100 research outputs found
Impaired Competence for Pretense in Children with Autism: Exploring Potential Cognitive Predictors.
No full textLack of pretense in children with autism has been explained by a number of theoretical explanations, including impaired mentalising, impaired response inhibition, and weak central coherence. This study aimed to empirically test each of these theories. Children with autism (n=60) were significantly impaired relative to controls (n=65) when interpreting pretense, thereby supporting a competence deficit hypothesis. They also showed impaired mentalising and response inhibition, but superior local processing indicating weak central coherence. Regression analyses revealed that mentalising significantly and independently predicted pretense. The results are interpreted as supporting the impaired mentalising theory and evidence against competing theories invoking impaired response inhibition or a local processing bias. The results of this study have important implications for treatment and intervention
Heterogeneous and tissue-specific regulation of effector T cell responses by IFN-gamma during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection.
No full textIFN-γ and T cells are both required for the development of experimental cerebral malaria during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection. Surprisingly, however, the role of IFN-γ in shaping the effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell response during this infection has not been examined in detail. To address this, we have compared the effector T cell responses in wild-type and IFN-γ(-/-) mice during P. berghei ANKA infection. The expansion of splenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells during P. berghei ANKA infection was unaffected by the absence of IFN-γ, but the contraction phase of the T cell response was significantly attenuated. Splenic T cell activation and effector function were essentially normal in IFN-γ(-/-) mice; however, the migration to, and accumulation of, effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in the lung, liver, and brain was altered in IFN-γ(-/-) mice. Interestingly, activation and accumulation of T cells in various nonlymphoid organs was differently affected by lack of IFN-γ, suggesting that IFN-γ influences T cell effector function to varying levels in different anatomical locations. Importantly, control of splenic T cell numbers during P. berghei ANKA infection depended on active IFN-γ-dependent environmental signals--leading to T cell apoptosis--rather than upon intrinsic alterations in T cell programming. To our knowledge, this is the first study to fully investigate the role of IFN-γ in modulating T cell function during P. berghei ANKA infection and reveals that IFN-γ is required for efficient contraction of the pool of activated T cells
Erratum
No full text Wagner, J.B., Luyster, R.J., Moustapha, H., Tager-Flusberg, H., and Nelson, C. A. (2018). Differential attention to faces in infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder and associations with later social and language ability. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 42(1), 83–92. DOI: 10.1177/0165025416673475. This article was printed in the January 2018 issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Development with the first author, Jennifer B. Wagner’s, middle initial omitted. The online version of this article has now been updated to include this. </jats:p
The butt of the joke? Laughter and potency in the becoming of good soldiers
No full textDenne artikel undersøger, hvordan humor indgår som en elementær del af soldaters tilblivelsesproces som medlemmer af den militære profession. Baseret på et deltagende feltarbejde blandt danske værnepligtige tager analysen udgangspunkt i den gennemgående fokus på, at de unge soldater ikke kun skal disciplineres - men at der i Forsvaret også skal være 'en god stemning'. Ved at lægge et kritisk blik på den humoristiske stemning, der blev opdyrket i det konkrete værnepligtskompagni, viser artiklen, hvordan humor tager del i at forme fremtidens gode soldater. Det overordnede argument er, at det gennem jokes, latter og narrestreger markeres, hvor grænserne for acceptabel adfærd og ønskede værdier går - ikke mindst når det kommer til soldaternes potens.In the Danish military, laughter plays a key role in the process of becoming a good soldier. Along with the strictness of hierarchy and discipline, a perhaps surprisingly widespread use of humor is essential in the social interaction, as the author observed during a participatory fieldwork among conscripted soldiers in the army. Unfolding the wider context and affective flows in this use of humor, however, the article suggests that the humorous tune (Ahmed 2014a) that is established among the soldiers concurrently has severe consequences as it not only polices soldiers’ sexuality and ‘wrong’ ways for men to be close, but also entangles in the‘making’ of good, potent soldiers. Humor is therefore argued to be a very serious matter that can cast soldiers as either insiders or outsiders to the military profession
Absence of spontaneous action anticipation by false belief attribution in children with autism spectrum disorder
No full textRecently, a series of studies demonstrated false belief understanding in young children through completely nonverbal measures. These studies have revealed that children younger than 3 years of age, who consistently fail the standard verbal false belief test, can anticipate others' actions based on their attributed false beliefs. The current study examined whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who are known to have difficulties in the verbal false belief test, may also show such action anticipation in a nonverbal false belief test. We presented video stimuli of an actor watching an object being hidden in a box. The object was then displaced while the actor was looking away. We recorded children's eye movements and coded whether they spontaneously anticipated the actor's subsequent behavior, which could only have been predicted if they had attributed a false belief to her. Although typically developing children correctly anticipated the action, children with ASD failed to show such action anticipation. The results suggest that children with ASD have an impairment in false belief attribution, which is independent of their verbal ability
Den Skjulte Stemme - En nærsproglig analyse af novellen Globryllup
No full textProjektet er en nærsproglig analyse af novellen Globryllup af Helle Helle. I denne analyse anvendes primært Simon Borchmanns funktionelle tekstteori (herunder hans katalysebegreb) til at identificere de sproglige valg der entydiggør forskellige læsninger af novellen. Jeg-fortælleren i Globryllup er en meget underinformativ fortæller. Til at påvise dette anvendes blandt andet Paul Grices teori om samarbejdsprincippet og implikatur. På grund af jeg-fortællerens underinformative adfærd er man som læser så at sige nødt til at lede mellem linjerne efter en sammenhæng mellem jeg-fortællerens handlinger og underliggende hensigter. Til dette benyttes Algirdas J. Greimas’ isotopi-begreb for at tydeliggøre hvordan to fortællerstemmer i novellen udlægger jegets handlinger igennem to forskellige betydningsfelter. De to fortællerstemmer betegner vi som den eksplicitte og den implicitte fortæller, i og med vi tager udgangspunkt i Wayne C. Booths begreb om ‘the implied author’ og et LOC-begreb som anvendes af en sammenslutning af skandinaviske polyfonister (herunder Henning Nølke).Projektet er en nærsproglig analyse af novellen Globryllup af Helle Helle. I denne analyse anvendes primært Simon Borchmanns funktionelle tekstteori (herunder hans katalysebegreb) til at identificere de sproglige valg der entydiggør forskellige læsninger af novellen. Jeg-fortælleren i Globryllup er en meget underinformativ fortæller. Til at påvise dette anvendes blandt andet Paul Grices teori om samarbejdsprincippet og implikatur. På grund af jeg-fortællerens underinformative adfærd er man som læser så at sige nødt til at lede mellem linjerne efter en sammenhæng mellem jeg-fortællerens handlinger og underliggende hensigter. Til dette benyttes Algirdas J. Greimas’ isotopi-begreb for at tydeliggøre hvordan to fortællerstemmer i novellen udlægger jegets handlinger igennem to forskellige betydningsfelter. De to fortællerstemmer betegner vi som den eksplicitte og den implicitte fortæller, i og med vi tager udgangspunkt i Wayne C. Booths begreb om ‘the implied author’ og et LOC-begreb som anvendes af en sammenslutning af skandinaviske polyfonister (herunder Henning Nølke)
The social-cognitive development of children with severe learning difficulties
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis focuses upon the abilities of children with severe learning difficulties to contemplate the psychological states of other people, what is often referred to in the literature as 'mindreading' (Whiten and Perner, 1991). The first section contains a review of the literature on children's
developing understanding of the mind and their conceptual representational abilities. This is followed by two studies investigating
non-learning disabled children's abilities to attribute first-and second-order false belief. The first of these uses an adaptation of the Sally-Anne test (Baron-Cohen, et al., 1985). The second study uses an original false belief story scenario, which involves children in drama. The researcher uses a technique called 'split-briefing' to provide children with first-hand
experience of first-and second-order false belief. Simplified versions of the two false belief story scenarios are then used with children with severe learning difficulties to investigate their abilities to represent first-and second-order false belief. The relationship between children's scores on belief attribution tasks and their scores on tests of non-verbal intellectual reasoning (Ravens Coloured Matrices) and receptive language ability (TROG) is also examined in this study. The third section outlines the findings of a questionnaire-based study examining parental reports of spontaneous internal state use by two groups of children: non-learning disabled children aged 1-5 years and pupils with Down's Syndrome aged 4-19 years with severe learning difficulties. 'Internal state language' is language which refers to intentions, cognitions and feeling states (Bretherton and Beeghly, 1981). This is followed by a further investigation of internal state language among a group of students with severe learning difficulties. This study uses a series of playlets written by the author to provide students with an interactive, participatory medium in which to draw their attention to people's internal states. The thesis concludes with a final statement on research into the social-cognitive development of children with severe learning difficulties, with
recommendations for future research and intervention
What Do Executive Factors Contribute to the Failure on False Belief Tasks by Children with Autism?
No full textAs children with autism have pervasive executive difficulties it is necessary to determine
whether these contribute to their often-reported failure on the false belief task. Failure on
this task is frequently taken to diagnose the lack of a ``theory of mind''. We report two
studies using two tasks that make similar executive demands to the false belief task. The first
experiment showed that children with autism are significantly challenged by a "conflicting
desire" task, which suggests that their difficulty with the false belief task is not rooted in
difficulty with grasping the representational nature of belief. In the second study children
with autism were also found to be impaired on a novel version of the "false photograph
task". A parsimonious reading of these data is that their difficulty with all three tasks is due
to commonalities in the tasks' executive structure
TREX1 Knockdown Induces an Interferon Response to HIV that Delays Viral Infection in Humanized Mice
No full textSummaryDespite their antiviral effect, the in vivo effect of interferons on HIV transmission is difficult to predict, because interferons also activate and recruit HIV-susceptible cells to sites of infection. HIV does not normally induce type I interferons in infected cells, but does if TREX1 is knocked down. Here, we investigated the effect of topical TREX1 knockdown and local interferon production on HIV transmission in human cervicovaginal explants and humanized mice. In explants in which TREX1 was knocked down, HIV induced interferons, which blocked infection. In humanized mice, even though TREX1 knockdown increased infiltrating immune cells, it delayed viral replication for 3–4 weeks. Similarly intravaginal application of type I interferons the day before HIV infection induced interferon responsive genes, reduced inflammation, and decreased viral replication. However, intravenous interferon enhanced inflammation and infection. Thus, in models of human sexual transmission, a localized interferon response inhibits HIV transmission but systemic interferons do not
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