Retrodictive mentalising abilities of individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the retrodictive mentalising abilities (a kind of backwards inference from a mental state to its causal antecedent in order to make sense of others’ behaviours) of people with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A new experimental paradigm was developed in order to examine people’s ability to make sense of others’ behaviours in a way that closely resembles the intricacies of real-world settings. The stimuli utilised in this thesis portrayed people’s spontaneous and genuine responses during four specific events (scenarios). People were told a joke in the Joke scenario whereas in the Story scenario the researcher related a series of unfortunate mishaps that she experienced earlier in the day. In the Compliments scenario, people were told a series of compliments while in the Waiting scenario the researcher performed irrelevant tasks during an experiment whilst the person was kept waiting. Participants viewed brief videoclips of these behavioural responses and were asked to determine which event had previously occurred to the people in the videoclips. Participants eye movements were recorded to ascertain the visual strategies used. Typically developing individuals successfully inferred the events that occurred by viewing brief samples of behavioural reactions of typically developing individuals (Experiment 1). It was found that scenario experienced did not impact how targets self-reported their level of empathic ability (Experiment 2). While people with ASD were able to infer people’s behavioural responses, their performance on the task was inferior as compared to typically developing individuals (Experiment 3). Participants varied their gaze strategies depending on the event experienced by the people in the videoclips and they had a tendency to focus more on the mouth compared to the eye region of the face (Experiment 1 and 3). When participants viewed videoclips of behavioural responses of people with and without ASD to the same events, they were more successful at inferring the reactions to the events which occurred when viewing videoclips of neurotypical individuals as opposed to individuals with ASD (Experiment 4). Furthermore, participants were unable to identify the reactions to two of the four events when viewing videoclips of people with ASD

Effectiveness of aum meditation on subjective wellbeing among older adults at selected old age homes, Salem

This study was carried out to Evaluate the Effectiveness of AUM Meditation on Subjective Well being among Older Adults at selected Old Age Homes, Salem. The research approach adopted for this study was Quantitative research approach with quasi experimental design. The study was conducted in Tambras old age home and Vallalar Old Age Home. The sample size was 60 who were selected by non probability convience sampling technique. A standardized subjective wellbeing inventory scale, WHO, 1992 (self reporting questionnaire) was used to assess the subjective wellbeing. For experimental group, the investigator demonstrated the AUM meditation with the mudras. The collected data were analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods, and interpretations were made based on the objectives of the study. The study finding revealed that during pretest, in experimental group 19 (63.33%) older adults were falling into ill being, 11(36.67%) of them were moderately ill being and none of them had good sense of wellbeing. In control group, 20(66.67%) of them had ill being10(33.33%) had moderately ill being and none of them had good senses of wellbeing. During post test in experimental group 6(20%) had ill being, 16(53.33%) had moderately ill being and 8(26.67%) had good sense of wellbeing. The mean score on level of subjective wellbeing among older adults in experimental group before intervention was 50.77 + 9.17 and after intervention was 72.23 + 13.42 with a mean difference of 21.46. The estimated paired-‘t’ value was 17.74 at p≤ 0.05 level. Hence the research hypothesis(H1) was retained at p≤0.05 level The mean post test score on level of subjective wellbeing among older adults in experimental group was 72.23 + 13.42 and in control group was 58.73+ 8.27 with a mean difference of 13.5. The estimated ‘t’ value was 4.90 which is highly significant at p ≤ 0.01 level. Hence the research hypothesis H2 was retained. There was significant association between the level of subjective well being among older adults and their medical illness in experimental group at p≤0.05 level and no significant association between the level of subjective wellbeing among older adults and their selected demographic variables in control group. The study concluded that AUM Meditation was effective on improving Subjective Well being among Older Adults at selected Old Age Homes

Retrodictive mentalising abilities of individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the retrodictive mentalising abilities (a kind of backwards inference from a mental state to its causal antecedent in order to make sense of others’ behaviours) of people with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A new experimental paradigm was developed in order to examine people’s ability to make sense of others’ behaviours in a way that closely resembles the intricacies of real-world settings. The stimuli utilised in this thesis portrayed people’s spontaneous and genuine responses during four specific events (scenarios). People were told a joke in the Joke scenario whereas in the Story scenario the researcher related a series of unfortunate mishaps that she experienced earlier in the day. In the Compliments scenario, people were told a series of compliments while in the Waiting scenario the researcher performed irrelevant tasks during an experiment whilst the person was kept waiting. Participants viewed brief videoclips of these behavioural responses and were asked to determine which event had previously occurred to the people in the videoclips. Participants eye movements were recorded to ascertain the visual strategies used. Typically developing individuals successfully inferred the events that occurred by viewing brief samples of behavioural reactions of typically developing individuals (Experiment 1). It was found that scenario experienced did not impact how targets self-reported their level of empathic ability (Experiment 2). While people with ASD were able to infer people’s behavioural responses, their performance on the task was inferior as compared to typically developing individuals (Experiment 3). Participants varied their gaze strategies depending on the event experienced by the people in the videoclips and they had a tendency to focus more on the mouth compared to the eye region of the face (Experiment 1 and 3). When participants viewed videoclips of behavioural responses of people with and without ASD to the same events, they were more successful at inferring the reactions to the events which occurred when viewing videoclips of neurotypical individuals as opposed to individuals with ASD (Experiment 4). Furthermore, participants were unable to identify the reactions to two of the four events when viewing videoclips of people with ASD

Can people guess what happened to others from their reactions?

Are we able to infer what happened to a person from a brief sample of his/her behaviour? It has been proposed that mentalising skills can be used to retrodict as well as predict behaviour, that is, to determine what mental states of a target have already occurred. The current study aimed to develop a paradigm to explore these processes, which takes into account the intricacies of real-life situations in which reasoning about mental states, as embodied in behaviour, may be utilised. A novel task was devised which involved observing subtle and naturalistic reactions of others in order to determine the event that had previously taken place. Thirty-five participants viewed videos of real individuals reacting to the researcher behaving in one of four possible ways, and were asked to judge which of the four ‘scenarios’ they thought the individual was responding to. Their eye movements were recorded to establish the visual strategies used. Participants were able to deduce successfully from a small sample of behaviour which scenario had previously occurred. Surprisingly, looking at the eye region was associated with poorer identification of the scenarios, and eye movement strategy varied depending on the event experienced by the person in the video. This suggests people flexibly deploy their attention using a retrodictive mindreading process to infer events

Editorial: Addressing community priorities in autism research

Autism is a form of neurodiversity, currently characterized by differences compared to the neurotypical population across multiple domains including sensory processing (Proff et al., 2021), social communication style (Crompton et al., 2021), attentional processing (Murray et al., 2005), and movement and motor processing (Miller et al., 2021). Historically, autism (and thus autistic people) has been studied through a medical lens (Chapman and Carel, 2022), owing primarily to the characterization of autism as a disorder of childhood development. These conceptualizations led to dehumanizing narratives about autistic people (Botha) and have impacted on who we consider to be knowledgeable about what it is like to be autistic (Kourti). In recent years, there has been a shift toward recognition of autism as a form of neurodivergence; a naturally occurring variation in the human population that may lead to a differential profile of strengths and challenges in comparison to the non-autistic population (Den Houting, 2019). This shift has been primarily driven by the autistic self-advocacy and neurodiversity movements (Kapp et al., 2013; Walker, 2021), which have campaigned for better understanding of autistic people

An Ayurvedic View on Food (Ahara)—A Review

Food plays a crucial role in both health and disease. A healthy life starts with healthy food. One should consume food only depending on one’s digestive fire. In Ayurveda, six ritus (seasons) have been detailed, and specific dietary and lifestyle regimens are also well explained. There is a great interconnection between ahara, the gut microbiome and seasons. In Ayurveda, food supports and brings out the three qualities of mind, namely satvika (quality of purity and harmony), rajasika (quality of passion and manipulation) and thamasika (darkness, destruction). The satvik diet appears to be similar to a modern but prudent dietary pattern

Mean percentage of total gaze time (square root transformed) at the eye and mouth across four scenarios.

<p>Error bars report standard errors of the mean.</p

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-GB">Optimization of inoculum density in hairy root culture of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Plumbago rosea</i> L. for enhanced growth and plumbagin production towards scaling-up in bioreactor</span>

264-269<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">The present study evaluated the influence of initial inoculum density (ID) on growth and plumbagin production in hairy root culture of Plumbago rosea L. in shake-flask as well as air-sparged bioreactor. IDs ranging from that of single root tip (0.08 g/L) to 10 g/L were analyzed in 50 mL MS basal media of 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks. For scaling-up in bioreactor of 2 L working-capacity, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 and 15 g/L IDs were analysed. Optimal ID was found to be 1 g/L in shake-flask culture, producing a growth index of 36.15 on 30th d with plumbagin content of 1.325 g in 100 g DW of roots (1.325%). In the bioreactor, biomass increase was maximum for 5 g/L with a growth index of 11.428 and plumbagin content of 1.425%. Here we report the maximum plumbagin concentration (1.325%) in P. rosea hairy root culture, enhanced from 0.99% innate plumbagin content of the mother culture through sole optimization of ID. Further enhancement to 1.425% was attained by scaling-up in the bioreactor. The plumbagin concentration obtained in bioreactor culture of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">P. rosea hairy roots (1.425%) is also the highest reported so far in scaling-up. Thus results indicate that ID is a critical parameter influencing enhanced production of root biomass and plumbagin in hairy root cultures of P. rosea.</span

An Investigation of the Quality of Underground Water at Eloor in Ernakulum District of Kerala, India

The physical and chemical properties of groundwater in Eloor, an industrial region, have been investigated to evaluate the extent of pollution. The study area was divided into four zones and a total of 40 water samples from different locations were collected, analyzed and correlation analysis has been carried out among the measured parameters. A comparison of the observed parameters with the limits prescribed by BIS revealed that in some area pH values are lower than the prescribed limit. The concentration of the major cations and anions were found to be significant. Magnesium and chloride exceed the desirable limit in some areas but less than the upper limit prescribed by BIS. Significant linear relationship was observed between pH, electrical conductivity, alkalinity, hardness, Ca2+, Mg2+ and chloride. The importance of these parameters in predicting the quality characteristics of groundwater is discussed