Preference for biological motion is reduced in ASD: implications for clinical trials and the search for biomarkers.

BACKGROUND: The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear. Progress has been largely hampered by small sample sizes, variable age ranges and resulting inconsistent findings. There is a pressing need for large definitive studies to delineate the nature and extent of key case/control differences to direct research towards fruitful areas for future investigation. Here we focus on perception of biological motion, a promising index of social brain function which may be altered in ASD. In a large sample ranging from childhood to adulthood, we assess whether biological motion preference differs in ASD compared to neurotypical participants (NT), how differences are modulated by age and sex and whether they are associated with dimensional variation in concurrent or later symptomatology. METHODS: Eye-tracking data were collected from 486 6-to-30-year-old autistic (N = 282) and non-autistic control (N = 204) participants whilst they viewed 28 trials pairing biological (BM) and control (non-biological, CTRL) motion. Preference for the biological motion stimulus was calculated as (1) proportion looking time difference (BM-CTRL) and (2) peak look duration difference (BM-CTRL). RESULTS: The ASD group showed a present but weaker preference for biological motion than the NT group. The nature of the control stimulus modulated preference for biological motion in both groups. Biological motion preference did not vary with age, gender, or concurrent or prospective social communicative skill within the ASD group, although a lack of clear preference for either stimulus was associated with higher social-communicative symptoms at baseline. LIMITATIONS: The paired visual preference we used may underestimate preference for a stimulus in younger and lower IQ individuals. Our ASD group had a lower average IQ by approximately seven points. 18% of our sample was not analysed for various technical and behavioural reasons. CONCLUSIONS: Biological motion preference elicits small-to-medium-sized case-control effects, but individual differences do not strongly relate to core social autism associated symptomatology. We interpret this as an autistic difference (as opposed to a deficit) likely manifest in social brain regions. The extent to which this is an innate difference present from birth and central to the autistic phenotype, or the consequence of a life lived with ASD, is unclear

The Rice GLYCINE-RICH PROTEIN 3 Confers Drought Tolerance by Regulating mRNA Stability of ROS Scavenging-Related Genes

Background Plant glycine-rich proteins are categorized into several classes based on their protein structures. The glycine-rich RNA binding proteins (GRPs) are members of class IV subfamily possessing N-terminus RNA-recognition motifs (RRMs) and proposed to be involved in post-transcriptional regulation of its target transcripts. GRPs are involved in developmental process and cellular stress responses, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these regulations are still elusive. Results Here, we report the functional characterization of rice GLYCINE-RICH PROTEIN 3 (OsGRP3) and its physiological roles in drought stress response. Both drought stress and ABA induce the expression of OsGRP3. Transgenic plants overexpressing OsGRP3 (OsGRP3OE) exhibited tolerance while knock-down plants (OsGRP3KD) were susceptible to drought compared to the non-transgenic control. In vivo, subcellular localization analysis revealed that OsGRP3-GFP was transported from cytoplasm/nucleus into cytoplasmic foci following exposure to ABA and mannitol treatments. Comparative transcriptomic analysis between OsGRP3OE and OsGRP3KD plants suggests that OsGRP3 is involved in the regulation of the ROS related genes. RNA-immunoprecipitation analysis revealed the associations of OsGRP3 with PATHOGENESIS RELATED GENE 5 (PR5), METALLOTHIONEIN 1d (MT1d), 4,5-DOPA-DIOXYGENASE (DOPA), and LIPOXYGENASE (LOX) transcripts. The half-life analysis showed that PR5 transcripts decayed slower in OsGRP3OE but faster in OsGRP3KD, while MT1d and LOX transcripts decayed faster in OsGRP3OE but slower in OsGRP3KD plants. H2O2 accumulation was reduced in OsGRP3OE and increased in OsGRP3KD plants compared to non-transgenic plants (NT) under drought stress. Conclusion OsGRP3 plays a positive regulator in rice drought tolerance and modulates the transcript level and mRNA stability of stress-responsive genes, including ROS-related genes. Moreover, OsGRP3 contributes to the reduction of ROS accumulation during drought stress. Our results suggested that OsGRP3 alleviates ROS accumulation by regulating ROS-related genes mRNA stability under drought stress, which confers drought tolerance.This work was supported by a grant from the New breeding technologies development Program (Project No. PJ01477201 to J.-K.K.), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea

Modelling concept prototype competencies using a developmental memory model

The use of concepts is fundamental to human-level cognition, but there remain a number of open questions as to the structures supporting this competence. Specifically, it has been shown that humans use concept prototypes, a flexible means of representing concepts such that it can be used both for categorisation and for similarity judgements. In the context of autonomous robotic agents, the processes by which such concept functionality could be acquired would be particularly useful, enabling flexible knowledge representation and application. This paper seeks to explore this issue of autonomous concept acquisition. By applying a set of structural and operational principles, that support a wide range of cognitive competencies, within a developmental framework, the intention is to explicitly embed the development of concepts into a wider framework of cognitive processing. Comparison with a benchmark concept modelling system shows that the proposed approach can account for a number of features, namely concept-based classification, and its extension to prototype-like functionality

Reduced preference for social rewards in a novel tablet based task in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Atypical responsivity to social rewards has been observed in young children with or at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These observations contributed to the hypothesis of reduced social motivation in ASD. In the current study we develop a novel task to test social reward preference using a tablet computer (iPad), where two differently coloured buttons were associated with a social and a nonsocial rewarding image respectively. 63 young children, aged 14–68 months, with and without a diagnosis of ASD took part in the study. The experimental sessions were also recorded on video, using an in-built webcam on the tablet as well as an external camera. Children with ASD were found to show a reduced relative preference for social rewards, indexed by a lower proportion of touches for the button associated with the social reward image. Greater social preference as measured using the tablet-based task was associated with increased use of social communicative behaviour such as eye contact with the experimenter and social smile in response to the social reward image. These results are consistent with earlier findings from eye-tracking studies, and provide novel empirical insights into atypical social reward responsivity in ASD

Sex Differences in Social Attention in Infants at Risk for Autism

We studied visual attention to emotional faces in 10-month-old infant siblings of children with ASD (ASD-sibs; N = 70) and a siblings of typically developing children (N = 29) using static stimuli. Contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence for atypical gaze behavior in ASD-sibs when boys and girls were analyzed together. However, a sex difference was found in ASD-sibs' visual attention to the mouth. Male ASD-sibs looked more at the mouth across emotions compared to male controls and female ASD-sibs. In contrast, female ASD-sibs looked less at the mouth compared to female controls. These findings suggest that some aspects of early emerging atypical social attention in ASD-sibs may be sex specific

Preference for biological motion is reduced in ASD: implications for clinical trials and the search for biomarkers

Background: The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear. Progress has been largely hampered by small sample sizes, variable age ranges and resulting inconsistent findings. There is a pressing need for large definitive studies to delineate the nature and extent of key case/control differences to direct research towards fruitful areas for future investigation. Here we focus on perception of biological motion, a promising index of social brain function which may be altered in ASD. In a large sample ranging from childhood to adulthood, we assess whether biological motion preference differs in ASD compared to neurotypical participants (NT), how differences are modulated by age and sex and whether they are associated with dimensional variation in concurrent or later symptomatology. Methods: Eye-tracking data were collected from 486 6-to-30-year-old autistic (N = 282) and non-autistic control (N = 204) participants whilst they viewed 28 trials pairing biological (BM) and control (non-biological, CTRL) motion. Preference for the biological motion stimulus was calculated as (1) proportion looking time difference (BM-CTRL) and (2) peak look duration difference (BM-CTRL). Results: The ASD group showed a present but weaker preference for biological motion than the NT group. The nature of the control stimulus modulated preference for biological motion in both groups. Biological motion preference did not vary with age, gender, or concurrent or prospective social communicative skill within the ASD group, although a lack of clear preference for either stimulus was associated with higher social-communicative symptoms at baseline. Limitations: The paired visual preference we used may underestimate preference for a stimulus in younger and lower IQ individuals. Our ASD group had a lower average IQ by approximately seven points. 18% of our sample was not analysed for various technical and behavioural reasons. Conclusions: Biological motion preference elicits small-to-medium-sized case–control effects, but individual differences do not strongly relate to core social autism associated symptomatology. We interpret this as an autistic difference (as opposed to a deficit) likely manifest in social brain regions. The extent to which this is an innate difference present from birth and central to the autistic phenotype, or the consequence of a life lived with ASD, is unclear

Preference for biological motion is reduced in ASD: implications for clinical trials and the search for biomarkers.

BACKGROUND: The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear. Progress has been largely hampered by small sample sizes, variable age ranges and resulting inconsistent findings. There is a pressing need for large definitive studies to delineate the nature and extent of key case/control differences to direct research towards fruitful areas for future investigation. Here we focus on perception of biological motion, a promising index of social brain function which may be altered in ASD. In a large sample ranging from childhood to adulthood, we assess whether biological motion preference differs in ASD compared to neurotypical participants (NT), how differences are modulated by age and sex and whether they are associated with dimensional variation in concurrent or later symptomatology. METHODS: Eye-tracking data were collected from 486 6-to-30-year-old autistic (N = 282) and non-autistic control (N = 204) participants whilst they viewed 28 trials pairing biological (BM) and control (non-biological, CTRL) motion. Preference for the biological motion stimulus was calculated as (1) proportion looking time difference (BM-CTRL) and (2) peak look duration difference (BM-CTRL). RESULTS: The ASD group showed a present but weaker preference for biological motion than the NT group. The nature of the control stimulus modulated preference for biological motion in both groups. Biological motion preference did not vary with age, gender, or concurrent or prospective social communicative skill within the ASD group, although a lack of clear preference for either stimulus was associated with higher social-communicative symptoms at baseline. LIMITATIONS: The paired visual preference we used may underestimate preference for a stimulus in younger and lower IQ individuals. Our ASD group had a lower average IQ by approximately seven points. 18% of our sample was not analysed for various technical and behavioural reasons. CONCLUSIONS: Biological motion preference elicits small-to-medium-sized case-control effects, but individual differences do not strongly relate to core social autism associated symptomatology. We interpret this as an autistic difference (as opposed to a deficit) likely manifest in social brain regions. The extent to which this is an innate difference present from birth and central to the autistic phenotype, or the consequence of a life lived with ASD, is unclear

A multimeasure approach to investigating affective appraisal of social information in Williams syndrome

People with Williams syndrome (WS) have been consistently described as showing heightened sociability, gregariousness, and interest in people, in conjunction with an uneven cognitive profile and mild to moderate intellectual or learning disability. To explore the mechanisms underlying this unusual social–behavioral phenotype, we investigated whether individuals with WS show an atypical appraisal style and autonomic responsiveness to emotionally laden images with social or nonsocial content. Adolescents and adults with WS were compared to chronological age-matched and nonverbal mental age-matched groups in their responses to positive and negative images with or without social content, using measures of self-selected viewing time (SSVT), autonomic arousal reflected in pupil dilation measures, and likeability ratings. The participants with WS looked significantly longer at the social images compared to images without social content and had reduced arousal to the negative social images compared to the control groups. In contrast to the comparison groups, the explicit ratings of likeability in the WS group did not correlate with their SSVT; instead, they reflected an appraisal style of more extreme ratings. This distinctive pattern of viewing interest, likeability ratings, and autonomic arousal to images with social content in the WS group suggests that their heightened social drive may be related to atypical functioning of reward-related brain systems reflected in SSVT and autonomic reactivity measures, but not in explicit ratings

Reduced engagement with social stimuli in 6-month-old infants with later Autism Spectrum Disorder: a longitudinal prospective study of infants at high familial risk

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects more than 1% of the population, and close to 20% of prospectively studied infants with an older sibling with ASD. Although significant progress has been made in characterizing the emergence of behavioral symptoms of ASD, far less is known about the underlying disruptions to early learning. Recent models suggest that core aspects of the causal path to ASD may only be apparent in early infancy. Here, we investigated social attention in 6- and 12-month-old infants who did and did not meet criteria for ASD at 24 months using both cognitive and electrophysiological methods. We hypothesized that a reduction in attention engagement to faces would be associated with later ASD. Methods: In a prospective longitudinal design, we used measures of both visual attention (habituation) and brain function (event-related potentials to faces and objects) at 6 and 12 months, and investigated the relationship to ASD outcome at 24 months. Results: High-risk infants who met criteria for ASD at 24 months showed shorter epochs of visual attention, faster but less prolonged neural activation to faces, and delayed sensitization responses (increases in looking) to faces at 6 months; these differences were less apparent at 12 months. These findings are consistent with disrupted engagement of sustained attention to social stimuli. Conclusions: These findings suggest that there may be fundamental early disruptions to attention engagement that may have cascading consequences for later social functioning

Eye tracking: empirical foundations for a minimal reporting guideline

In this paper, we present a review of how the various aspects of any study using an eye tracker (such as the instrument, methodology, environment, participant, etc.) affect the quality of the recorded eye-tracking data and the obtained eye-movement and gaze measures. We take this review to represent the empirical foundation for reporting guidelines of any study involving an eye tracker. We compare this empirical foundation to five existing reporting guidelines and to a database of 207 published eye-tracking studies. We find that reporting guidelines vary substantially and do not match with actual reporting practices. We end by deriving a minimal, flexible reporting guideline based on empirical research (Section "empirically based minimal reporting guideline")