Do executive function and family factors predict children’s preference for trendy over classic toys? An experimental investigation

In the last decade, global trends and social media have covered almost the entire world, including children population. The toy industry is filled with new items whose popularity has been triggered by viral publications on social networks or by popular animated films. The present experimental study is the first to (i) describe the characteristics of toy choice in the context of the spread of global trends, and (ii) examine the influence of family and individual child characteristics on the dependence on trends in toy choice. The sample consisted of N = 127 children aged 3–4 years. Children had individual assessment of non-verbal intelligence main executive function skills (cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibition control) and took part in the experiment, while their parents completed a questionnaire on family background. Analysis of children’s answers about the reason for choosing a particular toy indicates uncertain motivation in choosing a trendy toy in contrast to the classic ones. It is reflected in the fact that children do not know what exactly and how they will play with it. It is revealed that boys are 1.66 times more likely to prefer the trendy toy than girls. It was also found that as inhibitory control increased, children were less dependent on tendencies to choose toys.</p

Do children need adult support during sociodramatic play to develop executive functions? Experimental evidence

The cultural-historical approach provides the deep theoretical grounds for the analysis of children’s play. Vygotsky suggested three critical features of play: switching to an imaginary situation, taking on a play role, and acting according to a set of rules defined by the role. Collaboration, finding ideas and materials for creating an imaginary situation, defining play roles, and planning the plot are complex tasks for children. However, the question is, do children need educator’s support during the play to develop their executive functions, and to what extent? This experimental study was aimed at answering this inquiry. The four modes of sociodramatic play were created which differed in the adult intervention, from non-involvement in the play to its entire organization. The play could be child-led (with adult help), adult-led, or free (without any adult intervention); and there was also a control group where the children heard the same stimulus stories as the other groups but then followed them up with a drawing activity instead of a play activity. The study revealed that, firstly, the ways of educator’s involvement in the play differed in their potential in respect to the development of executive functions, and, secondly, this influence was not equal for different components of executive functions. Free play in the experiment was not a beneficial condition for the development of any of the studied components of executive functions, compared to the conditions involving the participation of an adult in the play. Furthermore, the type of adult intervention stimulated the development of various executive functions. The entire organization of the play by the adult had a positive impact of their general development. In contrast, the adult’s assistance in the organization of the children’s play had a positive effect on the development of inhibitory control. The study results can be helpful when considering educational practices within a cultural-historical approach to engaging the potential of play in children’s learning and development around the world

Toy Preferences among 3-to-4-Year-Old Children: The Impact of Socio-Demographic Factors and Developmental Characteristics

Background. Today’s common typologies and categories of children’s toys are mainly decided by the manufacturers and retailers of children's products. Such categorizations are not based on a theoretical understanding of child development and therefore cannot provide information about the opportunities that toys provide for the young. Objective. This study proposed three criteria for categorizing toys based on the cultural-historical approach: their degree of realism; their degree of anthropomorphism; and their degree of detail. These criteria were chosen as a result of an analysis of theoretical works carried out in the framework of cultural-historical approach. Design. The proposed criteria were tested through an experiment measuring children's toy preferences. The participants were 129 children of ages 3-4 years. Experimental data confirmed that most children do prefer realistic and detailed toys rather than those with fewer of these properties. The contribution of socio-demographic factors and the children’s individual developmental indicators to their toy preference was also analyzed. Results. The study revealed that among various socio-demographic factors, only the child’s gender and the number of siblings in the family acted as significant predictors for the toy preferences. None of child's developmental characteristics (non-verbal intelligence, executive functions, and emotional understanding) were found to be significant predictors of preference for particular toys. Conclusions. The assumption that toys can be assessed in terms of their realism and degree of detail found empirical support. The results of this study may be useful in designing further research and in the practical issue of toy selection for children age 3-4 years

Dramatic Perezhivanie as a driver of executive functions development through role-play in early childhood:theoretical framework and experimental evidence

Role-play in early childhood is associated with development of executive functions (EFs), although study results remain inconsistent. Due to the complex nature of the role-play, the underlying mechanisms of these associations are not obvious. In this article, play is viewed in the framework of the cultural-historical approach as a special social situation that can become the social situation of development if it results in dramatic perezhivanie of a child. In this study, we compared the level of EFs and play behavior between two play contexts: play guided by an adult and one with less adult involvement. Play behavior was analyzed based on five behavioral measures suggested to be the markers of dramatic perezhivanie. Measures of EFs were taken before and after the experimental procedure. Results show that dramatic perezhivanie might be considered a driver of EFs development through role-play in early childhood. As well as this, the involvement of an adult into play was associated with different patterns of EFs dynamics before and after the intervention. Future work can investigate if the construct of dramatic perezhivanie, microsocial situation of development, and micro-crisis might explain variability of the study results on the association between the role-play and child development.</p

Vaginal Smear TNF-alpha, IL18, TLR4, and GATA3 mRNA Levels Correlate with Local Inflammation

Background: A molecular approach to estimation of local inflammatory response associated with dysbiotic conditions of the vagina is reported. This approach is based on immune response gene transcription levels measured by qPCR assay. Methods and Results: qPCR analysis of 24 immune response gene transcripts in vaginal smears was performed for 215 women with vaginitis and 95 healthy controls. The data were sorted by comparison to local inflammatory response profiles assessed by conventional methods. The local inflammatory response in the vagina is found to correlate with TNF-alpha, IL18, TLR4, and GATA3 transcript levels. Sensitivity and specificity of the approach, as validated in accordance with conventional clinical examination results, are 94.9% and 93.7%, respectively. Conclusions: The noninvasive diagnostic approach to vaginal pathology based solely on its molecular characterization may prove to be clinically relevant

Does the uterine microbiota affect the reproductive outcomes in women with recurrent implantation failures?

Abstract Background Inefficiency of in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs can be caused by implantation failures. The uterine microbiota can influence the implantation process. However, it still remains unclear whether opportunistic microorganisms detected in the endometrium have a negative impact on the implantation success. The aim of our study was to evaluate the influence of the uterine microbiota on the embryo implantation success in patients undergoing assisted reproductive technologies. Methods The study included 130 women diagnosed with infertility. The patients were divided into three groups: group I included women with the first IVF attempt (n = 39); group II included patients with recurrent implantation failure following embryo transfer with ovarian stimulation (n = 27); group III consisted of women with recurrent implantation failure following frozen-thawed embryo transfer (n = 64). We performed microbiological examination of the embryo transfer catheter which was removed from the uterine cavity after embryo transfer; cervical discharge of all the patients was studied as well. Thirty patients were selected for metagenomic sequencing. Results The study showed that the uterine cavity is not free of microorganisms. A total of 44 species of microorganisms were detected: 26 species of opportunistic organisms and 18 species of commensals (14 species of lactobacilli and 4 species of bifidobacteria). Obligate anaerobic microorganisms and Gardnerella vaginalis were detected more frequently in group I compared to group III (strict anaerobes—15.4 and 1.6%; G. vaginalis—12.8 and 1.6%, respectively) (p < 0.05). However, this fact did not have a negative influence on the pregnancy rate: it was 51.3% in group I, it was 29.6% and 35.9% in women with recurrent implantation failures, respectively. Conclusion Opportunistic microorganisms which were revealed in low or moderate titers (103–105 CFU/ml) in the uterine cavity and cervical canal did not affect the pregnancy rate in the women in the study groups. The microflora of the uterine cavity and cervical canal differed in qualitative composition in 87.9% of patients, therefore, we can suggest that the uterine cavity may form its own microbiota. The microbiota of the uterine cavity is characterized by fewer species diversity compared to the microbiota of the cervical canal

Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury on the Gut Microbiota Composition and Serum Amino Acid Profile in Rats

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) heavily impacts the body: it damages the brain tissue and the peripheral nervous system and shifts homeostasis in many types of tissue. An acute brain injury compromises the “brain–gut-microbiome axis”, a well-balanced network formed by the brain, gastrointestinal tract, and gut microbiome, which has a complex effect: damage to the brain alters the composition of the microbiome; the altered microbiome affects TBI severity, neuroplasticity, and metabolic pathways through various bacterial metabolites. We modeled TBI in rats. Using a bioinformatics approach, we sought to identify correlations between the gut microbiome composition, TBI severity, the rate of neurological function recovery, and blood metabolome. We found that the TBI caused changes in the abundance of 26 bacterial genera. The most dramatic change was observed in the abundance of Agathobacter species. The TBI also altered concentrations of several metabolites, specifically citrulline and tryptophan. We found no significant correlations between TBI severity and the pre-existing gut microbiota composition or blood metabolites. However, we discovered some differences between the two groups of subjects that showed high and low rates of neurological function recovery, respectively. The present study highlights the role of the brain–gut-microbiome axis in TBI

Epitope-Specific Response of Human Milk Immunoglobulins in COVID-19 Recovered Women

The breastfeeding of infants by mothers who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 has become a dramatic healthcare problem. The WHO recommends that infected women should not abandon breastfeeding; however, there is still the risk of contact transmission. Convalescent donor milk may provide a defense against the aforementioned issue and can eliminate the consequences of artificial feeding. Therefore, it is vital to characterize the epitope-specific immunological landscape of human milk from women who recovered from COVID-19. We carried out a comprehensive ELISA-based analysis of blood serum and human milk from maternity patients who had recovered from COVID-19 at different trimesters of pregnancy. It was found that patients predominantly contained SARS-CoV-2 N-protein-specific immunoglobulins and had manifested the antibodies for all the antigens tested in a protein-specific and time-dependent manner. Women who recovered from COVID-19 at trimester I–II showed a noticeable decrease in the number of milk samples with sIgA specific to the N-protein, linear NTD, and RBD-SD1 epitopes, and showed an increase in samples with RBD conformation-dependent sIgA. S-antigens were found to solely induce a sIgA1 response, whereas N-protein sIgA1 and sIgA2 subclasses were involved in 100% and 33% of cases. Overall, the antibody immunological landscape of convalescent donor milk suggests that it may be a potential defense agent against COVID-19 for infants, conferring them with a passive immunity