bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Switching from reaching to navigation: differential cognitive strategies for spatial memory in children and adults
Authors: Belmonti Vittorio , Cioni Giovanni , Berthoz Alain 
Published: November 2014

AbstractNavigational and reaching spaces are known to involve different cognitive strategies and brain networks, whose development in humans is still debated. In fact, high‐level spatial processing, including allocentric location encoding, is already available to very young children, but navigational strategies are not mature until late childhood. The Magic Carpet (MC) is a new electronic device translating the traditional Corsi Block‐tapping Test (CBT) to navigational space. In this study, the MC and the CBT were used to assess spatial memory for navigation and for reaching, respectively. Our hypothesis was that school‐age children would not treat MC stimuli as navigational paths, assimilating them to reaching sequences. Ninety‐one healthy children aged 6 to 11 years and 18 adults were enrolled. Overall short‐term memory performance (span) on both tests, effects of sequence geometry, and error patterns according to a new classification were studied. Span increased with age on both tests, but relatively more in navigational than in reaching space, particularly in males. Sequence geometry specifically influenced navigation, not reaching. The number of body rotations along the path affected MC performance in children more than in adults, and in women more than in men. Error patterns indicated that navigational sequences were increasingly retained as global paths across development, in contrast to separately stored reaching locations. A sequence of spatial locations can be coded as a navigational path only if a cognitive switch from a reaching mode to a navigation mode occurs. This implies the integration of egocentric and allocentric reference frames, of visual and idiothetic cues, and access to long‐term memory. This switch is not yet fulfilled at school age due to immature executive functions.
Towards a better understanding of the relationship between executive control and theory of mind: an intra‐cultural comparison of three diverse samples
Authors: Shahaeian Ameneh , Henry Julie D. , Razmjoee Maryam , Teymoori Ali , Wang Cen 
Published: November 2014

AbstractPrevious research has consistently indicated that theory of mind (ToM) is associated with executive control in the preschool years. However, interpretation of this literature is limited by the fact that most studies have focused exclusively on urbanized Western cultural samples. Consequently, it is not clear whether the association between ToM and executive control reflects the specific features of this particular cohort or instead reflects a universal pattern. The present study provides the first empirical assessment of these two constructs in three diverse groups of Iranian children. Participants were 142 preschoolers (4–5 years old) from high–socioeconomic status (SES) urban (n = 33), low–SES urban (n = 37) and rural villages (n = 77). The results show that there is a robust association between ToM and executive control in all three groups, and that executive control contributes significant unique variance to ToM understanding, even after controlling for a range of variables that have been proposed as potential confounders of this relationship. However, although the three groups were equated in ToM, significant differences in executive control were evident. Moreover, cluster analysis identified three distinct clusters that were relatively homogeneous with respect to executive control and SES. One of these clusters was characterized by both low SES and low executive functioning, and showed little evidence of ToM understanding. Taken together, these findings provide possibly the clearest evidence to date that the association between ToM and executive control is not dependent on children's previous experiences on the tasks, or their family and cultural background.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxh_-3gCB8o
Mechanisms underlying accent accommodation in early word learning: evidence for general expansion
Authors: Schmale Rachel , Seidl Amanda , Cristia Alejandrina 
Published: November 2014

AbstractPrevious work reveals that toddlers can accommodate a novel accent after hearing it for only a brief period of time. A common assumption is that children, like adults, cope with nonstandard pronunciations by relying on words they know (e.g. ‘this person pronounces sock as sack, therefore by black she meant block’). In this paper, we assess whether toddlers might additionally use a general expansion strategy, whereby they simply accept non‐standard pronunciations when variability is expected. We exposed a group of 24‐month‐old English‐learning toddlers to variability in indexical cues (very diverse voices from native English talkers), and another to variability in social cues (very diverse‐looking silent actors); neither group was familiarized with the target novel accent. At test, both groups succeeded in recognizing a novel word when spoken in the novel accent. Thus, even when no lexical cues are available, variability can prepare young children for non‐standard pronunciations.
Children do not recalibrate motor‐sensory temporal order after exposure to delayed sensory feedback
Authors: Vercillo Tiziana , Burr David , Sandini Giulio , Gori Monica 
Published: November 2014

AbstractProlonged adaptation to delayed sensory feedback to a simple motor act (such as pressing a key) causes recalibration of sensory‐motor synchronization, so instantaneous feedback appears to precede the motor act that caused it (Stetson, Cui, Montague & Eagleman, 2006). We investigated whether similar recalibration occurs in school‐age children. Although plasticity may be expected to be even greater in children than in adults, we found no evidence of recalibration in children aged 8–11 years. Subjects adapted to delayed feedback for 100 trials, intermittently pressing a key that caused a tone to sound after a 200 ms delay. During the test phase, subjects responded to a visual cue by pressing a key, which triggered a tone to be played at variable intervals before or after the keypress. Subjects judged whether the tone preceded or followed the keypress, yielding psychometric functions estimating the delay when they perceived the tone to be synchronous with the action. The psychometric functions also gave an estimate of the precision of the temporal order judgment. In agreement with previous studies, adaptation caused a shift in perceived synchrony in adults, so the keypress appeared to trail behind the auditory feedback, implying sensory‐motor recalibration. However, school children of 8 to 11 years showed no measureable adaptation of perceived simultaneity, even after adaptation with 500 ms lags. Importantly, precision in the simultaneity task also improved with age, and this developmental trend correlated strongly with the magnitude of recalibration. This suggests that lack of recalibration of sensory‐motor simultaneity after adaptation in school‐age children is related to their poor precision in temporal order judgments. To test this idea we measured recalibration in adult subjects with auditory noise added to the stimuli (which hampered temporal precision). Under these conditions, recalibration was greatly reduced, with the magnitude of recalibration strongly correlating with temporal precision.
Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge
Authors: Hendrickson Kristi , Mitsven Samantha , Poulin‐Dubois Diane , Zesiger Pascal , Friend Margaret 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe goal of the current study is to assess the temporal dynamics of vision and action to evaluate the underlying word representations that guide infants' responses. Sixteen‐month‐old infants participated in a two‐alternative forced‐choice word–picture matching task. We conducted a moment‐by‐moment analysis of looking and reaching behaviors as they occurred in tandem to assess the speed with which a prompted word was processed (visual reaction time) as a function of the type of haptic response: Target, Distractor, or No Touch. Visual reaction times (visual RTs) were significantly slower during No Touches compared to Distractor and Target Touches, which were statistically indistinguishable. The finding that visual RTs were significantly faster during Distractor Touches compared to No Touches suggests that incorrect and absent haptic responses appear to index distinct knowledge states: incorrect responses are associated with partial knowledge whereas absent responses appear to reflect a true failure to map lexical items to their target referents. Further, we found that those children who were faster at processing words were also those children who exhibited better haptic performance. This research provides a methodological clarification on knowledge measured by the visual and haptic modalities and new evidence for a continuum of word knowledge in the second year of life.
Active vision in passive locomotion: real‐world free viewing in infants and adults
Authors: Kretch Kari S. , Adolph Karen E. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractVisual exploration in infants and adults has been studied using two very different paradigms: free viewing of flat screen displays in desk‐mounted eye‐tracking studies and real‐world visual guidance of action in head‐mounted eye‐tracking studies. To test whether classic findings from screen‐based studies generalize to real‐world visual exploration and to compare natural visual exploration in infants and adults, we tested observers in a new paradigm that combines critical aspects of both previous techniques: free viewing during real‐world visual exploration. Mothers and their 9‐month‐old infants wore head‐mounted eye trackers while mothers carried their infants in a forward‐facing infant carrier through a series of indoor hallways. Demands for visual guidance of action were minimal in mothers and absent for infants, so both engaged in free viewing while moving through the environment. Similar to screen‐based studies, during free viewing in the real world low‐level saliency was related to gaze direction. In contrast to screen‐based studies, only infants – not adults – were biased to look at people, participants of both ages did not show a classic center bias, and mothers and infants did not display high levels of inter‐observer consistency. Results indicate that several aspects of visual exploration of a flat screen display do not generalize to visual exploration in the real world.
The lasting effects of process‐specific versus stimulus‐specific learning during infancy
Authors: Hadley Hillary , Pickron Charisse B. , Scott Lisa S. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe capacity to tell the difference between two faces within an infrequently experienced face group (e.g. other species, other race) declines from 6 to 9 months of age unless infants learn to match these faces with individual‐level names. Similarly, the use of individual‐level labels can also facilitate differentiation of a group of non‐face objects (strollers). This early learning leads to increased neural specialization for previously unfamiliar face or object groups. The current investigation aimed to determine whether early conceptual learning between 6 and 9 months leads to sustained behavioral advantages and neural changes in these same children at 4–6 years of age. Results suggest that relative to a control group of children with no previous training and to children with infant category‐level naming experience, children with early individual‐level training exhibited faster response times to human faces. Further, individual‐level training with a face group – but not an object group – led to more adult‐like neural responses for human faces. These results suggest that early individual‐level learning results in long‐lasting process‐specific effects, which benefit categories that continue to be perceived and recognized at the individual level (e.g. human faces).
The effects of early foster care intervention on attention biases in previously institutionalized children in Romania
Authors: Troller‐Renfree Sonya , McDermott Jennifer Martin , Nelson Charles A. , Zeanah Charles H. , Fox Nathan A. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractChildren raised in institutions experience psychosocial deprivation that can negatively impact attention skills and emotion regulation, which subsequently may influence behavioral regulation and social relationships. The current study examined visual attention biases in 8‐year‐old children who were part of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). Relations among attention biases and concurrent social outcomes were also investigated. In early childhood, 136 children abandoned at birth or shortly thereafter into institutional care were randomized to receive a high‐quality foster care intervention or care‐as‐usual within the context of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). At 8 years of age, 50 care‐as‐usual, 55 foster care, and 52 community controls performed a behavioral dot‐probe task, and indices of attention biases to threat and positive stimuli were calculated. Concurrent data on social behavior were collected. Children placed into the foster care intervention had a significant attention bias toward positive stimuli, while children who received care‐as‐usual had a significant bias toward threat. Children in the foster care intervention had a significantly larger positive bias when compared to the care‐as‐usual group. A positive bias was related to more social engagement, more prosocial behavior, less externalizing disorders, and less emotionally withdrawn behavior. The magnitude of positive bias was predicted by age of placement into foster care among children with a history of institutionalization. An attention bias towards positive stimuli was associated with reduced risk for behavioral problems amongst children who experienced early psychosocial deprivation. Research assessing attention biases in children experiencing early environmental stress may refine our understanding of the mechanisms underlying risk for later psychiatric and social disorders and inform prevention efforts.
The neural correlates of emotion processing in juvenile offenders
Authors: Pincham Hannah L. , Bryce Donna , Pasco Fearon R.M. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractIndividuals with severe antisocial behaviour often demonstrate abnormalities or difficulties in emotion processing. Antisocial behaviour typically onsets before adulthood and is reflected in antisocial individuals at the biological level. We therefore conducted a brain‐based study of emotion processing in juvenile offenders. Male adolescent offenders and age‐matched non‐offenders passively viewed emotional images whilst their brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography. The early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP) components were used as indices of emotion processing. For both juvenile offenders and non‐offenders, the EPN differentiated unpleasant images from other image types, suggesting that early perceptual processing was not impaired in the offender group. In line with normal emotion processing, the LPP was significantly enhanced following unpleasant images for non‐offenders. However, for juvenile offenders, the LPP did not differ across image categories, indicative of deficient emotional processing. The findings indicated that this brain‐based hypo‐reactivity occurred during a late stage of cognitive processing and was not a consequence of atypical early visual attention or perception. This study is the first to show attenuated emotion processing in juvenile offenders at the neural level. Overall, these results have the potential to inform interventions for juvenile offending.
Spatial estimation: a non‐Bayesian alternative
Authors: Barth Hilary , Lesser Ellen , Taggart Jessica , Slusser Emily 
Published: November 2014

AbstractA large collection of estimation phenomena (e.g. biases arising when adults or children estimate remembered locations of objects in bounded spaces; Huttenlocher, Newcombe & Sandberg, 1994) are commonly explained in terms of complex Bayesian models. We provide evidence that some of these phenomena may be modeled instead by a simpler non‐Bayesian alternative. Undergraduates and 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds completed a speeded linear position estimation task. Bias in both groups’ estimates could be explained in terms of a simple psychophysical model of proportion estimation. Moreover, some individual data were not compatible with the requirements of the more complex Bayesian model.
Infants' use of social partnerships to predict behavior
Authors: Rhodes Marjorie , Hetherington Chelsea , Brink Kimberly , Wellman Henry M. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractThe experiences of social partners are important motivators of social action. Can infants use such experiences to make predictions about how social agents will behave? Sixteen‐month‐old infants were introduced to two social pairs. Initial events established within‐pair cooperation as well as between‐pair conflict involving an individual from each pair. Following these events, infants looked longer when between‐pair members who had never previously interacted now cooperated – instead of conflicted – with each other. Thus, infants tracked the third‐person allegiances and inferred that the conflict would generalize across social partnerships. These findings demonstrate a critical feature of early social cognition and promote needed, further research on the role of social allegiances in social cognition across development.
Endogenous sex steroid hormones and glucose in a South‐Asian population without diabetes: the Metabolic Syndrome and Atherosclerosis in South‐Asians Living in America pilot study
Authors: Needham B. L. , Kim C. , Mukherjee B. , Bagchi P. , Stanczyk F. Z. , Kanaya A. M. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractAimsTo examine the associations between endogenous sex steroid hormones (oestradiol, testosterone and sex hormone‐binding globulin) with diabetes risk in a South‐Asian population living in the USA.MethodsWe used data from the Metabolic Syndrome and Atherosclerosis in South‐Asians Living in America pilot study. The analytical sample included 60 women and 45 men of Asian Indian origin living in the San Francisco Bay Area, who were free from diabetes and cardiovascular disease and did not use exogenous sex steroids. Sex steroid hormone levels were assessed by validated conventional radioimmunoassays, and visceral and hepatic adiposity were assessed by computed tomography. We used multivariable regression to examine the association between endogenous sex steroid hormone levels (log‐transformed) and fasting glucose and 2‐h glucose levels in a series of sex‐stratified models adjusted for age, waist circumference, visceral and hepatic adiposity, and insulin resistance.ResultsIn age‐adjusted models, lower levels of sex hormone‐binding globulin (β = −0.18, 95% CI −0.30, −0.06) and higher levels of free testosterone (β = 0.14, 95% CI 0.02, 0.26) were associated with elevated fasting glucose levels in South‐Asian women, whereas lower levels of sex hormone‐binding globulin (β = −0.14, 95% CI −0.26, −0.02) and lower levels of total testosterone (β = −0.12, 95% CI −0.24, 0.00) were associated with elevated fasting glucose levels in South‐Asian men. Adjustment for waist circumference, visceral adiposity and insulin resistance attenuated most of these associations, while adjustment for hepatic adiposity strengthened some of the observed associations. Similar results were found for 2‐h glucose levels.ConclusionsResults were consistent with previous research, which suggests that endogenous sex steroid hormones are a risk factor for diabetes across multiple race/ethnic groups. Additional studies are needed to determine whether visceral fat is a mediator or confounder of associations between sex steroid hormone and glucose levels.
Low transferrin saturation is associated with impaired fasting glucose and insulin resistance in the South Korean adults: the 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Authors: Park R. J. , Moon J. D. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractAimsThe associations of transferrin saturation with diabetes have not been well evaluated and conflicting results have been reported. The purpose of this study is to examine the association of iron indices (serum ferritin and transferrin saturation) with risk of impaired fasting glucose and insulin resistance.MethodsWe conducted a cross‐sectional study in 2413 individuals (1150 men and 1263 women) aged 20–50 years who participated in the 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were free of diabetes, malignancy, liver cirrhosis, chronic renal failure, anaemia, pregnancy and menopause. Fasting plasma glucose, insulin and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA–IR) were measured as the outcomes.ResultsImpaired fasting glucose was more prevalent in the highest compared with the lowest serum ferritin quartile among men (odds ratio [OR], 1.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20–3.24) after adjustment for multiple covariates. Following the same adjustment, impaired fasting glucose was less prevalent in the highest compared with the lowest transferrin saturation quartile among men (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.25–0.80) and women (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.14–0.77). Moreover, a higher ferritin level was significantly associated with higher HOMA–IR after adjusting for confounders in men. Lower transferrin saturation was also significantly associated with higher insulin levels and HOMA–IR in both sexes.ConclusionsLower transferrin saturations were associated with an increased risk of impaired fasting glucose and insulin resistance among general South Korean population.
Diabetes mellitus and comorbid depression in Zambia
Authors: Hapunda G. , Abubakar A. , Pouwer F. , van de Vijver F. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractAimsTo replicate, in Zambia, a recent global study by the WHO, which reported that the odds of depression were not increased in African people with diabetes, and to explore the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with depression.MethodsA total of 773 control subjects and 157 Zambian patients with diabetes completed the Major Depression Inventory and a list of demographic indicators.ResultsCompared with control subjects (mean ± sd Major Depression Inventory score 15.10 ± 9.19), depressive symptoms were significantly more common in patients with diabetes (mean ± sd Major Depression Inventory score 19.12 ± 8.95; P < 0.001). ancova showed that having diabetes [F(1,698) = 16.50, P < 0.001], being female [F(1,698) = 7.35, P < 0.01] and having low socio‐economic status (F(1,698) = 13.35, P < 0.001) were positive predictors of depression.ConclusionsContrary to the WHO study, we found that depression was a common comorbid health problem among Zambian people with diabetes. Clinicians should consider patients' health status, sex and socio‐economic status as potential factors predicting depression.