Audiovisual synchrony detection for fluent speech in early childhood: An eye-tracking study.

During childhood, the ability to detect audiovisual synchrony gradually sharpens for simple stimuli such as flashbeeps and single syllables. However, little is known about how children perceive synchrony for natural and continuous speech. This study investigated young children's gaze patterns while they were watching movies of two identical speakers telling stories side by side. Only one speaker's lip movements matched the voices and the other one either led or lagged behind the soundtrack by 600 ms. Children aged 3-6 years (n = 94, 52.13% males) showed an overall preference for the synchronous speaker, with no age-related changes in synchrony-detection sensitivity as indicated by similar gaze patterns across ages. However, viewing time to the synchronous speech was significantly longer in the auditory-leading (AL) condition compared with that in the visual-leading (VL) condition, suggesting asymmetric sensitivities for AL versus VL asynchrony have already been established in early childhood. When further examining gaze patterns on dynamic faces, we found that more attention focused on the mouth region was an adaptive strategy to read visual speech signals and thus associated with increased viewing time of the synchronous videos. Attention to detail, one dimension of autistic traits featured by local processing, has been found to be correlated with worse performances in speech synchrony processing. These findings extended previous research by showing the development of speech synchrony perception in young children, and may have implications for clinical populations (e.g., autism) with impaired multisensory integration.

Multidimensional Interoception and Autistic Traits Across life Stages: Evidence From a Novel Eye-tracking Task.

Interoception is believed to underlie socio-cognitive functions which are often impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this study, Experiment 1 examined in a sample of 114 neurotypical college students the associations among autistic traits, alexithymia, and interoceptive accuracy (IA), which was assessed by a novel paradigm "Eye-tracking Interoceptive Accuracy Task (EIAT). In Experiment 2, EIAT and the Autism Spectrum Quotient were administered to 52 preschool children, 50 adolescents, and 50 adults. Experiment 1 supported the association between autistic traits and alexithymia, but failed to support their association with multidimensional interoception. Experiment 2 strongly supported the association between age and IA. We conclude that cardiac IA differs between neurotypical age groups, but shows limited relationship with autistic traits.

Erratum to: Probiotic Therapy for Treating Behavioral and Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained two mistakes. The name and the work address of one author are wrong. The corrected name and work address are given below.Guo-bin WAN2† 2 Shenzhen Maternity & Child Healthcare Hospital, Shenzhen 518048, China.

Psychological intervention for postpartum depression.

The postpartum depression outcome and the effect of psychological intervention were studied in order to reduce the occurrence and development of the postpartum depression. A survey of 4000 women within 4-6 weeks postpartum in 80 communities in Shenzhen, China was performed using random cluster sampling method. By employing Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) as a screening tool, the positive women (defined as EPDS ≥10) were randomly divided into intervention group and control group at a ratio of 1:2. The women in the intervention group were treated by means of mailing postpartum depression prevention and treatment knowledge manual, face-to-face counseling, and telephone psychological counseling interventions aiming at individual risk factors, while those in the control group were treated with conventional methods. EPDS scores were assessed in these two groups again at 6th month postpartum. Totally, 3907 valid questionnaires were obtained. All the 771 positive women were divided into two groups: 257 in the intervention group, and 514 in the control group. At 6th month postpartum, the EPDS scores in the intervention group were decreased significantly, from baseline stage (12.84±3.02) to end stage (3.05±2.93), while EPDS scores in the control group were reduced from 12.44±2.78 to 6.94±4.02. There were significant differences in the EPDS scores at end stage between the two groups (t=13.059, P<0.001). Psychological intervention can reduce postpartum depression, with better maternal compliance. It is feasible and necessary to establish postpartum depression screening and psychological intervention model in community-hospital and include the postpartum depression screening, intervention, and follow-up into the conventional healthcare.