Quality of life of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic : a 1-year follow-up study

This study aimed to reveal changes in the quality of life (QOL) of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their parents, and the interaction between their QOL and parental mental state during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Eighty-nine school-aged children and parents participated in surveys in May 2020 (T1) and May 2021 (T2). The parents completed questionnaires that assessed their QOL, depression, parenting stress, and living conditions. Children's temporary mood status was evaluated using the self-reported visual analog scale (VAS). Children's QOL and VAS at T2 were higher than their QOL at T1. Parents' QOL at T2 was lower than their QOL at T1. Severe parental depression at T1 had a synergistic effect on severe parenting stress and severe depressive state at T2. Additionally, children's high QOL at T1 had a synergistic effect on low parenting stress and children's high QOL at T2. Furthermore, children's low VAS scores and parents' low QOL at T2 were associated with deterioration of family economic status. Children and parents' QOL changed during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Improvement in children's QOL was influenced by reduced maternal depressive symptoms. Public support for parental mental health is important to avoid decreasing QOL.Peer reviewe

Data from: Learning of efficient behaviour in spatial exploration through observation of behaviour of conspecific in laboratory rats

Recent studies have suggested that rodent behaviour is influenced by the behaviour of surrounding conspecifics (e.g. emotional contagion and prosocial behaviour). However, little is known about deferred imitation and complex observational learning in rats. The purpose of this study was to reveal whether rats can learn from another rat's experiences. In a maze, observer rats watched the foraging behaviour of other rats (demonstrators) and then foraged in turn. The results showed that demonstrators explored inefficiently, but observers explored more efficiently after observing inefficient exploration by the demonstrators. This observational learning probably involved the acquisition of an efficient strategy through spatial exploration

Observational learning in rats raw data

sheet1: Fig.2 & Table S1 efficiency data for regression analysis, sheet2: Fig.3 efficiency data for ANOVA, sheet3: Fig.4 & Fig.S1 efficiency data for regression analysis, sheet4: Fig.5 rearing data, sheet5: Fig.S1 error data, sheet6: Fig.S1 time dat

Beauty in everyday motion: Electrophysiological correlates of aesthetic preference for human walking

Aesthetic preference occurs in everyday experience. Studies have suggested that aesthetic preference (such as observing other’s motion) affects social interaction via enhanced neural processing. This study investigated the effect of aesthetic preference on neural activities, in response to walking motion. Twenty participants observed biological motion (BM) representing three walking types (model-posture, good-posture, and bad-posture) and their scrambled motion (SM) during the event-related potentials measurement. The N200 and N300 amplitudes, reflecting the early sensory and the later integrational processes, were analyzed. The results revealed that the N200 amplitude of BM was greater than that of SM in the good- and bad-posture conditions. The N300 amplitude was larger in BM than SM regardless of the walking type. Exploratory regression analyses indicated that the N300 for BM, but not for SM or N200, was more negatively deflected with the increase of aesthetic preference scores. Our findings suggest that aesthetic preference enhances the later integrational process of BM represented in the N300 amplitude, whereas the early perceptual process (reflected by the N200 amplitude) is potentially modulated by familiarity rather than aesthetic preference in other’s motion