Decreased frontal theta frequency during the presence of smartphone among children: an EEG study.

BACKGROUND: Smart devices have become an integral part of our lives. However, research has highlighted the potential implications of smartphone presence on task performance, particularly in young children. This study aimed to determine the effect of a smartphone presence on brainwaves associated with cognitive interruption in children. METHODS: EEG data were collected from 5.3 to 8.5-year-old children performing a simple reaction time task with and without the presence of a smartphone. Theta and alpha bands were calculated, and repeated measure analysis of variance was performed to assess the impact of two conditions on alpha and theta bands: 1) with the presence and; 2) without the presence of a smartphone. EEG waveforms were also correlated with standardized cognitive measures evaluating attention abilities using Pearson correlation. RESULTS: Theta and alpha activity values were higher in the absence vs the presence of a smartphone, with a significant difference between theta bands for the two study conditions. Moreover, the difference between theta bands in the two conditions was significantly correlated with lower scores on an auditory attention test. CONCLUSIONS: The existence of an interactive electronic device during cognitive tasks is associated with alterations in brain activity related to cognitive control. IMPACT: The presence of a smartphone during a simple reaction time task in young children was associated with a significant decrease in frontal theta frequency. A trend of a decreased alpha band in the presence of a smartphone. The differences in theta and alpha frequencies between conditions were significantly correlated with lower scores in auditory and visual attention and inhibition tests.

Multimodal Approach for Characterizing the Quality of Parent-Child Interaction: A Single Synchronization Source May Not Tell the Whole Story.

The interaction between the parent and child is essential for the child's cognitive and emotional development and sets the path for future well-being. These interactions, starting from birth, are necessary for providing the sensory stimulation the child needs in the critical time window of brain development. The characterization of parent-child interactions is traditionally performed by human decoding. This approach is considered the leading and most accurate way of characterizing the quality of these interactions. However, the development of computational tools and especially the concept of parent-child synchronization opened up an additional source of data characterizing these interactions in an objective, less human-labor manner. Such sources include brain-to-brain, voice/speech, eye contact, motor, and heart-rate synchronization. However, can a single source synchronization dataset accurately represent parent-child interaction? Will attending to the same stimulation, often resulting in a higher brain-to-brain synchronization, be considered an interactive condition? In this perspective, we will try to convey a new concept of the child-parent interaction synchronization (CHIPS) matrix, which includes the different sources of signals generated during an interaction. Such a model may assist in explaining the source of interaction alterations in the case of child/parent developmental/emotional or sensory deficits and may open up new ways of assessing interventions and changes in parent-child interactions along development. We will discuss this interaction during one of the parent-child joint activities providing opportunities for interaction, i.e., storytelling.

Executive functions-based reading training engages the cingulo-opercular and dorsal attention networks.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a computerized executive functions (EFs)-based reading intervention on neural circuits supporting EFs and visual attention. Seed-to-voxel functional connectivity analysis was conducted focusing on large-scale attention system brain networks, during an fMRI reading fluency task. Participants were 8- to 12-year-old English-speaking children with dyslexia (n = 43) and typical readers (n = 36) trained on an EFs-based reading training (n = 40) versus math training (n = 39). Training duration was 8 weeks. After the EFs-based reading intervention, children with dyslexia improved their scores in reading rate and visual attention (compared to math intervention). Neurobiologically, children with dyslexia displayed an increase in functional connectivity strength after the intervention between the cingulo-opercular network and occipital and precentral regions. Noteworthy, the functional connectivity indices between these brain regions showed a positive correlation with speed of processing and visual attention scores in both pretest and posttest. The results suggest that reading improvement following an EFs-based reading intervention involves neuroplastic connectivity changes in brain areas related to EFs and primary visual processing in children with dyslexia. Our results highlight the need for training underlying cognitive abilities supporting reading, such as EFs and visual attention, in order to enhance reading abilities in dyslexia.

Reduced mother-child brain-to-brain synchrony during joint storytelling interaction interrupted by a media usage.

Parent-child synchrony is related to the quality of parent and child interactions and child development. One very emotionally and cognitively beneficial interaction in early childhood is Dialogic Reading (DR). Screen exposure was previously related to decreased parent-child interaction. Using a hyperscanning Electroencephalogram (EEG) method, the current study examined the neurobiological correlates for mother-child DR vs. mobile phone-interrupted DR in twenty-four white toddlers (24-42 months old, 8 girls) and their mothers. The DR-interrupted condition was related to decreased mother-child neural synchrony between the mother's language-related brain regions (left hemisphere) and the child's comprehension-related regions (right hemisphere) compared to the uninterrupted DR. This is the first neural evidence of the negative effect of parental smartphone use on parent-child interaction quality.

Actin as a Target to Reduce Cell Invasiveness in Initial Stages of Metastasis.

We demonstrate the relative roles of the cell cytoskeleton, and specific importance of actin in facilitating mechanical aspects of metastatic invasion. A crucial step in metastasis, the typically lethal spread of cancer to distant body-sites, is cell invasion through dense tissues composed of extracellular matrix and various non-cancerous cells. Cell invasion requires cell-cytoskeleton remodeling to facilitate dynamic morphological changes and force application. We have previously shown invasive cell subsets in heterogeneous samples can rapidly (2 h) and forcefully indent non-degradable, impenetrable, synthetic gels to cell-scale depths. The amounts of indenting cells and their attained depths provide the mechanical invasiveness of the sample, which as we have shown agrees with the in vitro metastatic potential and the in vivo metastatic risk in humans. To identify invasive force-application mechanisms, we evaluated changes in mechanical invasiveness following chemical perturbations targeting the structure and function of cytoskeleton elements and associated proteins. We evaluate effects on short-term (2-hr) indentations of single, well-spaced or closely situated cells as compared to long-time-scale Boyden chamber migration. We show that actomyosin inhibition may be used to reduce (mechanical) invasiveness of single or collectively invading cells, while actin-disruption may induce escape-response of treated single-cells, which may promote metastasis.