Opportunities and obstacles in non-invasive brain stimulation.

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is a complex and multifaceted approach to modulating brain activity and holds the potential for broad accessibility. This work discusses the mechanisms of the four distinct approaches to modulating brain activity non-invasively: electrical currents, magnetic fields, light, and ultrasound. We examine the dual stochastic and deterministic nature of brain activity and its implications for NIBS, highlighting the challenges posed by inter-individual variability, nebulous dose-response relationships, potential biases and neuroanatomical heterogeneity.

Supporting autistic communities through parent-led and child/young person-led digital social story interventions: an exploratory study.

Introduction: Social Stories (SS) is a socially-valid intervention for autistic children and young people (CYP) which is used widely by professionals and parents. Research suggests that whilst parents are in an ideal position to deliver interventions for their autistic CYP, a lack of procedural integrity can result in a great deal of variability in parent-mediated intervention outcomes.

Methods: This exploratory study investigated the extent to which SS can be effectively developed and delivered, through digital mediation, by parents with little to no researcher input ( = 17, sample 1) and the factors that impact effectiveness.

Paranoia and Data-Gathering Biases in Autism.

Previous research has identified contradictory patterns in autism upon probabilistic reasoning tasks, and high levels of self-report paranoia symptoms have also been reported. To explore this relationship, the present study assessed 64 non-autistic and 39 autistic adults on two variants of a probabilistic reasoning task which examined the amount of evidence required before making a decision and 'jumping to conclusions' (a neutral beads task and an emotionally-salient words variant). The autism group was found to require significantly more evidence before making a decision and to have significantly less jumping to conclusions than the non-autistic group.

Multicomponent perinatal breastfeeding support in women with BMI >25: The Latch On multi-centre randomised trial.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of a multicomponent breastfeeding support intervention on breastfeeding prevalence at 3 months among women with a body mass index (BMI) >25 kg/m.

Design: Multicentre multicomponent randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Four maternity centres in Ireland.