自闭症儿童音乐治疗方案探讨

自闭症又称孤独症，是世界上许多专家、学者关注并研究的一种严重的身心发展障碍性的疾病。自闭症儿童的发生可能与多种生物学因素引起的中枢神经系统异常有关，而且还有其他因素，如遗传因素、神经疾病等影响：如治疗或干预的不足会造成自闭症儿童社会化功能的极大损害，甚至致残。     

自闭症儿童语言发展研究综述

自闭症儿童的语言障碍问题是自闭症儿童发展和教育研究的重要组成部分。本文从自闭症儿童语言发展特征、自闭症儿童语言发展的核心障碍,以及自闭症儿童语言与其他发展领域相关研究等方面,综述近年国外有关自闭症儿童语言发展障碍研究的新进展,以供国内同行参考。     

自闭症儿童模仿能力的研究进展

半个世纪以来,国外学者在自闭症儿童模仿能力的研究,尤其是近十年来有关模仿的认知研究和脑神经科学研究方面取得了许多新的有价值成果.在回顾和分析这些结果的基础上,我们认为:在行为水平上,模仿缺陷是自闭症儿童的主要障碍特征;在认知理论上,自我-他人投射理论是解释自闭症儿童模仿缺陷的最简洁假设;在神经机制上,镜像神经系统的机能障碍可能是造成自闭谱系儿童模仿缺陷的生理机制.     

自闭症儿童的社会缺陷及其早期干预研究的介绍

社会缺陷是自闭症儿童的重要特征之一。本文探讨了自闭症儿童的社会缺陷 :理论研究、社会反应、非言语交流、情感表达和自我认知等方面的研究 ,概述了近年来有关自闭症儿童与同辈、成人等社会交往的早期干预研究。     

自闭症儿童静息态脑功能局部一致性ALE元分析

自闭症谱系障碍是一种高异质性神经发育障碍，多发于儿童早期，影响个体生活。静息态功能磁共振成像技术由于其无创、高时空分辨率和采集方便等优点成为自闭症临床辅助诊断和寻找生物标志物的有力工具。本文通过激活似然估计元分析识别自闭症儿童自发神经活动异常脑区，为自闭症早期诊断和临床应用提供指导和参考。检索中英文数据库中基于局部一致性方法分析自闭症儿童静息态脑功能的研究，对12篇文献进行元分析，发现自闭症儿童颞中回、颞上回、岛叶和顶下小叶局部一致性减弱，舌回、梭状回、后扣带回和扣带回局部一致性增强。自闭症儿童社会认知和行为功能缺陷可能与这些脑区功能异常有关。静息态下自发神经活动异常脑区研究可为寻找自闭症客观生物标志物提供依据。     

3岁前自闭症婴幼儿诊断研究对DSM-5编订的影响

DSM-5将自闭症诊断标准重新修订,在类别、名称、障碍程度、三联症领域、社会性与感知觉内容、诊断年龄等方面作了调整.此次修订受到了近十几年来三岁以下自闭症婴幼儿早期诊断研究的影响.三岁前自闭症婴幼儿早期诊断研究经历了光谱障碍研究、危险信号行为研究、筛查与诊断量表的修订与开发三个阶段,每个阶段的研究成果,均落实到DSM-5有关自闭症的诊断标准中,对未来自闭症的早期诊断极具价值.     

我国自闭症儿童融合教育现状、挑战及对策

自闭症儿童因难与社会融合成为特殊儿童的"重灾区",我国自闭症儿童已突破160万,给家庭、社会带来巨大压力,但并非无路可走,以融合教育为核心的特殊教育模式为自闭症儿童与社会融合提供了可能。综合相关研究文献发现,我国自闭症儿童融合教育自实施以来已取得一些成就,但还存着诸如普通家长、儿童大多对自闭症儿童融合存在偏见;学校、教师对自闭症儿童接纳程度并不理想导致自闭症儿童融合教育仅表现为"随班就坐"等问题。在剖析导致这些问题产生的原因的基础上,结合具体情况,从构建区域教育行政引导,教师师资培养、融合教育观念、法律政策四个方面提出具体建议,以期为自闭症儿童融合教育的开展提供有益参考。     

4-6.5岁自闭症幼儿颜色偏好的实验研究

自闭症儿童存在异常的颜色感知已得到广泛报道,但迄今仍鲜见正式探讨这类群体颜色偏好的研究.本研究采用对偶比较法对4-6.5岁汉语自闭症幼儿的颜色偏好展开研究,结果表明:(1)自闭症幼儿总体上对冷色的偏好优于暖色,其颜色偏好顺序为:绿、蓝、红、紫、橙、黄;(2)自闭症幼儿的颜色偏好顺序与控制组幼儿(年龄和智商相匹配)相同,但颜色偏好程度不同于控制组幼儿;(3)自闭症幼儿的颜色偏好顺序和颜色偏好程度都显著不同于同年龄普通幼儿;(4)性别对自闭症幼儿的颜色偏好没有显著影响.本研究提出,自闭症幼儿所表现出的颜色偏好可能是其大脑功能状态不平衡发展的结果.     

自闭症谱系障碍诊断标准:演变、影响与展望

美国精神医学学会组织出版的DSM是目前使用最广泛的精神类障碍诊断标准之一,为基础与临床神经科学、认知与行为科学以及残疾研究等领域的工作者对包括自闭症谱系障碍在内的广泛性发育障碍的诊断提供了重要依据。新版DSM-5有关自闭症谱系障碍标准的变化主要体现在障碍分类合并、诊断标准简化以及依障碍程度划分等三方面。对自闭症谱系障碍患病率、临床研究以及教育及相关社会服务等方面产生了一定的影响。而纳入社会——心理性因素的考量、与ICD-11的兼容互补以及DSM本土化则可能是未来DSM系列研究的主要推进方向。     

自闭症谱系障碍者自传体记忆研究述评

本文介绍了国外有关自闭症谱系障碍者(ASD)自传体记忆的实验研究,研究表明自闭症成人和自闭症儿童的个人情景记忆均存在广泛损伤,而仅自闭症成人的个人语义记忆相对完好.本文还试图归纳与分析影响自闭症个体自传体记忆的心理机制,包括:自我概念、自知意识、信息加工、心理理论、执行功能.最后,文章总结了目前国外的研究现状,分析其存在的不足及未来的研究方向,希望为国内相关研究及实践提供启示.     

Neuropsychological Correlates of Early Symptoms of Autism

Both the medial temporal lobe and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex have been implicated in autism. In the present study, performance on two neuropsychological tasks—one tapping the medial temporal lobe and related limbic structures, and another tapping the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—was examined in relation to performance on tasks assessing autistic symptoms in young children with autism, and developmentally matched groups of children with Down syndrome or typical development. Autistic symptoms included orienting to social stimuli, immediate and deferred motor imitation, shared attention, responses to emotional stimuli, and symbolic play. Compared with children with Down syndrome and typically developing children, children with autism performed significantly worse on both the medial temporal lobe and dorsolateral prefrontal tasks, and on tasks assessing symptoms domains. For children with autism, the severity of autistic symptoms was strongly and consistently correlated with performance on the medial temporal lobe task, but not the dorsolateral prefrontal task. The hypothesis that autism is related to dysfunction of the medial temporal lobe and related limbic structures, such as the orbital prefrontal cortex, is discussed.     

提取成功与提取努力的神经机制探讨

提取成功和提取努力是情节记忆提取过程中所包含的两个重要加工成分。以往研究表明,在提取过程中所一致激活的脑区包括内例颞叶、前额皮层和后顶皮层,其中内侧颞叶与后顶皮层主要负责成功提取,而前额皮层与提取努力的联系更为密切一些。但不同脑区的不同部位可能对提取加工有着不同的贡献,未来研究将进一步细化它们的具体功能。     

Abilities and neural mechanisms underlying AB performance

Schacter, Moscovitch, Tulving, McLachlan, and Freedman propose that infants may make the AB error because of immaturity of the memory system damaged in amnesia (e.g., the hippocampus). They contrast this with the proposal that infants may make the AB error because of immaturity of the frontal lobe system (Diamond; Diamond & Goldman-Rakic). Schacter et al.'s choice of subjects, however, did not permit a test of these 2 proposals, and characteristics of their task, such as length of delay, make comparison with infants difficult. Schacter et al. discuss sensitivity to proactive interference as a possible explanation for the AB error, but sensitivity to PI is more closely associated with frontal lobe damage than with amnesia. Schacter et al. associate perseveration with immaturity or damage to the frontal lobe; it is suggested here that this is better characterized as lack of inhibitory control. Tasks that are most likely to require frontal cortex function are those that demand both short-term memory and inhibitory control. AB is an excellent example of such a task.     

Neural Correlates of Direct and Reflected Self-Appraisals in Adolescents and Adults: When Social Perspective-Taking Informs Self-Perception

Classic theories of self-development suggest people define themselves in part through internalized perceptions of other people's beliefs about them, known as reflected self-appraisals. This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in adolescence ( N  = 12, ages 11–14 years) and adulthood ( N  = 12, ages 23–30 years). During direct self-reflection, adolescents demonstrated greater activity than adults in networks relevant to self-perception (medial prefrontal and parietal cortices) and social-cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporal–parietal junction, and posterior superior temporal sulcus), suggesting adolescent self-construals may rely more heavily on others' perspectives about the self. Activity in the medial fronto-parietal network was also enhanced when adolescents took the perspective of someone more relevant to a given domain.     

Individual differences in mathematical competence modulate brain responses to arithmetic errors: An fMRI study

Data from both neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have implicated the left inferior parietal cortex in calculation. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the neural responses associated with the commission of calculation errors and how the processing of arithmetic errors is modulated by individual differences in mathematical competence. Do more competent individuals exhibit a different brain response to errors than less mathematically able individuals? These outstanding questions were addressed in the present functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study through an investigation of which brain regions respond more to erroneously versus correctly solved arithmetic problems while a group of 24 adult participants with varying levels of mathematical competence solved problems of all four arithmetic operations. Despite high levels of accuracy, a robust main effect of accuracy (incorrect vs. correct) was observed in both medial and lateral regions of the prefrontal cortex. These regions have frequently been associated with both the detection of errors and the deployment of cognitive control following an error. Furthermore, mathematical competence was found to modulate the activation of an area in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Specifically, individuals with relatively higher mathematical competence (n = 12) were found to activate this region more for incorrectly solved trials than their less mathematically competent peers (n = 12). Taken together, these findings suggest that the commission of arithmetic errors modulates responses of prefrontal regions and, moreover, that activation of the right lateral prefrontal cortex during arithmetic errors is affected by individual differences in mathematical competence. In view of the evidence associating the lateral prefrontal cortex with the implementation of cognitive control, we suggest that individuals with relatively high mathematical competence may exhibit greater awareness of calculation mistakes and implement greater control following the commission of errors.     

Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children

Spanking remains common around the world, despite evidence linking corporal punishment to detrimental child outcomes. This study tested whether children (M_age = 11.60) who were spanked (N = 40) exhibited altered neural function in response to stimuli that suggest the presence of an environmental threat compared to children who were not spanked (N = 107). Children who were spanked exhibited greater activation in multiple regions of the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial PFC, bilateral frontal pole, and left middle frontal gyrus in response to fearful relative to neutral faces compared to children who were not spanked. These findings suggest that spanking may alter neural responses to environmental threats in a manner similar to more severe forms of maltreatment.     

Brain Processes in Mothers and Nulliparous Women in Response to Cry in Different Situational Contexts: A Default Mode Network Study

SYNOPSIS

Objective: In everyday life, parents must respond to and interact with children while in different situational contexts. How situational contexts influence parents’ responses has not been systematically studied. Here we investigated mothers’ versus nonmothers’ neural responses to infant vocalizations in different situations with different task demands. Design: Using fMRI in 21 women (10 mothers), we explored the effects of being distracted by self-oriented (self-referential decisions about personality adjectives) versus goal-oriented (syllabic counting of personality adjectives) tasks while listening to infant cry in comparison with other emotional sounds (infant laughing, adult crying) on the activity of two medial nodes of the Default Mode Network (DMN): the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Results: In the self-oriented task while listening to infant cry, both mothers and nulliparas showed (weak) activation of the DMN; this response likely reflects a shift of attention from the task to the cry. In the goal-oriented task, mothers, not nulliparas, showed (weak) activation of the DMN; this result is compatible with interference of emotional sounds while attending to a goal-oriented task, an activity that deactivates the DMN. Conclusions: Mothers are prone to process infant cry and emotional sounds and are less distracted from doing so by situational contexts, demonstrating their greater sensitivity to emotional sounds such as cry. By contrast, situational context influenced brain responses to infant sounds in nulliparas.     

Physics and the Possibility of a Religious View of the Universe: Swedish Upper Secondary Students’ Views

This study is addressing both upper secondary students’ views of whether it is possible to combine a scientific view of the universe with a religious conviction, and their views of miracles. Students are asked about their own views as well as the views they associate with physics. The study shows that in some cases the students’ own views differ from the views they associate with physics. This we consider to be a possible problem for these students. Through looking at how the students explain the views they associate with physics concerning the issues above, we show that these views are for many of the students intertwined with and linked to other views, that in the students’ views, are part of the worldview of physics. It is common that the students associate scientism with physics. We question whether these kinds of views are necessary for the building of scientific knowledge. Consequences for the teaching and learning of science are discussed. Swedish National Graduate School in Science and Technology Education Research.     

Neural Correlates of High Performance in Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

Learning vocabulary in a foreign language is a laborious task which people perform with varying levels of success. Here, we investigated the neural underpinning of high performance on this task. In a within-subjects paradigm, participants learned 92 vocabulary items under two multimodal conditions: one condition paired novel words with iconic gestures and the other with meaningless gestures. Memory performance was assessed through single-word translation tests. High performers consistently learned more items than low performers, regardless of the training condition, the time, and the difficulty of the task. Brain activity measured upon word recognition using functional magnetic resonance imaging was parametrically related to the behavioral data. High performance correlated with activity in the left angular gyrus (BA 39) and in the right extrastriate cortex (BA 19). These cortical areas mediate integration of information across different modalities as well as memory processes. Thus, high performance in vocabulary learning seems to depend on individual capacities to integrate and associate a word's semantics with sensorial stimuli. This may have important implications for education.     

Learning whom not to trust across early and middle adolescence: A longitudinal neuroimaging study to trusting behavior involving an uncooperative other

Longitudinal changes in trusting behavior across adolescence and their neural correlates were examined. Neural regions of interest (ROIs) included the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), left anterior insula (AI), bilateral ventral striatum (VS), and right dorsal striatum (DS). Participants (wave 1 age: M = 12.90) played the investor in a Trust Game with an uncooperative trustee three times (1-year interval). Analyses included 77 primarily Dutch participants (33 females). Participants decreased their investments with wave. Furthermore, activity was heightened in mPFC, dACC, and DS during investment and repayment, and in right VS (investment) and AI (repayment). Finally, DS activity during repayment increased with wave. These findings highlight early–middle adolescence as an important period for developing sensitivity to uncooperative behavior.