Real-life Social Attention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder defined by atypical social behaviour, of which atypical social attention behaviours are among the earliest clinical markers (Volkmar et al., 1997). Eye tracking studies using still images and movie clips have provided a method for the precise quantification of atypical social attention in ASD. This is generally characterised by diminished viewing of the most socially pertinent regions (eyes), and increased viewing of less socially informative regions (body, background, objects) (Klin et al., 2002; Riby & Hancock, 2008, 2009). Ecological validity within eye tracking studies has become an increasingly important issue. As of yet, however, little is known about the precise nature of the atypicalities of social attention in ASD in real-life. Objectives: To capture and quantify gaze patterns for children with an ASD within a real life setting, compared to two Typically Developing (TD) comparison groups. Methods: Nine children with an ASD were compared to two age matched TD groups – a verbal (N=9) and a non-verbal (N=9) comparison group. A real-life scenario was created involving an experimenter posing as a magician, and consisted of 3 segments: a conversation segment; a magic trick segment; and a puppet segment. The first segment explored children’s attentional preferences during a real-life conversation; the magic trick segment explored children’s use of the eyes as a communicative cue, and the puppet segment explored attention capture. Finally, part of the puppet section explored children’s use of facial information in response to an unexpected event. Results: The most striking difference between the groups was the diminished viewing of the eyes by the ASD group in comparison to both control groups. This was found particularly during the conversation segment, but also during the magic trick segment, and during the puppet segment. When in conversation, participants with ASD were found to spend a greater proportion time looking off-screen, in comparison to TD participants. There was also a tendency for the ASD group to spend a greater proportion of time looking to the mouth of the experimenter. During the magic trick segment, despite the fact that the eyes were not predictive of a correct location, both TD comparison groups continued to use the eyes as a communicative cue, whereas the ASD group did not. In the puppet segment, all three groups spent a similar amount of time looking between the puppet and regions of the experimenter’s face. However, in response to an unexpected event, the ASD group were significantly slower to fixate back on the experimenter’s face. Conclusions: The results demonstrate the reduced salience of socially pertinent information for children with ASD in real life, and they provide support for the findings from previous eye tracking studies involving scene viewing. However, the results also highlight a pattern looking off-screen for both the TD and ASD groups. This eye movement behaviour is likely to be associated specifically with real-life interaction, as it has functional relevance (Doherty-Sneddon et al., 2002). However, the fact that it is significantly increased in the ASD group has implications for their understanding of real life social interactions.

Tracking the Links to Social Functioning: Asperger Syndrome and Gaze Patterns

The application of Eye Tracking (ET) to the study of social functioning in Asperger Syndrome (AS) provides a unique perspective into social attention and cognition in this atypical neurodevelopmental group. Research in this area has shown how ET can capture social attention atypicalities within this group, such as diminished fixations to the eye region when viewing still images and movie clips; increased fixation to the mouth region; reduced face gaze. Issues exist, however, within the literature, where the type (static/dynamic) and the content (ecological validity) of stimuli used appear to affect the nature of the gaze patterns reported. Objectives: Our research aims were: using the same group of adolescents with AS, to compare their viewing patterns to age and IQ matched typically developing (TD) adolescents using stimuli considered to represent a hierarchy of ecological validity, building from static facial images; through a non-verbal movie clip; through verbal footage from real-life conversation; to eye tracking during real-life conversation. Methods: Eleven participants with AS were compared to 11 TD adolescents, matched for age and IQ. In Study 1, participants were shown 2 sets of static facial images (emotion faces, still images taken from the dynamic clips). In Study 2, three dynamic clips were presented (1 non-verbal movie clip, 2 verbal footage from real-life conversation). Study 3 was an exploratory study of eye tracking during a real-life conversation. Eye movements were recorded via a HiSpeeed (240Hz) SMI eye tracker fitted with chin and forehead rests. Various methods of analysis were used, including a paradigm for temporal analysis of the eye movement data. Results: Results from these studies confirmed that the atypical nature of social attention in AS was successfully captured by this paradigm. While results differed across stimulus sets,
collectively they demonstrated how individuals with AS failed to focus on the most socially relevant aspects of the various stimuli presented. There was also evidence that the eye movements of the AS group were atypically affected by the presence of motion and verbal information. Discriminant Function Analysis demonstrated that the ecological validity of stimuli was an important factor in identifying atypicalities associated with AS, with more accurate classifications of AS and TD groups occurring for more naturalistic stimuli (dynamic rather than static). Graphical analysis of temporal sequences of eye movements revealed the atypical manner in which AS participants followed interactions within the dynamic stimuli. Taken together with data on the order of gaze patterns, more subtle atypicalities were detected in the gaze behaviour of AS individuals towards more socially pertinent regions of the dynamic stimuli. Conclusions: These results have potentially important implications for our understanding of deficits in Asperger Syndrome, as they show that, with more naturalistic stimuli, subtle differences in social attention can be detected that

Demo: Have a Chat with Sensitive Artificial Listeners

Sensitive Artificial Listeners (SAL) are virtual dialogue partners based on audiovisual analysis and synthesis. Despite their very limited verbal understanding, they intend to engage the user in a conversation by paying attention to the user’s emotions and non- verbal expressions. The SAL characters have their own emotionally defined personality, and attempt to drag the user towards their dom- inant emotion through a combination of verbal and non-verbal ex- pression. The demonstrator shows the publicly available, fully au- tonomous SAL system.

The role of ECE1 variants in cognitive ability in old age and Alzheimer's disease risk

The ß-amyloid peptide may play a central role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. We have evaluated variants in seven Aß-degrading genes (ACE, ECE1, ECE2, IDE, MME, PLAU, and TF) for association with AD risk in the Genetic and Environmental Risk in Alzheimer's Disease Consortium 1 (GERAD1) cohort, and with three cognitive phenotypes in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936), using 128 and 121 SNPs, respectively. In GERAD1, we identified a significant association between a four-SNP intragenic ECE1 haplotype and risk of AD in individuals that carried at least one APOE e4 allele (P = 0.00035, odds ratio = 1.61). In LBC1936, we identified a significant association between a different two-SNP ECE1 intragenic haplotype and non-verbal reasoning in individuals lacking the APOE e4 allele (P = 0.00036, ß = -0.19). Both results showed a trend towards significance after permutation (0.05 <P <0.10). A follow-up cognitive genetic study evaluated the association of ECE1 SNPs in three additional cohorts of non-demented older people. Meta-analysis of the four cohorts identified the significant association (Z <0.05) of SNPs in the ECE-1b promoter with non-verbal reasoning scores, particularly in individuals lacking the APOE e4 allele. Our genetic findings are not wholly consistent. Nonetheless, the AD associated intronic haplotype is linked to the 338A variant of known ECE1b promoter variant, 338C>A (rs213045). We observed significantly less expression from the 338A variant in two human neuroblastoma cell lines and speculate that this promoter may be subject to tissue-specific regulation.

Episodic memory and learning in patients with chronic schizophrenia

This study explored the pattern of memory functioning in 58 patients with chronic schizophrenia and compared their performance with 53 normal controls. Multiple domains of memory were assessed, including verbal and nonverbal memory span, verbal and non-verbal paired associate learning, verbal and visual long-term memory, spatial and non-spatial conditional associative learning, recognition memory and memory for temporal order. Consistent with previous studies, substantial deficits in long-term memory were observed, with relative preservation of memory span. Memory for temporal order and recognition memory was intact, although significant deficits were observed on the conditional associative learning tasks. There was no evidence of lateralized memory impairment. In these respects, the pattern of memory impairment in schizophrenia is more similar in nature to that found in patients with memory dysfunction following mesiotemporal lobe lesions, rather than that associated with focal frontal lobe damage. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Interceptive skills in children aged 9-11 years, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Growing evidence suggests that significant motor problems are associated with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), particularly in catching tasks. Catching is a complex, dynamic skill that involves the ability to synchronise one's own movement to that of a moving target. To successfully complete the task, the participant must pick up and use perceptual information about the moving target to arrive at the catching place at the right time. This study looks at catching ability in children diagnosed with ASD (mean age 10.16 ± 0.9 years) and age-matched non-verbal (9.72 ± 0.79 years) and receptive language (9.51 ± 0.46) control groups. Participants were asked to "catch" a ball as it rolled down a fixed ramp. Two ramp heights provided two levels of task difficulty, whilst the sensory information (audio and visual) specifying ball arrival time was varied. Results showed children with ASD performed significantly worse than both the receptive language (p =.02) and non-verbal (p =.02) control groups in terms of total number of balls caught. A detailed analysis of the movement kinematics showed that difficulties with picking up and using the sensory information to guide the action may be the source of the problem. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Laughter Induction Techniques Suitable for Generating Motion Capture Data of Laughter Associated Body Movements

Laughter is a frequently occurring social signal and an important part of human non-verbal communication. However it is often overlooked as a serious topic of scientific study. While the lack of research in this area is mostly due to laughter’s non-serious nature, it is also a particularly difficult social signal to produce on demand in a convincing manner; thus making it a difficult topic for study in laboratory settings. In this paper we provide some techniques and guidance for inducing both hilarious laughter and conversational laughter. These techniques were devised with the goal of capturing mo- tion information related to laughter while the person laughing was either standing or seated. Comments on the value of each of the techniques and general guidance as to the importance of atmosphere, environment and social setting are provided.

Dorsal and ventral stream mediated visual processing in genetic subtypes of Prader-Willi syndrome

Previous work has suggested that there are specific deficits in dorsal stream processing in a variety of developmental disorders. Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is associated with two main genetic subtypes, deletion and disomy. Relative strengths in visual processing are shown in PWS, although these strengths may be specific to the deletion subtype. We investigated visual processing in PWS using an adapted Simon task which contrasted location (dorsal stream) and shape identity (ventral stream) tasks. Compared to a group of typically developing children, children with PWS deletion showed a greater degree of impairment in the dorsal stream task than in the ventral stream task, a pattern similar to that shown in a group of boys with Fragile-X syndrome. When matched on a measure of non-verbal ability, children with PWS disomy showed the opposite pattern with better performance in the location compared to the shape task, although these task performance asymmetries may have been linked to executive control processes. It is proposed that children with PWS deletion show a relative strength in visual processing in the ventral stream along with a specific deficit in dorsal stream processing. In contrast, children with PWS disomy show neither effect. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Further refinement of the nature of the communication impairment in Cornelia de Lange syndrome

Purpose – Research into the communication skills of individuals with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is extremely limited. This paper aims to evaluate the nature of these skills and impairments in CdLS using a detailed informant assessment of pre-verbal communication skills.
Design/methodology/approach – The study used the Pre-verbal Communication Schedule to evaluate communication skills in individuals with CdLS (n ¼ 14), aged five to14 years. The group was compared with a contrast group of individuals with Cri du Chat syndrome (CdCS; n ¼ 14) who were matched for age and intellectual ability.
Findings – A significant difference was identified in understanding non-vocal communication (p , 0.005), with the CdLS group showing a greater deficit. These findings indicate the presence of a syndrome-specific deficit in understanding non-verbal communication in individuals with CdLS and suggest that there may be a dissociation between the processing of verbal and non-verbal communication.
Originality/value – The findings indicate that, in many ways, these two syndrome groups are not dissimilar in terms of their communication skills. However, individuals with CdLS show a syndrome-specific deficit in understanding non-vocal communication relative to the CdCS group.

Using extended contact to improve physiological responses and behavior toward people with schizophrenia

Extended contact has been shown to improve explicit and implicit attitudes toward a number of outgroups, but not yet toward people with mental health conditions. Using people with schizophrenia as the target group, this experiment is the first to demonstrate that extended contact can reduce explicit prejudice, buffer stress responses to future interactions, improve non-verbal behavior, and improve the quality of interactions in a manner detectable by the target group member. Participants watched a video of a brief, positive interaction between two strangers, one of whom they were led to believe had schizophrenia. Control participants watched the same video without being told that the person had schizophrenia. They then participated in a social interaction with a confederate whom they were led to believe had the disorder. Participants' cardiovascular and electrodermal activity were monitored immediately before the interaction. The interaction was also secretly recorded to allow independent judges to assess the participants' non-verbal behaviors. The confederate also rated the positivity of each interaction. Participants in the extended contact condition reported more positive attitudes toward people with schizophrenia, displayed more positive non-verbal behaviors, and had a more positive interaction with the confederate. Moreover, just prior to the interaction, participants in the extended contact condition displayed smaller anticipatory stress responses, as reflected in smaller changes in interbeat interval and non-specific skin conductance responses during this phase. Together, these findings support the use of the extended contact as an intervention that could lead to genuine changes in attitudes toward and treatment of people with severe mental health disorders.

Communicating musical knowledge through gesture: Piano teachers’ gestural behaviours across different levels of student proficiency

Teachers’ communication of musical knowledge through physical gesture represents a valuable pedagogical field in need of investigation. This exploratory case study compares the gestural behaviour of three piano teachers while giving individual lessons to students who differed according to piano proficiency levels. The data was collected by video recordings of one-to-one piano lessons and gestures were categorized using two gesture classifications: the spontaneous co-verbal gesture classification (McNeill, 1992; 2005) and spontaneous co-musical gesture classification (Simones, Schroeder & Rodger, 2013). Poisson regression analysis and qualitative observation suggest a relationship between teachers’ didactic intentions and the types of gesture they produced while teaching, as shown by differences in gestural category frequency between teaching students of higher and lower levels of proficiency. Such reported agreement between teachers’ gestural approach in relation to student proficiency levels indicates a teachers’ gestural scaffolding approach whereby teachers adapted gestural communicative channels to suit students’ specific conceptual skill levels.

Evidence-based management and intervention for autism spectrum disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is diagnosed along a continuum of behavioural variants in social communication and repetitive behaviours [96]. Most individuals on the autism spectrum also experience differences in sensory perception. Some individuals on the spectrum are ‘high-functioning’ and able to cope in every day environments, while others are severely affected, non-verbal, and may have co-occurring diagnoses, such as intellectual disability, epilepsy, and/or obsessional, conduct, or mental health disorders. These individuals require substantial support, caring and careful management, and evidence-based, effective interventions.

Using Digital Photography and Video in Participant Observation of Contentious Events

In this article, we discuss our experiences of using photography and video while observing contentious parades and protests in Belfast. We show how our use of these methods drew us into a series of unplanned for non-verbal interactions with other event participants who were also freely and abundantly using photographic and filming equipment to capture their own images. This interactive use of photography and video affected us emotionally and influenced what we noticed and what we omitted in our observations. In particular, it forced us to reflect upon and question our role as researchers in the events we observed and in the changing balance of power between researchers and researched.

Mathematics and reading difficulty subtypes: Minor phonological influences on mathematics for 5-7 year olds

Linguistic influences in mathematics have previously been explored throughsubtyping methodology and by taking advantage of the componential nature ofmathematics and variations in language requirements that exist across tasks. Thepresent longitudinal investigation aimed to examine the language requirements of mathematical tasks in young children aged 5-7 years. Initially, 256 children were screened for mathematics and reading difficulties using standardised measures. Those scoring at or below the 35th percentile on either dimension were classified as having difficulty. From this screening, 115 children were allocated to each of the MD (n=26), MDRD (n=32), reading difficulty (RD, n=22) and typically achieving (TA, n=35) subtypes. These children were tested at four time points, separated by six monthly intervals, on a battery of seven mathematical tasks. Growth curve analysis indicated that, in contrast to previous research on older children, young children with MD and MDRD had very similar patterns of development on all mathematical tasks. Overall, the subtype comparisons suggested that language played only a minor mediating role in most tasks, and this was secondary in importance to non-verbal skills. Correlational evidence suggested that children from the different subtypescould have been using different mixes of verbal and non-verbal strategies to solve the mathematical problems.

Parent ratings of child cognition and language compared with Bayley-III in preterm 3-year-olds

Background
Parent ratings on questionnaires may provide valid and cost-effective tools for screening cognitive development of children at risk of developmental delay.

Aims
In this study, we examined the convergent validity of combining parent-based reports of non-verbal cognitive abilities (PARCA3) and verbal abilities (CDI-III) in relation to the Bayley-III cognitive scale in 3-year-olds born late pre-term.

Methods
Mothers of 185 late-preterm children were asked to complete the PARCA3 and the CDI-III shortly before children reached age three; children were then assessed using the Bayley-III close to their third birthday.

Results
The two maternal questionnaires were significantly and moderately correlated with the Bayley-III cognitive scores. Together the maternal ratings accounted for 15% of the variance in the Bayley-III cognitive scores, after controlling for other covariates in regression analysis. In particular, the PARCA3 contributed significantly to explain variance in the Bayley-III cognitive scores when controlling for the CDI-III. However, the CDI-III was also independently associated with the Bayley-III cognitive scores.

Conclusions
Parent ratings of child cognition and language together may provide cost-effective screening of development in “at risk” preschoolers.