Music for autism: a protocol for an international randomized crossover trial on music therapy for children with autism

The notion of a connection between autism and music is as old as the first reported cases of autism, and music has been used as a therapeutic tool for many decades. Music therapy holds promise as an intervention for individuals with autism, harnessing their strengths in music processing to enhance communication and expression. While previous randomized controlled trials have demonstrated positive outcomes in terms of global improvement and quality of life, their reliance on psychological outcomes restricts our understanding of underlying mechanisms. This paper introduces the protocol for the Music for Autism study, a randomized crossover trial designed to investigate the effects of a 12-week music therapy intervention on a range of psychometric, neuroimaging, and biological outcomes in school-aged children with autism. The protocol builds upon previous research and aims to both replicate and expand upon findings that demonstrated improvements in social communication and functional brain connectivity following a music intervention. The primary objective of this trial is to determine whether music therapy leads to improvements in social communication and functional brain connectivity as compared to play-based therapy. In addition, secondary aims include exploring various relevant psychometric, neuroimaging, and biological outcomes. To achieve these objectives, we will enroll 80 participants aged 6–12 years in this international, assessor-blinded, crossover randomized controlled trial. Each participant will be randomly assigned to receive either music therapy or play-based therapy for a period of 12 weeks, followed by a 12-week washout period, after which they will receive the alternate intervention. Assessments will be conducted four times, before and after each intervention period. The protocol of the Music for Autism trial provides a comprehensive framework for studying the effects of music therapy on a range of multidimensional outcomes in children with autism. The findings from this trial have the potential to contribute to the development of evidence-based interventions that leverage strengths in music processing to address the complex challenges faced by individuals with autism.publishedVersio

ManyDogs Project: A Big Team Science Approach to Investigating Canine Behavior and Cognition

Dogs have a special place in human history as the first domesticated species and play important roles in many cultures around the world. However, their role in scientific studies has been relatively recent. With a few notable exceptions (e.g., Darwin, Pavlov, Scott, and Fuller), domestic dogs were not commonly the subject of rigorous scientific investigation of behavior until the late 1990s. Although the number of canine science studies has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, most research groups are limited in the inferences they can draw because of the relatively small sample sizes used, along with the exceptional diversity observed in dogs (e.g., breed, geographic location, experience). To this end, we introduce the ManyDogs Project, an international consortium of researchers interested in taking a big team science approach to understanding canine behavioral science. We begin by discussing why studying dogs provides valuable insights into behavior and cognition, evolutionary processes, human health, and applications for animal welfare. We then highlight other big team science projects that have previously been conducted in canine science and emphasize the benefits of our approach. Finally, we introduce the ManyDogs Project and our mission: (a) replicating important findings, (b) investigating moderators that need a large sample size such as breed differences, (c) reaching methodological consensus, (d) investigating cross-cultural differences, and (e) setting a standard for replication studies in general. In doing so, we hope to address previous limitations in individual lab studies and previous big team science frameworks to deepen our understanding of canine behavior and cognition

Neural processing of neutral physical touch experience in awake and unrestrained dogs

We are investigating dogs´ somatosensory processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The data are already collected (data-collection ongoing) and we are only preregistering our analyses

False belief understanding in children and dogs in a nonverbal ambiguous displacement and communication setting

Finding ways to investigate false belief understanding nonverbally is not just important for research in preverbal children, but it is the only way to assess theory of mind-like (ToM) abilities in nonhuman animals. In this preregistered study, we adapted the design from a previous study on dogs (Lonardo et al., 2021) to investigate false belief understanding in children and compare them to dogs. Thirty-two preschool-children (aged 5-6 years) saw the displacement of a reward and also obtained nonverbal cueing information from an adult communicator holding either a true or false belief. In the false belief condition, when the communicator did not know the location of the reward, children picked the baited, but not cued, container more often than the empty one. In the true belief condition, when the communicator witnessed the displacement yet still cued the wrong container, children performed randomly. This behavior pattern is at odds with the one of dogs who followed the cues more often when the human communicator held a false belief. Since our task does not require verbal responses or relational sentence understanding it can also be used in preverbal children as well as to compare ToM-related competences between human and non-human animals, if appropriately adapted. In our study, children behaved in line with existing ToM literature whereas most dogs, but not all, while sensitive to differences between the belief conditions, deviated from children. This difference suggests the need for a more extensive exploration of the evolution of false belief processing and ToM across animals

Accelerated streptokinase and enoxaparin in ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (the ASENOX study)

Background: The streptokinase (SK) regimen (1.5 MU/60 min) has remained unchanged in the ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) for the last 20 years.Aim: To compare the efficacy of an accelerated SK (ASK) regimen combined with enoxaparin (Enox) or heparin (UFH) with the standard SK and UFH combination in STEMI.Methods: 633 consecutive patients, aged 21-74 years, admitted within 6 hours after the onset of STEMI, were divided in three groups: (1) ASKEnox (n=165): Enox 40 mg. i.v. followed by SK 1.5 MU over 20 min, either as a full dose or a double infusion of 0.75 MU over 10 min. separated by 50 min. After SK infusion, Enox was administered 1 mg/kg s.c. every 12 hours for 5-7 days; (2) ASKUFH (n=264): the same ASK regimen plus UFH 1,000 IU/h for 48-72 hours, (3) SSKUFH (n=204): SK 1.5 MU/60 min. plus UFH 1,000 IU/h for 48-72 hours. All patients received aspirin. Three coronary reperfusion (CR) criteria were used: 1. rapid cessation of chest pain; 2. rapid reduction of ST-segment elevation by more than 50% of the initial value; 3. rapid increase in plasma CK and CK-MB with a peak in the first 12 hours.Results: The rates of CR in the ASKEnox (77.6%) and the ASKUFH (73.5%) groups were similar but both were significantly higher than that observed in the SSKUFH group (62.2%) (p=0.002 and 0.013, respectively). The 30-day mortality rates were similar in the ASKEnox (6.06%) and the ASKUFH (6.81%) groups but both were significantly lower than in the SSKUFH group (12.74%) (p=0.048 and 0.044, respectively). SK-induced hypotension was more frequent in the ASKEnox (39.4%) and ASKUFH (38.3%) groups compared with the SSKUFH group (20.6%) (

ManyDogs 1: A Multi-lab replication study of dogs' pointing comprehension (pre-registered report)

To promote collaboration across canine science, address reproducibility issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of preregistering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly robust—dogs’ ability to follow human pointing—with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as a social communicative gesture or as a simple associative cue? We collected preliminary data (N = 61) from a single laboratory on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup without making eye-contact or saying the dog’s name). Dogs followed the ostensive point, but not the non-ostensive point, significantly more often than expected by chance. Preliminary results also provided suggestive evidence for variability in point-following across dog breeds. The next phase is the global participation stage of the project. We propose to replicate this protocol in a large and diverse sample of research sites, simultaneously assessing replicability between labs and further investigating the question of dogs’ point-following comprehension

ManyDogs Project: A Big Team Science Approach to Investigating Canine Behavior and Cognition

Dogs have a special place in human history as the first domesticated species and play important roles in many cultures around the world. However, their role in scientific studies has been relatively recent. With a few notable exceptions (e.g., Darwin, Pavlov, Scott, and Fuller), domestic dogs were not commonly the subject of rigorous scientific investigation of behavior until the late 1990s. While the number of canine science studies has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, most research groups are limited in the inferences they can draw due to the relatively small sample sizes used, along with the exceptional diversity observed in dogs (e.g., breed, geographic location, experience). To this end, we introduce the ManyDogs Project, an international consortium of researchers interested in taking a big team science approach to understanding canine behavioral science. We begin by discussing why studying dogs provides valuable insights into behavior and cognition, evolutionary processes, human health, and applications for animal welfare. We then highlight other big team science projects that have previously been conducted in canine science and emphasize the benefits of our approach. Finally, we introduce the ManyDogs Project and our mission: (1) replicating important findings, (2) investigating moderators that need a large sample size such as breed differences, (3) reaching methodological consensus, (4) investigating cross-cultural differences, and finally (5) setting a standard for replication studies in general. In doing so, we hope to address previous limitations in individual lab studies and previous big team science frameworks to deepen our understanding of canine behavior and cognition

Data_Sheet_1_Music for autism: a protocol for an international randomized crossover trial on music therapy for children with autism.docx

The notion of a connection between autism and music is as old as the first reported cases of autism, and music has been used as a therapeutic tool for many decades. Music therapy holds promise as an intervention for individuals with autism, harnessing their strengths in music processing to enhance communication and expression. While previous randomized controlled trials have demonstrated positive outcomes in terms of global improvement and quality of life, their reliance on psychological outcomes restricts our understanding of underlying mechanisms. This paper introduces the protocol for the Music for Autism study, a randomized crossover trial designed to investigate the effects of a 12-week music therapy intervention on a range of psychometric, neuroimaging, and biological outcomes in school-aged children with autism. The protocol builds upon previous research and aims to both replicate and expand upon findings that demonstrated improvements in social communication and functional brain connectivity following a music intervention. The primary objective of this trial is to determine whether music therapy leads to improvements in social communication and functional brain connectivity as compared to play-based therapy. In addition, secondary aims include exploring various relevant psychometric, neuroimaging, and biological outcomes. To achieve these objectives, we will enroll 80 participants aged 6–12 years in this international, assessor-blinded, crossover randomized controlled trial. Each participant will be randomly assigned to receive either music therapy or play-based therapy for a period of 12 weeks, followed by a 12-week washout period, after which they will receive the alternate intervention. Assessments will be conducted four times, before and after each intervention period. The protocol of the Music for Autism trial provides a comprehensive framework for studying the effects of music therapy on a range of multidimensional outcomes in children with autism. The findings from this trial have the potential to contribute to the development of evidence-based interventions that leverage strengths in music processing to address the complex challenges faced by individuals with autism.Clinical Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT04936048.</p

ManyDogs 1: A multi-lab replication study of dogs' pointing comprehension

To promote collaboration across canine science, address replicability issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of pre-registering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly reliable—dogs’ ability to follow human pointing—with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as a social communicative gesture or as a simple associative cue? We collected data (N = 455) from 20 research sites on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (pointing to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (pointing without eye-contact, after a throat-clearing auditory control cue). Comparing performance between conditions, while both were significantly above chance, there was no significant difference in dogs’ responses. This result was consistent across sites. Further, we found that dogs followed contralateral, momentary pointing at lower rates than has been reported in prior research, suggesting that there are limits to the robustness of point-following behavior: not all pointing styles are equally likely to elicit a response. Together, these findings underscore the important role of procedural details in study design and the broader need for replication studies in canine science