Development of lingual motor control in children and adolescents

An important insight into speech motor control development can be gained from analysing coarticulation. Despite a growing number of acoustic and articulatory studies of lingual coarticulation in children, there are conflicting opinions on how the extent of coarticulation changes during childhood. There is also increasing evidence that age-related patterns vary depending on speech sounds involved. The present study employed ultrasound tongue imaging to compare anticipatory V-on-C coarticulation in 13-year-old adolescents and 5-year-old children, using the consonants /p/ and /t/, which differ in the amount of lingual coarticulation in adult speech. For /p/, the two groups had a similar amount of coarticulation. For /t/, both groups had a vowel effect on the extent of tongue bunching, while only adolescents had an effect on the location of tongue bunching. Token-to-token variability in absolute tongue position was larger in the 5-year-olds. We discuss the findings in relation to previous studies and existing theoriescaslpub3944pub56

Consideration for care for your patient with cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a common developmental neurological disorder affecting about 2-3 children out of 1,000. CP is the result of infant brain damage or abnormal development resulting in impaired muscle control, coordination, tone, reflex, posture, and balance. These patients are unable to control motor movements of their muscles of mastication and facial expression, causing excessive drooling, clenching, bruxism, and other oral health-related issues. This lack of motor control affects their ability to swallow and often limits these patients to a liquid diet. This can lead to vitamin deficiencies and result in further developmental problems. As an example, a deficiency in vitamin D may lead to osteoporosis, which manifests in the oral cavity as periodontal disease. Even into adulthood, these individuals are often reliant on the care of others. It becomes the caregiver’s responsibility to ensure the individual with cerebral palsy is receiving consistent and effective oral hygiene, and to monitor the oral tissues for signs of disease or injury. The researchers reviewed primary and secondary literature published after 2014 on the subjects of cerebral palsy, general health considerations, and oral care. The aim of this investigation focuses on unique issues faced by patients with cerebral palsy, and how to effectively educate caregivers on risks and proper techniques for providing oral hygiene to these individuals.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/denh_student/1001/thumbnail.jp

Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Youth With Gender Dysphoria

Current developmental models of gender identity and gender dysphoria (GD) lack sex-specific profiles of brain function that differentiate between typically-developing and cross-gender identified youth, as postulated by models like the unified theory of the origins of sex differences (Arnold, 2009) and the neurobiological theory of the origins of transsexuality (Swaab & Garcia-Falgueras, 2009). Previously, investigators have used brain imaging modalities such as Resting-State functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (R-fMRI) to demonstrate differences in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between typically-developing male and female youth, and between typically-developing and GID-diagnosed youth. In the present pilot study, I used R-fMRI to investigate differences in RSFC between typically-developing and cross-gender identified male and female youth subgroups, with the hypothesis that GID-diagnosed subgroups would demonstrate connectivity patterns in between those of typically-developing males and females. Eleven youth diagnosed with gender identity disorder (four males, ages 9 to 20 years; seven females, ages 12 to 20 years) were matched on age and assigned gender with 11 typically-developing youth. All participants completed written informed consent to undergo the IRB-approved research procedures. R-fMRI were collected while the participants were lying down and resting, with their eyes closed. Primary analyses focused on 14 brain regions selected because they showed sex differences most frequently or reliably in previous studies of R-fMRI in typically-developing youth. Statistical analysis used a 2 x 2 mixed effects analysis (assigned female versus assigned male x typically-developing versus GID-diagnosed), with-individual level connectivity maps as the dependent variable. Results showed that significant interaction effects of functional connectivity patterns were associated with 6 of the 14 selected brain regions. GID-diagnosed assigned females exhibited connectivity patterns similar to those of typically-developing males associated with the right medial superior frontal gyrus, right supplementary motor area, left lingual gyrus, right lingual gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left medial superior frontal gyrus, left cuneus, right thalamus, left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, and left inferior frontal gyrus, triangular part. GID-diagnosed assigned males exhibited functional connectivity patterns similar to those of typically-developing females associated with the right medial superior frontal gyrus and right supplementary motor area; in between those of typically-developing females and males associated with left lingual gyrus, right lingual gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left medial superior frontal gyrus, right medial superior frontal gyrus, left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, and left inferior frontal gyrus, triangular part; and similar to typically-developing males associated with the right lingual gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus. The right precuneus, hypothesized to show robust findings, did not reveal any effects. In the current study, GID-diagnosed assigned males tended toward demasculinized effects (quantitative interactions showing differences of magnitude), whereas GID-diagnosed assigned females tended toward masculinized effects (qualitative interactions showing differences in direction of correlation). The current findings support the view that brain development associated with gender dysphoria proceeds along separate but overlapping sex-related regions for GID-diagnosed assigned females and males and provide further evidence of greater cross-gender brain differentiation in assigned females at an earlier age than in assigned males (possibly due to earlier onset of puberty in females). These data suggest that any future use of patterns of brain function for diagnosing gender dysphoria may require separate criteria (e.g., different sets of brain regions) for assigned males and assigned females but will require replication on larger samples

Disorder-specific functional abnormalities during sustained attention in youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and with Autism

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often comorbid and share behavioural-cognitive abnormalities in sustained attention. A key question is whether this shared cognitive phenotype is based on common or different underlying pathophysiologies. To elucidate this question, we compared 20 boys with ADHD to 20 age and IQ matched ASD and 20 healthy boys using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a parametrically modulated vigilance task with a progressively increasing load of sustained attention. ADHD and ASD boys had significantly reduced activation relative to controls in bilateral striato–thalamic regions, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and superior parietal cortex. Both groups also displayed significantly increased precuneus activation relative to controls. Precuneus was negatively correlated with the DLPFC activation, and progressively more deactivated with increasing attention load in controls, but not patients, suggesting problems with deactivation of a task-related default mode network in both disorders. However, left DLPFC underactivation was significantly more pronounced in ADHD relative to ASD boys, which furthermore was associated with sustained performance measures that were only impaired in ADHD patients. ASD boys, on the other hand, had disorder-specific enhanced cerebellar activation relative to both ADHD and control boys, presumably reflecting compensation. The findings show that ADHD and ASD boys have both shared and disorder-specific abnormalities in brain function during sustained attention. Shared deficits were in fronto–striato–parietal activation and default mode suppression. Differences were a more severe DLPFC dysfunction in ADHD and a disorder-specific fronto–striato–cerebellar dysregulation in ASD

The neural signature of self-concept development in adolescence: The role of domain and valence distinctions

Neuroimaging studies in adults showed that cortical midline regions including medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) are important in self-evaluations. The goals of this study were to investigate the contribution of these regions to self-evaluations in late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, and to examine whether these differed per domain (academic, physical and prosocial) and valence (positive versus negative). Also, we tested whether this activation changes across adolescence. For this purpose, participants between ages 11–21-years (N = 150) evaluated themselves on trait sentences in an fMRI session. Behaviorally, adolescents rated their academic traits less positively than children and young adults. The neural analyses showed that evaluating self-traits versus a control condition was associated with increased activity in mPFC (domain-general effect), and positive traits were associated with increased activity in ventral mPFC (valence effect). Self-related mPFC activation increased linearly with age, but only for evaluating physical traits. Furthermore, an adolescent-specific decrease in striatum activation for positive self traits was found. Finally, we found domain-specific neural activity for evaluating traits in physical (dorsolateral PFC, dorsal mPFC) and academic (PPC) domains. Together, these results highlight the importance of domain distinctions when studying self-concept development in late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood

Individual classification of ADHD patients by integrating multiscale neuroimaging markers and advanced pattern recognition techniques

Accurate classification or prediction of the brain state across individual subject, i.e., healthy, or with brain disorders, is generally a more difficult task than merely finding group differences. The former must be approached with highly informative and sensitive biomarkers as well as effective pattern classification/feature selection approaches. In this paper, we propose a systematic methodology to discriminate attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients from healthy controls on the individual level. Multiple neuroimaging markers that are proved to be sensitive features are identified, which include multiscale characteristics extracted from blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals, such as regional homogeneity (ReHo) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. Functional connectivity derived from Pearson, partial, and spatial correlation is also utilized to reflect the abnormal patterns of functional integration, or, dysconnectivity syndromes in the brain. These neuroimaging markers are calculated on either voxel or regional level. Advanced feature selection approach is then designed, including a brain-wise association study (BWAS). Using identified features and proper feature integration, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier can achieve a cross-validated classification accuracy of 76.15% across individuals from a large dataset consisting of 141 healthy controls and 98 ADHD patients, with the sensitivity being 63.27% and the specificity being 85.11%. Our results show that the most discriminative features for classification are primarily associated with the frontal and cerebellar regions. The proposed methodology is expected to improve clinical diagnosis and evaluation of treatment for ADHD patient, and to have wider applications in diagnosis of general neuropsychiatric disorders

Individual differences in striatum activity to food commercials predict weight gain in adolescents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109559/1/oby20882.pd

A core eating network and its modulations underlie diverse eating phenomena

We propose that a core eating network and its modulations account for much of what is currently known about the neural activity underlying a wide range of eating phenomena in humans (excluding homeostasis and related phenomena). The core eating network is closely adapted from a network that Kaye, Fudge, and Paulus (2009) proposed to explain the neurocircuitry of eating, including a ventral reward pathway and a dorsal control pathway. In a review across multiple literatures that focuses on experiments using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we first show that neural responses to food cues, such as food pictures, utilize the same core eating network as eating. Consistent with the theoretical perspective of grounded cognition, food cues activate eating simulations that produce reward predictions about a perceived food and potentially motivate its consumption. Reviewing additional literatures, we then illustrate how various factors modulate the core eating network, increasing and/or decreasing activity in subsets of its neural areas. These modulating factors include food significance (palatability, hunger), body mass index (BMI, overweight/obesity), eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating), and various eating goals (losing weight, hedonic pleasure, healthy living). By viewing all these phenomena as modulating a core eating network, it becomes possible to understand how they are related to one another within this common theoretical framework. Finally, we discuss future directions for better establishing the core eating network, its modulations, and their implications for behavior

Sex matters during adolescence: Testosterone-related cortical thickness maturation differs between boys and girls

Age-related changes in cortical thickness have been observed during adolescence, including thinning in frontal and parietal cortices, and thickening in the lateral temporal lobes. Studies have shown sex differences in hormone-related brain maturation when boys and girls are age-matched, however, because girls mature 1-2 years earlier than boys, these sex differences could be confounded by pubertal maturation. To address puberty effects directly, this study assessed sex differences in testosterone-related cortical maturation by studying 85 boys and girls in a narrow age range and matched on sexual maturity. We expected that testosterone-by-sex interactions on cortical thickness would be observed in brain regions known from the animal literature to be high in androgen receptors. We found sex differences in associations between circulating testosterone and thickness in left inferior parietal lobule, middle temporal gyrus, calcarine sulcus, and right lingual gyrus, all regions known to be high in androgen receptors. Visual areas increased with testosterone in boys, but decreased in girls. All other regions were more impacted by testosterone levels in girls than boys. The regional pattern of sex-by-testosterone interactions may have implications for understanding sex differences in behavior and adolescent-onset neuropsychiatric disorders. © 2012 Bramen et al