Brain oscillatory activity evoked by chirp modulated tones in healthy children.

Aim: To describe the features of cortical oscillatory activity and neuronal synchronization by monitoring responses evoked by chirp-modulated tone (CMT) and look for relationships with cognition in healthy children.

Methods: We recruited 23 healthy children, 1-18 years old, assessed their cognitive abilities and recorded the cortical oscillatory activity evoked by CMTs. We obtained descriptive statistics and looked for correlations with cognitive abilities.

Satisfying basic psychological needs through a recreational sports programme for people with intellectual disability: human growth and adapted sport in focus.

Introduction: Self-determination theory (SDT) highlights the importance of satisfying people's basic psychological needs (BPN) (autonomy, competence and relatedness) in order to ensure their personal growth and wellbeing. In this regard, sport and physical activity (PA) have been shown to offer significant health benefits, particularly in the case of people with intellectual disability (ID), among whom the benefits are even more noticeable owing to their low levels of PA, sedentary lifestyle, limited opportunities to exercise, and consequently lower quality of life. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the Más Que Tenis ("More Than Just Tennis") inclusive recreational sports programme on the satisfaction of BPN among athletes with ID, taking into account factors such as age, gender and type of activity.

The profile of social communication in Dravet syndrome.

Dravet syndrome (DS) presents a multifaceted clinical picture marked by epilepsy, cognitive impairments and behavioral disorders that progresses throughout development. Behavioral disorders include impairments in social relationships and communication, with frequent diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. This study focused on comprehensively evaluating and comparing social communication profiles among a group of 43 children with Dravet syndrome, 30 children with level 1 autism spectrum disorder, 36 with social (pragmatic) communication disorder, and 18 with intellectual disability.

Weak central coherence in neurodevelopmental disorders: a comparative study.

Introduction: Central coherence is the normal tendency to process and give meaning to incoming information taking into account the context or global view of that information.

Methods: We assessed the central coherence of 252 school children of normal intelligence between 6 and 11 years old. We compared the performance of two groups: (a) a control group ( = 194), and (b) a clinical group ( = 58) comprising children with NVLD+ADHD ( = 24), ADHD alone ( = 16), SCD ( = 8) and level-1ASD ( = 10) (Kluskall-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U were calculated to make comparisons within groups and between pairs of groups).

Neuroplasticity during the transition period: How the adolescent brain can recover from aphasia. A pilot study.

Background: Increasing clinical and scientific attention is given to the transition of neurological stages from child to adult. Data on brain plasticity during adolescence is interesting for providing adequate evidence-based medical attention to neurological conditions in this population. Acquired aphasia is well described in adults and children, but not in adolescence.

Abnormal brain gamma oscillations in response to auditory stimulation in Dravet syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate the capability of children with Dravet syndrome to generate brain γ-oscillatory activity in response to auditory steady-state stimulation.

Methods: Fifty-one subjects were included: 13 with Dravet syndrome with SCN1A gene alterations, 26 with non-Dravet epilepsies and 12 healthy controls. Responses to auditory steady-state stimulation elicited with a chirp-modulated tone between 1 and 120 Hz were collected in subjects and compared across groups.

Prevalence of sleep disorders and their relationship with core symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and in a control population. To examine the relationship between sleep disorders and symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity/impulsiveness and executive dysfunction.

Materials And Methods: We studied 126 children with ADHD and 1036 control children aged between 5 and 18 years old.

Acquisition of Motor and Cognitive Skills through Repetition in Typically Developing Children.

Background: Procedural memory allows acquisition, consolidation and use of motor skills and cognitive routines. Automation of procedures is achieved through repeated practice. In children, improvement in procedural skills is a consequence of natural neurobiological development and experience.

Anti-Basal Ganglia Antibodies and Streptococcal Infection in ADHD.

Objective: Group A Streptococcus has been associated with ADHD, tic disorders (TD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) through anti-basal ganglia antibodies (ABGA).

Method: We investigated the association between ABGA and streptococcal exposure with behavioral, motor, and cognitive measures in 38 children with ADHD not comorbid to OCD or TD (nc-ADHD) and in 38 healthy children. An additional group of 15 children with TD and/or OCD was examined.

Procedural Learning in Children With Developmental Coordination, Reading, and Attention Disorders.

The aim is to assess repetition-based learning of procedures in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), reading disorder (RD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants included 187 children, studied in 4 groups: (a) DCD comorbid with RD and ADHD (DCD+RD+ADHD) (n = 30); (b) RD comorbid with ADHD (RD+ADHD) (n = 48); (c) ADHD (n = 19); and typically developing children (control group) (n = 90). Two procedural learning tasks were used: Assembly learning and Mirror drawing.

AULA virtual reality test as an attention measure: convergent validity with Conners' Continuous Performance Test.

The majority of neuropsychological tests used to evaluate attention processes in children lack ecological validity. The AULA Nesplora (AULA) is a continuous performance test, developed in a virtual setting, very similar to a school classroom. The aim of the present study is to analyze the convergent validity between the AULA and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) of Conners.

[Brain plasticity for language in children and adolescents].

Introduction: Plasticity makes possible adaptative modelling of the nervous system to experiences i.e. learning and development.

[Dysfunction of central coherence in schoolchildren with procedural learning disorder].

Introduction: Children with coordination disorder -non verbal learning disorder, procedural learning disorder (PLD)- have difficulties in understanding complex simultaneous visual information.

Aim: Validation of two different visual tasks to measure central coherence function of children with PLD.

Subjects And Methods: A chimeric image and a complex visual story are showed to 200 schoolchildren: 20 of them have PLD, 60 have PLD plus attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (PLD + ADHD), 60 have non comorbid ADHD, and 60 subjects are typical control children.

[Difficulties in the swift recognition of contradictions in procedural learning disorder: possible central coherence dysfunction].

Introduction: Procedural learning disorder, or non-verbal learning disorder, affects the automation of perceptual motor and cognitive skills and routines.

Aim: To further our knowledge of the neurocognitive dysfunction in this disorder and, more specifically, to analyse the difficulties experienced when going from recognition of the constituting elements of something to an understanding of the whole.

Development: Contrasting simultaneous visual information and the swift recognition of contradictions are especially difficult abilities for children with procedural learning disorder.