paradigms, supporting the importance of an ecological set-up reproducing real-life conditions to study the development of social cognition.