Exploring the Relationship between Disordered Sleep and Mood in Male Anorexia Nervosa: An Actigraphy Study.

Eating disorders (EDs), including anorexia nervosa (AN), are severe psychological disorders that affect individuals' eating behaviours and body perception. Previous research has shown that people with EDs often report poorer sleep. Some literature has suggested that it is mood dysregulation that mediates the link between EDs and sleep. However, the majority of previous studies only focused on females, while male ED patients have been overlooked. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationships between EDs, mood, and sleep among male ED patients. Using a mixture of actigraphy recordings and self-reported questionnaires, the current study analysed a total 33 adult male participants diagnosed with AN. The participants first wore an actigraphy device for seven continuous days, following which their ED severity and mood were assessed by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), respectively. The descriptive actigraphy results suggested that, similar to females, males with AN also showed disturbed sleep, including insomnia, sleep fragmentation, low sleep efficiency, and increased napping sessions. However, when ED severity was correlated against actigraphy data and mood, no significant relationships were found between them. Thus, it was suggested that future studies may investigate discrete ED symptoms instead of global ED severity interacting with sleep and mood. Overall, this study represents an initial step in the investigation of EDs and sleep and mood dysregulation among an under-represented sample.

Hikikomori: A Scientometric Review of 20 Years of Research.

The Japanese term hikikomori was first used to describe prolonged social withdrawal in the 1990s. Since then, research across the world have reported similar prolonged social withdrawal in many countries outside Japan. This study systematically analyses the evolution of literature on hikikomori in the past 20 years to gain a better understanding of the development of the knowledge base on hikikomori since it garnered attention in Japan. Findings from the scientometric review indicate many perspectives on the etiology of hikikomori including cultural, attachment, family systems and sociological approaches. However, similarities with modern type depression, a novel psychiatric syndrome, have been proposed and there are signs of a recent paradigm shift of hikikomori as a society-bound syndrome rather than a cultural-bound syndrome unique to Japan. As research into hikikomori continues to grow, results from the review also highlight the need for a more universally shared definition of hikikomori in order to better consolidate cross-cultural research for meaningful and valid cross-cultural comparisons which can help to promote evidence-based therapeutic interventions for hikikomori.

Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals with Eating Disorders in Saudi Arabia: A Thematic Analysis.

Food and sleep are critical for human survival. However, for individuals with eating disorders, they face two critical disruptions in terms of abnormal feeding patterns as well as poor sleep. These difficulties are exacerbated as a result of the recent coronavirus pandemic, which caused drastic changes in daily life schedules and living arrangements. The current study therefore aims to explore, through qualitative means, how individuals with eating disorders are affected during the subsequent lockdowns, with a particular emphasis on the pandemic's impact on their sleep in Saudi Arabia. Two groups of participants were recruited: participants with eating disorders and healthy controls. Based on thematic analysis of focus group discussion data, it was found that both types of participants experienced poorer sleep and poorer mental health. Participants with eating disorders too showed a deterioration of their symptoms. However, healthy participants tended to show greater levels of recovery and coping. Based on the study findings, recommendations for future studies are made.

Developmental disabilities in Africa: A scientometric review.

BACKGROUND: Developmental disabilities are disproportionately more investigated in higher-income countries. However, global prevalence of developmental disabilities indicate that a large proportion of individuals with disabilities reside in low- and middle-income nations. AIMS: The present work therefore aims to conduct a scientometric review to survey available literature on developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries belonging to the continent of Africa. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A literature search was conducted on Scopus, where a total of 1720 relevant publications (and an accompanying 66 thousand references) were found, representing research conducted between 1950 to 2022. Then, document co-citation analysis was performed to chart significant co-citation relationships between relevant articles and their cited references. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The generated network based on document co-citation analysis revealed a total of 14 distinct thematic research clusters and 12 significant documents that have been frequently cited in the literature on developmental disabilities in Africa. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The scientometric review revealed a trend of broadening research towards systems of care, away from a medical model of disease. It is projected that future research will continue to capitalise on inter-disciplinary strengths to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of developmental disability from all levels - individuals, families, to communities.

Dataset of parent-child hyperscanning functional near-infrared spectroscopy recordings.

The term "hyperscanning" refers to the simultaneous recording of multiple individuals' brain activity. As a methodology, hyperscanning allows the investigation of brain-to-brain synchrony. Despite being a promising technique, there is a limited number of publicly available functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning recordings. In this paper, we report a dataset of fNIRS recordings from the prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity of 33 mother-child dyads and 29 father-child dyads. Data was recorded while the parent-child dyads participated in an experiment with two sessions: a passive video attention task and a free play session. Dyadic metadata, parental psychological traits, behavioural annotations of the play sessions and information about the video stimuli complementing the dataset of fNIRS signals are described. The dataset presented here can be used to design, implement, and test novel fNIRS analysis techniques, new hyperscanning analysis tools, as well as investigate the PFC activity in participants of different ages when they engage in passive viewing tasks and active interactive tasks.

Habilitation of sleep problems among mothers and their children with autism spectrum disorder: Insights from multi-level exploratory dyadic analyses.

Few habilitation strategies for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) consider their sleep-related problems. Together with the fact that caregivers of children with ASD also face issues with sleep, there may be yet-to-be uncovered relationships between caregiver-child sleep patterns and sleep quality, offering a key opportunity for clinicians to consider the needs of both child and caregiver in terms of sleep. 29 dyads of mothers and their children with ASD were recruited for this cohort study and both subjective (self-report questionnaires and sleep diaries) and objective (cortisol samples and actigraphy) measures of sleep were collected to investigate significant predictors of sleep quality. Comparative, correlational, and hierarchical analyses were conducted. Findings indicated that both mother and child experience sleep deprivation in terms of shorter sleep duration and poor sleep quality in terms of longer sleep onset latencies and a higher frequency of wake bouts. Exploratory hierarchical analyses also found that child-related sleep difficulties such as sleep disordered breathing and night waking significantly predict mothers' sleep quality, which may point to the bi-directional influence of mother-child sleep. Based on these findings, it is recommended that clinicians adopt a family systems perspective and consider the sleep environment of the household, particularly that of the caregiver and child, when designing interventions for sleep-related problems in ASD. Finally, there is a need for additional support to promote good quality sleep among caregivers of children with ASD to bolster out-of-clinic care.

Recent Developments in Autism Genetic Research: A Scientometric Review from 2018 to 2022.

Genetic research in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has progressed tremendously in recent decades. Dozens of genetic loci and hundreds of alterations in the genetic sequence, expression, epigenetic transformation, and interactions with other physiological and environmental systems have been found to increase the likelihood of developing ASD. There is therefore a need to represent this wide-ranging yet voluminous body of literature in a systematic manner so that this information can be synthesised and understood at a macro level. Therefore, this study made use of scientometric methods, particularly document co-citation analysis (DCA), to systematically review literature on ASD genetic research from 2018 to 2022. A total of 14,818 articles were extracted from Scopus and analyzed with CiteSpace. An optimized DCA analysis revealed that recent literature on ASD genetic research can be broadly organised into 12 major clusters representing various sub-topics. These clusters are briefly described in the manuscript and potential applications of this study are discussed.

Alterations in Cortisol Profiles among Mothers of Children with ASD Related to Poor Child Sleep Quality.

Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience poorer sleep, but studies have not yet used objective measures to investigate how child and caregiver sleep affect each other. In this study, 29 mothers and their child with ASD aged between 6 and 16 years were recruited. Questionnaires measuring child autism, maternal depression, and maternal and child sleep quality were administered. Cortisol salivary samples were also obtained from the mothers over the course of a day. Results revealed that maternal depression is significantly correlated with their subjective sleep quality, sleep latency and daytime dysfunction. Child sleep quality was also found to be significantly correlated with ASD severity. In terms of maternal cortisol profiles, a significant number of mothers showed a flattened diurnal cortisol expression, and children of mothers with a flattened cortisol profile had significantly more sleep problems. Overall, results suggest that maternal and child sleep are affected by the child's disability but also are mutually related. Future studies may consider employing measures such as actigraphy or somnography to quantify sleep quality and establish causal pathways between sleep, cortisol expression and caregiver and child outcomes. The present study has clinical implications in examining family sleep when considering treatment for ASD.

Mapping miRNA Research in Schizophrenia: A Scientometric Review.

Micro RNA (miRNA) research has great implications in uncovering the aetiology of neuropsychiatric conditions due to the role of miRNA in brain development and function. Schizophrenia, a complex yet devastating neuropsychiatric disorder, is one such condition that had been extensively studied in the realm of miRNA. Although a relatively new field of research, this area of study has progressed sufficiently to warrant dozens of reviews summarising findings from past to present. However, as a majority of reviews cannot encapsulate the full body of research, there is still a need to synthesise the diversity of publications made in this area in a systematic but easy-to-understand manner. Therefore, this study adopted bibliometrics and scientometrics, specifically document co-citation analysis (DCA), to review the literature on miRNAs in the context of schizophrenia over the course of history. From a literature search on Scopus, 992 papers were found and analysed with CiteSpace. DCA analysis generated a network of 13 major clusters with different thematic focuses within the subject area. Finally, these clusters are qualitatively discussed. miRNA research has branched into schizophrenia, among other medical and psychiatric conditions, due to previous findings in other forms of non-coding RNA. With the rise of big data, bioinformatics analyses are increasingly common in this field of research. The future of research is projected to rely more heavily on interdisciplinary collaboration. Additionally, it can be expected that there will be more translational studies focusing on the application of these findings to the development of effective treatments.

Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception.

The long-standing hypothesis that emotions rely on bodily states is back in the spotlight. This has led some researchers to suggest that alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by altered emotional awareness, reflects a general deficit in interoception. However, tests of this hypothesis have relied on heterogeneous assessment methods, leading to inconsistent results. To shed some light on this issue, we administered a battery of self-report questionnaires of interoception and alexithymia to three samples from Italy, the U.S., and Singapore (N = 814). Correlation and machine learning analyses showed that alexithymia was associated with deficits in both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention. Alexithymics' interoceptive deficits were primarily related to difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Interoception showed a weaker association with externally-oriented thinking as operationalized by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and no association with the affective dimension of alexithymia later introduced by the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ). We discuss our results with reference to the theoretical and psychometric differences between these two measures of alexithymia and their shortcomings. Overall, our results support the view that interoceptive deficits are a core component of alexithymia, although the latter cannot be reduced to the former.

Surveying 80 Years of Psychodrama Research: A Scientometric Review.

Almost a century after Jacob Levy Moreno pioneered the group practice of psychodrama, research in this area has flourished to include different sub-fields of study and psychodramatic intervention for various psychological conditions. By making use of scientometric analysis, particularly document citation analysis and keyword analysis, this study maps out dominant research domains in psychodrama since its inception. From these findings, projections of future research trends and an evaluation of psychodrama research are discussed. Generally, there has been an increased adoption of technology to facilitate psychodrama practice, along with an increasing integration of psychodramatic principles with other psychotherapies. To improve research in this area, this paper recommends greater transparency in the reporting of materials, processes and data used in publications. Finally, we encourage embracing new technological methods such as neuroimaging to provide greater insight into mechanisms of change in psychodrama. The field of psychodrama remains full of potential and innovations to be developed.

Interpersonal Synchrony in the Context of Caregiver-Child Interactions: A Document Co-citation Analysis.

Social interactions accompany individuals throughout their whole lives. When examining the underlying mechanisms of social processes, dynamics of synchrony, coordination or attunement emerge between individuals at multiple levels. To identify the impactful publications that studied such mechanisms and establishing the trends that dynamically originated the available literature, the current study adopted a scientometric approach. A sample of 543 documents dated from 1971 to 2021 was derived from Scopus. Subsequently, a document co-citation analysis was conducted on 29,183 cited references to examine the patterns of co-citation among the documents. The resulting network consisted of 1,759 documents connected to each other by 5,011 links. Within the network, five major clusters were identified. The analysis of the content of the three major clusters-namely, "Behavioral synchrony," "Towards bio-behavioral synchrony," and "Neural attunement"-suggests an interest in studying attunement in social interactions at multiple levels of analysis, from behavioral to neural, by passing through the level of physiological coordination. Furthermore, although initial studies on synchrony focused mostly on parent-child interactions, new hyperscanning paradigms are allowing researchers to explore the role of biobehavioral synchrony in all social processes in a real-time and ecological fashion. Future potential pathways of research were also discussed.

Developmental disabilities across the world: A scientometric review from 1936 to 2020.

BACKGROUND: Developmental disabilities have been largely studied in the past years. Their etiological mechanisms have been underpinned to the interactions between genetic and environmental factors. These factors show variability across the world. Thus, it is important to understand where the set of knowledge obtained on developmental disabilities originates from and whether it is generalizable to low- and middle-income countries. AIMS: This study aims to understand the origins of the available literature on developmental disabilities, keeping a focus on parenting, and identify the main trend of research. METHODS AND PROCEDURE: A sample of 11,315 publications from 1936 to 2020 were collected from Scopus and a graphical country analysis was conducted. Furthermore, a qualitative approach enabled the clustering of references by keywords into four main areas: "Expression of the disorder", "Physiological Factors", "How it is studied" and "Environmental factors". For each area, a document co-citation analysis (DCA) on CiteSpace software was performed. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Results highlight the leading role of North America in the study of developmental disabilities. Trends in the literature and the documents' scientific relevance are discussed in details. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Results demand for investigation in different socio-economical settings to generalize our knowledge. What this paper adds? The current paper tries to provide insight into the origins of the literature on developmental disabilities with a focus on parenting, together with an analysis of the trends of research in the field. The paper consisted of a multi-disciplinary and multi-method review. In fact, the review tried to integrate the analysis of the relation between developmental disabilities with a closer look at the scientific contributions to the field across the world. Specifically, the paper integrates a total of 11,315 papers published on almost a century of research (from 1936 to 2020). An initial qualitative analysis on keywords was combined to a subsequent quantitative approach in order to maximize the comprehension of the impact of almost a century of scientific contributions. Specifically, documents were studied with temporal and structural metrics on a scientometric approach. This allowed the exploration of patterns within the literature available on Scopus in a quantitative way. This method not only assessed the importance of single documents within the network. As a matter of fact, the document co-citation analysis used on CiteSpace software provided insight into the relations existing between multiple documents in the field of research. As a result, the leading role of North America in the literature of developmental disabilities and parenting emerged. This was accompanied by the review of the main trends of research within the existing literature.

Child disability and caregiving in low and middle income countries: Big data approach on open data.

BACKGROUND: The presence of child disabilities might affect the amount of caregiving attention the child receives, with potential ramifications on the development of the child and increasing the likelihood of developing a more severe condition. Little is known about the association between child disabilities and caregiving practices in less developed countries, penalized by both lack of data and a research bias toward western societies. METHOD: In this study, we apply data mining methods on a large (N = 29,525) dataset from UNICEF to investigate the association between caregiving practices and developmental disabilities of the children, and highlight the differences between intellectual and other disabilities. RESULTS: Our results highlight that, compared to other types of disabilities, intellectual disabilities increased the risk of being neglected by the caregiver in those activities oriented to the cognitive development. The education of the caregiver and the socioeconomical development of the country are actively involved in the moderation of the risk. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that educational policies of parental training, such as psychoeducation regarding intellectual disabilities and destigmatization campaigns, are needed to benefit parental practices in low- and middle-income countries.

Children with Developmental Disabilities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: More Neglected and Physically Punished.

Little is known about parenting in the context of developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), penalized by both lack of data and a research bias toward western societies. In this study, we apply data mining methods on a large (N = 25,048) dataset from UNICEF to highlight patterns of association between developmental disabilities of children and parental involvement. We focus on the co-presence of multiple disabilities and the quality of childcare in three parenting domains: discipline, caregiving, and education. Our results show that, in LMIC, children with more severe developmental conditions are also more likely to receive low-quality parental care. Specific policies of parental training are needed to improve parental practices in LMIC.

Parents' Past Bonding Experience with Their Parents Interacts with Current Parenting Stress to Influence the Quality of Interaction with Their Child.

Healthy dyadic interactions serve as a foundation for child development and are typically characterised by mutual emotional availability of both the parent and child. However, several parental factors might undermine optimal parent-child interactions, including the parent's current parenting stress levels and the parent's past bonding experiences with his/her own parents. To date, no study has investigated the possible interaction of parenting stress and parental bonding history with their own parents on the quality of emotional availability during play interactions. In this study, 29 father-child dyads (18 boys, 11 girls; father's age = 38.07 years, child's age = 42.21 months) and 36 mother-child dyads (21 boys, 15 girls; mother's age = 34.75 years, child's age = 41.72 months) from different families were recruited to participate in a 10-min play session after reporting on their current parenting stress and past care and overprotection experience with their parents. We measured the emotional availability of mother-child and father-child play across four adult subscales (i.e., sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, non-hostility) and two child subscales (i.e., involvement and responsiveness). Regression slope analyses showed that parenting stress stemming from having a difficult child predicts adult non-hostility, and is moderated by the parents' previously experienced maternal overprotection. When parenting stress is low, higher maternal overprotection experienced by the parent in the past would predict greater non-hostility during play. This finding suggests that parents' present stress levels and past bonding experiences with their parents interact to influence the quality of dyadic interaction with their child.

Physical presence of spouse enhances brain-to-brain synchrony in co-parenting couples.

Co-parenting spouses who live together remain in close physical proximity to each other and regularly engage in reciprocal social interactions in joint endeavors to coordinate their caregiving. Although bi-parental rearing is a common occurrence in humans, the influence of the physical presence of a co-parenting spouse on parental brain responses remains largely unknown. Synchrony is conceptualized as the matching of behavioral and physiological signals between two individuals. In this study, we examined how the presence of a co-parenting spouse influences brain-to-brain synchrony when attending to salient infant and adult vocalizations. We hypothesized that brain-to-brain synchrony would be greater in the presence of a spousal partner. Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used on 24 mother-father dyads (N = 48) to measure prefrontal cortical (PFC) activities while they listened to infant and adult vocalizations in two conditions, together (in the same room at the same time) and separately (in different rooms at different times). Couples showed greater synchrony in the together condition; when comparing fNIRS data between true couples and randomly matched controls, this synchronous effect was only seen in true couples, indicating a unique effect of spousal co-regulation toward salient stimuli. Our results indicate that the physical presence of the spouse might establish synchrony in attentional regulation mechanisms toward socially relevant stimuli. This finding holds implications for the role of the co-parenting spouse in influencing social and parental brain mechanisms.