Wayfinding and path integration deficits detected using a virtual reality mobile app in patients with traumatic brain injury.

The ability to navigate is supported by a wide network of brain areas which are particularly vulnerable to disruption brain injury, including traumatic brain injury (TBI). Wayfinding and the ability to orient back to the direction you have recently come (path integration) may likely be impacted in daily life but have so far not been tested with patients with TBI. Here, we assessed spatial navigation in thirty-eight participants, fifteen of whom had a history of TBI, and twenty-three control participants.

Developmental differences across the lifespan in the use of perceptual information to guide action-based decisions.

Perceptual information about unfolding events is important for guiding decisions about when and how to move in real-world action situations. As an exemplary case, road-crossing is a perceptual-motor task where age has been shown to be a strong predictor of risk due to errors in action-based decisions. The present study investigated age differences between three age groups (Children: 10-12 years old; Adults: 19-39 years old; Older Adults: 65 + year olds) in the use of perceptual information for selection, timing, and control of action when crossing a two-way street in an immersive, interactive virtual reality environment.

Age-related differences in the perception of gap affordances: Impact of standardized action capabilities on road-crossing judgements.

Recent road-crossing literature has found that older adults show performance differences between estimation and perception-action tasks suggesting an age-related difficulty in accurately calibrating the information picked up from the surrounding environment to their action capabilities (Lobjois and Cavallo, 2009). The present study investigated whether participants could accurately perceive gap affordances via information that specifies the time-to-arrival of the approaching cars. To ensure the opportunities for action were the same across different age groups, independent of the actor's action capabilities, the action of crossing the road was standardised.

Autism Research: An Objective Quantitative Review of Progress and Focus Between 1994 and 2015.

The nosology and epidemiology of Autism has undergone transformation following consolidation of once disparate disorders under the umbrella diagnostic, autism spectrum disorders. Despite this re-conceptualization, research initiatives, including the NIMH's Research Domain Criteria and Precision Medicine, highlight the need to bridge psychiatric and psychological classification methodologies with biomedical techniques. Combining traditional bibliometric co-word techniques, with tenets of graph theory and network analysis, this article provides an objective thematic review of research between 1994 and 2015 to consider evolution and focus.

Stochastic Signatures of Involuntary Head Micro-movements Can Be Used to Classify Females of ABIDE into Different Subtypes of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

The approximate 5:1 male to female ratio in clinical detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevents research from characterizing the female phenotype. Current open access repositories [such as those in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE I-II)] contain large numbers of females to help begin providing a new characterization of females on the autistic spectrum. Here we introduce new methods to integrate data in a scale-free manner from continuous biophysical rhythms of the nervous systems and discrete (ordinal) observational scores.

Neonatal Diagnostics: Toward Dynamic Growth Charts of Neuromotor Control.

The current rise of neurodevelopmental disorders poses a critical need to detect risk early in order to rapidly intervene. One of the tools pediatricians use to track development is the standard growth chart. The growth charts are somewhat limited in predicting possible neurodevelopmental issues.

Characterization of the Statistical Signatures of Micro-Movements Underlying Natural Gait Patterns in Children with Phelan McDermid Syndrome: Towards Precision-Phenotyping of Behavior in ASD.

Background: There is a critical need for precision phenotyping across neurodevelopmental disorders, especially in individuals who receive a clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Phelan-McDermid deletion syndrome (PMS) is one such example, as it has a high penetrance of ASD. At present, no biometric characterization of the behavioral phenotype within PMS exists.

Toward Precision Psychiatry: Statistical Platform for the Personalized Characterization of Natural Behaviors.

There is a critical need for new analytics to personalize behavioral data analysis across different fields, including kinesiology, sports science, and behavioral neuroscience. Specifically, to better translate and integrate basic research into patient care, we need to radically transform the methods by which we describe and interpret movement data. Here, we show that hidden in the "noise," smoothed out by averaging movement kinematics data, lies a wealth of information that selectively differentiates neurological and mental disorders such as Parkinson's disease, deafferentation, autism spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia from typically developing and typically aging controls.

A Wii Bit of Fun: A Novel Platform to Deliver Effective Balance Training to Older Adults.

Background: Falls and fall-related injuries are symptomatic of an aging population. This study aimed to design, develop, and deliver a novel method of balance training, using an interactive game-based system to promote engagement, with the inclusion of older adults at both high and low risk of experiencing a fall.

Study Design: Eighty-two older adults (65 years of age and older) were recruited from sheltered accommodation and local activity groups.

Efficacy of a powered wheelchair simulator for school aged children: a randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: To determine the efficacy of a custom-made wheelchair simulation in training children to use a powered wheelchair (PWC).

Design: Randomized controlled trial employing the 4C/ID-model of learning. Twenty-eight typically developing children (13M, 15F; mean age 6 years, SD 6 months) were assessed on their operation of a PWC using a functional evaluation rating scale.

Sensory-motor problems in Autism.

Despite being largely characterized as a social and cognitive disorder, strong evidence indicates the presence of significant sensory-motor problems in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This paper outlines our progression from initial, broad assessment using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC2) to subsequent targeted kinematic assessment. In particular, pronounced ASD impairment seen in the broad categories of manual dexterity and ball skills was found to be routed in specific difficulties on isolated tasks, which were translated into focused experimental assessment.

Motor skills in children aged 7-10 years, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

This study used the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC2) to assess motor skills in children aged 7-10 years with autism (n = 18) in comparison to two groups of age-matched typically developing children; a receptive vocabulary matched group (n = 19) and a nonverbal IQ matched group (n = 22). The results supported previous work, as indicated by a significant general motor impairment in the group with autism. However, sub-analysis of the M-ABC2 revealed that there were only 2 out of 8 subcomponent skills which showed universal significant specific deficits for the autism group; i.