Insights into Rett Syndrome girls' receptive vocabulary through eye movements and parental perception.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the receptive vocabulary of girls diagnosed with Rett Syndrome (RS) by employing eye-tracking technology and examined how these objective measures compared with parents' perceptions of their daughters' language abilities. METHOD: Fourteen girls with RS and eleven typically developing peers participated. Instruments included the Kerr Scale, a parental questionnaire on communication skills, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - PPVT-4, and eye-tracking equipment. The PPVT-4's initial 12 cards, each displaying four images, were presented on screen for 5 s for the child's initial inspection. Subsequently, the same card was shown for 5 s with instructions to identify the picture matching the word, repeated three times in a randomized order. RESULTS: Eye-tracking assessments revealed that girls with RS with less severe symptoms, performed below typically developing peers with aged 3-4 years. The number of eye fixations emerged as a reliable metric for assessing their performance. A positive correlation was found between parental reports of their daughters' vocabulary knowledge and their ability to identify the correct stimulus, suggesting comprehension and active engagement in the testing process. CONCLUSION: This study presents a pioneering approach by combining parental perceptions with eye-tracking measures to assess receptive vocabulary in girls diagnosed with Rett Syndrome. Despite showing lower performance levels compared to significantly younger peers, the findings suggest that these individuals use less effectively eye contact as a mode of communication.

Investigating Dyslexia through Diffusion Tensor Imaging across Ages: A Systematic Review.

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that presents a deficit in accuracy and/or fluency while reading or spelling that is not expected given the level of cognitive functioning. Research indicates brain structural changes mainly in the left hemisphere, comprising arcuate fasciculus (AF) and corona radiata (CR). The purpose of this systematic review is to better understand the possible methods for analyzing Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data while accounting for the characteristics of dyslexia in the last decade of the literature. Among 124 articles screened from PubMed and Scopus, 49 met inclusion criteria, focusing on dyslexia without neurological or psychiatric comorbidities. Article selection involved paired evaluation, with a third reviewer resolving discrepancies. The selected articles were analyzed using two topics: (1) a demographic and cognitive assessment of the sample and (2) DTI acquisition and analysis. Predominantly, studies centered on English-speaking children with reading difficulties, with preserved non-verbal intelligence, attention, and memory, and deficits in reading tests, rapid automatic naming, and phonological awareness. Structural differences were found mainly in the left AF in all ages and in the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus for readers-children and adults. A better understanding of structural brain changes of dyslexia and neuroadaptations can be a guide for future interventions.

Clustering and Switching on verbal fluency tests in elementary school children with and without learning difficulties. / Clustering e Switching nos testes de fluência verbal em crianças do ensino fundamental I com e sem dificuldade de aprendizagem.

PURPOSE: Evaluate the performance in the Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency tests in relation to the cognitive components of clustering and switching and explore the changes in development in elementary school. METHODS: Participants were 68 children from the 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school of a public school in the municipality of Santo André, divided into two groups, Learning Difficulty (LD) and Typical Development (TD). RESULTS: The Verbal Fluency tests were compared for the number of clusters, mean size of the clusters, and number of switches. All variables compared showed a statistically significant higher score for Semantic Verbal Fluency. Means and standard deviations of the same variables for year and group effect were realized in both Verbal Fluency tests. A statistically significant difference was observed only for the total number of clusters in the Semantic Verbal Fluency test for group effect, with the best performance of the TD group. A high correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers with the total number of clusters and number of switches in both Verbal Fluency tests. In addition, a correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers and the mean size of the clusters only in the Phonemic Verbal Fluency. Linear regression analysis showed greater variance for the total number of clusters, making it more predictable for performance in both verbal fluency tests. CONCLUSION: Verbal Fluency tests may be sensitive and predictive for the identification of possible differences in school performance associated with reading.

OBJETIVO: Avaliar o desempenho nos testes de Fluência Verbal Semântica e Fonêmica em relação aos componentes cognitivos de clustering e switching e explorar as mudanças no desenvolvimento no ensino fundamental. MÉTODO: Participaram 68 crianças do 2º ao 5º ano do ensino fundamental I de uma escola pública do município de Santo André, divididas em dois grupos, Dificuldade de Aprendizagem (DA) e Desenvolvimento Típico (DT). RESULTADOS: Os testes de Fluência Verbal foram comparados para o número de clusters, tamanho médio dos clusters e número de switches. Todas as variáveis comparadas mostraram uma pontuação estatisticamente significante maior para o teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica. Foram realizadas as médias e desvios-padrão das mesmas variáveis para efeito de ano e grupo em ambos os testes. Foi observada diferença estatisticamente significante apenas para o número total de clusters no teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica para efeito de grupo, com o melhor desempenho do grupo DT. Observou-se correlação alta no total de acertos em ambos os testes de Fluência Verbal com o número total de clusters e número de switches. Além disso, foi observada correlação entre o total de acertos com a média de tamanho dos clusters apenas no teste de Fluência Verbal Fonêmica. A análise de regressão linear apresentou maior variância para o número total de clusters, o tornando mais preditivo para o desempenho em ambos testes de Fluência Verbal. CONCLUSÃO: Os testes de Fluência Verbal podem ser sensíveis e preditivos para a identificação de possíveis diferenças no desempenho escolar associados à leitura.

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and affects in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic / Sintomas de transtorno de estresse pós-traumático e afetos em profissionais da saúde durante a pandemia da COVID-19

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and affects in health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Three hundred and seventy-four health professionals, among which 235 were front-line and 139 non-front-line workers, answered an online questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, identification of past mental disorders, personal experience facing the pandemic, the Impact of Event Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The sample consisted mainly of physicians and nursing staff aged between 30 and 49 years. Results: The results demonstrate high scores of symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder, with greater expressiveness among front-line professionals, especially in the nursing staff, and a strong correlation of these results with negative affects. Conclusion: Psychological assistance and interventions directed to health professionals are urgent to mitigate the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objetivo: Este estudo objetivou avaliar sintomas de transtorno de estresse pós-traumático e afetos em profissionais de saúde durante a pandemia da COVID-19. Método: Trezentos e setenta e quatro profissionais da área da saúde, dentre os quais 235 profissionais que estavam atuando na linha de frente e 139 que não estavam na linha de frente, responderam a um questionário online composto por dados sociodemográficos, identificação de transtornos mentais pregressos, experiência pessoal frente à pandemia e Escala do Impacto do Evento e Escala de Afetos Positivos e Afetos Negativos. A amostra foi composta majoritariamente de médicos e funcionários da equipe de enfermagem com idades entre 30 e 49 anos. Resultados: Os resultados demonstram altas pontuações de sintomas relativos ao transtorno de estresse pós-traumático, com maior expressividade nos profissionais da linha de frente, principalmente na equipe de enfermagem, e forte correlação desses resultados com afetos negativos. Conclusão: O atendimento e intervenções psicológicas direcionadas aos profissionais de saúde são urgentes para mitigar os impactos causados pela pandemia da COVID-19.

Clustering e Switching nos testes de fluência verbal em crianças do ensino fundamental I com e sem dificuldade de aprendizagem / Clustering and Switching on verbal fluency tests in elementary school children with and without learning difficulties

RESUMO Objetivo Avaliar o desempenho nos testes de Fluência Verbal Semântica e Fonêmica em relação aos componentes cognitivos de clustering e switching e explorar as mudanças no desenvolvimento no ensino fundamental. Método Participaram 68 crianças do 2º ao 5º ano do ensino fundamental I de uma escola pública do município de Santo André, divididas em dois grupos, Dificuldade de Aprendizagem (DA) e Desenvolvimento Típico (DT). Resultados Os testes de Fluência Verbal foram comparados para o número de clusters, tamanho médio dos clusters e número de switches. Todas as variáveis comparadas mostraram uma pontuação estatisticamente significante maior para o teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica. Foram realizadas as médias e desvios-padrão das mesmas variáveis para efeito de ano e grupo em ambos os testes. Foi observada diferença estatisticamente significante apenas para o número total de clusters no teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica para efeito de grupo, com o melhor desempenho do grupo DT. Observou-se correlação alta no total de acertos em ambos os testes de Fluência Verbal com o número total de clusters e número de switches. Além disso, foi observada correlação entre o total de acertos com a média de tamanho dos clusters apenas no teste de Fluência Verbal Fonêmica. A análise de regressão linear apresentou maior variância para o número total de clusters, o tornando mais preditivo para o desempenho em ambos testes de Fluência Verbal. Conclusão Os testes de Fluência Verbal podem ser sensíveis e preditivos para a identificação de possíveis diferenças no desempenho escolar associados à leitura.

ABSTRACT Purpose Evaluate the performance in the Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency tests in relation to the cognitive components of clustering and switching and explore the changes in development in elementary school. Methods Participants were 68 children from the 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school of a public school in the municipality of Santo André, divided into two groups, Learning Difficulty (LD) and Typical Development (TD). Results The Verbal Fluency tests were compared for the number of clusters, mean size of the clusters, and number of switches. All variables compared showed a statistically significant higher score for Semantic Verbal Fluency. Means and standard deviations of the same variables for year and group effect were realized in both Verbal Fluency tests. A statistically significant difference was observed only for the total number of clusters in the Semantic Verbal Fluency test for group effect, with the best performance of the TD group. A high correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers with the total number of clusters and number of switches in both Verbal Fluency tests. In addition, a correlation was observed between the total number of correct answers and the mean size of the clusters only in the Phonemic Verbal Fluency. Linear regression analysis showed greater variance for the total number of clusters, making it more predictable for performance in both verbal fluency tests. Conclusion Verbal Fluency tests may be sensitive and predictive for the identification of possible differences in school performance associated with reading.

Estresse, coping e estados afetivos em profissionais da saúde durante a pandemia / Distress, coping and affective statesin healthcare workers durig the COVID-19 pandemic / Estrés, afrontamiento y estados afectivos em profissionales de la salud durante la pandemia de COVID-19

A pandemia da COVID-19 configurou um período de crise mundial com impactos na saúde mental de toda a população, notadamente dos profissionais de saúde da linha de frente. Objetivou-se rastrear a presença de sintomas de Transtorno de Estresse Pós-Traumático em profissionais de saúde da linha de frente e verificar sua associação com estratégias de coping e estados afetivos durante a pandemia da COVID-19 no Brasil. Realizou-se um estudo longitudinal on-line com 51 profissionais da saúde da linha de frente residentes nas cinco regiões do Brasil que responderam aos instrumentos: Escala do Impacto do Evento, Escala de Afetos Positivos e Afetos Negativos, Escala de Coping Ocupacional e questionário sobre a experiência pessoal frente à pandemia. Por meio de análises de comparação de proporções e médias, bem como análise de correlações, verificou-se alto índice de sintomas relacionados ao Transtorno de Estresse Pós-Traumático nos três momentos de coleta com correlações significativas com afetos negativos, mas não com estratégias de coping. Destaca-se o risco aumentado para o desenvolvimento ou agravo de transtornos mentais nesses profissionais, particularmente quadros de estresse pós-traumático e dificuldades de regulação emocional, que exigem ações urgentes de cuidado psicológico (AU).

The COVID-19 pandemic forgeda period of global crisis with impacts on the mental health of the entire population, notably frontline health professionals.The study aimed to track the presence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms in frontline healthcare workers and verify its association with coping strategies and affective states during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. A longitudinal onlinestudy was carried out with 51 frontline healthcare professionalsfrom the fiveregions of Brazilwho responded to the following instruments: Impact of Event Scale, Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, Occupational Coping Scale, and questionnaire about personal experience during the pandemic. Comparison of proportions and means, as well as correlationanalysis,revealeda high rate of symptoms related to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the three point of data collection, with significant correlations with negative affects, but not with coping strategies. The increased risk for the development or worsening of mental disorders in these professionals is highlighted, particularly post-traumatic stress and emotional regulation difficulties, which require urgent psychological care actions (AU).

La pandemia de COVID-19 estableció un período de crisis global con impactos en la salud mental de toda la población, en particular de los profesionales de la salud de primera línea. El objetivo fue rastrear la presencia de síntomas de Trastorno de Estrés Postraumático en profesionales de salud de primera línea y verificar su asociación con estrategias de afrontamiento y estados afectivos durante la pandemia de COVID-19 en Brasil. Se realizó un estudio longitudinal onlinecon 51 profesionales de salud de primera línea residentes de las cincoregiones de Brasil que respondieron los siguientes instrumentos: Escala de Impacto de Evento, Escala de Afectos Positivos y Negativos, Escala de Afrontamiento Ocupacional y cuestionario sobre experiencia personal frente ala pandemia.Los análisisde comparación de proporciones y medias, así como análisis de correlaciones, mostró una alta tasa de síntomas relacionados con el Trastorno de Estrés Postraumático en los tres momentos de recolección de datos, con correlaciones significativas con los afectos negativos, pero no con las estrategias de afrontamiento. Se destaca el mayor riesgo para el desarrollo o empeoramiento de trastornos mentales en estos profesionales, en particular el estrés postraumático y las dificultades (AU).

RastrOS Project: Natural Language Processing contributions to the development of an eye-tracking corpus with predictability norms for Brazilian Portuguese.

This article presents RastrOS, a new eye-tracking corpus of eye movement data from university students during silent reading of paragraphs of texts in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). The article shows the potential of the corpus for natural language processing (NLP) using it to evaluate the sentence complexity prediction task in BP and it also focuses on the description of NLP resources and methods developed to create the corpus. Specifically, we present: (i) the method used to select the corpus paragraphs from large corpora, using linguistic metrics and clustering algorithms; (ii) the platform for collecting the Cloze test, which is also responsible for creating the project datasets, and (iii) the hybrid semantic similarity method, based on word embedding models and contextualised word representations, used to generate semantic predictability norms. RastrOS can be downloaded from the open science framework repository with the computational infrastructure mentioned above. Datasets with predictability norms of 393 participants and eye-tracking data of 37 participants are available in the OSF repository for this work (https://osf.io/9jxg3/).

Reading habits of Czech and Brazilian university students with and without dyslexia / Hábitos de leitura em estudantes universitários tchecos e brasileiros com e sem dislexia

ABSTRACT Purpose: to compare, with Adult Reading History Questionnaire results, the reading habits of adults with and without dyslexia of different cultures and languages. Methods: the research comprised 119 university students (60 Czechs and 59 Brazilians, half of them with dyslexia) assessed by responding to the self-report reading history questionnaire and taking a reading level test. ARHQ scores were compared between the groups and countries with the analysis of variance (ANOVA), and their correlation was assessed with the Spearman's test, both with the significance level set at p < 0.05. Results: adults with dyslexia had lower reading habit scores and reading level scores than typical readers in both languages. Reading habits were positively correlated with reading levels in both languages. Regardless of the group, Brazilians had lower reading habit scores than Czechs. Conclusion: the results suggest that self-assessing reading habits is an effective way to screen for reading disorders. However, cultural and school factors must be considered.

RESUMO Objetivo: comparar os hábitos de leitura avaliados pelo Questionário História de Leitura em adultos com e sem dislexia de diferentes culturas e línguas. Métodos: participaram da pesquisa 119 estudantes universitários (60 tchecos e 59 brasileiros, metade com dislexia), os quais foram avaliados por meio de autoavaliação, respondendo o questionário de história de leitura e realizando teste de nível de leitura. A pontuação no QHL foi comparada entre os grupos e países com o teste de Análise de Variância (ANOVA) e a correlação foi avaliada com o teste de Spearman, ambos com nível de significância de p < 0,05. Resultados: adultos com dislexia obtiveram menor pontuação nos hábitos de leitura e no nível de leitura do que adultos leitores típicos em ambas as línguas. Houve correlação positiva entre os hábitos de leitura e o nível de leitura nos dois idiomas. Os brasileiros, independentemente do grupo, mostraram hábitos de leitura com menor pontuação do que os estudantes tchecos. Conclusão: os resultados sugerem que a autoavaliação dos hábitos de leitura é uma forma eficaz de triagem para os transtornos de leitura, contudo os fatores culturais e escolares devem ser considerados.

Engagement of Language and Domain General Networks during Word Monitoring in a Native and Unknown Language.

Functional neuroimaging studies have highlighted the roles of three networks in processing language, all of which are typically left-lateralized: a ventral stream involved in semantics, a dorsal stream involved in phonology and speech production, and a more dorsal "multiple demand" network involved in many effortful tasks. As lateralization in all networks may be affected by life factors such as age, literacy, education, and brain pathology, we sought to develop a task paradigm with which to investigate the engagement of these networks, including manipulations to selectively emphasize semantic and phonological processing within a single task performable by almost anyone regardless of literacy status. In young healthy participants, we administered an auditory word monitoring task, in which participants had to note the occurrence of a target word within a continuous story presented in either their native language, Portuguese, or the unknown language, Japanese. Native language task performance activated ventral stream language networks, left lateralized but bilateral in the anterior temporal lobe. Unfamiliar language performance, being more difficult, activated left hemisphere dorsal stream structures and the multiple demand network bilaterally, but predominantly in the right hemisphere. These findings suggest that increased demands on phonological processing to accomplish word monitoring in the absence of semantic support may result in the bilateral recruitment of networks involved in speech perception under more challenging conditions.

Student's Perspective and Teachers' Metacognition: Applications of Eye-Tracking in Education and Scientific Research in Schools.

This Perspective article discusses the possible contributions of eye-tracking (ET) to the field of Educational Neuroscience based on an application of this tool at schools. We sought to explore the teachers' view of ET videos recorded while students solved mathematical problems. More than 90% of the teachers could predict with great accuracy whether the students had answered the questions correctly or not based solely on the information provided by the ET videos. Almost all participants tried to translate the students' thoughts to understand the strategy used by the children. Our results highlight the relevance of qualitative analysis to identify the gaze strategies used by students. We propose that ET allows teachers to gain critical feedback about students' behavior during problem-solving. Most previous studies tend to emphasize the benefits of ET applications to explore learners' cognition. Our findings point that this system can also be useful to investigate teachers' cognition by providing metacognitive experiences.

Expressive and receptive vocabulary in preschool children and socioeconomic factors / Vocabulário expressivo e receptivo em crianças da pré-escola e fatores socioeconômicos

ABSTRACT Purpose: to assess the expressive and receptive vocabulary of preschool children and trace the relationship with different socioeconomic factors. Methods: 108 children, aged between 4 and 6 years, were evaluated, 84 from a public preschool and 24 from a private preschool, using the following instruments: CMMS - Columbia Mental Maturity Scale; ABFW; Peabody Image Vocabulary Test (PPVT); CONFIAS - Phonological Awareness: Sequential Assessment Instrument; Rapid Automatic Naming Test (NAR); Questionnaires for the definition of economic classification, general health and family habits. For statistical analyses, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test, Bonferroni post hoc corrections to check significant differences and Spearman correlation were used. Results: the results found showed a statistically significant relationship between factors such as salary range, mother's and father's education and performance on tests of receptive and expressive vocabulary and mental maturity. Conclusion: evidence showed the relationship of socioeconomic factors with language development in preschoolers.

RESUMO Objetivo: avaliar o vocabulário expressivo e receptivo de crianças pré-escolares e traçar a relação com diferentes fatores socioeconômicos. Métodos: foram avaliadas 108 crianças, com idades entre 4 e 6 anos, sendo 84 de uma pré-escola pública e 24 de pré-escola particular, com os seguintes instrumentos: CMMS - Escala de Maturidade Mental Colúmbia; ABFW; Teste de Vocabulário por Imagens Peabody (TVIP); CONFIAS - Consciência Fonológica: Instrumento de Avaliação Sequencial; Teste de Nomeação Automática Rápida (NAR); Questionários para a definição de classificação econômica, saúde geral e hábitos familiares. Para as análises estatísticas foram utilizados: o teste não-paramétrico de Kruskal-Wallis, as correções Bonferroni post hoc para verificar diferenças significantes e a correlação de Sperman. Resultados: os resultados demonstraram relação estatisticamente significante entre fatores como faixa salarial, escolaridade da mãe e do pai e desempenho nos testes de vocabulário receptivo, expressivo e maturidade mental. Conclusão: evidências mostram a relação dos fatores socioeconômicos com o desenvolvimento da linguagem em pré-escolares.

Dyslexic children need more robust information to resolve conflicting sensory situations.

The study involved investigating dyslexic children's postural control responses when visual and somatosensory cues were separately manipulated. Twenty dyslexic and 19 nondyslexic children performed a trial by standing upright inside a moving room and another by lightly touching a moving bar. Both trials lasted 240 s with the following three different stimulus characteristics: low (pretransition), high (transition), and low amplitude (posttransition). Body sway magnitude and the relationship between the movement of the room/bar surface and body sway were examined. When compared to nondyslexic children, dyslexic children oscillated with higher magnitude in the transition and posttransition under visual and somatosensory manipulation; their sway was more influenced by visual manipulation in the transition and posttransition, and they used higher applied force levels in the somatosensory modality in all conditions. The results suggest that dyslexic children could not efficiently reweight visual cues when compared to nondyslexic children. The same was not observed in the somatosensory cues when dyslexic children reduced the influence of the somatosensory stimulus. The proper use of somatosensory information was related to stronger acquired cues and higher applied forces as observed for dyslexic children. Dyslexic children experience difficulties in dynamically reweighting sensory cues although these types of difficulties are overcome when more informative sensory cues are provided.

Predictive saccades in children and adults: A combined fMRI and eye tracking study.

Saccades were assessed in 21 adults (age 24 years, SD = 4) and 15 children (age 11 years, SD = 1), using combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye-tracking. Subjects visually tracked a point on a horizontal line in four conditions: time and position predictable task (PRED), position predictable (pPRED), time predictable (tPRED) and visually guided saccades (SAC). Both groups in the PRED but not in pPRED, tPRED and SAC produced predictive saccades with latency below 80 ms. In task versus group comparisons, children's showed less efficient learning compared to adults for predictive saccades (adults = 48%, children = 34%, p = 0.05). In adults brain activation was found in the frontal and occipital regions in the PRED, in the intraparietal sulcus in pPRED and in the frontal eye field, posterior intraparietal sulcus and medial regions in the tPRED task. Group-task interaction was found in the supplementary eye field and visual cortex in the PRED task, and the frontal cortex including the right frontal eye field and left frontal pole, in the pPRED condition. These results indicate that, the basic visuomotor circuitry is present in both adults and children, but fine-tuning of the activation according to the task temporal and spatial demand mature late in child development.

Cognitive performance in transient global hypoxic brain injury due to moderate drowning.

INTRODUCTION: Drowning is a serious and frequently neglected public health threat. Primary respiratory impairment after submersion often leads to brain dysfunction. Depending on the period of global hypoxia (respiratory failure), clinical aspects of neurological dysfunction are evident on the first evaluation after the water rescue. Nowadays, many neuropsychological assessments after drowning are inconclusive, with some studies reporting only minor neurological or cognitive impairments. The aim of this study is to identify measures in neuropsychological tests that most contribute to classify volunteers as moderate drowning subjects or healthy controls. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first neuropsychological prospective case-control study of moderate drowning in a country with large coastal cities. METHOD: Fifteen moderate drowning patients (DP), who met the inclusion criteria, were compared with 18 healthy controls (HC). All subjects were assessed on memory, learning, visual spatial ability, executive function, attention, and general intellectual functioning and underwent structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the brain at 3.0 T, in order to exclude subjects with anatomic abnormalities. RESULTS: Neuropsychological tests assessing learning, execution function, and verbal fluency-Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) general learning ability, Digit Span total, Phonological Verbal Fluency (total FAS correct), and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Revised (BVMT) correct recognition-have the strongest discriminating ability, using predictive models via the partial least squares (PLS) approach for data classification, while the other tests have shown similar predictive values between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Learning, execution function, and verbal fluency domains were the most critically affected domains. Serious impairments in the same domains have already been reported in severe drowning cases, and we hypothesize that subtle alterations found in moderate drowning cases, although not sufficient to be detected in daily routine, may possibly have a negative impact on cognitive reserve.

Brain injury after moderate drowning: subtle alterations detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging.

To describe cerebral (structural and functional MRI) and neuropsychological long term changes in moderate drowning victim's compared to healthy volunteers in working memory and motor domains. We studied 15 adult drowning victim's in chronic stage (DV - out of 157 eligible cases of sea water rescues with moderate drowning classification) paired to 18 healthy controls (HC). All participants were investigated using intelligence, memory, and attention neuropsychological standard tests and underwent functional (motor and working memory tasks) and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a 3 T system. All images were preprocessed for head movement correction and quantitative analysis was performed using FSL and freesurfer software packages. We found no between group differences in neuropsychological assessments. No MRI brain lesion was observed in patients, neither difference on morphometric parameters in any cortical or subcortical brain structure. In constrast, functional MRI revealed that patients showed increased brain response in the motor (left putamen and insula) and memory (left cuneus and lingual gyrus - not the classical memory network) tasks. Functional brain changes in motor and visual brain regions in victims of moderate drowning may indicate reduced brain reserve, despite the lack of structural and behavior alterations. More attention should be given to investigate ageing effects in this nonfatal drowning group.

Hemiface Differences in Visual Exploration Patterns When Judging the Authenticity of Facial Expressions.

Past studies have found asymmetry biases in human emotion recognition. The left side bias refers to preferential looking at the left-hemiface when actively exploring face images. However, these studies have been mainly conducted with static and frontally oriented stimuli, whereas real-life emotion recognition takes place on dynamic faces viewed from different angles. The aim of this study was to assess the judgment of genuine vs. masked expressions in dynamic movie clips of faces rotated to the right or left side. Forty-eight participants judged the expressions on faces displaying genuine or masked happy, sad, and fearful emotions. The head of the actor was either rotated to the left by a 45° angle, thus showing the left side of the face (standard orientation), or inverted, with the same face shown from the right side perspective. The eye movements were registered by the eye tracker and the data were analyzed for the inverse efficiency score (IES), the number of fixations, gaze time on the whole face and in the regions of interest. Results showed shorter IESs and gaze times for happy compared to sad and fearful emotions, but no difference was found for these variables between sad and fearful emotions. The left side preference was evident from comparisons of the number of fixations. Standard stimuli received a higher number of fixations than inverted ones. However, gaze time was long on inverted compared to standard faces. Number of fixations on exposed hemiface interacted with the emotions decreasing from happy to sad and fearful. An opposite pattern was found for the occluded hemiface. These results suggest a change in fixation patterns in the rotated faces that may be beneficial for the judgments of expressions. Furthermore, this study replicated the effects of the judgment of genuine and masked emotions using dynamic faces.

Impaired Oculomotor Behavior of Children with Developmental Dyslexia in Antisaccades and Predictive Saccades Tasks.

Analysis of eye movement patterns during tracking tasks represents a potential way to identify differences in the cognitive processing and motor mechanisms underlying reading in dyslexic children before the occurrence of school failure. The current study aimed to evaluate the pattern of eye movements in antisaccades, predictive saccades and visually guided saccades in typical readers and readers with developmental dyslexia. The study included 30 children (age M = 11; SD = 1.67), 15 diagnosed with developmental dyslexia (DG) and 15 regular readers (CG), matched by age, gender and school grade. Cognitive assessment was performed prior to the eye-tracking task during which both eyes were registered using the Tobii® 1750 eye-tracking device. The results demonstrated a lower correct antisaccades rate in dyslexic children compared to the controls (p < 0.001, DG = 25%, CC = 37%). Dyslexic children also made fewer saccades in predictive latency (p < 0.001, DG = 34%, CG = 46%, predictive latency within -300-120 ms with target as 0 point). No between-group difference was found for visually guided saccades. In this task, both groups showed shorter latency for right-side targets. The results indicated altered oculomotor behavior in dyslexic children, which has been reported in previous studies. We extend these findings by demonstrating impaired implicit learning of target's time/position patterns in dyslexic children.

Interaction of brain areas of visual and vestibular simultaneous activity with fMRI.

Static body equilibrium is an essential requisite for human daily life. It is known that visual and vestibular systems must work together to support equilibrium. However, the relationship between these two systems is not fully understood. In this work, we present the results of a study which identify the interaction of brain areas that are involved with concurrent visual and vestibular inputs. The visual and the vestibular systems were individually and simultaneously stimulated, using flickering checkerboard (without movement stimulus) and galvanic current, during experiments of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Twenty-four right-handed and non-symptomatic subjects participated in this study. Single visual stimulation shows positive blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses (PBR) in the primary and associative visual cortices. Single vestibular stimulation shows PBR in the parieto-insular vestibular cortex, inferior parietal lobe, superior temporal gyrus, precentral gyrus and lobules V and VI of the cerebellar hemisphere. Simultaneous stimulation shows PBR in the middle and inferior frontal gyri and in the precentral gyrus. Vestibular- and somatosensory-related areas show negative BOLD responses (NBR) during simultaneous stimulation. NBR areas were also observed in the calcarine gyrus, lingual gyrus, cuneus and precuneus during simultaneous and single visual stimulations. For static visual and galvanic vestibular simultaneous stimulation, the reciprocal inhibitory visual-vestibular interaction pattern is observed in our results. The experimental results revealed interactions in frontal areas during concurrent visual-vestibular stimuli, which are affected by intermodal association areas in occipital, parietal, and temporal lobes.

Test-retest reliability of fMRI activation generated by different saccade tasks.

PURPOSE: To assess the reproducibility of brain-activation and eye-movement patterns in a saccade paradigm when comparing subjects, tasks, and magnetic resonance (MR) systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-five healthy adults at two different sites (n = 45) performed saccade tasks with varying levels of target predictability: predictable (PRED), position predictable (pPRED), time predictable (tPRED), and prosaccade (SAC). Eye-movement pattern was tested with a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Activation maps reproducibility were estimated with the cluster overlap Jaccard index and signal variance coefficient of determination for within-subjects test-retest data, and for between-subjects data from the same and different sites. RESULTS: In all groups latencies increased with decreasing target predictability: PRED < pPRED < tPRED < SAC (P < 0,001). Activation overlap was good to fair (>0.40) in all tasks in the within-subjects test-retest comparisons and poor (<0.40) in the tPRED for different subjects. The overlap of the different tasks for within-groups data was higher (0.40-0.68) than for the between-groups data (0.30-0.50). Activation consistency was 60-85% in the same subjects, 50-79% in different subjects, and 50-80% in different sites. In SAC, the activation found in the same and in different subjects was more consistent than in other tasks (50-80%). CONCLUSION: The predictive saccade tasks produced evidence for brain-activation and eye-movement reproducibility.

Intelligence assessment of deaf students with TONI 3

The intelligence assessment of deaf and hard-of-hearing students has been a challenge for Brazilian psychologists, due to the lack of standardized and validated instruments for this population. The objective of this study was to assess the intelligence of deaf and hard-of-hearing students with the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, Third Edition (TONI-3: Forma A) according to external variables: age, education, gender, type of deafness, use of hearing aid and communication mode. Study participants were 205 deaf students of both genders, with an average age of 14 years, from four public schools, ranging from elementary to middle school. Results showed no significant differences between subjects according to gender, type of deafness and communication mode. There was an increase in test scores with increasing age, grade and differences between students that used hearing aids. Thus, the findings demonstrate the validity of the TONI-3 to assess the intelligence of Brazilian deaf students.(AU)

A avaliação de inteligência em estudantes surdos tem sido um desafio para psicólogos brasileiros, devido à falta de instrumentos validados e padronizados para esta população. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a inteligência de estudantes surdos com o Teste de Inteligência Não Verbal, Terceira Edição (TONI-3: Forma A) a partir das variáveis idade, escolaridade, tipo de surdez, uso de aparelho auditivo e modo de comunicação. Participaram 205 estudantes de ambos os sexos, com idade média de 14 anos, de quatro escolas públicas de Ensino Fundamental a Ensino Médio. Os resultados mostraram que não houve diferenças significativas de acordo com gênero, tipo de deficiência auditiva e modo de comunicação. Foram observados aumento nos escores em função do aumento da idade, escolaridade e diferenças entre estudantes que usam aparelho auditivo. Os achados demonstram evidências de validade do TONI-3 para avaliação de inteligência de estudantes surdos no Brasil.(AU)

La evaluación de la inteligencia de estudiantes sordos y con sordez profunda ha sido un reto para los psicólogos brasileños, debido a la falta de instrumentos validados y estandarizados para esta población. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar la inteligencia de los alumnos sordos y con sordez profunda a través del Test de Inteligencia No Verbal, tercera edición (TONI-3: Forma A) de acuerdo a las variables externas: edad, educación, sexo, tipo de sordera, el uso de audífonos y modo de comunicación. Participaron 205 estudiantes sordos de ambos los sexos, con una edad media de 14 años, de cuatro escuelas públicas desde la primaria a la secundaria. Los resultados no mostraron diferencias significativas en función del sexo, el tipo de pérdida auditiva y modo de comunicación. Se observó un aumento en las puntuaciones en función de la edad, la escolaridad y las diferencias entre los estudiantes que usaban audífonos. Los hallazgos demostraron validez para el TONI-3 para la evaluación de la inteligencia de estudiantes sordos brasileños.(AU)