Altered lateralization of dorsal language tracts in 6‐week‐old infants at risk for autism

Altered structural connectivity has been identified as a possible biomarker of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in the developing brain. Core features of ASD include impaired social communication and early language delay. Thus, examining white matter tracts associated with language may lend further insight into early signs of ASD risk and the mechanisms that underlie language impairments associated with the disorder. Evidence of altered structural connectivity has previously been detected in 6‐month‐old infants at high familial risk for developing ASD. However, as language processing begins in utero, differences in structural connectivity between language regions may be present in the early infant brain shortly after birth. Here we investigated key white matter pathways of the dorsal language network in 6‐week‐old infants at high (HR) and low (LR) risk for ASD to identify atypicalities in structural connectivity that may predict altered developmental trajectories prior to overt language delays and the onset of ASD symptomatology. Compared to HR infants, LR infants showed higher fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF); in contrast, in the right SLF, HR infants showed higher FA than LR infants. Additionally, HR infants showed more rightward lateralization of the SLF. Across both groups, measures of FA and lateralization of these pathways at 6 weeks of age were related to later language development at 18 months of age as well as ASD symptomatology at 36 months of age. These findings indicate that early differences in the structure of language pathways may provide an early predictor of future language development and ASD risk.     

The impact of occupational needs for education on education aspirations: a hybrid fixed effects model with lagged endogenous variables

Social Psychology of Education - The notion that students’ aspirations are changeable with age is especially important in education aspirations studies. Researchers have acknowledged that...     

A reinforcement learning approach to personalized learning recommendation systems

Personalized learning refers to instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. With the latest advances in information technology and data science, personalized learning is becoming possible for anyone with a personal computer, supported by a data-driven recommendation system that automatically schedules the learning sequence. The engine of such a recommendation system is a recommendation strategy that, based on data from other learners and the performance of the current learner, recommends suitable learning materials to optimize certain learning outcomes. A powerful engine achieves a balance between making the best possible recommendations based on the current knowledge and exploring new learning trajectories that may potentially pay off. Building such an engine is a challenging task. We formulate this problem within the Markov decision framework and propose a reinforcement learning approach to solving the problem.     

Social decision making mediates the association between anger and externalising problems in Chinese adolescents

The goal of this study was to test the mediating effect of social decision making in the relations of anger and anger control to externalising and internalising problems. A sample of 174 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 15.36 years) completed self‐reports of trait anger, anger control, externalising problems, internalising problems and social decision making, which was operationalized as situational judgement reflecting an individual's ability to interact effectively with parents, teachers and peers. Findings indicated that adolescents' trait anger and anger control were positively related to both externalising and internalising problems. In addition, path analysis revealed that social decision making mediated the relationship between trait anger, anger control and externalising problems. Findings on the mediating effect will be discussed by referencing appraisal tendency theory and response evaluation and decision.     

Relationships between Sabbath Observance and Mental,Physical, and Spiritual Health in Clergy

Pastoral Psychology - Keeping the Sabbath, that is, setting a day apart for rest and spiritual rejuvenation, has been related to better mental health and less stress in cross-sectional studies....     

Restricted Recalibration of Item Response Theory Models

Psychometrika - In item response theory (IRT), it is often necessary to perform restricted recalibration (RR) of the model: A set of (focal) parameters is estimated holding a set of (nuisance)...     

On the Implicit Anaphoric Argument of Relational Nouns in Mandarin Chinese

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This paper provides experimental and theoretical evidence for the syntactic realization of an implicit possessor argument in Relational Nouns (RNs, e.g....     

类别标签与典型性程度对类别特征推理的影响

本研究采用学习-测试二阶段实验范式,探讨了类别标签及典型性程度对类别特征推理任务的共同影响,结果表明,类别标签及典型性程度都会影响类别特征推理任务,而且,类别标签及典型性程度之间存在交互作用,典型性程度为高条件下类别标签对类别特征推理任务的影响要高于典型性程度为低条件,类别标签匹配条件下,典型性程度对类别特征推理任务的影响要高于类别标签不匹配条件。     

青少年学生焦虑敏感与睡眠质量的关系及其内在机制

采用中学生、大学生焦虑敏感问卷和匹兹堡睡眠质量指数量表(PSQI),分别对1011名中学生和607名大学生进行调查。结果显示高焦虑敏感学生的PSQI总分显著高于低焦虑敏感学生,焦虑敏感及其三个因子与PSQI的相关都是中效应,焦虑敏感对青少年学生睡眠质量指数具有显著的正向预测作用,焦虑敏感水平越高,其睡眠质量越差。焦虑敏感可能以应激事件和健康问题作为致敏源,以焦虑等负性情绪作为敏感内容,在消极自动认知觉察与思维的介入下,进一步放大对有关负性情绪的感受与体验,从而影响青少年学生的睡眠质量。     

Temporal and spatial control following bilateral versus unilateral training

Principles of motor control and learning such as bilateral coordination and task-specificity, are increasingly incorporated in the design of upper extremity rehabilitation protocols for stroke survivors. Yet most studies investigating the efficacy of new protocols report composite scores of standardized tests, such as the Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity test (FM) and the Wolf Motor Arm Test, rather than determining how the motor control and coordination of arm movements has changed. Here we present a sub-study of a larger randomized controlled trial comparing a bilateral and unilateral training protocol where participants were assessed on bilateral and unilateral arm reaching. Eligible participants for the arm reaching analysis were 9 (FM=37) and 9 (FM=34) in Bilateral Arm Training with Rhythmic Auditory Cueing (BATRAC) and Dose Matched Therapeutic Exercises (DMTE), respectively. Participants undertook 18 sessions of training for 6 weeks with 20min of active training per session. For bilateral arm reaching, participants after BATRAC were faster, with increased peak acceleration, fewer movement units, and smoother hand paths for each arm. The BATRAC training group showed greater improvements with training than the DMTE group during bilateral reaching for parameters of movement units and smoothness of hand path. For unilateral arm reaching, participants were faster after DMTE for paretic arm reaching; however, this group did not improve to a greater extent than the BATRAC training group. Within group functional gains were seen after BATRAC on FM, Wolf Motor Arm Test (time and weight) and after DMTE on FM and Wolf Weight. There was a positive correlation between movement units and the time component of the Wolf Motor Arm Test. The reaching analysis demonstrates task-specificity in training since BATRAC improves performance in bilateral reaching and DMTE improves performance in unilateral reaching. Temporal/spatial control outcomes in studies of post-stroke interventions can identify functionally relevant motor control changes that are not captured by traditional standardized tests.