Autism: New Theory Explains Face Recognition Barriers

Face recognition is something that people have difficulty with. For people with autism, the process of face recognition is much harder.

A popular theory states that the difficulty in facial recognition starts from childhood.

Children with autism are likely to avoid encountering different faces during childhood, which harms the development of the brain area for processing faces.

Darren Hedley, a PhD graduate from Flinders University proposes another theory that could explain this situation.

According to Hedley, people with autism might have an early or unconscious memory of faces and the problem is the way they process the information in their later years.

"People with autism have difficulty recognising peoples' faces and that's believed to contribute to social impairments such as understanding emotion and the thoughts and feelings of others, which is a characteristic of autism," Hedley said.

"But we think that part of the facial recognition deficit in autism may be because of difficulties with complex information processing, which may affect the person's ability to combine and process all that incoming sensory information and to then make an accurate response," he said.

During his doctoral studies, Hedley performed a series of "eye-tracking" tests on adults with autism to determine their conscious and subconscious reaction to new and familiar faces.

Hedley said the findings indicated that people with autism may have "dissociation between implicit processing and explicit face recognition", as opposed to an early memory deficit.

"It's not so much the face isn't recognised by the brain but there's a problem in them being able to then use that information to say 'I recognise this person'."

In addition to his PhD research, Hedley has been involved in a cross-cultural partnership to evaluate the effectiveness of an early detection tool for children with autism that was developed at Flinders University and tried out in Mexico from 2004 to 2008.

A paper on the Autism Detection in Early Childhood assessment tool was recently selected as a winner of Flinders inaugural Best Student Paper Award, which aims to recognise excellence in student research across the University.

Cartoon for a Saturday Afternoon

Study finds child abuse and stunted brain development connection

A small team of researchers has found that various forms of child abuse can lead to stunted development in certain regions of the brain. The research carried out by Martin Teicher, Carl Anderson and Ann Polcari, all working in the Boston area, relied on questionnaires.

MRI brain scans were used to determine that certain parts of the hippocampus, all known to be sensitive to stress, were up to six percent smaller in adults who as children had been sexually, verbally or physically abused. The team has published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The three areas affected: the cornu ammonis, the dentate gyrus and the subiculum, all located in the hippocampus, are known to be vulnerable to stress which leads to less cell development than would normally occur in the absence of abuse.

To test the relationship between brain development and childhood abuse, the research team enlisted a group of otherwise healthy adult volunteers: 73 men and 120 women, all between the ages of 18 and 25.

All were given questionnaires that delved into their childhood, specifically addressing issues of verbal, mental and physical abuse and other types of stresses such as the death of someone close to them or problems between parents.

All were also given brain scans using an MRI machine. The team then compared the answers given on the questionnaires to the possibly impacted areas in the hippocampus of each volunteer. In so doing, they found that the brain regions under study were 5.8 to 6.5 percent smaller than average for those that reported such childhood stresses.

The researchers suggest that smaller brain regions due to childhood stress may help explain the abnormally high levels of mental illness (depression, bi-polarism, anxiety, etc.) seen in adults who have endured abuse as children and why so many wind up with drug dependency problems.

They also noted that one of the regions impacted, the subiculum, serves as a relay, moving information in and out of the hippocampus, which can have a direct impact on dopamine production. Those with reduced volume have been found to have problems with drug addiction and in some cases develop schizophrenia.

The researchers believe that increased stress leads to higher levels of the hormone cortisol, which in turn can slow or even stop the growth of new neurons in the brain which can result in permanently stunting certain brain regions.

The researchers are hoping their results will further highlight the damage that is done when children are subjected to adverse living conditions, leading perhaps to earlier interventions and possibly a means for developing treatments that may aid in preventing the stunting of brain regions, thus helping to pave the way for a better quality of life for those that have been abused as children.

More information: Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced volume in the hippocampal subfields CA3, dentate gyrus, and subiculum, PNAS, Published online before print February 13, 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1115396109

Abstract
Childhood maltreatment or abuse is a major risk factor for mood, anxiety, substance abuse, psychotic, and personality disorders, and it is associated with reduced adult hippocampal volume, particularly on the left side.

Translational studies show that the key consequences of stress exposure on the hippocampus are suppression of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) and dendritic remodeling in the cornu ammonis (CA), particularly the CA3 subfield.

The hypothesis that maltreatment is associated with volume reductions in 3-T MRI subfields containing the DG and CA3 was assessed and made practical by newly released automatic segmentation routines for FreeSurfer.

The sample consisted of 193 unmedicated right-handed subjects (38% male, 21.9 ± 2.1 y of age) selected from the community.

Maltreatment was quantified using the Adverse Childhood Experience study and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire scores.

The strongest associations between maltreatment and volume were observed in the left CA2-CA3 and CA4-DG subfields, and were not mediated by histories of major depression or posttraumatic stress disorder.

Comparing subjects with high vs. low scores on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and Adverse Childhood Experience study showed an average volume reduction of 6.3% and 6.1% in the left CA2-CA3 and CA4-DG, respectively.

Volume reductions in the CA1 and fimbria were 44% and 60% smaller than in the CA2-CA3. Interestingly, maltreatment was associated with 4.2% and 4.3% reductions in the left presubiculum and subiculum, respectively.

These findings support the hypothesis that exposure to early stress in humans, as in other animals, affects hippocampal subfield development.

Sleep Standards are Slipping

Kids never got enough shuteye, even back in grandpa's day.

That's according to a century's worth of expert advice and sleep studies, which a team of researchers has now distilled into a brief report in the journal Pediatrics.

"There is a common belief that children are not getting enough sleep and that children's total sleep time has been declining," Lisa Anne Matricciani of the University of South Australia in Adelaide and colleagues write.

And while it's true that kids aren't getting as much sack time now as they were in the late 1800s, that doesn't mean experts weren't worried back then, too.

In fact, as the Australian researchers combed through older and older literature, the recommended sleep time was always a good half-hour higher than what kids, or their parents, said they got.

"No matter how much sleep children are getting, it has always been assumed that they need more," the team says.

So why are the standards slipping?

According to Matricciani and company, there just isn't any good science on which to base recommendations. They went through 32 sets of sleep advice, and only one provided any reasoning for its guidance: the actual sleep of 500 healthy kids.

Today, the National Institutes of Health (NIH US) says adults commonly need between eight and eight and a half hours of sleep, whereas newborns should get 16 to 18 hours a day.

Children fall in between, with preschoolers needing 11 to 12 hours of slumber and older kids and adolescents 10 hours.

Those standards are based on how long people sleep when they're not interrupted but one expert reported that there is still little ironclad science behind the numbers.

"We need to do due diligence and do the nitty-gritty effort of measuring sleep in a large group of the population to find out what's normal," said Dr. David Gozal, an expert in childhood sleep problems at the University of Chicago. "That has never been done."

He went on, "If you don't know what's normal because you haven't measured it, then your recommendations are going to reflect what you believe is normal, although that's not necessarily correct."

That also explains why expert recommendations have been shifting downward over time, Gozal said, because physicians are influenced by changing societal expectations the same as everybody else.

"It only reflects the nature of our parental expectations," mused Gozal.

Based on 218 articles that contained self- or parent-reported sleep for children, the Australian researchers estimate that kids' actual sleep duration fell by 73 minutes over a century.

By comparison, recommended sleep times dropped by 71 minutes, but remained 37 minutes above the estimates of real sleep.

Like other researchers, Gozal blames our shorter nights on the accelerated pace of modern society with its 24-7 demands on parents and kids alike.

"The concern that kids aren't sleeping enough is real," he said. "More than 80 percent of parents need to wake up their kids, indicating that their kids don't get enough sleep."

Although it's next to impossible to prove conclusively that diminished shuteye is taking a toll on our health, several studies have linked it to a plethora of ailments, from obesity in American kids to attention problems in Korean high school students to heart disease around the globe.

"We are in fact reducing the amount of sleep as a society, and that is translating, at least in my mind, to an increased risk of many diseases," said Gozal.

So how do you know when your kid has had enough sleep?

"You will know that your child is sleeping enough if they wake up on their own rather than being awoken," Gozal advised. "If they don't get up on time, make them go to bed earlier."

SOURCE: bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online February 13, 2012.

For more good advice and support on how to solve children's sleep issues visit www.dream-angus.com

Vodafone 155 Targets Senior UK Citizens with Physical Disabilities

Vodafone has released a new phone for senior citizens in the UK called "Vodafone 155". The device is a basic phone and has been specially designed for elderly people with physical disabilities such as limited dexterity, vision or hearing impairments.

It has been priced at £25.

The phone offers user-friendly features such as speed-dialling and listening to recorded calls besides automated texting capabiities through the SOS button. The emergency button (or the panic button) is a trigger that sends calls or messages to pre-designated numbers stored on the phone.

The phone also ports a built-in alert sound to alarm neighbours in case of emergency. Apart from being significantly more affordable than most other phones aimed at senior citizen, it stands out with an oversized keypad with big buttons and large display fonts alongside support for hearing aids, high volume ring tones and noise cancellation technology. It also adds a sliding keylock on its side to prevent accidental pocket dialling.

The display is perhaps a little too small at 1.7-inches with a lowly resolution of 128x160 pixels; however, this, it must be remembered, is a basic phone meant for the visually impaired.

However, the phone does boast of a powerful battery rated to last up to 29 days in standby mode and offers up to 10 hours of talk time.

The phone is available for purchase at all Vodafone stores, under a Pay As You Go (PAYG) scheme. In addition, Vodafone can also import data and contacts from other handsets, free of cost.

Baby knows best: Baby-led weaning promotes healthy food preferences

A new study by psychologists has shown that babies who are weaned using solid finger food are more likely to develop healthier food preferences and are less likely to become overweight as children than those who are spoon-fed pureed food. (Credit: © Anna Omelchenko / Fotolia)

A new study by psychologists at The University of Nottingham has shown that babies who are weaned using solid finger food are more likely to develop healthier food preferences and are less likely to become overweight as children than those who are spoon-fed pureed food.

The research just published by BMJ Open set out to examine the impact of weaning style on food preferences and Body Mass Index in early childhood in a sample of 155 children.

Co-author of the study, Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, Dr Ellen Townsend, said: "Although numerous studies have focused on when to introduce solid foods into an infant's diet there is a dearth of evidence concerning the impact of different weaning methods on food preferences and health prospects.

We believe our report is the first piece of research to examine whether weaning method can influence food preferences and the future health of the child."

Co-researcher Dr Nicola Pitchford, added: "Our study has produced some very interesting findings. The research suggests that baby-led weaning has a positive impact on the liking of foods that form the building blocks of healthy nutrition, such as carbohydrates.

Baby-led weaning promotes healthy food preferences in early childhood which may protect against obesity."

The researchers enlisted the Nottingham Toddler Lab, based in the School of Psychology, and various relevant websites to recruit parent volunteers for the study.

They all had children between the ages of 20 months and 6½ years and agreed to complete a questionnaire about their experiences of infant feeding and weaning style. 92 parents used baby-led weaning in which the baby is allowed to feed him or herself from a range of solid finger food after the age of 6 months.

63 parents surveyed used traditional spoon-feeding in which they fed their babies smooth purees and increased the texture and range of foods as they grew.

The study also examined the child's preference for 151 different types of food in the common food categories of carbohydrates, proteins and dairy etc. It also took into account the frequency of consumption of each food type and the effect of age on food preference.

Between the two weaning groups, significant differences in preference were found for only one food category -- the baby-led group liked carbohydrates more than the spoon-fed group.

In fact, carbohydrates was the most liked food category for the baby-led group whereas sweet foods was most liked by the spoon-fed group.

The psychologists believe that understanding the factors that contribute to healthy nutrition in early childhood is crucial as this could be the best time to modify food preferences to encourage healthy diets.

The findings show that baby-led weaning has a positive impact on the liking of carbohydrates -- foods that form the building blocks of healthy nutrition. This is a significant result since, up to now, the factors thought to be most influential on early food preferences are sweetness and frequency of exposure.

It was found that children's preference and rate of exposure to foods were not influenced by socially desirable responding, i.e. parents putting down what they think they should report, or socio-economic status, although an increased liking of vegetables was associated with higher social class.

There was an increased incidence of underweight children in the baby-led group and higher obesity rates in the spoon-fed group. But, no difference in picky eating was found between the two weaning groups.

The research project concludes that weaning style does have an impact on food preferences and health in early childhood.

The results suggest that infants weaned through the baby-led method learn to regulate their food intake in a way which leads to a lower BMI and a preference for healthy foods like carbohydrates.

The research team believe their work has important implications for combating the well-documented rise of obesity in contemporary society.

The full report 'Baby knows best? The impact of weaning style on food preferences and Body Mass Index in early childhood in a case-controlled sample' can be found at bmjopen.bmj.com

New changes to GCSE 'will penalise dyslexic pupils'

Ministers have been accused of discriminating against dyslexic pupils by announcing plans to award 5% of marks in GCSE exams for spelling, punctuation and grammar as part of a drive to improve communication skills.

Dyslexia experts, educationists and teachers' unions say the new rules on marking, announced by the Department for Education last month, will penalise hundreds of thousands with a genuine spelling disability and make it more difficult for them to reach target grades.

At the same time dyslexia groups have reported mounting disquiet and confusion among parents and pupils, who are concerned at the lack of trained staff available in schools who can help them overcome their disadvantage and guide them on how to gain extra time, or other assistance, in exams.

In a white paper in 2010, the DfE expressed the government's determination to better equip young people for the jobs market by placing a greater emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar in GCSE marking.

It stated: "When young people compete for jobs and enter the workplace, they will be expected to communicate precisely and effectively so we think that changes in the last decade to remove the separate assessment of spelling, punctuation and grammar from GCSE mark schemes were a mistake.

"We have asked OfQual [the Office of Examinations and Qualifications Regulation] to advise on how mark schemes could take greater account of the importance of spelling, punctuation and grammar for examinations in all subjects."

Last month, OfQual announced that for GCSE courses beginning in September, 5% of marks would be awarded for performance in spelling, punctuation and grammar in English literature, geography, history and religious studies.

A spokesman for OfQual confirmed there would be no special exemptions from the marking regime for dyslexic pupils.

However, as was the case previously, a pupil with a statement of special educational needs can gain up to 25% of extra time in exams.

This can also be made available for a pupil with an evidence-backed recommendation from a suitably qualified teacher or psychologist. But the process of attaining extra time is difficult for many pupils and parents, particularly when expert help is not on hand in schools.

One headteacher of a large state comprehensive school said the change would mean that a pupil who had shown a good knowledge and understanding of, for example, history – but who had spelling problems due to dyslexia – could well end up with a worse grade than a good speller who had done less well on the history questions.

Dr Kate Saunders, chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association, said: "We are greatly concerned that these changes may penalise dyslexic individuals. We feel that it is discrimination.

Dyslexic candidates are not seeking advantage but merely a level playing field in order to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Our continuous efforts to improve conditions have now regressed."

In 2009 the then Labour government announced a £10m package to train 4,000 specialist dyslexia teachers over the following two years after a review of services for children with the learning difficulty, published by the education expert Sir Jim Rose.

The BDA says that many of these specially trained teachers are now being made redundant. It has also had its government funding of £107,000 a year for a helpline withdrawn.

Read more of this article here in the Observer

Dyslexia: There is an upside

THE word “dyslexia” evokes painful struggles with reading, and indeed this learning disability causes much difficulty for the estimated 15 percent of Americans affected by it.

Since the phenomenon of “word blindness” was first documented more than a century ago, scientists have searched for the causes of dyslexia, and for therapies to treat it. In recent years, however, dyslexia research has taken a surprising turn: identifying the ways in which people with dyslexia have skills that are superior to those of typical readers.

The latest findings on dyslexia are leading to a new way of looking at the condition: not just as an impediment, but as an advantage, especially in certain artistic and scientific fields.

Tucker Nichols

Dyslexia is a complex disorder, and there is much that is still not understood about it. 

But a series of ingenious experiments have shown that many people with dyslexia possess distinctive perceptual abilities. 

For example, scientists have produced a growing body of evidence that people with the condition have sharper peripheral vision than others. 

Gadi Geiger and Jerome Lettvin, cognitive scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), used a mechanical shutter, called a tachistoscope, to briefly flash a row of letters extending from the center of a subject’s field of vision out to its perimeter. 

Typical readers identified the letters in the middle of the row with greater accuracy. 

Those with dyslexia triumphed, however, when asked to identify letters located in the row’s outer reaches.

The discovery of such talents inevitably raises questions about whether these faculties translate into real-life skills.

Although people with dyslexia are found in every profession, including law, medicine and science, observers have long noted that they populate fields like art and design in unusually high numbers.

Five years ago, the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity was founded to investigate and illuminate the strengths of those with dyslexia, while the seven-year-old Laboratory for Visual Learning, located within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is exploring the advantages conferred by dyslexia in visually intensive branches of science.

The director of the laboratory, the astrophysicist Matthew Schneps, notes that scientists in his line of work must make sense of enormous quantities of visual data and accurately detect patterns that signal the presence of entities like black holes. 

A pair of experiments conducted by Mr. Schneps and his colleagues, published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society in 2011, suggests that dyslexia may enhance the ability to carry out such tasks.

Read more of this article here at NY Times

TED Dimitri Christakis - Media and Children - YouTube

Young children who have early exposure to television are more likely to develop an increased risk of behavioural and learning problems, according to a recent study.

The research, led by Dr Dimitri Christakis, paediatrician and director of the Seattle Children's Research Institute's Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, has found that too much time spent viewing rapid screen images and sounds can make real-time activities seem boring, causing attention problems when children enter the classroom.

"Parents are surprisingly poorly informed about this and in our studies we're working hard to educate them. Parents need to know TV and other media have real and powerful effects on their kids," Christakis said.

He compared the ages of children's exposure to television and discovered that the average age for a child in the 1970s was four years old. Today, it is four months.

Teaching Number Bonds

Number bonds.
An extract from the SJBWriting blog:
 
"We all use them in our adult life without even realising it. When adding up items in our basket at the supermarket, we know that 3p and 7p is 10p, and that 2x 50p is £1.

When we buy something for £5.60 at the market and hand over a £10 note, we know that £5.60 + 40p is £6 and another £4 makes £10, so we know to expect £4.60 change.

Knowing our number bonds is extremely useful, but a lot of children struggle to learn them.

Over the years I have successfully taught many children how to remember their number bonds. As with times tables, the key is to find multi-sensory ways to teach, and to make practising fun.

Some children respond very well to visual clues, and to help these I use colour sticks.

These are strips marked out in 10 sections and coloured in contrasting colours, so that children can see clearly that 2 red squares plus 8 green squares equals 10 squares altogether, and that 8 green squares plus 2 red squares also equals 10 squares altogether.

They are small enough to hold in the hand, and I tend to use them in conjunction with other methods. The children I tutor find them really useful to refer to during games.

Snap and pelmanism are always popular games, and I have made two sets of cards for this. The first set is colour-coded, so when the children turn the cards over there is a visual clue as to whether the two cards add up to 10.

When they turn over the first card, I encourage them to work out what number they need to find to make 10.

When the children are a little more confident I switch to the black and white ones to remove the visual clue, but we still play the same games to keep some familiarity."

If you find this interesting and want to read more of this article, go to SJBWriting