38 posts · 18,484 views
Mixture of reviews of science papers, personal views on academic matters, book reviews
Dorothy Bishop
38 posts
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- June 25, 2011
- 10:50 AM
- 1,042 views
The National Children's Study: A view from across the pond
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Vast amounts of US research funds have gone to support the National Children's Study, a longitudinal cohort study of 100,000 families. At a time of financial stringency, I ask whether this is a good use of funds, and query why cohort studies are so much more expensive in the US than in Europe... Read more »
Kaiser, J. (2004) CHILDREN'S HEALTH: NIH Launches Controversial Long-Term Study of 100,000 U.S. Kids. Science, 306(5703), 1883-1883. DOI: 10.1126/science.306.5703.1883
Magnus, P., Irgens, L., Haug, K., Nystad, W., Skjaerven, R., Stoltenberg, C., & , . (2006) Cohort profile: The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). International Journal of Epidemiology, 35(5), 1146-1150. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyl170
Olsen, J., Melbye, M., Olsen, S., Sorensen, T., Aaby, P., Nybo Andersen, A., Taxbol, D., Hansen, K., Juhl, M., Schow, T.... (2001) The Danish National Birth Cohort - its background, structure and aim. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 29(4), 300-307. DOI: 10.1177/14034948010290040201
Paneth, N. (2010) Saving the National Childrenʼs Study From Its Saviors. Epidemiology, 21(5), 602-604. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181ea5f89
Savitz, D., & Ness, R. (2010) Saving the National Childrenʼs Study. Epidemiology, 21(5), 598-601. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181e942cc
- June 3, 2011
- 03:30 PM
- 927 views
Is poor parenting really to blame for children's school problems?
by D V M Bishop in bishopblog
The UK press has been full of headlines such as "Poor parenting means half of five-year-olds are unfit to start school". But what are the credentials of the person making this claim? Is there any evidence?... Read more »
Zubrick, Stephen R., Taylor, Catherine L., Rice, Mabel L., & Slegers, David W. (2007) Late language emergence at 24 months: An epidemiological study of prevalence, predictors, and covariates. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2007/106)
- June 5, 2011
- 04:07 AM
- 915 views
Review of "How genes influence behavior"
by D V M Bishop in bishopblog
In which I praise an excellent introductory text on behavior genetics, while also noting parallels between neuroscience/genetics in terms of problems with nonreplicable findings... Read more »
Kriegeskorte N, Simmons WK, Bellgowan PS, & Baker CI. (2009) Circular analysis in systems neuroscience: the dangers of double dipping. Nature neuroscience, 12(5), 535-40. PMID: 19396166
- May 16, 2011
- 04:09 AM
- 865 views
Autism diagnosis in cultural context
by D V M Bishop in bishopblog
A review of Isabel’s World by Roy Richard Grinker
Author is parent of child with autism and also cultural anthropologist. Looks at reasons for 'autism epidemic' and contrasts autism diagnosis in different countries... Read more »
Bishop, D., Whitehouse, A., Watt, H., & Line, E. (2008) Autism and diagnostic substitution: evidence from a study of adults with a history of developmental language disorder. Developmental Medicine , 50(5), 341-345. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2008.02057.x
- June 21, 2011
- 06:43 AM
- 865 views
Autism diagnosis and hyper-systemizing parents: Nottingham vs. Eindhoven
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
A recent paper found higher rates of autism diagnoses in Eindhoven compared to 2 other cities in the Netherlands, and suggested this related to hyper-systemizing in parents in the IT industry. Analogous data from the UK suggest that such diagnostic data may be too inconsistent to give meaningful prevalence comparisons.... Read more »
Roelfsema, M., Hoekstra, R., Allison, C., Wheelwright, S., Brayne, C., Matthews, F., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2011) Are Autism Spectrum Conditions More Prevalent in an Information-Technology Region? A School-Based Study of Three Regions in the Netherlands. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-011-1302-1
- May 30, 2011
- 12:56 PM
- 854 views
Are our ‘gold standard’ autism diagnostic instruments fit for purpose?
by D V M Bishop in bishopblog
Use of ADOS-G and ADI-R adds hugely to the time and money costs of research. Small-scale studies of autism by PhD students have become nonviable, and large-scale genetic and epidemiological studies are bogged down by the need to spend hours just establishing the phenotype for each case. Researchers from countries where ADI-R and ADOS-G are not available are at a serious disadvantage. And, as I argue, the end result is not a clearcut diagnosis. ... Read more »
Rondeau E, Klein LS, Masse A, Bodeau N, Cohen D, & Guilé JM. (2010) Is Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified Less Stable Than Autistic Disorder? A Meta-Analysis. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. PMID: 21153874
- July 13, 2011
- 12:12 PM
- 843 views
How to survive in psychological research
by deevybee in bishopblog
Summarising eight laws formulated by Hodgson and Rollnick in 1989, including such gems as:
Law #2 The number of available subjects will be one tenth of your first estimate
Law #5 The help provided by other people has a half-life of two weeks... Read more »
Elwyn, G. (2005) Ethics and research governance in a multicentre study: add 150 days to your study protocol. BMJ, 330(7495), 847-847. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.330.7495.847
- September 1, 2011
- 07:22 AM
- 832 views
Early intervention: What's not to like?
by Dorothy V M Bishop in bishopblog
Early intervention for language difficulties seems a good idea, but a recent randomised controlled trial shows the problem: many late-talking toddlers improve spontaneously... Read more »
Wake M, Tobin S, Girolametto L, Ukoumunne OC, Gold L, Levickis P, Sheehan J, Goldfeld S, & Reilly S. (2011) Outcomes of population based language promotion for slow to talk toddlers at ages 2 and 3 years: Let's Learn Language cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). PMID: 21852344
- May 6, 2012
- 12:32 PM
- 728 views
Sharing of MRI dyslexia datasets
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
A new NIH supported project uses dyslexia as a model to address the challenges facing retrospective multi-site studies. The aim is to have more than 2000 pediatric and adult cases from reading disability studies. One long term goal of this project is to make available much of the data collected for this study so that scientists can ask new questions, apply new methods to the data, and develop new collaborations with other scientists who have complementary expertise and interests in reading disa........ Read more »
Eckert MA, Leonard CM, Wilke M, Eckert M, Richards T, Richards A, & Berninger V. (2005) Anatomical signatures of dyslexia in children: unique information from manual and voxel based morphometry brain measures. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 41(3), 304-15. PMID: 15871596
- April 3, 2012
- 10:46 AM
- 723 views
Phonics screening: sense and sensibility
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
There’s been a lot written about the new phonics test that is being introduced in UK schools in June. Michael Rosen cogently put the arguments against it on his blog this morning. A major concern is that the test involves asking children to read a list of items, and takes no account of whether they understand them. Indeed, the list includes nonwords (i.e. pronounceable letter strings, such as ‘doop’ or ‘barg’) as well as meaningful words. So children will be “........ Read more »
Snowling, M., & Hulme, C. (2012) Interventions for children's language and literacy difficulties. International Journal of Language , 47(1), 27-34. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00081.x
- September 12, 2011
- 03:24 AM
- 694 views
How to become a celebrity scientist
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
The media are attracted by scientists who are willing to take a firm line on a scare story, especially if it involves neuroscience. A recent article by Aric Sigman on neurobiological impact of daycare is examined from this perspective.... Read more »
Gunnar MR, Kryzer E, Van Ryzin MJ, & Phillips DA. (2010) The rise in cortisol in family day care: associations with aspects of care quality, child behavior, and child sex. Child development, 81(3), 851-69. PMID: 20573109
- May 2, 2012
- 04:26 AM
- 621 views
Neuronal migration abnormalities in language learning impairments: a suggestion
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Abnormal neuronal migration has been postulated as a causal factor in dyslexia and specific language impairment. This is an attractive theory that has potential to provide the missing link between genes and behaviour. I review the evidence and note some persisting puzzles. One question is why evidence of neuronal migration abnormalities has seldom been reported in MRI studies of dyslexia and SLI. I suggest that existing MRI datasets could be re-analysed to address this question.... Read more »
Wagner, J., Weber, B., Urbach, H., Elger, C., & Huppertz, H. (2011) Morphometric MRI analysis improves detection of focal cortical dysplasia type II. Brain, 134(10), 2844-2854. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awr204
- June 4, 2012
- 10:41 AM
- 573 views
The 'autism epidemic' and diagnostic substitution
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Everyone agrees that there has been a dramatic increase in the diagnosis of autism in recent years, but there is disagreement as to why. I examine recent evidence that indicates a substantial impact of changes in diagnostic criteria... Read more »
Bishop, D., Jacobs, P., Lachlan, K., Wellesley, D., Barnicoat, A., Boyd, P., Fryer, A., Middlemiss, P., Smithson, S., Metcalfe, K.... (2010) Autism, language and communication in children with sex chromosome trisomies. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 96(10), 954-959. DOI: 10.1136/adc.2009.179747
Bishop, D., Whitehouse, A., Watt, H., & Line, E. (2008) Autism and diagnostic substitution: evidence from a study of adults with a history of developmental language disorder. Developmental Medicine , 50(5), 341-345. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2008.02057.x
Brugha, T. (2011) Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Adults in the Community in EnglandEpidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(5), 459. DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.38
- April 20, 2012
- 09:21 AM
- 569 views
Getting genetic effect sizes in perspective
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Molecular genetic studies reporting associations with conditions such as dyslexia or autism often report p-values but not effect sizes. This can be misleading for readers who don't appreciate how very small effect sizes can be associated with small p-values in large samples. ... Read more »
Scerri, T., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2009) Genetics of developmental dyslexia. European Child , 19(3), 179-197. DOI: 10.1007/s00787-009-0081-0
- June 24, 2012
- 01:46 PM
- 554 views
Causal models of developmental disorders: the perils of correlational data
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Correlational data are often used to test causal models of developmental disorders such as dyslexia and SLI, but there are pitfalls in this approach, which can potentially lead to both type I and type II errors. I illustrate the problems and suggest some ways forward... Read more »
Bishop DV, Hardiman MJ, & Barry JG. (2012) Auditory deficit as a consequence rather than endophenotype of specific language impairment: electrophysiological evidence. PloS one, 7(5). PMID: 22662112
- October 26, 2011
- 04:18 PM
- 510 views
Accentuate the negative
by deevybee in bishopblog
Publication bias in favour of positive results seriously distorts the literature. For clinical trials, registration can help, but researchers should be encouraged to publish null results from well-designed studies as well.... Read more »
Green, J., Charman, T., McConachie, H., Aldred, C., Slonims, V., Howlin, P., Le Couteur, A., Leadbitter, K., Hudry, K., Byford, S.... (2010) Parent-mediated communication-focused treatment in children with autism (PACT): a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 375(9732), 2152-2160. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60587-9
Rosenthal, R. (1979) The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results. Psychological Bulletin, 86(3), 638-641. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.86.3.638
Wake M, Tobin S, Girolametto L, Ukoumunne OC, Gold L, Levickis P, Sheehan J, Goldfeld S, & Reilly S. (2011) Outcomes of population based language promotion for slow to talk toddlers at ages 2 and 3 years: Let's Learn Language cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). PMID: 21852344
Gunnar MR, Kryzer E, Van Ryzin MJ, & Phillips DA. (2010) The rise in cortisol in family day care: associations with aspects of care quality, child behavior, and child sex. Child development, 81(3), 851-69. PMID: 20573109
Elwyn, G. (2005) Ethics and research governance in a multicentre study: add 150 days to your study protocol. BMJ, 330(7495), 847-847. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.330.7495.847
- December 30, 2011
- 04:29 AM
- 492 views
Publishers, psychological tests and greed
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Commentary on a recent article in New England Journal of Medicine about authors copyrighting simple psychological assessment... Read more »
Newman, J., & Feldman, R. (2011) Copyright and Open Access at the Bedside. New England Journal of Medicine, 365(26), 2447-2449. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1110652
- March 5, 2012
- 01:19 PM
- 467 views
Time for neuroimaging to clean up its act
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
I suggest that people find brain images so compelling that they are blinded to the poor methodological quality of many studies. I illustrate with a study by Temple et al (2003) that appeared in PNAS.... Read more »
McCabe, D., & Castel, A. (2008) Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning. Cognition, 107(1), 343-352. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.07.017
- November 13, 2011
- 06:14 AM
- 465 views
Vitamins, genes and language
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
An accidental omission led to thiamine deficiency in a formula-fed group of babies. A follow-up study has found that this group has specific language impairment at 5-7 years of age. ... Read more »
Fattal I, Friedmann N, & Fattal-Valevski A. (2011) The crucial role of thiamine in the development of syntax and lexical retrieval: a study of infantile thiamine deficiency. Brain : a journal of neurology, 134(Pt 6), 1720-39. PMID: 21558277
Villanueva P, Newbury DF, Jara L, De Barbieri Z, Mirza G, Palomino HM, Fernández MA, Cazier JB, Monaco AP, & Palomino H. (2011) Genome-wide analysis of genetic susceptibility to language impairment in an isolated Chilean population. European journal of human genetics : EJHG, 19(6), 687-95. PMID: 21248734
- May 11, 2011
- 11:00 AM
- 461 views
The X and Y of sex differences
by D V M Bishop in bishopblog
How X and Y chromosomes affect neurodevelopment... Read more »
Wijchers PJ, & Festenstein RJ. (2011) Epigenetic regulation of autosomal gene expression by sex chromosomes. Trends in genetics : TIG, 27(4), 132-40. PMID: 21334089
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