Psychology posts
- April 2, 2017
- 05:10 AM
- 378 views
On the under-studied populations within the autism spectrum
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I don't typically post on a Sunday, but given that today - 2nd April - is World Autism Awareness Day I've decided to make an exception. The theme of today's post is based around the notion that the autism spectrum is truly wide and heterogeneous, and although this is fairly universally acknowledged, the current peer-reviewed research literature on autism is perhaps not yet so accepting. So...Consistent with the idea that scientific research seems to go through cycles of themes/interests, th........ Read more »
Chakrabarti B. (2017) Commentary: Critical considerations for studying low-functioning autism. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 58(4), 436-438. PMID: 28346760
- April 1, 2017
- 03:30 PM
- 470 views
Educational Achievement and Religiosity
by Joshua Fisher in Text Savvy
Religiosity may be correlated with lower educational achievement because people have a finite amount of time and attention, and spending time learning about religion or engaging in religious activities necessarily takes time away from learning math and science.... Read more »
Stoet, G., & Geary, D. (2017) Students in countries with higher levels of religiosity perform lower in science and mathematics. Intelligence. DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2017.03.001
- April 1, 2017
- 05:16 AM
- 404 views
Yet more bumetanide and autism findings
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Bumetanide, a loop diuretic medicine typically used to treat heart failure, is probably not something that most people would associate with 'attenuating' some of the presented characteristics of autism. This Na-K-Cl cotransporter (NKCC) blocking drug (influencing chloride concentrations in neurons and impacting on the actions of gamma-Aminobutyric acid, GABA) has however made quite a few appearances in the peer-reviewed autism research literature (see here and see here) and beyond........ Read more »
Lemonnier, E., Villeneuve, N., Sonie, S., Serret, S., Rosier, A., Roue, M., Brosset, P., Viellard, M., Bernoux, D., Rondeau, S.... (2017) Effects of bumetanide on neurobehavioral function in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Translational Psychiatry, 7(3). DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.10
- March 31, 2017
- 01:10 PM
- 468 views
Giving the underserved the care they deserve
by Aurametrix team in Aurametrix Blog
Nobody likes strong smells coming from other human beings. It's just that social convention: you are nice, if you smell nice, and you are a monster - like Shakespeare's Caliban - if you smell bad. Caliban, often depicted as a Golumn-like creature, is one of the first cases of fish odor syndrome described in the literature. No amount of soap and water would help him to wash the smell away, as his body is constantly producing a pungent small molecule trimethylamine. ... Read more »
Guo Y, Hwang LD, Li J, Eades J, Yu CW, Mansfield C, Burdick-Will A, Chang X, Chen Y, Duke FF.... (2017) Genetic analysis of impaired trimethylamine metabolism using whole exome sequencing. BMC medical genetics, 18(1), 11. PMID: 28196478
Callewaert C, Lambert J, & Van de Wiele T. (2016) Towards a bacterial treatment for armpit malodour. Experimental dermatology. PMID: 27892611
- March 31, 2017
- 03:51 AM
- 373 views
Coeliac disease, autism and more
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Compared with the general population, children with celiac disease had a 1.4-fold greater risk of future psychiatric disorders. Childhood celiac disease was identified as a risk factor for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, behavioral disorders, ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder], ASD [autism spectrum disorder], and intellectual disability."So said the study findings reported by Agnieszka Butwicka and colleagues [1] who, yet again, relied on one of ........ Read more »
Butwicka A, Lichtenstein P, Frisén L, Almqvist C, Larsson H, & Ludvigsson JF. (2017) Celiac Disease Is Associated with Childhood Psychiatric Disorders: A Population-Based Study. The Journal of pediatrics. PMID: 28283256
- March 30, 2017
- 04:12 AM
- 381 views
[Objective] exposure to flame retardants and social behaviours
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Although a few details of the study reported by Shannon Lipscomb and colleagues [1] (open-access) interested me, I was particularly taken by their use of "a silicone passive wristband sampler [worn] around his/her wrist or ankle" to "assess the child’s exposure to flame retardants" as part of their investigation "to determine if flame retardant exposure was associated with measurable differences in social behaviors among children ages 3–5 years."I've covered the topic of potential adver........ Read more »
Lipscomb ST, McClelland MM, MacDonald M, Cardenas A, Anderson KA, & Kile ML. (2017) Cross-sectional study of social behaviors in preschool children and exposure to flame retardants. Environmental health : a global access science source, 16(1), 23. PMID: 28274271
- March 29, 2017
- 03:54 AM
- 384 views
L-methylfolate administration and autism: a case report
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I should have really titled this post 'another case report' given yesterday's entry on this blog talking about a case of [untreated] PKU and autistic behaviours/diagnosis. Here I am again talking about another N=1 with autism in mind and specifically the findings reported by Kim Siscoe & David Lohr [1] on how: "L-methylfolate supplementation improved symptoms of aggression and disruptive behavior in a child with autism who tested positive for the C677TT allele of the methyltetrahydrofolate r........ Read more »
Siscoe, K., & Lohr, W. (2017) L-Methylfolate supplementation in a child with autism and methyltetrahydrofolate reductase, enzyme gene C677TT allele. Psychiatric Genetics, 1. DOI: 10.1097/YPG.0000000000000170
- March 28, 2017
- 05:34 AM
- 400 views
Presenting with the symptoms of autism and then diagnosed with phenylketonuria (PKU)
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The case report from Betül Mazlum and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) illustrates once again that (a) the plural 'autisms' exist (see here) and (b) screening for inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) should be an important part of any autism assessment (see here). Indeed, screening for IEM should really be part of assessments for many different labels...Detailing a case report wherein a 3-year old child came to clinical attention for "speech delay and social problems", the authors ........ Read more »
Mazlum B, Anlar B, Kalkanoğlu-Sivri HS, Karlı-Oğuz K, Özusta Ş, & Ünal F. (2016) A late-diagnosed phenylketonuria case presenting with autism spectrum disorder in early childhood. The Turkish journal of pediatrics, 58(3), 318-322. PMID: 28266201
- March 27, 2017
- 05:38 AM
- 414 views
Detecting stereotypic behaviours through technology
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"We have designed an Internet-of-Things (IoT) framework named WearSense that leverages the sensing capabilities of modern smartwatches to detect stereotypic behaviors in children with autism."So said the paper by Amir Mohammad Amiri and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) and, I have to say, something that really piqued my [research] attention. Describing how authors managed to design and construct a smartwatch with the ability to "detect three behaviors, including hand flapping, pa........ Read more »
Amiri AM, Peltier N, Goldberg C, Sun Y, Nathan A, Hiremath SV, & Mankodiya K. (2017) WearSense: Detecting Autism Stereotypic Behaviors through Smartwatches. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 5(1). PMID: 28264474
- March 26, 2017
- 12:25 PM
- 272 views
Textbook languages
by Madalena Cruz-Ferreira in Being Multilingual
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Wanting to learn a language doesn’t always result in learning the language that we want. This is so even when the language that we want to learn and the one that we end up learning go by the same name – let’s call it X. One reason for this is that most language teaching proceeds through what we’ve come to identify as the language’s holy writ, namely, the X textbook. A textbook is a book. Like all books, it uses printed modes of language, with two consequ........ Read more »
Forman, R. (2014) How local teachers respond to the culture and language of a global English as a Foreign Language textbook. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 27(1), 72-88. DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2013.868473
- March 25, 2017
- 02:06 PM
- 404 views
Native multilinguals
by Madalena Cruz-Ferreira in Being Multilingual
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Some of my language teaching students sometimes express out loud their heartfelt desire to become native speakers. I was quite baffled the first time I heard this: we’re all native speakers, surely, and we can’t become natives, if we take the word “native” to mean what I supposed it is meant to mean, ‘from birth’. But does it? It turned out that my students’ previous teacher training had included the mantra that “native” means ‘flawless’ in th........ Read more »
Cruz-Ferreira, M. (2011) First language acquisition and teaching. AILA Review, 78-87. DOI: 10.1075/aila.24.06cru
- March 25, 2017
- 01:40 PM
- 424 views
Sign-speech multilinguals
by Madalena Cruz-Ferreira in Being Multilingual
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Opinions and decisions about multilingualism involving sign languages suffer from the same resilient fantasies which have plagued multilingualism in general over the past 100 years or so. With sign languages, however, there’s the aggravating factor that fantasies about them join the chorus. Only the other week, for example, I had a couple of (speech-speech) multilingual friends wonder why all the fuss about sign languages among linguists like me, since these lang........ Read more »
Alibali, M., Young, A., Crooks, N., Yeo, A., Wolfgram, M., Ledesma, I., Nathan, M., Breckinridge Church, R., & Knuth, E. (2013) Students learn more when their teacher has learned to gesture effectively. Gesture, 13(2), 210-233. DOI: 10.1075/gest.13.2.05ali
QUINTO-POZOS, D. (2008) Sign language contact and interference: ASL and LSM. Language in Society, 37(02). DOI: 10.1017/S0047404508080251
- March 25, 2017
- 06:37 AM
- 393 views
Including the "full intellectual range" in autism vision research
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The paper by Alyse Brown and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) is probably not going to gain any significant media headlines (unlike other recent studies - see here and see here) but does cover a rather important question regarding the autism research landscape: how representative is autism research?Specifically looking at the collected research on visual processing (distinct from physical issues with the eyes that still require greater awareness) with autism in mind, the authors ........ Read more »
Brown AC, Chouinard PA, & Crewther SG. (2017) Vision Research Literature May Not Represent the Full Intellectual Range of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 57. PMID: 28261072
- March 24, 2017
- 02:00 PM
- 368 views
Lines that do not meet? Different perspectives of psychology upon organizations and work
by SciELO in SciELO in Perspective | Press Releases
Is it possible to attach a single label to the different approaches and professional practices of Psychology regarding work? Are there irreconcilable differences between psychology approaches, for example, an approach with a concentrated focus on management and another focused on the health of workers? … Read More →... Read more »
BERNARDO, M., OLIVEIRA, F., SOUZA, H., & SOUSA, C. (2017) Linhas paralelas: as distintas aproximações da Psicologia em relação ao trabalho. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 34(1), 15-24. DOI: 10.1590/1982-02752017000100003
- March 24, 2017
- 04:46 AM
- 389 views
Autism and anxiety disorder: zooming in on the details
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Although it is not necessarily new news that (a) autism rarely exists in some sort of diagnostic vacuum, and (b) that some of the comorbidity 'over-represented' when it comes to autism can actually be more disabling than autism itself, there are still more investigations to be done.The paper by Vicki Bitsika & Christopher Sharpley [1] represents an example of how autism science is starting to go past the whole 'is there a connection between...' bit when it comes to autism and various comorbi........ Read more »
Bitsika, V., & Sharpley, C. (2017) The association between parents’ ratings of ASD symptoms and anxiety in a sample of high-functioning boys and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 38-45. DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.02.010
- March 23, 2017
- 05:02 AM
- 392 views
Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and autism continued
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I wanted to briefly talk about the paper by Francesca Garofoli and colleagues [1] on congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and autism not because it contains any novel data (see here), but because it reminds us that the potential 'pathways' to a diagnosis of autism are multiple and not necessarily 'pre-programmed' as per the 'it's all genetic' arguments that frequently figure in various domains.Congenital CMV infection refers to the transmission of CMV - "a common virus that belongs to the ........ Read more »
Garofoli F, Lombardi G, Orcesi S, Pisoni C, Mazzucchelli I, Angelini M, Balottin U, & Stronati M. (2017) An Italian Prospective Experience on the Association Between Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection and Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. PMID: 28258350
- March 22, 2017
- 05:08 AM
- 369 views
On genotype and environmental exposure patterns
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I was rather interested to read the paper by Michela Traglia and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) concluding that: "maternal and fetal genetic make-up are important determinants of mid-gestational maternal circulating levels of some environmental organohalogens." Interested because, in these days of gene-environment interactions being applied to just about everything, the detail that is missing - which genes might potentially be linked to which environmental factors - has not yet........ Read more »
Traglia M, Croen LA, Lyall K, Windham GC, Kharrazi M, DeLorenze GN, Torres AR, & Weiss LA. (2017) Independent Maternal and Fetal Genetic Effects on Mid-gestational Circulating Levels of Environmental Pollutants. G3 (Bethesda, Md.). PMID: 28235828
- March 21, 2017
- 02:00 PM
- 412 views
Study proposes fruition as a new attribute of information representation for works of contemporary art
by SciELO in SciELO in Perspective | Press Releases
It discusses information and art starting from the books of artists, from the collection of the Núcleo de Arte Contemporânea da Paraíba (NAC/UFPB), analyzing the performance of CI through the representation of information, in a collaborative working relationship between professionals. The representation of information could help in the treatment and organization of information, softening the complexity of these objects in the face of their possibilities of abstraction and fruition. … Re........ Read more »
CATOIRA, T., & AZEVEDO NETTO, C. (2016) The importance of a differentiated representation of information for Contemporary Art: Use of fruition as a classification attribute. Transinformação, 28(3), 263-274. DOI: 10.1590/2318-08892016000300002
- March 21, 2017
- 11:04 AM
- 566 views
The Weirdest Animals on Earth: 12 Amazing Facts About Platypuses
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
What IS that? A photo by Stefan Kraft at Wikimedia Commons.1. Platypuses are so strange, that when British scientists first encountered one, they thought it was a joke: A Governor of New South Wales, Australia, sent a platypus pelt and sketch to British scientists in 1798. Even in their first published scientific description of the species, biologists thought that this duck-beaked, beaver-bodied, web-footed specimen may be some Frankenstein-like creation stitched together as a hoax. But this is ........ Read more »
Scheich, H., Langner, G., Tidemann, C., Coles, R., & Guppy, A. (1986) Electroreception and electrolocation in platypus. Nature, 319(6052), 401-402. DOI: 10.1038/319401a0
Warren, W., Hillier, L., Marshall Graves, J., Birney, E., Ponting, C., Grützner, F., Belov, K., Miller, W., Clarke, L., Chinwalla, A.... (2008) Genome analysis of the platypus reveals unique signatures of evolution. Nature, 453(7192), 175-183. DOI: 10.1038/nature06936
- March 21, 2017
- 04:57 AM
- 415 views
PACE trial recovery data and chronic fatigue syndrome - a reply
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I'd encourage readers interested in the background to the response paper by Michael Sharpe and colleagues [1] to have a look at a previous blogging occasion when the topic of the PACE trial, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and 'recovery' were discussed (see here).Suffice to say that this latest paper is a reply to one published by Carolyn Wilshire and colleagues [2] who concluded that: "The claim that patients [with CFS] can recover as a result of CBT [cognitive behaviour therapy] ........ Read more »
M Sharpe, T Chalder, AL Johnson, KA Goldsmith, & PD White. (2017) Do more people recover from chronic fatigue syndrome with cognitive behaviour therapy or graded exercise therapy than with other treatments?. Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health , 1-5. info:/10.1080/21641846.2017.1288629
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