When Dancers Are Butterflies: How the Brain Understands Metaphors

When we speak, we often say things that are dierent from what we actually mean. For example, at a ballet, we might say that the dancers are butterflies. Dancers are not really butterflies, but this statement is not a lie; it is a metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech quite common in our everyday language and in books. In this article, we explain what metaphors are, why we use them, and what happens in our brains when we must understand a metaphor. Understanding metaphors requires a lot of brain work, which is why it is not always easy. Some people might find metaphors particularly diffcult to understand, for example, very young children and people who are autistic. At the end of the article, we suggest things that teachers and speech and language therapists can do to help those who have diffculty understanding metaphors.publishedVersio

[Tilrettelegging og opplæring for autistiske mennesker - historiske og nåværende forståelser i forskning og praksis]

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Towards reproducible and respectful autism research: Combining open and participatory autism research practices

Background Open research broadly refers to a set of practices that aim to increase transparency, rigor, reproducibility and inclusivity of research. Participatory research refers to incorporating the views and sharing power with the autism community to decide what research gets done, how it is done and how it is implemented. There is growing interest in both open and participatory practices in autism research. To date, however, these practices have tended to be considered separately. Method In this paper, we outline the value of both open and participatory approaches to the autism research field, highlighting key points of overlap. Results We propose three core principles underpinning open and participatory autism research: (1) the need for adequate expertise and infrastructure to facilitate high quality research, (2) the need for a greater degree of accessibility at all stages of the research process, and (3) the need to foster trusting relationships between the autistic and research communities. Conclusion There are various challenges and opportunities of adopting open and participatory principles in autism research. We hope our principles support researchers to embed these approaches more fully within their work.publishedVersio

Metaphor Comprehension in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Core Language Skills Matter

Poor metaphor comprehension was considered a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but recent research has questioned the extent and the sources of these difculties. In this cross-sectional study, we compared metaphor comprehension in individuals with ASD (N=29) and individuals with typical development (TD; N=31), and investigated the relationship between core language and metaphor comprehension. Individuals with ASD showed more difculty but also a more variable performance in both metaphor and literal items of the task used than individuals with TD did. This indicates that core language ability accounts for metaphor comprehension and should be considered in future research and interventions aiming to improve metaphor comprehension in individuals with ASD.publishedVersio

Virtual and augmented reality in social skills interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

In the last decade, there has been an increase in publications on technology-based interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Virtual reality based assessments and intervention tools are promising and have shown to be acceptable amongst individuals with ASD. This scoping review reports on 49 studies utilizing virtual reality and augmented reality technology in social skills interventions for individuals with ASD. The included studies mostly targeted children and adolescents, but few targeted very young children or adults. Our findings show that the mode number of participants with ASD is low, and that female participants are underrepresented. Our review suggests that there is need for studies that apply virtual and augmented realty with more rigorous designs involving established and evidenced-based intervention strategies.publishedVersio

Virtual reality and naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

© 2021 The Author(s).Background: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) have been evaluated as the most promising interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder. In recent years, a growing body of literature suggests that technological advancements such as Virtual Reality (VR) are promising intervention tools. However, to the best of our knowledge no studies have combined evidence-based practice with such tools. Aim: This article aims to review the current literature combining NDBI and VR, and provide suggestions on merging NDBI-approaches with VR. Methods: This article is divided into two parts, where we first conduct a review mapping the research applying NDBI-approaches in VR. In the second part we argue how to apply the common features of NDBI into VR-technology. Results: Our findings show that no VR-studies explicitly rely on NDBI-approaches, but some utilize elements in their interventions that are considered to be common features to NDBI. Conclusions and implications: As the results show, to date, no VR-based studies have utilized NDBI in their intervention. We therefore, in the second part of this article, suggests ways to merge VR and NDBI and introduce the term Virtual Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (VNDBI). VNDBI is an innovative way of implementing NDBI which will contribute in making interventions more accessible in central as well as remote locations, while reducing unwanted variation between service sites. VNDBI will advance the possibilities of individually tailoring and widen the area of interventions. In addition, VNDBI can provide the field with new knowledge on effective components enhancing the accuracy in the intervention packages and thus move forward the research field and clinical practice.publishedVersio

Therapeutic potential of fetal liver cells transplantation in hemophilia A mice

: Hemophilia A (HA) cell therapy approaches in pediatric individuals require suitable factor (F)VIII-producing cells for stable engraftment. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) have been demonstrated to be suitable for the treatment of adult HA-mice. However, after transplantation in busulfan (BU)-conditioned newborn mice, adult LSEC/HSC cannot efficiently engraft, while murine fetal liver (FL) hemato/vascular cells from embryonic day 11-13 of gestation (E11-E13), strongly engraft the hematopoietic and endothelial compartments while also secreting FVIII. Our aim was to investigate the engraftment of FL cells in newborn HA mice for obtaining a suitable "proof of concept" for the development of a new HA treatment in neonates. Hence, we transplanted FLE11 or E13 cells and adult bone marrow (BM) cells into newborn HA mice with or without BU preconditioning. The engraftment levels and FVIII activity was assessed starting from 6 weeks after transplantation. FLE11-E13+BU-transplanted newborns reached up to 95% engraftment with stable FVIII activity levels observed for 16 months. FLE13 cells showed engraftment ability even in absence of BU preconditioning, while FLE11 cells did not. BM+BU transplanted newborn HA mice showed high levels of engraftment; nevertheless, in contrast to FL cells, BM cells cannot engraft HA newborns in non-conditioning regimen. Finally, none of the transplanted mice developed anti-FVIII antibodies. Overall, this study sheds some light on the therapeutic potential of healthy FL cells in the cure of HA neonatal/pediatric patients

The replication crisis has led to positive structural, procedural, and community changes

The emergence of large-scale replication projects yielding successful rates substantially lower than expected caused the behavioural, cognitive, and social sciences to experience a so-called ‘replication crisis’. In this Perspective, we reframe this ‘crisis’ through the lens of a credibility revolution, focusing on positive structural, procedural and community-driven changes. Second, we outline a path to expand ongoing advances and improvements. The credibility revolution has been an impetus to several substantive changes which will have a positive, long-term impact on our research environment

The replication crisis has led to positive structural, procedural, and community changes

In response to large-scale replication projects yielding successful replication rates substantially lower than expected, the behavioural, cognitive and social sciences have found themselves amidst a ‘replication crisis’. In this narrative review, we reframe this ’crisis’ through the lens of a credibility revolution, focusing on positive structural, procedural and community-driven changes. Second, we outline a path to expand ongoing advances and improvements. The credibility revolution has been an impetus to several substantive changes which will have a positive, long-term impact upon our research environment