Parent-Child Autonomic Synchrony During Vicarious Extinction Learning in Pediatric PTSD

Children must learn basic functional processes directly from their caregivers and child psychopathology may disrupt this transmission. This transmission may be seen through biological measures like peripheral nervous system outputs like skin conductance (SCR). Fear learning deficits have been seen in affective disorders like PTSD and are useful for studying parent-child learning transmission. Our study uses a vicarious fear extinction paradigm to study if biological synchrony (SCR and heart rate variability (HRV)) are potential mechanisms in which children learn safety cues from their parents. There were 16 dyads (PTSD n=11, TD n=5) undergoing a vicarious fear extinction paradigm. We used cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA) to assess SCR and HRV synchrony between parent-child dyads. We then used a linear model looking at group differences between PTSD dyads and typically developing (TD) dyads. For SCR, we saw a significant group difference (p=.037) indicating that TD dyads had higher SCR synchrony compared to PTSD dyads. For HRV, there were no group differences between PTSD and TD dyads (p=.325). These results suggest that SCR synchrony, but not HRV, may be a potential mechanism that allows for fear and safety learning in youth. While this is preliminary, it may give the first insights on how therapies such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy critically rely on parental coaching to model appropriate fear responses to help their child to recover from trauma.

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1003 Sleep Spindle Abnormalities In Youth With Ptsd

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsaa056.999 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. A381-A381

Author(s):

B Peterson ◽

A Castelnovo ◽

B Riedner ◽

R Herringa ◽

S Jones

Keyword(s):

Spectral Density ◽

Sleep Disturbance ◽

Cortical Inhibition ◽

Group Differences ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Cortical Function ◽

Significant Group ◽

Sleep Studies ◽

Density Analysis ◽

Automatic Algorithm

Abstract Introduction Sleep disturbance is central to the phenomenology of PTSD across the lifespan with up to 90% of youth with PTSD reporting sleep disturbance. Subjective sleep dysfunction has also been linked to the development, maintenance and severity of the disorder. However, to date there have been no objective EEG assessments of sleep in youth with PTSD, and little is known about how the disease impacts specific sleep features. Methods Ten youth with PTSD (aged 14.5±3.2; CAPS-CA score 60.5±25.3) and ten age-and sex-matched typically developing youth (TD) (aged 14.7±3.2) completed two non-consecutive overnight high-density EEG (256-channel) polysomnography sleep studies. Prior to sleep on one night, participants performed an emotion processing task. Group differences in sleep macrostructure variables were assessed with two-way ANOVA, and group differences in all-night spectral density were assessed using unpaired t-tests. An automatic algorithm was used to detect spindle amplitude, duration, and density topographically. Statistical non-parametric mapping (SnPM) cluster testing was used to determine significantly different topographic differences between groups. Results No significant group differences were observed in sleep macrostructure variables. All-night spectral density analysis revealed increased power in PTSD youth relative to TD youth in the sigma band on both task and baseline nights. PTSD youth showed higher spindle duration, higher integrated spindle activity, and higher spindle amplitude globally both nights relative to TD youth. The increase in spindle duration achieved significance in a robust frontal cluster on both nights (43-channel cluster (p = .044) on baseline night, 66-channel cluster (p = .019) on task night). Conclusion Structural and functional abnormalities of the prefrontal cortex are a prominent feature of pediatric PTSD. The observed increase in spindle duration may represent another marker of impaired cortical function in youth with PTSD reflecting a failure of cortical inhibition of the thalamically-generated spindle rhythm. Support K08 MH100267 to RH, Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness Pilot Award to SJ

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Observational Assessment and Maternal Reports of Motivation in Children and Adolescents With Down Syndrome

American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities ◽

10.1352/1944-7558-116.2.153 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 116 (2) ◽

pp. 153-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Linda Gilmore ◽

Monica Cuskelly

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Intellectual Disability ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

Group Differences ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Observational Assessment ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Significant Group ◽

Children With Down Syndrome ◽

Maternal Reports

Abstract Despite a lack of consistent empirical evidence, there has been an ongoing assumption that intellectual disability is associated with reduced levels of motivation. The participants in this study were 33 children with Down syndrome ages 10–15 years and 33 typically developing 3–8-year-old children. Motivation was measured through observational assessments of curiosity, preference for challenge, and persistence, as well as maternal reports. There were no significant group differences on motivation tasks, but mothers of children with Down syndrome rated their children significantly lower on motivation than did parents of typically developing children. There were some intriguing group differences in the pattern of correlations among observations and parent reports. The findings challenge long-held views that individuals with intellectual disability are invariably deficient in motivation.

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Predictors of Treatment Outcomes and Adherence in Internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety in China (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.10346 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Huijing Chen ◽

Marcus A. Rodriguez ◽

Mingyi Qian ◽

Tomoko Kishimoto ◽

Muyu Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Anxiety ◽

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ◽

Treatment Adherence ◽

Behavioral Therapy ◽

Cognitive Behavioral ◽

Group Differences ◽

Online Interventions ◽

Significant Group ◽

Factors Associated ◽

Clinically Significant

BACKGROUND More research is needed to explore why some patients do not achieve clinically significant improvement in online interventions. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with treatment attrition, adherence and outcomes in Internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ICBT) for social anxiety in China. METHODS Participants were assigned to either therapist-guided ICBT (N=183) or self-guided ICBT (N=72) groups. RESULTS No significant group differences were found for treatment adherence or outcomes between the therapist-guided and self-guided conditions. Participants diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) were significantly less likely to dropout (OR 0.531, P = .03) compared to the subclinical group. Older participants (B = 0.17, SE = 0.04, P = .008) and participants with a diagnosis of SAD (B = 0.16, SE = 0.44, P = .01) tended to complete more modules. Participants who completed more modules (B = 0.24, SE = 0.03, P = .01) and participants who identified as female (B = -0.20, SE = 0.18, P = .04) reported greater reductions in SAD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS A comprehensive theoretical model of treatment adherence in online interventions is needed.

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Do you have a question for me? How children with Williams syndrome respond to ambiguous referential communication during a joint activity

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000912000360 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 266-289 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

DANIELA PLESA SKWERER ◽

EMILY AMMERMAN ◽

HELEN TAGER-FLUSBERG

Keyword(s):

Williams Syndrome ◽

Referential Communication ◽

Group Differences ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Significant Group ◽

Mental Age ◽

Object Locations ◽

Comparison Groups ◽

Types Of Information ◽

Initial Focus

ABSTRACTResearch on language in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) has been fueled by persistent theoretical controversies for two decades. These shifted from initial focus on dissociations between language and cognition functions, to examining the paradox of socio-communicative impairments despite high sociability and relatively proficient expressive language. We investigated possible sources of communicative difficulties in WS in a collaborative referential communication game. Five- to thirteen-year-old children with WS were compared to verbal mental age- and to chronological age-matched typically developing children in their ability to consider different types of information to select a speaker's intended referent from an array of items. Significant group differences in attention deployment to object locations, and in the number and types of clarification requests, indicated the use of less efficient and less mature strategies for reference resolution in WS than expected based on mental age, despite learning effects similar to those of the comparison groups, shown as the game progressed.

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Performance Monitoring in Children Following Traumatic Brain Injury Compared to Typically Developing Children

Child Neurology Open ◽

10.1177/2329048x17732713 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 2329048X1773271

Author(s):

Amy A. Wilkinson ◽

Maureen Dennis ◽

Margot J. Taylor ◽

Anne-Marie Guerguerian ◽

Kathy Boutis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Performance Monitoring ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Group Differences ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Significant Group ◽

Injury Group ◽

Traumatic Brain Injury Group

Children with traumatic brain injury are reported to have deficits in performance monitoring, but the mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Four performance monitoring hypotheses were explored by comparing how 28 children with traumatic brain injury and 28 typically developing controls (matched by age and sex) performed on the stop-signal task. Control children slowed significantly more following incorrect than correct stop-signal trials, fitting the error monitoring hypothesis. In contrast, the traumatic brain injury group showed no performance monitoring difference with trial types, but significant group differences did not emerge, suggesting that children with traumatic brain injury may not perform the same way as controls.

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Attachment Representations in Children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11111516 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 1516

Author(s):

Tycho J. Dekkers ◽

Rianne Hornstra ◽

Barbara J. van den Hoofdakker ◽

Suzanne R. C. de Jong ◽

Jessica V. Schaaf ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parental Education ◽

Group Differences ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Attachment Representations ◽

Parent Child Relationship ◽

Children With Adhd ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Child Relationship ◽

Education Levels ◽

Parent Child

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children is associated with several adverse family characteristics, such as higher parenting stress, more conflicted parent–child relationships, lower parental competence, and higher levels of parental psychopathology. Hence, children with ADHD more often grow up under suboptimal circumstances, which may impact the development of their attachment representations. Here, we investigated whether children with ADHD have more insecure and disorganized attachment representations than their typically developing peers, and which factors could explain this association. We included 104 children between 4 and 11 years old, 74 with ADHD (without Conduct Disorder) and 30 typically developing control children. Children completed a state-of-the-art story stem task to assess their attachment representation, and we measured parents’ expressed emotion (as an index of parent–child relationship quality), parents’ perceived sense of competence, parental education levels, and parent-rated ODD symptoms of the child. We found that, after controlling for multiple comparisons, children with ADHD had less secure and more ambivalent and disorganized attachment representations relative to their typically developing peers. These group differences were independent of comorbid ODD and parental education levels. There were no group differences on avoidant attachment representations. Explorative analyses within the ADHD group showed that attachment representations were not related to parent–child relationship quality, perceived parenting competence, parental education levels, and comorbid ODD symptoms. We conclude that children with ADHD disproportionately often have attachment problems. Although this conclusion is important, treatment implications of this co-occurrence are yet unclear as research on ADHD and attachment is still in its infancy.

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Predictors of treatment outcomes and adherence in internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety in China

Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy ◽

10.1017/s1352465819000730 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 291-303

Author(s):

Huijing Chen ◽

Marcus A. Rodriguez ◽

Mingyi Qian ◽

Tomoko Kishimoto ◽

Muyu Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Anxiety ◽

Treatment Adherence ◽

Behavioral Therapy ◽

Drop Out ◽

Group Differences ◽

Behaviour Therapy ◽

Significant Group ◽

Cognitive Behaviour ◽

Clinically Significant ◽

Therapist Support

AbstractBackground:Although internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) is an effective treatment for social anxiety disorder (SAD), a substantial proportion of patients do not achieve clinically significant improvement. More research is needed to identify which factors predict treatment adherence and outcomes.Aims:The aims of this study were to (1) identify demographic and clinical factors associated with treatment adherence and outcomes in ICBT for social anxiety in China, and (2) explore whether low-intensity therapist support results in improved treatment adherence or outcomes.Method:Participants were assigned to either therapist-guided (N = 183) or self-guided ICBT (N = 72). Level of social anxiety was measured at both pre- and post-treatment. Treatment adherence and outcomes were analysed using a two-step linear and logistic regression approach. Clinical and demographic characteristics were examined.Results:No significant group differences were found for treatment adherence or outcomes between the therapist-guided and self-guided conditions. Participants diagnosed with SAD were significantly less likely to drop out (OR 0.531, p = .03) compared with subclinical participants with social anxiety symptoms. Older participants (B = 0.17, SE = 0.04, p = .008) and participants with a diagnosis of SAD (B = 0.16, SE = 0.44, p = .01) tended to complete more modules. Participants who completed more modules (B = 0.24, SE = 0.03, p = .01) and participants who identified as female (B = –0.20, SE = 0.18, p = .04) reported greater reductions in SAD symptoms.Conclusions:Understanding of factors related to adherence and outcome is necessary to prevent drop-out and optimize outcome.

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Exploring the Neurocircuitry Underpinning Predictability of Threat in Soldiers with PTSD Compared to Deployment Exposed Controls

The Open Neuroimaging Journal ◽

10.2174/1874440001610010111 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 111-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Michael N. Dretsch ◽

Kimberly H. Wood ◽

Thomas A. Daniel ◽

Jeffrey S. Katz ◽

Gopikrishna Deshpande ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fear Conditioning ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Stress Disorder ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Emotional Dysregulation ◽

Fear Learning ◽

Group Differences ◽

Significant Group ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Ptsd Group

Background:Prior work examining emotional dysregulation observed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has primarily been limited to fear-learning processes specific to anticipation, habituation, and extinction of threat. In contrast, the response to threat itself has not been systematically evaluated.Objective:To explore potential disruption in fear conditioning neurocircuitry in service members with PTSD, specifically in response to predictableversusunpredictable threats.Method:In the current study, active-duty U.S. Army soldiers with (PTSD group;n= 38) and without PTSD (deployment-exposed controls; DEC;n= 40), participated in a fear-conditioning study in which threat predictability was manipulated by presenting an aversive unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that was either preceded by a conditioned stimulus (i.e., predictable) or UCS alone (i.e., unpredictable). Threat expectation, skin conductance response (SCR), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal to predictable and unpredictable threats (i.e., UCS) were assessed.Results:Both groups showed greater threat expectancy and diminished threat-elicited SCRs to predictable compared to unpredictable threat. Significant group differences were observed within the amygdala, hippocampus, insula, and superior and middle temporal gyri. Contrary to our predictions, the PTSD group showed a diminished threat-related response within each of these brain regions during predictable compared to unpredictable threat, whereas the DEC group showed increased activation.Conclusion:Although, the PTSD group showed greater threat-related diminution, hypersensitivity to unpredictable threat cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, pre-trauma, trait-like factors may have contributed to group differences in activation of the neurocircuitry underpinning fear conditioning.

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Comparison of Auditory, Language, Memory, and Attention Abilities in Children With and Without Listening Difficulties

American Journal of Audiology ◽

10.1044/2020_aja-20-00018 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 710-727

Author(s):

Beula M. Magimairaj ◽

Naveen K. Nagaraj ◽

Alexander V. Sergeev ◽

Natalie J. Benafield

Keyword(s):

Auditory Processing ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Group Differences ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Significant Group ◽

Term Memory ◽

Memory And Attention ◽

Speed And Accuracy

Objectives School-age children with and without parent-reported listening difficulties (LiD) were compared on auditory processing, language, memory, and attention abilities. The objective was to extend what is known so far in the literature about children with LiD by using multiple measures and selective novel measures across the above areas. Design Twenty-six children who were reported by their parents as having LiD and 26 age-matched typically developing children completed clinical tests of auditory processing and multiple measures of language, attention, and memory. All children had normal-range pure-tone hearing thresholds bilaterally. Group differences were examined. Results In addition to significantly poorer speech-perception-in-noise scores, children with LiD had reduced speed and accuracy of word retrieval from long-term memory, poorer short-term memory, sentence recall, and inferencing ability. Statistically significant group differences were of moderate effect size; however, standard test scores of children with LiD were not clinically poor. No statistically significant group differences were observed in attention, working memory capacity, vocabulary, and nonverbal IQ. Conclusions Mild signal-to-noise ratio loss, as reflected by the group mean of children with LiD, supported the children's functional listening problems. In addition, children's relative weakness in select areas of language performance, short-term memory, and long-term memory lexical retrieval speed and accuracy added to previous research on evidence-based areas that need to be evaluated in children with LiD who almost always have heterogenous profiles. Importantly, the functional difficulties faced by children with LiD in relation to their test results indicated, to some extent, that commonly used assessments may not be adequately capturing the children's listening challenges. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12808607

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Examining the Role of Language in Play Among Children With and Without Developmental Disabilities

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/2020_lshss-19-00084 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 795-806 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elizabeth J. Short ◽

Rachael Cooper Schindler ◽

Rita Obeid ◽

Maia M. Noeder ◽

Laura E. Hlavaty ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Developmental Disabilities ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Free Play ◽

Group Differences ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Play Skills ◽

Critical Aspect ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Better Than

Purpose Play is a critical aspect of children's development, and researchers have long argued that symbolic deficits in play may be diagnostic of developmental disabilities. This study examined whether deficits in play emerge as a function of developmental disabilities and whether our perceptions of play are colored by differences in language and behavioral presentations. Method Ninety-three children participated in this study (typically developing [TD]; n = 23, developmental language disorders [DLD]; n = 24, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]; n = 26, and autism spectrum disorder [ASD]; n = 20). Children were videotaped engaging in free-play. Children's symbolic play (imagination, organization, elaboration, and comfort) was scored under conditions of both audible language and no audible language to assess diagnostic group differences in play and whether audible language impacted raters' perception of play. Results Significant differences in play were evident across diagnostic groups. The presence of language did not alter play ratings for the TD group, but differences were found among the other diagnostic groups. When language was audible, children with DLD and ASD (but not ADHD) were scored poorly on play compared to their TD peers. When language was not audible, children with DLD were perceived to play better than when language was audible. Conversely, children with ADHD showed organizational deficits when language was not available to support their play. Finally, children with ASD demonstrated poor play performance regardless of whether language was audible or not. Conclusions Language affects our understanding of play skills in some young children. Parents, researchers, and clinicians must be careful not to underestimate or overestimate play based on language presentation. Differential skills in language have the potential to unduly influence our perceptions of play for children with developmental disabilities.

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