Parental Verbal Responsiveness during Prelinguistic Vocal Development: Variability and Association with Language Outcomes

The current study explored infants’ prelinguistic vocalizations with mothers and fathers, in addition to how parents responded to infants’ vocalizations. In particular, we were interested in determining if mothers and fathers differed in their level of responsivity, or in specific types of responses. In addition, we examined the relation between parents’ responsiveness and language development. To test this, we observed seven infants once per month from age 8-12 months with their mothers and fathers separately during free play to compare parental verbal and behavioral responses to infants’ vocalizations. The main findings of this study are that: 1) infants did not differ in their vocal production when playing with mothers and fathers; 2) mothers and fathers did not differ in overall responsiveness or responsiveness to vowel-like (V) or consonant-vowel (CV) vocalizations. Interestingly, we found that parents tended to respond to proportionally more V vocalizations than CV vocalizations, and previous studies have found no differences in responses to V vs. CV vocalizations. Importantly, both mothers and fathers produced sensitive responses significantly more than redirective responses. This means that parents are more likely to respond to their infant’s vocalizations semantically and verbally rather than semantically behaviorally. Given that parents’ most frequent responses were sensitive vocal responses, we classified mothers’ and father’s responses as ten specific speech acts. Overall, the most frequent speech acts by parents were questioning, naming, imitating and descriptives, whereas the least frequent speech acts by parents were prohibiting, exclamation, and affirmation. However, parents varied slightly depending on whether infants produced V or CV vocalizations. Play vocalizations were more frequent than prohibitions, affirmations, and exclamations when parents responded to V vocalizations, whereas when parents responded to CV vocalizations, imitations and questions were most frequent responses. In addition, parents imitated CV more than V vocalizations. A novel aspect of our study is that we not only examined maternal responsiveness but also paternal responsiveness to compare mothers and fathers and to investigate fathers’ impact on infants’ language growth. Fathers were similar to mothers in their production of sensitive verbal and behavioral responses; however, there was a trend that fathers produced fewer specific speech acts compared to mothers. Further studies are required to investigate how specific speech acts specifically relate to infants’ language outcomes

Generation of three induced pluripotent stem cell lines (UQACi003-A, UQACi004-A, and UQACi006-A) from three patients with KRT5 epidermolysis bullosa simplex mutations

Heterozygous mutations within Keratin 5 (KRT5) are common genetic causes of epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS), a skin fragility disorder characterized by blisters, which appear after minor trauma. Using CytoTune®Sendai virus, we generated three human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from three EBS patients carrying respectively the single heterozygous mutations in KRT5, c.449 T > C, c.980 T > C, and c.608 T > C. All lines display normal karyotype, expressed high levels of pluripotent markers, and can differentiate into derivatives of the three germ layers. These iPSCs are helpful for a better understanding of the EBS pathogenesis and developing novel therapeutic approaches

Generation of two induced pluripotent stem cell lines (UQACi002-A and UQACi005-A) from two patients with KRT14 epidermolysis bullosa simplex mutations

More than 107 pathogenic variations were identified in Keratin 14 gene (KRT14) in patients affected by epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS), a rare skin disease with still no curative treatment. Disease models as human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are promising tool for further advance the knowledge about this disorder and accelerate therapies development. Here, two hiPSC lines were reprogrammed from skin fibroblasts of two EBS patients carrying mutations within KRT14 by using CytoTune®Sendai virus. These iPSCs display pluripotent cell morphology, pluripotent markers expression, and the capability to differentiate into the three germ layers

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome associated with COVID-19: An Emulated Target Trial Analysis.

RATIONALE: Whether COVID patients may benefit from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) compared with conventional invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) remains unknown. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the effect of ECMO on 90-Day mortality vs IMV only Methods: Among 4,244 critically ill adult patients with COVID-19 included in a multicenter cohort study, we emulated a target trial comparing the treatment strategies of initiating ECMO vs. no ECMO within 7 days of IMV in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (PaO2/FiO2 <80 or PaCO2 ≥60 mmHg). We controlled for confounding using a multivariable Cox model based on predefined variables. MAIN RESULTS: 1,235 patients met the full eligibility criteria for the emulated trial, among whom 164 patients initiated ECMO. The ECMO strategy had a higher survival probability at Day-7 from the onset of eligibility criteria (87% vs 83%, risk difference: 4%, 95% CI 0;9%) which decreased during follow-up (survival at Day-90: 63% vs 65%, risk difference: -2%, 95% CI -10;5%). However, ECMO was associated with higher survival when performed in high-volume ECMO centers or in regions where a specific ECMO network organization was set up to handle high demand, and when initiated within the first 4 days of MV and in profoundly hypoxemic patients. CONCLUSIONS: In an emulated trial based on a nationwide COVID-19 cohort, we found differential survival over time of an ECMO compared with a no-ECMO strategy. However, ECMO was consistently associated with better outcomes when performed in high-volume centers and in regions with ECMO capacities specifically organized to handle high demand. This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Modelling human choices: MADeM and decision‑making

Research supported by FAPESP 2015/50122-0 and DFG-GRTK 1740/2. RP and AR are also part of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics FAPESP grant (2013/07699-0). RP is supported by a FAPESP scholarship (2013/25667-8). ACR is partially supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

Food -associated calls in white -faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus): Different functions from the perspective of the signaler and the recipient

Food-associated calls are widespread in mammalian and avian species. Researchers have based hypotheses about the function of these calls on the responses of call recipients. It is assumed that these calls have evolved to attract others to a food source because call recipients often approach a caller. However, few researchers have investigated the possibility that food-associated calls serve a different function for the signaler than attracting others to a food source. Food-associated calls in white-faced capuchin monkeys were studied to explore the function of these calls independently from the perspective of the signaler and the perspective of the recipient. Naturalistic observations and food placement experiments were conducted to determine the factors that influence the production of food-associated calls. Results showed that the factors that influenced call production were inconsistent with an information-sharing function. Instead, for signalers, food-associated calls appeared to function to announce food ownership, thereby decreasing aggression from other individuals. Playback experiments were performed to investigate whether food-associated calls, although announcing food ownership nonetheless provide information to listeners about the presence of food. In playback experiments, individuals responded to calls in a manner consistent with how they responded to naturally occurring calls. Subjects looked toward the speaker for significantly longer durations after they heard a food-associated call than after they heard a control vocalization. Individuals also moved in the direction of the speaker after hearing a food-associated call in 9 of the 28 trials, whereas they did not approach the speaker in the control trials. Listeners, therefore, appeared to be able to extract information from the calls about the presence of food. Results of this study of food-associated calls in white-faced capuchin monkeys suggest that calls serve a different function for signalers than for recipients. Signalers appeared to call to announce food ownership. However, because listeners have come to associate the call with the presence of food, they responded to the calls as if they had been informed about food. These results suggest that is important to consider the possibility that animal vocalizations may serve a primary function for the signaler, and a secondary, coincidental function for recipients

Food -associated calls in white -faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus): Different functions from the perspective of the signaler and the recipient

Food-associated calls are widespread in mammalian and avian species. Researchers have based hypotheses about the function of these calls on the responses of call recipients. It is assumed that these calls have evolved to attract others to a food source because call recipients often approach a caller. However, few researchers have investigated the possibility that food-associated calls serve a different function for the signaler than attracting others to a food source. Food-associated calls in white-faced capuchin monkeys were studied to explore the function of these calls independently from the perspective of the signaler and the perspective of the recipient. Naturalistic observations and food placement experiments were conducted to determine the factors that influence the production of food-associated calls. Results showed that the factors that influenced call production were inconsistent with an information-sharing function. Instead, for signalers, food-associated calls appeared to function to announce food ownership, thereby decreasing aggression from other individuals. Playback experiments were performed to investigate whether food-associated calls, although announcing food ownership nonetheless provide information to listeners about the presence of food. In playback experiments, individuals responded to calls in a manner consistent with how they responded to naturally occurring calls. Subjects looked toward the speaker for significantly longer durations after they heard a food-associated call than after they heard a control vocalization. Individuals also moved in the direction of the speaker after hearing a food-associated call in 9 of the 28 trials, whereas they did not approach the speaker in the control trials. Listeners, therefore, appeared to be able to extract information from the calls about the presence of food. Results of this study of food-associated calls in white-faced capuchin monkeys suggest that calls serve a different function for signalers than for recipients. Signalers appeared to call to announce food ownership. However, because listeners have come to associate the call with the presence of food, they responded to the calls as if they had been informed about food. These results suggest that is important to consider the possibility that animal vocalizations may serve a primary function for the signaler, and a secondary, coincidental function for recipients

Contingent Labeling after Infants' Pointing Helps Infants Learn Words

Previous studies provide suggestive evidence that infants’ pointing gesture is associated with language development, but cannot verify a causal role of pointing in word learning. The present study thus experimentally manipulated infants’ production of pointing, and responses to pointing, to investigate the role of pointing in infants’ performance of forming novel word-object associations. Sixteen-month-olds were introduced to pairs of novel objects, and then heard the labels after they had pointed to an object, or when they were just looking at it, or at a predetermined time schedule. Results showed that children learned the labels the best when the labels were provided contingently after their pointing gesture. These results suggest that offering information in response to infants’ pointing gestures may lead to better word learning