Stress in autism (STREAM): A study protocol on the role of circadian activity, sleep quality and sensory reactivity.

Mental health issues are markedly increased in individuals with autism, making it the number one research priority by stakeholders. There is a crucial need to use personalized approaches to understand the underpinnings of mental illness in autism and consequently, to address individual needs. Based on the risk factors identified in typical mental research, we propose the following themes central to mental health issues in autism: sleep difficulties and stress.

Tracking wakefulness as it fades: Micro-measures of alertness.

A major problem in psychology and physiology experiments is drowsiness: around a third of participants show decreased wakefulness despite being instructed to stay alert. In some non-visual experiments participants keep their eyes closed throughout the task, thus promoting the occurrence of such periods of varying alertness. These wakefulness changes contribute to systematic noise in data and measures of interest.

Homeostatic responses to palatable food consumption in satiated rats.

Objective: Energy intake is regulated by overlapping homeostatic and hedonic systems. Consumption of palatable foods has been implicated in weight gain, but this assumes that homeostatic control systems do not accurately detect this hedonically driven energy intake. This study tested this assumption, hypothesizing that satiated rats would reduce their voluntary food intake and maintain a stable body weight after consuming a palatable food.

Local inhibitory plasticity tunes macroscopic brain dynamics and allows the emergence of functional brain networks.

Rich, spontaneous brain activity has been observed across a range of different temporal and spatial scales. These dynamics are thought to be important for efficient neural functioning. A range of experimental evidence suggests that these neural dynamics are maintained across a variety of different cognitive states, in response to alterations of the environment and to changes in brain configuration (e.

On the independence of visual awareness and metacognition: a signal detection theoretic analysis.

Classically, visual awareness and metacognition are thought to be intimately linked, with our knowledge of the correctness of perceptual choices (henceforth metacognition) being dependent on the level of stimulus awareness. Here we used a signal detection theoretic approach involving a Gabor orientation discrimination task in conjunction with trial-by-trial ratings of perceptual awareness and response confidence in order to gauge estimates of type-1 (perceptual) orientation sensitivity and type-2 (metacognitive) sensitivity at different levels of stimulus awareness. Data from three experiments indicate that while the level of stimulus awareness had a profound impact on type-1 perceptual sensitivity, the awareness effect on type-2 metacognitive sensitivity was far lower by comparison.