Examining the Link Between Social Affect and Visual Exploration of Cute Stimuli in Autistic Children.

Baby schema refers to physical features perceived as cute, known to trigger attention, induce positive emotions, and prompt social interactions. Given the reduced visual attention to social stimuli observed in individuals on the autism spectrum, the current study examines whether the sensitivity to baby schema is also affected. We expected that the looking time towards cute-featured stimuli would vary with symptom severity levels and would be associated with social affect. Ninety-four children (31 typically developing; 63 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder - ASD) aged 20-83 months (M = 49.63, SD = 13.59) completed an eye-tracking visual exploration task. Autistic participants were separated into two groups based on symptom severity: children with high autism severity symptoms (HS ASD; N = 23) and low-moderate autism symptoms (LMS ASD; N = 40). Animals and neutral objects were simultaneously presented on the screen along with either human babies (condition 1) or adults (condition 2). The results indicated that visual attention oriented to cute-featured stimuli varied with autism symptom severity: only LMS and TD groups spend more time looking at cute-featured stimuli (babies; animals) than neutral objects. Moreover, children with higher severity in the social affect domain spent less time on the stimuli depicting cute than non-cute stimuli. These findings suggest that autism symptom severity and social skills are linked to variations in visual attention to cute stimuli. Implications of baby schema sensitivity are discussed in relation to the development of social competencies and play, responsiveness to robot-based interventions, as well as appraised relevance in autistic children.

Surgical Treatment in Silicone Oil-Associated Glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a vision threatening, not uncommon complication of eyes that have undergone pars plana vitrectomy with silicone oil endotamponade. Although most patients respond well to medical antiglaucoma therapy, there are refractory cases where surgery is required to control the intraocular pressure. This review, following a comprehensive literature search in the Medline database, aims to present the most important surgical techniques currently in use for glaucoma associated with silicone oil endotamponade and their indication depending on the mechanism of glaucoma. In cases of pupillary block, the presence of a patent iridotomy or iridectomy must be ensured, either by laser or surgically. When silicone oil is in excess and whenever the retinal status permits it, partial or complete removal of the silicone oil should be performed. Trabeculectomy has shown higher failure rates and more complications in these cases compared to other indications, so alternate methods are warranted. For very high intraocular pressures, glaucoma drainage devices and transscleral cyclophotocoagulation are the most used options, with good efficacy and safety profiles, although rarely they may have serious complications. The Ex-PRESS mini shunt has shown excellent results and lower rates of complications. For less important IOP elevations, minimally invasive glaucoma surgery and selective laser trabeculoplasty may be used, either alone or in conjunction with other methods.

Adherence to Therapy in Glaucoma Treatment-A Review.

Glaucoma is a chronic disease and the second leading cause of irreversible vision loss worldwide, whose initial treatment consists of self-administered topical ocular hypotensive eyedrops. Adherence with glaucoma medications is a fundamental problem in the care of glaucoma patients as up to 50% of patients fail to receive the intended benefits of the treatment. The literature has identified many barriers to patients' compliance, from factors depending on the type of medication administered, communication between physician and patients, to factors dependent on patients' behaviour and lifestyle. Failure to take medication as prescribed increases the risk that patients will not receive the desired benefit, which often leads to a worsening of the disease. Our aim is to synthesize the methods used for measuring adherence of patients to glaucoma therapy and the interventions used for addressing adherence, laying emphasis on a patient-centred approach, taking time to educate patients about their chronic disease and to assess their views on treatment.

Proof of Concept: A Brief Psycho-Educational Training Program to Increase the Use of Positive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Attenuated positive emotions and difficulties in regulating emotions are frequently observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and are linked to increased risk of affective disorders, problematic behaviors, and impaired socio-emotional functioning. As such, interventions specifically focused on positive emotion regulation (ER) skills could be very valuable for individuals with ASD, their caregivers, and therapists. However, the field of positive ER in ASD is under-researched. The present study aimed at testing the practical potential and the preliminary effects of a brief novel psycho-educational training program on positive ER for individuals with ASD. Thirty male participants with ASD (aged 10-35years; N training=14, N waitlist=16) underwent a three-session program on the use of adaptive positive ER strategies (i.e., attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). Participants rated the program as easy to understand, interesting, pleasant, and likable. No dropouts or adverse effects were observed. The training group showed a significant increase in the self-reported use of the ER strategies compared to the waitlist group. The increase in the use of ER strategies maintained up to 7 weeks in the overall sample. Having reached high satisfaction rates and the intended effects in this proof of concept study, this novel program represents a promising tool to support ER. Future research should next investigate the efficacy of the intervention on day-to-day emotional experience and wellbeing. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov # NCT02898298.

Preoperative antisepsis in ophthalmic surgery (a review).

Endophthalmitis remains a serious complication following intraocular procedures. Preoperative prophylactic measures for endophthalmitis decrease the morbidity associated with this disease and represent a standard of care prior to ophthalmic surgery. The literature supports as measures for ocular antisepsis: povidone-iodine solution for ocular surface preparation, chlorhexidine in patients with iodine allergy and application of topical antibiotics. Povidone-iodine is regarded as the most effective antiseptic associated with significant reduction in ocular surface bacterial counts. Currently, the recommended preoperative management is the application of 5% povidone-iodine solution in the conjunctival fornix, prior to surgery. This paper reviews the preoperative measures for ocular antisepsis, used in order to decrease the risk of culture-proven endophthalmitis.

Challenges in HIV-Negative Cytomegalovirus Retinitis - case report.

We present the case of a 20-year-old girl with severe combined seronegative immunodeficiency who developed a bilateral decrease in visual acuity due to retinal necrosis. After further investigations, increased serological viral levels of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) were detected and confirmed the diagnosis of CMV retinitis in both eyes. After three weeks of systemic therapy with oral valganciclovir, her condition improved, with the best corrected visual acuity of the most affected eye changing from finger counting at presentation to 6/ 12. Although financial matters determined her to discontinue the antiviral treatment after three months, her ophthalmological status remained stable, and she resumed therapy after four weeks of pause. At the four months follow-up, despite an unchanged visual function, her general condition deteriorated. In the absence of appropriate treatment for her immunodeficiency both the patient's ophthalmological and systemic prognosis were poor.

Association of retinitis pigmentosa and advanced keratoconus in siblings.

Objective. The aim of the article was to present the rare association of retinitis pigmentosa and bilateral keratoconus in two brothers, one of whom developed corneal hydrops bilaterally, within a short period of time. Methods. A 29-year-old man presented to our service with corneal hydrops in the right eye, complaining of ocular pain and photophobia. He had a history of retinitis pigmentosa, having been diagnosed as an infant. He also had a younger brother carrying the same diagnosis. Slit lamp examination revealed bilateral keratoconus with corneal hydrops in the right eye, posterior subcapsular cataract, macular atrophy and the characteristic retinal signs of retinitis pigmentosa. The patient's brother was also examined, with the same findings being noted, apart from the corneal hydrops. We documented the changes using a slit lamp biomicroscope, a fundus camera, a corneal topography, Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography and visual field testing. Right hydrops regressed in one month after hyperosmolar 5% sodium chloride treatment. However, 4 weeks later, the patient presented with the same corneal findings in the left eye. The same treatment was prescribed for the left eye. Results. Corneal hydrops regressed in both eyes with remaining paracentral corneal scars. However, no other treatment for keratoconus was suitable in the case of this patient. Discussion: Retinitis pigmentosa is currently not amenable to any form of treatment, from vitamin supplementation, medical therapy, gene transfer-based therapy, stem cell-based therapy to retinal implantation. However, molecular genetics may someday provide new therapeutic prospects, that could modify the course of RP. Conclusions. The association of retinitis pigmentosa with keratoconus is a fairly rare finding, worth taking into consideration. Also, presentation with keratoconus in such an advanced state is uncommon and, in our case, it was presumably due to the patient's reduced visual function since childhood, secondary to retinitis pigmentosa, that has prevented him from perceiving any visual modifications caused by keratoconus.

Board Games on Emotional Competences for School-Age Children.

Objective: Emotional competences (EC) are important for social and academic outcomes and positive life trajectories. Due to their social setting and tendency to stimulate intrinsic motivation, board games may constitute efficient learning tools for promoting socioemotional development in children. The current project therefore aimed at developing and testing three theory-driven board games explicitly targeting EC. First, we explored the quality of these EC games in terms of game experience, compared to off-the-shelf games (without an EC focus). Second, we tested whether targeted EC were linked to game experience in the EC games by measuring associations between children's trait EC and subjective effort and difficulty during gameplay. Materials and Methods: Children (N = 177) aged 8-12 years old were randomly assigned to a four-session protocol that comprised EC board games (experimental group) or off-the-shelf board games (control group). At baseline, participants' trait EC (emotion recognition, differentiation, and cognitive reappraisal) were assessed, while game experience (e.g., positive and negative affect, flow and immersion, difficulty, and effort) was assessed after each game. Results: Both groups perceived the games they played as positive and playable. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that higher trait EC was linked to lower self-reported effort and difficulty in two of the EC board games focusing on emotion recognition and differentiation. Conclusion: The present study shows that the board games on EC designed for children seem to elicit game experiences comparable to off-the-shelf games. Moreover, children's trait EC were linked to subjective game experience in two of the three games. Future interventions should examine the potential of the novel games to promote EC.

CoMetGeNe: mining conserved neighborhood patterns in metabolic and genomic contexts.

BACKGROUND: In systems biology, there is an acute need for integrative approaches in heterogeneous network mining in order to exploit the continuous flux of genomic data. Simultaneous analysis of the metabolic pathways and genomic context of a given species leads to the identification of patterns consisting in reaction chains catalyzed by products of neighboring genes. Similar such patterns across several species can reveal their mode of conservation throughout the tree of life. RESULTS: We present CoMetGeNe (COnserved METabolic and GEnomic NEighborhoods), a novel method that identifies metabolic and genomic patterns consisting in maximal trails of reactions being catalyzed by products of neighboring genes. Patterns determined by CoMetGeNe in one species are subsequently employed in order to reflect their degree of conservation across multiple prokaryotic species. These interspecies comparisons help to improve genome annotation and can reveal putative alternative metabolic routes as well as unexpected gene ordering occurrences. CONCLUSIONS: CoMetGeNe is an exploratory tool at both the genomic and the metabolic levels, leading to insights into the conservation of functionally related clusters of neighboring enzyme-coding genes. The open-source CoMetGeNe pipeline is freely available at https://cometgene.lri.fr .

Face processing in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: atypical development and visual scanning alterations.

BACKGROUND: Previous research links social difficulties to atypical face exploration in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS). Two types of face processing are distinguished: configural (CFP) and featural (FFP). CFP develops later in life and plays an important role in face and emotion recognition abilities. Recent studies reported atypical development of CFP in several neurodevelopmental disorders. Taking previous reports of atypical face exploration one step further, our study aims at characterizing face processing in children and adolescents with 22q11.2DS. First, we sought to identify biases in the first two fixation positions on faces and to detect differences between CFP and FFP in 22q11.2DS using eye-tracking technology. Second, we investigated the developmental trajectories of CFP and FFP using accuracy data from follow-up evaluation. METHODS: Seventy-five individuals with 22q11.2DS and 84 typically developed (TD) individuals (aged 6-21 years) completed a discrimination task ("Jane task") inducing CFP and FFP in an eye-tracking setting. Thirty-six individuals with 22q11DS and 30 TD from our sample completed a longitudinal follow-up evaluation. RESULTS: Findings revealed that individuals with 22q11.2DS demonstrate an early bias toward the mouth region during the initial fixations on the faces and reduced flexibility exploration of the faces, with a reduced number of transitions between faces and longer fixations compared to the TD group. Further, scanpaths did not differ between CFP and FFP in the 22q11.2DS group. Longitudinal analysis of accuracy data provided evidence for atypical development of CFP in 22q11.2DS. CONCLUSIONS: The current study brings new evidence of altered face exploration in 22q11.2DS and identifies developmental mechanisms that may contribute to difficulties impacting social interactions in the syndrome.

Emotion Recognition and Perspective Taking: A Comparison between Typical and Incarcerated Male Adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Previous research suggests that antisocial individuals present impairment in social cognitive processing, more specifically in emotion recognition (ER) and perspective taking (PT). The first aim of the present study was to investigate the recognition of a wide range of emotional expressions and visual PT capacities in a group of incarcerated male adolescents in comparison to a matched group of community adolescents. Secondly, we sought to explore the relationship between these two mechanisms in relation to psychopathic traits. METHODS: Forty-five male adolescents (22 incarcerated adolescents (Mage = 16.52, SD = 0.96) and 23 community adolescents (Mage = 16.43, SD = 1.41)) participated in the study. ER abilities were measured using a dynamic and multimodal task that requires the participants to watch short videos in which trained actors express 14 emotions. PT capacities were examined using a task recognized and proven to be sensitive to adolescent development, where participants had to follow the directions of another person whilst taking into consideration his perspective. RESULTS: We found a main effect of group on emotion recognition scores. In comparison to the community adolescents, the incarcerated adolescents presented lower recognition of three emotions: interest, anxiety and amusement. Analyses also revealed significant impairments in PT capacities in incarcerated adolescents. In addition, incarcerated adolescents' PT scores were uniquely correlated to their scores on recognition of interest. CONCLUSIONS: The results corroborate previously reported impairments in ER and PT capacities, in the incarcerated adolescents. The study also indicates an association between impairments in the recognition of interest and impairments in PT.