Practitioner Review: Multilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders – an overview of recent research and discussion of clinical implications

Language and communication skills are essential aspects of child development, which are often disrupted in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Cutting edge research in psycholinguistics suggests that multilingualism has potential to influence social, linguistic and cognitive development. Thus, multilingualism has implications for clinical assessment, diagnostic formulation, intervention and support offered to families. We present a systematic review and synthesis of the effects of multilingualism for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and discuss clinical implications. Methods We conducted systematic searches for studies on multilingualism in neurodevelopmental disorders. Keywords for neurodevelopmental disorders were based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition categories as follows; Intellectual Disabilities, Communication Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Specific Learning Disorder, Motor Disorders, Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders. We included only studies based on empirical research and published in peer‐reviewed journals. Results Fifty studies met inclusion criteria. Thirty‐nine studies explored multilingualism in Communication Disorders, 10 in ASD and two in Intellectual Disability. No studies on multilingualism in Specific Learning Disorder or Motor Disorders were identified. Studies which found a disadvantage for multilingual children with neurodevelopmental disorders were rare, and there appears little reason to assume that multilingualism has negative effects on various aspects of functioning across a range of conditions. In fact, when considering only those studies which have compared a multilingual group with developmental disorders to a monolingual group with similar disorders, the findings consistently show no adverse effects on language development or other aspects of functioning. In the case of ASD, a positive effect on communication and social functioning has been observed. Conclusions There is little evidence to support the widely held view that multilingual exposure is detrimental to the linguistic or social development of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, we also note that the available pool of studies is small and the number of methodologically high quality studies is relatively low. We discuss implications of multilingualism for clinical management of neurodevelopmental disorders, and discuss possible directions for future research.UK Arts & Humanities Research Council. Grant Number: AH/N004671/

A one-sided Prime Ideal Principle for noncommutative rings

Completely prime right ideals are introduced as a one-sided generalization of the concept of a prime ideal in a commutative ring. Some of their basic properties are investigated, pointing out both similarities and differences between these right ideals and their commutative counterparts. We prove the Completely Prime Ideal Principle, a theorem stating that right ideals that are maximal in a specific sense must be completely prime. We offer a number of applications of the Completely Prime Ideal Principle arising from many diverse concepts in rings and modules. These applications show how completely prime right ideals control the one-sided structure of a ring, and they recover earlier theorems stating that certain noncommutative rings are domains (namely, proper right PCI rings and rings with the right restricted minimum condition that are not right artinian). In order to provide a deeper understanding of the set of completely prime right ideals in a general ring, we study the special subset of comonoform right ideals.Comment: 38 page

Verbal labels selectively bias brain responses to high-energy foods.

The influence of external factors on food preferences and choices is poorly understood. Knowing which and how food-external cues impact the sensory processing and cognitive valuation of food would provide a strong benefit toward a more integrative understanding of food intake behavior and potential means of interfering with deviant eating patterns to avoid detrimental health consequences for individuals in the long run. We investigated whether written labels with positive and negative (as opposed to 'neutral') valence differentially modulate the spatio-temporal brain dynamics in response to the subsequent viewing of high- and low-energetic food images. Electrical neuroimaging analyses were applied to visual evoked potentials (VEPs) from 20 normal-weight participants. VEPs and source estimations in response to high- and low- energy foods were differentially affected by the valence of preceding word labels over the ~260-300 ms post-stimulus period. These effects were only observed when high-energy foods were preceded by labels with positive valence. Neural sources in occipital as well as posterior, frontal, insular and cingulate regions were down-regulated. These findings favor cognitive-affective influences especially on the visual responses to high-energetic food cues, potentially indicating decreases in cognitive control and goal-adaptive behavior. Inverse correlations between insular activity and effectiveness in food classification further indicate that this down-regulation directly impacts food-related behavior

Failure to learn from feedback underlies word learning difficulties in toddlers at risk for autism

Children’s assignment of novel words to nameless objects, over objects whose names they know (mutual exclusivity; ME) has been described as a driving force for vocabulary acquisition. Despite their ability to use ME to fast-map words (Preissler & Carey, 2005), children with autism show impaired language acquisition. We aimed to address this puzzle by building on studies showing that correct referent selection using ME does not lead to word learning unless ostensive feedback is provided on the child’s object choice (Horst & Samuelson, 2008). We found that although toddlers aged 2;0 at risk for autism can use ME to choose the correct referent of a word, they do not benefit from feedback for long-term retention of the word–object mapping. Further, their difficulty using feedback is associated with their smaller receptive vocabularies. We propose that difficulties learning from social feedback, not lexical principles, limits vocabulary building during development in children at risk for autism

The importance of the eyes: communication skills in infants of blind parents

The effects of selectively different experience of eye contact and gaze behaviour on the early development of five sighted infants of blind parents were investigated. Infants were assessed longitudinally at 6–10, 12–15 and 24–47 months. Face scanning and gaze following were assessed using eye tracking. In addition, established measures of autistic-like behaviours and standardized tests of cognitive, motor and linguistic development, as well as observations of naturalistic parent–child interaction were collected. These data were compared with those obtained from a larger group of sighted infants of sighted parents. Infants with blind parents did not show an overall decrease in eye contact or gaze following when they observed sighted adults on video or in live interactions, nor did they show any autistic-like behaviours. However, they directed their own eye gaze somewhat less frequently towards their blind mothers and also showed improved performance in visual memory and attention at younger ages. Being reared with significantly reduced experience of eye contact and gaze behaviour does not preclude sighted infants from developing typical gaze processing and other social-communication skills. Indeed, the need to switch between different types of communication strategy may actually enhance other skills during development

Sub-threshold autism traits: The role of trait emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility.

Theory and research suggests that features of autism are not restricted to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and that autism-like traits vary throughout the general population at lower severities. The present research first investigated the relationship of autism traits with trait emotional intelligence and empathy in a sample of 163 adults aged between 18 and 51 years (44% male). It then examined performance on a set of tasks assessing social cognition and cognitive flexibility in 69 participants with either high or low scores on ASD traits. Results confirm that there is pronounced variation within the general population relating to ASD traits, which reflect similar (though less severe) social-cognitive and emotional features to those observed in ASDs

Effect of a 1-Year Nutritional Blend Supplementation on Plasma p-tau181 and GFAP Levels among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of the Nolan Trial

BACKGROUND: Observational studies and some randomized controlled trials have suggested that nutritional supplementation could be a possible intervention pathway to prevent cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD). As measuring amyloid-β and tau pathophysiology by positron emission tomography (PET) or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyses may be perceived as complex, plasma versions of such biomarkers have emerged as more accessible alternatives with comparable capacity of predicting cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a 1-year intervention with a nutritional blend on plasma p-tau181 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels in community-dwelling older adults. Effects were further assessed in exploratory analyses within sub-cohorts stratified according to p-tau status (with the third tertile considered as high: ≥15.1 pg/ mL) and to apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele status. METHODS: A total of 289 participants ≥70 years (56.4% female, mean age 78.1 years, SD=4.7) of the randomized, double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled Nolan trial had their plasma p-tau181 assessed, and daily took either a nutritional blend (composed of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, biotin, folic acid, cobalamin, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin D, choline, selenium, citrulline, eicosapentaenoic acid - EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid - DHA) or placebo for 1 year. RESULTS: After 1-year, both groups presented a significant increase in plasma p-tau181 and GFAP values, with no effect of the intervention (p-tau181 between-group difference: 0.27pg/mL, 95%CI: -0.95, 1.48; p=0.665; GFAP between-group difference: -3.28 pg/mL, 95%CI: -17.25, 10.69; p=0.644). P-tau-and APOE ε4-stratified analyses provided similar findings. CONCLUSIONS: In community-dwelling older adults, we observed an increase in plasma p-tau181 and GFAP levels that was not different between the supplementation groups after one year

Can strategizing in round-robin subtournaments be avoided?

This paper develops a mathematical model of strategic manipulation in complex sports competition formats such as the soccer world cup or the Olympic games. Strategic manipulation refers here to the possibility that a team may lose a match on purpose in order to increase its prospects of winning the competition. In particular, the paper looks at round-robin tournaments where both first- and second-ranked players proceed to the next round. This standard format used in many sports gives rise to the possibility of strategic manipulation, as exhibited recently in the 2012 Olympic games. An impossibility theorem is proved which demonstrates that under a number of reasonable side-constraints, strategy-proofness is impossible to obtain

Early developmental pathways to childhood symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and autism spectrum disorder

Background Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have co-occurring symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or anxiety. It is unclear whether these disorders arise from shared or distinct developmental pathways. We explored this question by testing the specificity of early-life (infant and toddler) predictors of mid-childhood ADHD and anxiety symptoms compared to ASD symptoms. Methods Infants (n = 104) at high and low familial risk for ASD took part in research assessments at 7, 14, 24 and 38 months, and 7 years of age. Symptoms of ASD, ADHD and anxiety were measured by parent report at age 7. Activity levels and inhibitory control, also measured by parent report, in infancy and toddlerhood were used as early-life predictors of ADHD symptoms. Fearfulness and shyness measured in infancy and toddlerhood were used as early-life predictors of anxiety symptoms. Correlations and path analysis models tested associations between early-life predictors and mid-childhood ADHD and anxiety symptoms compared to mid-childhood ASD symptoms, and the influence of controlling for ASD symptoms on those associations. Results Increased activity levels and poor inhibitory control were correlated with ADHD symptoms and not ASD or anxiety; these associations were unchanged in path models controlling for risk-group and ASD symptoms. Increased fearfulness and shyness were correlated with anxiety symptoms, but also ASD symptoms. When controlling for risk-group in path analysis, the association between shyness and anxiety became nonsignificant, and when further controlling for ASD symptoms the association between fearfulness and anxiety became marginal. Conclusions The specificity of early-life predictors to ADHD symptoms suggests early developmental pathways to ADHD might be distinct from ASD. The overlap in early-life predictors of anxiety and ASD suggests that these disorders are difficult to differentiate early in life, which could reflect the presence of common developmental pathways or convergence in early behavioural manifestations of these disorders