Feasibility of undertaking off-site infant eye-tracking assessments of neuro-cognitive functioning in early-intervention centres

Recent work suggests that differences in functional brain development are already identifiable in 6- to 9-month-old infants from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigation of early SES-related differences in neuro-cognitive functioning requires the recruitment of large and diverse samples of infants, yet it is often difficult to persuade low-SES parents to come to a university setting. One solution is to recruit infants through early intervention children’s centres (CCs). These are often located in areas of high relative deprivation to support young children. Given the increasing portability of eye-tracking equipment, assessment of large clusters of infants could be undertaken in centres by suitably trained early intervention staff. Here we report on a study involving 174 infants and their parents, carried out in partnership with CCs, exploring the feasibility of this approach, We report the processes of setting up the project and participant recruitment. We report the diversity of sample obtained on the engagement of CC staff in training and the process of assessment itself. We report the quality of the data obtained, and the levels of engagement of parents, and infants. We conclude that this approach has great potential for recruiting large and diverse samples worldwide, provides sufficiently reliable data, and is engaging to staff, parents and infants

Homeologous proteins synthesis controlled by homeologous chromosomes in wheat

Two homeologous proteins have been isolated from the endosperm of common wheat (genomes ABD). Synthesis of these two proteins is controlled by the homeologous chromosomes 7B and 7D respectively. However, Aegilops speltoides, the more generally accepted B genome donor, does not synthesize the 7B protein

Efficiency of scanning and attention to faces in infancy independently predict language development in a multiethnic and bilingual sample of 2-year-olds

Efficient visual exploration in infancy is essential for cognitive and language development. It allows infants to participate in social interactions by attending to faces and learning about objects of interest. Visual scanning of scenes depends on a number of factors and early differences in efficiency are likely contributing to differences in learning and language development during subsequent years. Predicting language development in diverse samples is particularly challenging, as additional multiple sources of variability affect infant performance. In this study we tested how the complexity of visual scanning in the presence or absence of a face at 6-7 months of age is related to language development at 2 years of age in a multi-ethnic and predominantly bilingual sample from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. We used Recurrence Quantification Analysis to measure the temporal and spatial distribution of fixations recurring in the same area of a visual scene. We found that in the absence of a face the temporal distribution of re-fixations on selected objects of interest (but not all) significantly predicted both receptive and expressive language scores, explaining 16 - 20% of the variance. Also, lower rate of re-fixations recurring in the presence of a face predicted higher receptive language scores, suggesting larger vocabulary in infants that effectively disengage from faces. Altogether, our results suggest that dynamic measures, which quantify the complexity of visual scanning can reliably and robustly predict language development in highly diverse samples. They suggest that selective attending to objects predicts language independently of attention to faces. As eye-tracking and language assessments were carried out in early intervention centres, our study demonstrates the utility of mobile eye-tracking setups for early detection of risk in attention and language development

Modulation of immune response to rDNA hepatitis B vaccination by psychological stress

In a previous study it was shown that antibody formation after vaccination with a low-dose recombinant DNA (rDNA) hepatitis B vaccine was negatively influenced by psychological stress. The present study was designed to assess whether the same inverse relation between HBs-antibody levels and psychological stress could be observed, while administering the standard, and thus higher, dose of vaccine. Volunteers (n = 68) scoring extremely low or high on a combination of questionnaires measuring daily problems and psychoneurotic symptoms were selected for participation. Antibody levels were determined 2, 6, and 7 months after the first vaccination. Questionnaires were completed before entering the study and at month 6. In contrast to the previous study, psychological stress was not found to be related to the antibody levels at any timepoint. These results suggest that, under certain conditions, stress-induced immunomodulation in vivo might be dependent on antigen dose

Feasibility of Undertaking Off-Site Infant Eye-Tracking Assessments of Neuro-Cognitive Functioning in Early-Intervention Centres

Recent work suggests that differences in functional brain development are already identifiable in 6- to 9-month-old infants from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigation of early SES-related differences in neuro-cognitive functioning requires the recruitment of large and diverse samples of infants, yet it is often difficult to persuade low-SES parents to come to a university setting. One solution is to recruit infants through early intervention children’s centres (CCs). These are often located in areas of high relative deprivation to support young children. Given the increasing portability of eye-tracking equipment, assessment of large clusters of infants could be undertaken in centres by suitably trained early intervention staff. Here, we report on a study involving 174 infants and their parents, carried out in partnership with CCs, exploring the feasibility of this approach. We report the processes of setting up the project and participant recruitment. We report the diversity of sample obtained on the engagement of CC staff in training and the process of assessment itself.We report the quality of the data obtained, and the levels of engagement of parents and infants. We conclude that this approach has great potential for recruiting large and diverse samples worldwide, provides sufficiently reliable data and is engaging to staff, parents and infants

Beyond fixation durations: Recurrence quantification analysis reveals spatiotemporal dynamics of infant visual scanning

Standard looking-duration measures in eye-tracking data provide only general quantitative indices, while details of the spatiotemporal structuring of fixation sequences are lost. To overcome this, various tools have been developed to measure the dynamics of fixations. However, these analyses are only useful when stimuli have high perceptual similarity and they require the previous definition of areas of interest (AOIs). Although these methods have been widely applied in adult studies, relatively little is known about the temporal structuring of infant gaze-foraging behaviors such as variability of scanning over time or individual scanning patterns. Thus, to shed more light on the spatiotemporal characteristics of infant fixation sequences we apply for the first time a new methodology for nonlinear time-series analysis—the recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). We present how the dynamics of infant scanning varies depending on the scene content during a "pop-out" search task. Moreover, we show how the normalization of RQA measures with average fixation durations provides a more detailed account of the dynamics of fixation sequences. Finally, we link the RQA measures of temporal dynamics of scanning with the spatial information about the stimuli using heat maps of recurrences without the need for defining a priori AOIs and present how infants’ foraging strategies are driven by the image content. We conclude from our findings that the RQA methodology has potential applications in the analysis of the temporal dynamics of infant visual foraging offering advantages over existing methods

Adrenal vein sampling in a patient with primary hyperaldosteronism and severe contrast allergy

We report on a case of a 50-year-old female patient with primary hyperaldosteronism, in whom adrenal venous sampling was required to differentiate between unilateral and bilateral disease. Because of a history of severe allergy to iodinated contrast media, premedication with glucocorticoids was indicated. Exogenous glucocorticoids, however, can affect measurements of serum cortisol. To avoid this potential confounding effects on the cortisol assay, we decided to use dexamethasone instead of prednisolone or hydrocortisone. A high-dose adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) stimulation test with the simultaneous use of dexamethasone revealed an adequate adrenal cortisol response. ACTH-stimulated adrenal venous sampling showed reliable results, which provided a solid basis for further clinical decision-making.Diabetes mellitus: pathophysiological changes and therap

Brain responses and looking behavior during audiovisual speech integration in infants predict auditory speech comprehension in the second year of life

The use of visual cues during the processing of audiovisual (AV) speech is known to be less efficient in children and adults with language difficulties and difficulties are known to be more prevalent in children from low-income populations. In the present study, we followed an economically diverse group of thirty-seven infants longitudinally from 6–9 months to 14–16 months of age. We used eye-tracking to examine whether individual differences in visual attention during AV processing of speech in 6–9 month old infants, particularly when processing congruent and incongruent auditory and visual speech cues, might be indicative of their later language development. Twenty-two of these 6–9 month old infants also participated in an event-related potential (ERP) AV task within the same experimental session. Language development was then followed-up at the age of 14–16 months, using two measures of language development, the Preschool Language Scale and the Oxford Communicative Development Inventory. The results show that those infants who were less efficient in auditory speech processing at the age of 6–9 months had lower receptive language scores at 14–16 months. A correlational analysis revealed that the pattern of face scanning and ERP responses to audiovisually incongruent stimuli at 6–9 months were both significantly associated with language development at 14–16 months. These findings add to the understanding of individual differences in neural signatures of AV processing and associated looking behavior in infants

Determinants of Advanced Bone Age in Childhood Obesity

Background: Childhood obesity is associated with advanced bone age (BA). Previous studies suggest that androgens, oestrogens, sex hormone-binding globulin, and insulin are responsible for this phenomenon, but results are contradictory and might be biased by confounders. We aim to elucidate this matter by applying a multivariate approach. Method: We performed a correlation analysis of BA standard deviation score (SDS) with age- and sex-specific SDS for androgens, oestrogens, and with indicators of insulin secretion derived from oral glucose tolerance testing, in a group of obese children. A multivariate analysis was performed to investigate which parameters were independently predictive of BA SDS. Results: In this cohort (n = 101; mean age 10.9 years; mean BA 11.8 years; mean BMI SDS 3.3), BMI SDS was significantly correlated to BA SDS (r = 0.55, p < 0.001). In a regression analysis in the total cohort (B = 0.27, p < 0.001) as well as in females (B = 0.34, p = 0.042), males (B = 0.31, p = 0.006), and pubertal children (B = 0.32, p = 0.046), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) showed a positive, independent association with BA SD