| 1. |
- Anikin, Andrey, et al.
(författare)
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Synesthetic Associations Between Voice and Gestures in Preverbal Infants : Weak Effects and Methodological Concerns
- 2018
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Adult humans spontaneously associate visual features, such as size and direction of movement, with phonetic properties like vowel quality and auditory pitch. A number of recent studies have claimed that looking time in preverbal infants reveals the same associations, which would indicate that some cross-modal correspondences are the result of perceptual biases. Here we tested 30 infants of age 7-13 months, who were exposed to pairs of audiovisual stimuli presented first sequentially and then side by side. The stimuli consisted of a visual object (computer-animated ball or filmed human hand) moving sinusoidally, vertically, or in a U-shape and accompanied by a sliding voice-like tone. Sequential presentation revealed no preference for either audiovisual synchrony or synesthetic congruency, while side-by-side presentation revealed a small preference for incongruent stimuli. The effect of congruency was similar for the animated ball and filmed human hand. These findings extend the results of previous research on pitch-motion synesthesia in preverbal infants, which used animations and sliding whistles, to more ecologically relevant stimuli such as voice and gestures. If infants and adults share the same preferences for non-arbitrary mappings between manual gestures and intonation, this could indicate that cross-modal correspondences facilitate language acquisition. On the other hand, a critical survey of the field revealed that previous studies of audiovisual cross-modal correspondences in infants suffer from replication failures due to poor robustness of the reported effect with respect to experimental stimuli and testing procedure. We therefore argue that the research on cross-modal correspondences in infants would profit from using alternative testing methods in addition to preferential looking and call for replication of previously reported congruency effects.
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| 2. |
- Miniscalco, Carmela, 1963, et al.
(författare)
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Imitation (rather than core language) predicts pragmatic development in young children with ASD: a preliminary longitudinal study using CDI parental reports
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. - : Wiley. - 1368-2822. ; 49:3, s. 369-375
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Research in the last decades has clearly pointed to the important role of language and communicative level when trying to understand developmental trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Aims: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether (1) core language skills, measured as expressive vocabulary and grammar, and/or (2) pre-linguistic social-communicative skills, including gestures and imitation abilities, drive pragmatic language development in young children with ASD. Methods & Procedures: We examined correlates and longitudinal predictors of pragmatic growth in a sample of 34 children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whose parents were given parts of twoMacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories (CDI: Words & Gestures and CDI: Words & Sentences) for completion at two time points (at time 1 the mean child age was 41 months, and at time 2 it was 54 months). A novel feature in this study is that the relevant parts from both CDI forms were included at both time points, allowing us to examine whether pre-linguistic social-communication skills (e.g. imitation and gesturing) and/or core language skills (i.e. grammar and vocabulary) predict pragmatic language growth. Outcomes & Results: The results show that basically all pre-linguistic, linguistic and pragmatic skills were associated concurrently. When controlling for possible confounders and for the autoregressive effect, imitation skills predicted pragmatic growth over time, whereas core language did not. This could only have been shown by the use of both CDI forms. Conclusions & Implications: This preliminary study may be of both conceptual and methodological importance for research in the field of language and communication development in ASD. Imitation may play a pivotal role in the development of subsequent conversational pragmatic abilities in young children with ASD. Future research should be directed at unravelling the mechanisms underlying this association.
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| 3. |
- Rudling, Maja, 1989-
(författare)
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Facilitators of communication and the development of autism : From responsiveness to basic communicative cues, to emerging pragmatic language use
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- When we communicate with others, we use a variety of abilities to facilitate and enable that communication. These abilities range from being responsive to others’ communicative cues to making one’s own communication more functional. Such facilitators of communication has been suggested as atypical in the development of autism. Reduced infant responsiveness towards communicative cues – such as speech sounds and direct gaze – have been suggested as precursors of autism. Pragmatic language use – to use language in a functional way in social interaction – is considered a core aspect of the condition later in development.In this thesis, I used diverse methodologies to study the association between these facilitators of communication and autism early in life, utilizing an infant sibling study design. In Study I, basic attentional responsivity to social and non-social sounds in infancy was tested using pupillometry. Responsivity to the non-social sounds, but not the social sounds, differentiated infants with and without subsequent autism. In Study II, infants’ behavioural responsivity to others’ direct gaze was tested in real-life interaction. Neither how much nor how quickly the infants looked towards the other person’s face after the direct gaze was reliably linked to later autism. Lastly, in Study III, two-year-olds use of pragmatic language was assessed with caregiver-questionnaires. We found a specific association between emerging pragmatic language use and dimensional autism already this early in life. The findings of this thesis suggest that infant responsivity to speech and direct gaze are not clear precursors of autism. Yet, the emerging ability to use pragmatic language seem to be linked to autism already by two years age. This thesis thus contributes to the understanding of early development of autism and how it relates to responsivity to, and use of facilitators of communication during the first years of life.
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| 4. |
- Rudling, Maja, et al.
(författare)
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Infant responses to direct gaze and associations to autism : A live eye-tracking study
- 2023
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Ingår i: Autism. - : Sage Publications. - 1362-3613 .- 1461-7005.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Being looked at is an important communicative signal, and attenuated responses to such direct gaze have been suggested as an early sign of autism. Using live eye tracking, we examined whether direct gaze elicits different gaze responses in infants at ages 10, 14 and 18 months with and without later autism in real-life interaction. The sample consisted of 169 infants: 35 with elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis, 94 without subsequent diagnosis and 40 with typical likelihood of autism. Infants in all groups tended to look more towards the adult’s face shortly after the direct gaze occurred. Neither how much nor how quickly the infants responded to the direct gaze differentiated the without elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis and with elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis groups. Infants in the typical likelihood group looked more at the face after the direct-gaze event than infants in the two elevated likelihood groups, but this result is tentative. In an exploratory analysis, infants in the elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis group looked away quicker from faces with direct gaze than infants in the typical likelihood group, but this measure did not correlate with dimensional autism or differentiate between the two elevated likelihood groups. The current results suggest that attenuated behavioural responses to direct gaze in infancy are neither strong nor specific early markers of autism.Lay abstractWhen other people look directly towards us, we often respond by looking back at them, and such direct-gaze responses are important for establishing eye contact. Atypical eye contact is common in autism, but how and when this aspect of autism develops is not well understood. Here, we studied whether how much and how quickly infants respond to others’ direct gaze is associated with autism in toddlerhood. We did this by measuring direct-gaze responses in a playful social interaction using live eye tracking. The study included 169 infants, of whom 129 had an elevated likelihood of developing autism due to having a first-degree family member with the condition, and 40 with typical likelihood of autism. In the elevated likelihood group, 35 were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at 3 years of age, and 94 were not. The results showed that infants in all three groups tended to increase their looking towards the adult’s face after the adult looked directly at them. However, neither how much nor how quickly the infants responded to direct gaze by looking back at the adult reliably differentiated the infants with or without subsequent autism. While infants in the elevated likelihood of autism and subsequent diagnosis group tended to look away quicker from faces with direct gaze than infants in the typical likelihood group, this measure did not differentiate between the two elevated likelihood groups. We interpret the results as supporting the view that atypical direct-gaze responses are not early markers of autism.
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| 5. |
- Rudling, Maja, et al.
(författare)
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Larger pupil dilation to nonsocial sounds in infants with subsequent autism diagnosis
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-9630 .- 1469-7610. ; 63:7, s. 793-801
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Studies of infants with an elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder can identify basic developmental processes that are associated with subsequently emerging clinical symptoms. Atypical responsiveness to sounds in infancy is such a potential early marker of autism. Here, we used pupillometry to quantify reactivity to social and nonsocial sounds in infants with a subsequent diagnosis. Previous research suggest that pupil dilation reflects attentional alerting, and link it to the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system. Methods We measured pupil dilation responses to child-directed speech and the sound of running water; sounds infants often hear in their everyday life. The final sample consisted of 99 ten-month-old infants (52 girls), of whom 68 had an elevated likelihood of autism and 31 were typically developing low-likelihood infants. At follow-up (36 months of age), 18 children in the elevated-likelihood group were diagnosed with autism. Results Compared to infants without diagnosis, the infants who were subsequently diagnosed with autism had larger pupil dilation when listening to nonsocial sounds, while reactivity to speech was strikingly similar between groups. In the total sample, more pupil dilation to the nonsocial sound was associated with higher levels of autistic symptoms. We also found that on a trial-by-trial basis, across all conditions and groups, more pupil dilation was associated with making fewer gaze shifts. Conclusions This study did not find evidence of atypical pupillary reactivity to child-directed speech early in life in autism. Instead, the results suggest that certain nonsocial sounds elicit atypically strong alerting responses in infants with a subsequent autism diagnosis. These findings may have important theoretical and clinical implications.
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| 6. |
- Rudling, Maja, et al.
(författare)
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Pre-pragmatic language use in toddlerhood : Developmental antecedents, aetiological factors, and associations to autism
- 2023
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Ingår i: JCPP Advances. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2692-9384. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundPragmatic language is key for adaptive communication, but often compromised in neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Decontextualized language—to talk about events and things beyond here and now—develops early in childhood and can be seen as a pre-pragmatic ability. Little is known about the factors that contribute to decontextualized language use in toddlers and whether these are different from factors contributing to general language development.MethodsWe studied longitudinal associations between parent-rated core language and non-verbal socio-communicative abilities at 14 months of age, and decontextualized language use at 24 months of age in children with typical and elevated likelihood of ASD (total N = 303). Using twin modelling, we also investigated genetic and environmental contributions on decontextualized language and grammar use in two-year-old twin pairs (total N = 374).ResultsCore language ability was a strong predictor of later decontextualized language use in both children with and without an elevated likelihood of ASD. In contrast, social communication was only a significant predictor of decontextualized language use for children with low levels of core language. This pattern was specific to decontextualized language, and not replicated in prediction of concurrent grammatical ability. Further, there was a large genetic influence on decontextualized language at 2 years of age, which mostly overlapped with the genetic influences on grammatical ability. Shared environment influences were significant for grammatical ability, but not found on decontextualized language. In children with an elevated likelihood of ASD, decontextualized language use was negatively associated with autistic symptoms.ConclusionsThis study suggests that decontextualized language is developmentally associated with, yet dissociable from, more general language development measured as grammatical ability. Already at 2 years of age, parental ratings of decontextualized language is associated to clinician-rated symptoms of ASD.
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| 7. |
- Rudling, Maja
(författare)
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Vad karaktäriserar den tidiga utvecklingen av autism?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Svensk Intresseförening för Tal och Språk (SITS).
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Logoped Maja Rudling disputerade i mars 2023 inom psykologi på Uppsala universitet. Avhandlingen ”Facilitators of communication and the development of autism” handlar om tidig utveckling av autism, med fokus på sociala och kommunikativa aspekter under de första två levnadsåren. Arbetet med avhandlingen var en del av den longitudinella småsyskonstudien ”Projekt Småsyskon” och sammantaget belyser de tre delstudierna vikten av att inte enbart fokusera på social och kommunikativ förmåga för att förstå hur autism utvecklas.
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| 8. |
- Viktorsson, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Preferential looking to eyes versus mouth in early infancy : heritability and link to concurrent and later development
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-9630 .- 1469-7610. ; 64:2, s. 311-319
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundFrom birth, infants orient preferentially to faces, and when looking at the face, they attend primarily to eyes and mouth. These areas convey different types of information, and earlier research suggests that genetic factors influence the preference for one or the other in young children. MethodsIn a sample of 535 5-month-old infant twins, we assessed eye (relative to mouth) preference in early infancy, i.e., before neural systems for social communication and language are fully developed. We investigated the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the preference for looking at eyes, and the association with concurrent traits and follow-up measures. ResultsEye preference was independent from all other concurrent traits measured, and had a moderate-to-high contribution from genetic influences (A = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.66). Preference for eyes at 5 months was associated with higher parent ratings of receptive vocabulary at 14 months. No statistically significant association with later autistic traits was found. Preference for eyes was strikingly stable across different stimulus types (e.g., dynamic vs. still), suggesting that infants' preference at this age does not reflect sensitivity to low-level visual cues. ConclusionsThese results suggest that individual differences in infants' preferential looking to eyes versus mouth to a substantial degree reflect genetic variation. The findings provide new leads on both the perceptual basis and the developmental consequences of these attentional biases.
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| 9. |
- Viktorsson, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer. - 2045-2322. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Looking at the mouth region is thought to be a useful strategy for speech-perception tasks. The tendency to look at the eyes versus the mouth of another person during speech processing has thus far mainly been studied using screen-based paradigms. In this study, we estimated the eye-mouth-index (EMI) of 38 adult participants in a live setting. Participants were seated across the table from an experimenter, who read sentences out loud for the participant to remember in both a familiar (English) and unfamiliar (Finnish) language. No statistically significant difference in the EMI between the familiar and the unfamiliar languages was observed. Total relative looking time at the mouth also did not predict the number of correctly identified sentences. Instead, we found that the EMI was higher during an instruction phase than during the speech-processing task. Moreover, we observed high intra-individual correlations in the EMI across the languages and different phases of the experiment. We conclude that there are stable individual differences in looking at the eyes versus the mouth of another person. Furthermore, this behavior appears to be flexible and dependent on the requirements of the situation (speech processing or not).
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