Changes in Parental Prosody Mediate Effect of Parent-Training Intervention on Infant Language Production

Objective: Parent-training interventions to reduce behavior problems in young children typically coach parents on the content of their speech, but rarely assess parents' prosody during parent-child interactions. Infant-directed speech helps shape the parent-infant relationship and promote language development, which predicts adaptive behavioral outcomes in children. The current study examined (a) the effect of a parent-training intervention on parents' vocal cues in interactions with their infant and (b) whether parental prosody mediated the impact of the intervention on infant language production. Method: Sixty families with 12- to 15-month-old infants (47% female; 95% of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity) participated in the Infant Behavior Program (IBP), a brief home-based adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, or received standard pediatric care. Speech analysis was performed on mothers' (n = 40) utterances during infant-led play pre- and postintervention. Infants' number of utterances spoken during play was assessed at pre- and postintervention, and at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Results: Mothers who received the IBP spoke with greater pitch range and slower tempo postintervention, when controlling for baseline prosody. Change in these vocal cues, which are typical of infant-directed speech, mediated the effect of the intervention on infants' word production after 6 months. Conclusions: Interventions targeting the content of parents' speech during parent-infant interactions may lead to changes in parental prosody, which may be beneficial for infants' language development. Impaired linguistic abilities in infancy are strongly associated with behavior problems in later childhood; thus, these findings highlight a potential mechanism for intervention efficacy in promoting positive socioemotional and behavioral outcomes. What is the public health significance of this article? Interventions targeting parent behaviors in the context of the parent-infant relationship may promote the use of infant-directed speech prosody. Parents' use of these vocal cues may be beneficial for infants' language development, which has been associated with adaptive socioemotional and behavioral outcomes in later childhood

Associations Between Adolescents’ Social Re-orientation Toward Peers Over Caregivers and Neural Response to Teenage Faces

Adolescence is a period of intensive development in body, brain, and behavior. Potentiated by changes in hormones and neural response to social stimuli, teenagers undergo a process of social re-orientation away from their caregivers and toward expanding peer networks. The current study examines how relative relational closeness to peers (compared to parents) during adolescence is linked to neural response to the facial emotional expressions of other teenagers. Self-reported closeness with friends (same- and opposite-sex) and parents (mother and father), and neural response to facial stimuli during fMRI, were assessed in 8- to 19-year-old typically developing youth (n = 40, mean age = 13.90 years old, SD = 3.36; 25 female). Youth who reported greater relative closeness with peers than with parents showed decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during stimulus presentation, which may reflect lessened inhibitory control or regulatory response to peer-aged faces. Functional connectivity between the dlPFC and dorsal striatum was greatest in older youth who were closer to peers; in contrast, negative coupling between these regions was noted for both younger participants who were closer to peers and older participants who were closer to their parents. In addition, the association between relative closeness to peers and neural activation in regions of the social brain varied by emotion type and age. Results suggest that the re-orientation toward peers that occurs during adolescence is accompanied by changes in neural response to peer-aged social signals in social cognitive, prefrontal, and subcortical networks

Loneliness and the recognition of vocal socioemotional expressions in adolescence

Lonely individuals show increased social monitoring and heightened recognition of negative facial expressions. The current study investigated whether this pattern extends to other nonverbal modalities by examining associations between loneliness and the recognition of vocal emotional expressions. Youth, ages 11–18 years (n = 122), were asked to identify the intended emotion in auditory portrayals of basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness) and social expressions (friendliness, meanness). Controlling for social anxiety, age, and gender, links between loneliness and recognition accuracy were emotion-specific: loneliness was associated with poorer recognition of fear, but better recognition of friendliness. Lonely individuals’ motivation to avoid threat may interfere with the recognition of fear, but their attunement to affiliative cues may promote the identification of friendliness in affective prosody. Monitoring for social affiliation cues in others’ voices might represent an adaptive function of the reconnection system in lonely youth, and be a worthy target for intervention

Symmetries and exponential error reduction in Yang-Mills theories on the lattice

The partition function of a quantum field theory with an exact symmetry can be decomposed into a sum of functional integrals each giving the contribution from states with definite symmetry properties. The composition rules of the corresponding transfer matrix elements can be exploited to devise a multi-level Monte Carlo integration scheme for computing correlation functions whose numerical cost, at a fixed precision and at asymptotically large times, increases power-like with the time extent of the lattice. As a result the numerical effort is exponentially reduced with respect to the standard Monte Carlo procedure. We test this strategy in the SU(3) Yang--Mills theory by evaluating the relative contribution to the partition function of the parity odd states.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Few typos corrected, data sets added, Appendix A added. To appear on Comput. Phys. Commu

Listeners feel the beat: Entrainment to English and French speech rhythms

Can listeners entrain to speech rhythms? Monolingual speakers of English and French and balanced English–French bilinguals tapped along with the beat they perceived in sentences spoken in a stress-timed language, English, and a syllable-timed language, French. All groups of participants tapped more regularly to English than to French utterances. Tapping performance was also influenced by the participants’ native language: English-speaking participants and bilinguals tapped more regularly and at higher metrical levels than did French-speaking participants, suggesting that long-term linguistic experience with a stress-timed language can differentiate speakers’ entrainment to speech rhythm

Adult scoliosis can be reduced through specific SEAS exercises: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been known since many years that scoliosis can continue to progress after skeletal maturity: the rate of progression has shown to be linear, and it can be used to establish an individual prognosis. Once there is progression there is an indication for treatment: usually it is proposed a surgical one. There are very few papers on an alternative rehabilitation approach; since many years we propose specific SEAS exercises and the aim of this study is to present one case report on this approach.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>All radiographs have been measured blindly twice using the same protractor by one expert physician whose repeatability error proved to be < 3° Cobb; the average measurement has been used. In this case a 25 years old female scoliosis patient, previously treated from 14 (Risser 1) to 19 years of age with a decrease of the curve from 46° to 37°, showed a progression of 10° Cobb in 6 years. The patient has then been treated with SEAS exercises only, and in one year progression has been reverted from 47° to 28.5°.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A scoliosis curve is made of different components: the structural bony and ligamentous components, and a postural one that counts up to 9° in children, while it has not been quantified in adults. This case shows that when adult scoliosis aggravates it is possible to intervene with specific exercises (SEAS) not just to get stability, but to recover last years collapse. The reduction of scoliotic curve through rehabilitation presumably does not indicate a reduction of the bone deformity, but rely on a recovery of the upright postural collapse. This reduction can decrease the chronic asymmetric load on the spine and, in the long run, reduce the risks of progression.</p

2011 SOSORT guidelines: Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation treatment of idiopathic scoliosis during growth

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The International Scientific Society on Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), that produced its first Guidelines in 2005, felt the need to revise them and increase their scientific quality. The aim is to offer to all professionals and their patients an evidence-based updated review of the actual evidence on conservative treatment of idiopathic scoliosis (CTIS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All types of professionals (specialty physicians, and allied health professionals) engaged in CTIS have been involved together with a methodologist and a patient representative. A review of all the relevant literature and of the existing Guidelines have been performed. Documents, recommendations, and practical approach flow charts have been developed according to a Delphi procedure. A methodological and practical review has been made, and a final Consensus Session was held during the 2011 Barcelona SOSORT Meeting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The contents of the document are: methodology; generalities on idiopathic scoliosis; approach to CTIS in different patients, with practical flow-charts; literature review and recommendations on assessment, bracing, physiotherapy, Physiotherapeutic Specific Exercises (PSE) and other CTIS. Sixty-five recommendations have been given, divided in the following topics: Bracing (20 recommendations), PSE to prevent scoliosis progression during growth (8), PSE during brace treatment and surgical therapy (5), Other conservative treatments (3), Respiratory function and exercises (3), Sports activities (6), Assessment (20). No recommendations reached a Strength of Evidence level I; 2 were level II; 7 level III; and 20 level IV; through the Consensus procedure 26 reached level V and 10 level VI. The Strength of Recommendations was Grade A for 13, B for 49 and C for 3; none had grade D.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These Guidelines have been a big effort of SOSORT to paint the actual situation of CTIS, starting from the evidence, and filling all the gray areas using a scientific method. According to results, it is possible to understand the lack of research in general on CTIS. SOSORT invites researchers to join, and clinicians to develop good research strategies to allow in the future to support or refute these recommendations according to new and stronger evidence.</p

Age-related differences in the production and recognition of vocal socio-emotional expressions

The present thesis examined age-related differences and individual factors associated with youth's and adults' ability to produce and recognize socio-emotional expressions in the voice. Vocal cues in a speaker's tone of voice are an important source of social information, yet they remain an understudied form of emotional communication. The studies presented herein examine both the encoding and decoding of affective prosody by youth and adults. Though previous work has typified the patterns of acoustic cues used by adults when portraying "basic" emotions, such as happiness and anger, virtually no data exists on the production of emotional prosody by youth. Study 1 compared the vocal cues underlying 24 young actors' portrayals of various expressions to those of 30 adult actors, to determine whether there were age-related differences in how both age groups conveyed basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness) and social expressions of meanness and friendliness. Adults' vocal expressions were more distinct in pitch from one another than those of adolescents; given the influence of pitch cues on the identification of emotional intent in the voice (Scherer, 1996), the results of Study 1 suggest that adults' emotional prosody may be easier for listeners to decode than those of youth. Building on this result, Study 2 examined how speaker age, listener age, and the interaction between these two factors were associated with listeners' vocal decoding skills. Fifty youth and 87 adult listeners were asked to identify the intended expression in recordings produced by youth and adult actors (from Study 1). Adult listeners were more accurate in recognition than were younger listeners, aligning with previous evidence that vocal decoding skills increase with age (Brosgole &amp; Weisman, 1995). Further, consistent with our interpretation of the acoustic analyses in Study 1, adult speakers' portrayals were better recognized than youth speakers'. Lastly, Study 2 found that speaker age, listener age, and expression interacted to predict recognition accuracy. Specifically, though adult listeners outperformed youth when hearing adult portrayals of fear and sadness and most child-generated expressions, youth achieved adult-like accuracy with several adult-generated expressions (i.e., anger, disgust, friendliness, happiness, and meanness) and youth portrayals of disgust, meanness, and happiness. Adults may thus outperform youth primarily with highly-recognized expressions. More broadly, these results suggest that youth may struggle to identify peers' less skillfully enacted emotional cues in social contexts, making interpersonal interactions particularly challenging during adolescence. Given previous evidence that anxious and depressed youth struggle to navigate social interactions (Kochel, Ladd, &amp; Rudolph, 2012), Study 3 examined whether anxious and depressive symptoms were linked to vocal recognition deficits. Twenty-nine clinically referred and 28 healthy comparison youth aged 8-17 were asked to identify the intended expression in youth-generated vocal recordings. I examined associations between youth's anxious and depressive symptoms and their recognition accuracy. Results indicated that depressive symptoms were linked to reduced identification of happiness and anger, a pattern that may be particularly problematic in the context of social skills deficits and the maintenance of depressive symptoms. Study 3 also revealed a linear relationship between greater age and increased recognition accuracy, providing new evidence that vocal recognition skills continue to improve through adolescence. In sum, the current thesis mapped age-related changes in the encoding and decoding of vocal socio-emotional prosody, and examined the associations between internalizing symptomatology and the recognition of vocal affect by peers. These studies provide novel information about the development of vocal production and recognition skills in adults and youth.La présente thèse examine des facteurs développementaux et individuels associés à la capacité à produire et reconnaître des expressions socio-émotionnelles vocales. Les indices vocaux d'un locuteur sont une importante source d'information sociale, mais sont une forme de communication émotionnelle peu étudiée. Les études présentes examinent l'encodage et le décodage de la prosodie affective par les jeunes et les adultes. Bien que des études précédentes aient caractérisé les indices vocaux utilisés par les adultes pour représenter les émotions « de base » comme la joie et la colère, la prosodie affective des jeunes est très peu étudiée. L'Étude 1 compare les indices vocaux des expressions produites par 24 jeunes acteurs à ceux de 30 acteurs adultes, pour déterminer comment les deux groupes transmettent les émotions de base (colère, dégoût, peur, joie, tristesse) et des expressions sociales de méchanceté et de gentillesse. Les expressions vocales des adultes étaient plus distinctes l'une de l'autre que celles des adolescents en terme de ton sonore. Vu l'influence de cet indice acoustique sur l'identification de l'émotion contenue dans la voix (Scherer, 1996), ces résultats suggèrent que la prosodie émotionnelle des adultes pourrait être plus facile à décoder pour les auditeurs que celle des jeunes. Pour faire suite à ces résultats, l'Étude 2 a examiné l'influence de l'âge du locuteur, l'âge de l'auditeur, et de leur interaction sur la capacité de décodage des auditeurs. Cinquante jeunes et 87 adultes ont identifié l'expression émotionnelle contenue dans les enregistrements auditifs produits par les acteurs adolescents et adultes (de l'Étude 1). Les auditeurs adultes démontrent une meilleure identification que les jeunes, concordant avec des recherches démontrant que le décodage vocal s'améliore avec l'âge (Brosgole &amp; Weisman, 1995). De plus, la prosodie émotionnelle produite par des adultes était mieux reconnue que celle des jeunes. Finalement, l'Étude 2 a noté que l'âge du locuteur, l'âge de l'auditeur, et l'expression émotionnelle interagissaient pour prédire la capacité de décodage des auditeurs. Les auditeurs adultes surpassaient les jeunes dans leur identification de la peur et de la tristesse produite par les adultes, ainsi que la majorité des expressions générées par les jeunes. Par contre, les jeunes auditeurs étaient équivalents en habileté aux adultes pour plusieurs des expressions produites par les adultes (p. ex., colère, dégoût, gentillesse, joie, et méchanceté), ainsi que le dégoût, la méchanceté, et la joie produite par les jeunes. Ces résultats indiquent que les jeunes pourraient avoir de la difficulté à reconnaître les indices émotionnels des autres adolescents, compliquant la tâche de naviguer les interactions sociales pendant l'adolescence. Puisque les jeunes anxieux et dépressifs peinent à gérer leurs relations sociales (Kochel, Ladd, &amp; Rudolph, 2012), l'Étude 3 a déterminé le lien entre les symptômes de dépression et d'anxiété chez les jeunes et leur identification de la prosodie émotionnelle. Vingt-neuf adolescents anxieux et 28 jeunes non-anxieux ont identifié l'expression présentée dans les enregistrements produits par des jeunes. Les symptômes de dépression étaient liés à des déficits dans l'identification de la joie et de la colère, ce qui pourrait être problématique pour la compétence sociale de ces jeunes et le maintien de leurs symptômes. L'Étude 3 révèle aussi une relation linéaire entre l'âge des participants et la reconnaissance vocale, suggèrant que cette habileté continue à croître pendant l'adolescence. Cette thèse trace les différences développementales dans l'encodage et le décodage de la prosodie émotionnelle, et examine les associations entre les symptômes dépressifs et anxieux et la capacité à reconnaître l'expression vocale de pairs. Ces études élucident des facteurs reliés au développement de la production et de la reconnaissance de la prosodie affective chez les jeunes et les adultes