Absence of spontaneous action anticipation by false belief attribution in children with autism spectrum disorder

Recently, a series of studies demonstrated false belief understanding in young children through completely nonverbal measures. These studies have revealed that children younger than 3 years of age, who consistently fail the standard verbal false belief test, can anticipate others' actions based on their attributed false beliefs. The current study examined whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who are known to have difficulties in the verbal false belief test, may also show such action anticipation in a nonverbal false belief test. We presented video stimuli of an actor watching an object being hidden in a box. The object was then displaced while the actor was looking away. We recorded children's eye movements and coded whether they spontaneously anticipated the actor's subsequent behavior, which could only have been predicted if they had attributed a false belief to her. Although typically developing children correctly anticipated the action, children with ASD failed to show such action anticipation. The results suggest that children with ASD have an impairment in false belief attribution, which is independent of their verbal ability

Atypical modulation of face-elicited saccades in autism spectrum disorder in a double-step saccade paradigm

Atypical development of face processing is a major characteristic in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could be due to atypical interactions between subcortical and cortical face processing. The current study investigated the saccade planning towards faces in ASD. Seventeen children with ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) children observed a pair of upright or inverted face configurations flashed sequentially in two different spatial positions. The reactive saccades of participants were recorded by eye-tracking. The results did not provide evidence of overall impairment of subcortical route in ASD, However, the upright, but not the inverted, face configuration modulated the frequency of vector sum saccades (an index of subcortical control) in TD, but not in ASD. The current results suggest that children with ASD do not have overall impairment of the subcortical route, but the subcortical route may not be specialized to face processing

Is anyone looking at me? Direct gaze detection in children with and without autism

Atypical processing of eye contact is one of the significant characteristics of individuals with autism, but the mechanism underlying atypical direct gaze processing is still unclear. This study used a visual search paradigm to examine whether the facial context would affect direct gaze detection in children with autism. Participants were asked to detect target gazes presented among distracters with different gaze directions. The target gazes were either direct gaze or averted gaze, which were either presented alone (Experiment 1) or within facial context (Experiment 2). As with the typically developing children, the children with autism, were faster and more efficient to detect direct gaze than averted gaze, whether or not the eyes were presented alone or within faces. In addition, face inversion distorted efficient direct gaze detection in typically developing children, but not in children with autism. These results suggest that children with autism use featural information to detect direct gaze, whereas typically developing children use configural information to detect direct gaze

Effects of Short Term Interferential Current Stimulation on Swallowing Reflex in Dysphagic Patients

We have previously shown that surface interferential current (IFC) stimulation at the sensory threshold significantly increases the number of swallows. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of IFC stimulation at the sensory threshold on the swallowing reflex of dysphagic patients (7 male and 5 female, Age, 75.8 ± 5.3 years) by videofluoroscopic (VFS) measurements. Each subject underwent three series of VFS examination, before, during, and after the IFC stimulation. We tested three food types, juice, jelly, and biscuits, however, only juice consistency resulted in significant changes in temporal measurements of VFS parameters before, during and after IFC stimulation. For juice consistency, IFC stimulation shortened the pharyngeal response duration (the duration from the hyoid bone beginning maximum elevation to its return to the resting position, before IFC: 1.37 ± 0.31(SD) s vs. during IFC: 1.17 ± 0.29 s, p<0.001) without changing the amount of anterior and vertical displacements of the hyoid bone. The duration from the onset of elevation of the soft palate to return to the resting position was also significantly shortened by the IFC stimulation (before IFC: 0.72 ± 0.16 s vs. during IFC: 0.64 ± 0.19 s, p=0.035), suggesting that pharyngeal motor activation sequence as a whole was shortened by the IFC stimulation. No painful and/or uncomfortable sensations were reported. We conclude that surface interferential current stimulation has a potential to be an alternative mode of therapeutic electrical stimulation for dysphagic patients

Urethral hemangioma: How to investigate as a cause of hematuria after male sexual activities

Introduction Urethral hemangioma is an extremely rare occurrence and is not typically considered a common cause of hematuria. Since 2000, only 22 male cases have been reported. Case presentation A 45‐year‐old man presented with recurrent painless gross hematuria and the passage of blood clots after ejaculation. The patient underwent a transurethral resection of a 6‐mm hemangioma. This isolated sessile lesion was situated between the distal end of the verumontanum and the external sphincter, following an induced erection. The patient remained asymptomatic during the 1‐month follow‐up visit. Conclusion This study included the assessment of patient symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments and the literature review of 22 patients. We propose that relaxation of the external urethral sphincter muscle under general anesthesia and artificially inducing an erection can aid in the identification of urethral hemangiomas near the verumontanum during cystourethroscopy

Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation and History of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights from GARFIELD-AF

BACKGROUND: Many patients with atrial fibrillation have concomitant coronary artery disease with or without acute coronary syndromes and are in need of additional antithrombotic therapy. There are few data on the long-term clinical outcome of atrial fibrillation patients with a history of acute coronary syndrome. This is a 2-year study of atrial fibrillation patients with or without a history of acute coronary syndromes