Perception of audio-visual synchrony in infants at elevated likelihood of developing autism spectrum disorder.

The inability to perceive audio-visual speech as a unified event may contribute to social impairments and language deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we examined and compared two groups of infants on their sensitivity to audio-visual asynchrony for a social (speaking face) and non-social event (bouncing ball) and assessed the relations between multisensory integration and language production. Infants at elevated likelihood of developing ASD were less sensitive to audio-visual synchrony for the social event than infants without elevated likelihood. Among infants without elevated likelihood, greater sensitivity to audio-visual synchrony for the social event was associated with a larger productive vocabulary. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that early deficits in multisensory integration may impair language development among infants with elevated likelihood of developing ASD. WHAT IS KNOWN: •Perceptual integration of auditory and visual cues within speech is important for language development. •Prior work suggests that children with ASD are less sensitive to the temporal synchrony within audio-visual speech. WHAT IS NEW: •In this study, infants at elevated likelihood of developing ASD showed a larger temporal binding window for adynamic social event (Speaking Face) than TD infants, suggesting less efficient multisensory integration.

Private Speech and the Development of Self-Regulation: The Importance of Temperamental Anger.

In this study (N=160), we observed children's private (i.e., self-directed) speech (PS) during a challenging puzzle task at age 3 and assessed whether the amount and maturity of their PS predicted their inhibitory control (IC) at age 4 and indirectly emotion regulation at age 9. Additionally, we examined whether the direct and indirect effects of PS were moderated by children's temperament. As expected, the maturity of children's PS was positively associated with IC and this association was stronger when children were reported as higher in anger reactivity by mothers (the interaction accounting for 11% of the explained variance). Children low in temperamental anger tend to have good IC and may not need to use PS. When children were at or above the mean on anger reactivity, PS maturity was indirectly associated with better emotion regulation at age 9 through an influence on IC at age 4 (index of moderated mediation =1.03 [.10, 3.60]). Findings suggest that PS is an important self-regulatory tool for 3-year-olds who typically experience and express anger.

Relations between frontal EEG maturation and inhibitory control in preschool in the prediction of children's early academic skills.

Maturation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) across the first few years of life is thought to underlie the emergence of inhibitory control (IC) abilities, which may play an important role in children's early academic success. In this growth curve modeling study (N = 364), we assessed developmental change in children's resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) activity (6-9 Hz 'alpha' power) from 10 months to 4 years and examined whether the initial levels or amount of change in frontal alpha power were associated with children's IC at age 4 and indirectly academic skills at age 6. Results indicated that greater increases in frontal alpha power across the study period were associated with better IC, and indirectly with better performance on Woodcock-Johnson tests of reading and math achievement at age 6. Similar associations between change in EEG and age 4 vocabulary were observed but did not mediate an association with academic skills. Similar analyses with posterior alpha power showed no associations with IC. Findings underscore the significance of frontal lobe maturation from infancy to early childhood for children's intellectual development.

Cardiac vagal regulation in infancy predicts executive function and social competence in preschool: Indirect effects through language.

Parasympathetic nervous system functioning in infancy may serve a foundational role in the development of cognitive and socioemotional skills (Calkins, 2007). In this study (N = 297), we investigated the potential indirect effects of cardiac vagal regulation in infancy on children's executive functioning and social competence in preschool via expressive and receptive language in toddlerhood. Vagal regulation was assessed at 10 months during two attention conditions (social, nonsocial) via task-related changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). A path analysis revealed that decreased RSA from baseline in the nonsocial condition and increased RSA in the social condition were related to larger vocabularies in toddlerhood. Additionally, children's vocabulary sizes were positively related to their executive function and social competence in preschool. Indirect effects from vagal regulation in both contexts to both 4-year outcomes were significant, suggesting that early advances in language may represent a mechanism through which biological functioning in infancy impacts social and cognitive functioning in childhood.

Health anxiety: current perspectives and future directions.

Health anxiety is a ubiquitous experience that arises when bodily sensations or changes are believed to be indicative of a serious disease. Severe expressions of health anxiety are most often classified as hypochondriasis in the current DSM-IV-TR; however, various alternative classification schemas have been proposed for the DSM-V. Regardless of classification, severe health anxiety has significant negative impacts on well-being, social and occupational functioning, and health care resource utilization. In this review, we focus on classification issues pertinent to severe health anxiety, summarize recent research regarding potential mechanisms underlying the condition, and summarize the state of the art with respect to assessment and treatment. Future research directions are noted and suggested throughout.

Changes in frontal EEG coherence across infancy predict cognitive abilities at age 3: The mediating role of attentional control.

Theoretical perspectives of cognitive development have maintained that functional integration of the prefrontal cortex across infancy underlies the emergence of attentional control and higher cognitive abilities in early childhood. To investigate these proposed relations, we tested whether functional integration of prefrontal regions across the second half of the first year predicted observed cognitive performance in early childhood 1 year prior indirectly through observed attentional control (N = 300). Results indicated that greater change in left-but not right-frontal EEG coherence between 5 and 10 months was positively associated with attentional control, cognitive flexibility, receptive language, and behavioral inhibitory control. Specifically, a larger increase in coherence between left frontal regions was positively associated with accuracy on a visual search task at Age 2, and visual search accuracy was positively associated with receptive vocabulary, performance on a set-shifting task (DCCS), and delay of gratification at Age 3. Finally, the indirect effects from the change in left frontal EEG coherence to 3-year cognitive flexibility, receptive language, and behavioral inhibitory control were significant, suggesting that internally controlled attention is a mechanism through which early neural maturation influences children's cognitive development. (PsycINFO Database Record