AI Article Synopsis
- Reciprocal social behavior (RSB) is crucial for social skills development and is often impaired in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but there aren't effective ways to quantitatively measure RSB in toddlers yet.
- A new 20-minute video-referenced rating scale (vrRSB) was developed, allowing caregivers to reliably assess RSB in their toddlers, with high test-retest reliability observed over six months.
- Results showed a clear difference in RSB scores between children who passed and failed autism screening, strong heritability in scores among monozygotic twins, and a correlation with vocabulary development, indicating that RSB improves as toddlers grow.
Article Abstract
Background: Reciprocal social behavior (RSB) is a developmental prerequisite for social competency, and deficits in RSB constitute a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although clinical screeners categorically ascertain risk of ASD in early childhood, rapid methods for quantitative measurement of RSB in toddlers are not yet established. Such measurements are critical for tracking developmental trajectories and incremental responses to intervention.
Methods: We developed and validated a 20-min video-referenced rating scale, the video-referenced rating of reciprocal social behavior (vrRSB), for untrained caregivers to provide standardized ratings of quantitative variation in RSB. Parents of 252 toddler twins [Monozygotic (MZ) = 31 pairs, Dizygotic (DZ) = 95 pairs] ascertained through birth records, rated their twins' RSB at two time points, on average 6 months apart, and completed two developmental measures, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory Short Form (MCDI-s).
Results: Scores on the vrRSB were fully continuously distributed, with excellent 6-month test-retest reliability ([intraclass correlation coefficient] ICC = 0.704, p < .000). MZ twins displayed markedly greater trait concordance than DZ twins, (MZ ICC = 0.863, p < .000, DZ ICC = 0.231, p < .012). VrRSB score distributions were highly distinct for children passing versus failing the M-CHAT (t = -8.588, df = 31, p < .000), incrementally improved from 18-24 months, and were inversely correlated with receptive and expressive vocabulary on the MCDI-s.
Conclusions: Like quantitative autistic trait ratings in school-aged children and adults, toddler scores on the vrRSB are continuously distributed and appear highly heritable. These ratings exhibited minimal measurement error, high inter-individual stability, and developmental progression in RSB as children matured from 18-24 months, supporting their potential utility for serially quantifying the severity of early autistic syndromes over time and in response to intervention. In addition, these findings inform the genetic-environmental structure of RSB in early typical development.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4775094 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12391 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Neural correlates of reciprocity bias: social debts modulate unfairness perception of violation during third-party observation.
Cereb Cortex
January 2025
Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59, Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China.
The phenomenon of beneficiaries ignoring benefactors' violations, ranging from everyday favors to bribes, is widespread yet lacks targeted theoretical and empirical attention. We propose a conceptual framework that includes "social debt" and "reciprocity bias," where "social debt" is defined as information about benefits bestowed by benefactors and "reciprocity bias" as the influence of social debt on beneficiaries' perceptions and decisions in situations involving the benefactor. To investigate this bias in moral perception and its cognitive-neural mechanisms, we manipulated three levels of social debt (none, less, more) by varying the amount of unasked benefits that benefactors bestowed upon participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDegrowth as a plausible pathway for food systems transformation.
Nat Food
January 2025
Department of Global Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Food systems require urgent transformation towards social and ecological sustainability. Degrowth posits a radical pathway of transformation to reduce ecological impacts while increasing well-being and reducing inequality. Here we highlight that degrowth and food systems-albeit both linked to transformation-are not well integrated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAllocentric and egocentric spatial representations coexist in rodent medial entorhinal cortex.
Nat Commun
January 2025
Department of Neurosurgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Successful navigation relies on reciprocal transformations between spatial representations in world-centered (allocentric) and self-centered (egocentric) frames of reference. The neural basis of allocentric spatial representations has been extensively investigated with grid, border, and head-direction cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) forming key components of a 'cognitive map'. Recently, egocentric spatial representations have also been identified in several brain regions, but evidence for the coexistence of neurons encoding spatial variables in each reference frame within MEC is so far lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProfessional liability and litigation in dental medicine: an analysis of the Portuguese context.
J Forensic Odontostomatol
December 2024
Faculdade de Medicina Dentária da Universidade do Porto.
Article Synopsis
- Dentists are regulated by a Deontological Code that outlines their professional duties and obligations, which are essential in the legal relationship with patients concerning treatment agreements.
- The study aimed to analyze court decisions in Portugal relating to dentists and patient claims, focusing on various factors like patient demographics, type of liability, and outcome of the claims.
- A survey of judgments from multiple Portuguese Superior Courts was conducted, including a summary of the legal context and decisions that emerged regarding dental practice.
Steps towards a New Humanism in the Mental Health Disciplines - An Interview with Tim Ingold.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci
January 2025
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
This interview article explores how British anthropologist Tim Ingold's work can inspire innovation in mental health and the psy disciplines. Ingold critiques dominant biomedical and individualistic approaches, arguing for the importance of caring attentiveness and abolishing dichotomies like those between surface and depth, when engaging with people to understand and assist them. Instead, he suggests viewing human existence as correspondences with environmental, social, and relational others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!