Timing of parents’ concerns related to autism spectrum disorder and its diagnosis: A mediation analysis

Parents are the first to indicate concerns about their child’s development in up to 80% of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). They often notice symptoms related to ASD around the first two years, but the average age of diagnosis is 3.5 years old. This study examined the relationships between parents’ early concerns and the time lag between suspicion and diagnosis. Forty-eight Spanish-speaking families were enrolled in this study. Parents were asked about early signs that made them think that their child could possibly have ASD. Mediation analyses showed that the child’s age at suspicion mediated between sibling status and the time lag between suspicion and a formal diagnosis. Having another child with typical development accelerated parents’ detection of ASD signs. The number of social-communication concerns that parents detected mediated this relationship. Parents who reported more social-communication concerns perceived these signs earlier, but have to cope with a longer time lag until diagnosis than those who reported more concerns related to restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests, or other developmental concerns. Moreover, this relationship between concerns of ASD and the diagnoses was explained by the child’s age. Training pediatricians on how to respond to parent questions and concerns could reduce the time lag between parents’ concerns and diagnosis of ASD

The Mediating Role of Physical Activity and Dietary Behavior in the Relationship between Family Affluence and Mental Well-being: an Interventional Effects Approach

We investigate the relationship between family affluence, an indicator of socio-economic status, and the mental well-being of approximately 20,000 children and young adults in Flanders, using data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. To understand this relationship, we assess the mediating roles of physical activity and dietary behavior. Traditional mediation analysis approaches, such as the parallel mediation model within the Baron and Kenny framework, have been criticized for producing path-specific effects that lack clear causal interpretation. In contrast, the counterfactual framework for causal inference introduced natural direct and indirect effects, enhancing clarity around the assumptions required for effect identification. However, natural effects face practical limitations: they may provide limited insights into real-world interventions and are difficult to identify when multiple mediators share unmeasured common causes or when the causal structure is unclear. In this paper, we address these challenges using interventional direct and indirect effects, which require fewer assumptions for identification and offer greater relevance for policy interventions. Our analysis demonstrates robust evidence for the mediating role of physical activity in the association between family affluence and mental well-being. In contrast, the mediating role of dietary behavior is less substantiated. These findings indicate that interventions aimed at enhancing physical activity among children and young adolescents with low socio-economic status could potentially improve their mental well-being

PRINCIPLES OF COGNITIVE SYSTEM PRESUMED WITHIN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RATIONAL THINKING

Numerous psychological models of the rationality of human thinking have been developed since the middle of the last century within the line of research known as the heuristics and biases approach, descriptive theory of rationality or decision-making, complex cognition, or the psychology of rational thinking. The focal processes or phenomena are reasoning, decision-making, judging, and inferencing. Families of models revolve around the formal (cumulative) prospect theory, the cognitivist fuzzy trace theory, ecological rationality, and dual process theories. Regarding complex cognitive processing, there is a limited set of principles that researchers in the psychology of rationality implicitly, and sometimes uncritically, attribute to the human cognitive system. These principles may be called “boundary conditions” of the validity of psychological rationality theories, meaning that all psychological models of rational thinking, including currently dominant dual process theories, belong to a set constrained by the postulated qualities of the cognitive system's architecture. Those principles that have not yet been explicitly stated in the literature are as follows: cognitive miserliness, cognitive processing dependence on the environment, knowledge structures, probabilism, and the challenge of individual differences. The paper presents the mentioned principles and their historical antecedents and a proposal for future research questions based on such a juxtaposition

De(Super)humanization as a Function of Deviation from Prototypical Humanness

A cognitive model of de(super)humanization is proposed advocating that de(super)humanization may be a product of individuals’ perceptions of social targets as deviating from prototypical humanness (DPH) drawn from people’s social experiences which entails moderately high levels of warmth (i.e., friendliness and morality) and capability (i.e., various human capabilities). As social targets moving farer away from the center of the two-dimensional space representing prototypical humanness, they may be de(super)humanized according to the magnitude and direction of the deviation. Whereas a deviation within a certain range may not be seen as a sign of de(super)humanization, a substantial deviation may suggest subtle or even blatant de(super)humanization. Although not without limitations, the DPH model of de(super)humanization offers a new perspective to examine de(super)humanization and tackles some questions that remained unsolved in previous theoretical frameworks of dehumanization. Viable measures to capture de(super)humanization and future directions to advance the line of research on de(super)humanization are suggested

Neonatal Brain Striatal Tissue Iron Deposition in Congenital Heart Disease: The Effect of Early Life and Surgery on Development

Infants with congenital heart disease are now frequently surviving into adulthood but experience poor neurodevelopmental outcomes, including reduced cognitive and executive functioning. There is a critical need to link brain development to modifiable disease characteristics so we can offer intervention when the brain is most plastic. Brain dysmaturation in CHD is frequently experienced and likely impacted by the iron deficiency CHD infants experience from their disordered blood flow. Iron deficiency is significant for cognitive and executive function because striatal iron stores are needed for dopamine synthesis. Here we assess, with MRI, how striatal iron in CHD is different than in controls and how iron is impacted or related to various clinical characteristics. We find CHD participants had less iron than controls, indicating iron deficiency impacts deposition. Single ventricle infants had even less than other CHD participants post operatively. Within the CHD group, increased iron, through iron recycling, can also be indicative of cell death from hypoxia or ischemia. We find additional evidence for this relationship, where increased iron was related to poor APGAR scores pre-surgery. Iron supplantation is a promising intervention to optimize cognitive and executive function in CHD

The effects of contextual diversity on lexical processing: A scoping review

Research into the effects of contextual diversity on lexical processing has flourished in the past 20 years, encompassing diverse tasks, populations, and languages, and underpinning influential theories of word learning (Nation, 2017). This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the field. Eighty-six articles (145 experiments) met our preregistered inclusion criteria, comprising three distinct experiment types; behavioural studies (N=111), computational modelling studies (N=20), and corpus validations (N=14). Across these experiments, the terminology used to refer to different diversity metrics has been applied inconsistently and somewhat arbitrarily. Behavioural studies have largely focused on word form processing (i.e., lexical decision tasks), showing consistent processing benefits for high-diversity words, regardless of the metric used. Effects of diversity on word-meaning processing were more mixed. We also review findings from a wide range of other tasks that are often overlooked (e.g., recognition memory). Computational modelling studies suggest that metrics that quantify the distinctiveness of contexts in which words are used better predict behaviour than metrics that simply count those contexts. Performance of these metrics is further improved by accounting for social patterns of language use across individuals or topics. Corpus validations show that diversity effects are consistent across languages. This review confirms that diversity in linguistic experience is a key organizational principle of the lexicon, but highlights that diversity effects vary across types of linguistic knowledge and task demands. We highlight key areas where more data is required, and make specific recommendations for improving future research based on a structured research cycle

Object and Setting Identification in Natural Auditory Scenes

We encounter situations each day that require our auditory system to quickly interpret our surroundings. Auditory scene perception involves complex processes that allow us to identify both the setting and the objects within a scene, which are essential for decision-making, and situational awareness. While there is substantial evidence for distinct cortical regions and pathways supporting visual scene and object recognition, far less is known about how the brain processes complex auditory scenes and objects. This study aimed to determine whether distinct mechanisms underlie auditory setting and object identification and whether these mechanisms interact to aid perception. Participants listened to 200 natural auditory scenes of varying durations (1, 2, and 4 sec) and identified the setting (e.g., café) as well as the objects (e.g., talking, espresso machine, music) within each scene. Overall, performance was highest on the object identification task, and there was a significant interaction between task and scene duration, with a greater benefit of longer durations for the object identification task. Different low- and mid-level acoustic features of the scenes predicted performance on the two tasks. These results suggest that the auditory system employs distinct (and potentially interactive) computations for setting and object identification, allowing for quick interpretation of complex, real-world auditory scenes. The interaction between task performance and scene duration further suggests object and setting identification may operate on different temporal scales; objects might require more time for accurate individuation, while settings may be recognized more efficiently through global properties of scenes, such as openness or naturalness

LGBTQ+ Youth Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Support in Schools

Youth who identify as LGBTQ+ continue to report significant challenges to their wellbeing in schools (e.g., bullying, lack of representation in staff and curricula, and discrimination). The current study employed a large, diverse sample of LGBTQ+ youth to explore the types of support they reported receiving in schools. A fixed, embedded mixed-methods approach was utilized resulting in quantitative results contextualized by nine major themes. Quantitative findings illuminated that more than half of respondents reported that two or more teachers were supportive of their sexual orientation and gender identity, although youth of color and youth with gender-diverse identities reported lower likelihood of support. Themes included safety, lack of consistency, limited disclosure, programmatic silence, inclusion, representation, harmful legislation, transphobia, and youth recommendations. Triangulation of results suggest LGBTQ+ youth are receiving more school supports in response to their needs and have further recommendations for sustained efforts in positive directions (e.g., affiliate clubs) and improvement in others (e.g., agency in self-disclosure)

The Need for Scientific Coordination

Science is becoming ever more complex, and this calls for a systematic change. In this opinion piece, we discuss why the current scientific structure impedes progress on complex challenges and highlight seven key reasons why improved coordination is essential. It helps to: tackle complex questions, enhance specialization and the quality of work, support careers for team players, resolve long-standing scientific disagreements, improve the cumulative nature of science, and increase transparency. We argue that now, more than ever, coordination deserves focused discussion within the scientific community

Human brain model for episodic memory

Episodic memory, as one of long-term memory, has been studied by researchers for decades, and researchers have made major progress in the studying of episodic memory. However, the mechanisms of forming episodic memory are still unknown. In this paper, I propose the human brain model for episodic memory and the forming mechanisms of episodic memory based on human brain model for long-term memory, this model explains the mechanisms of how episodic memory can be formed and stored in our brain in one occurrence of the event. This model points a possible research direction of episodic memory. This model can be used for computer modeling of neuronal network of episodic memory. This model maybe the foundation of brain-inspired AI