Faculty Bibliography

Patient-satisfaction surveys can call attention to the importance of treating patients with dignity and respect, but good ratings depend more on manipulable patient perceptions than on good medicine. In fact, the pressure to get good ratings can lead to bad medicine.

Gamma ( approximately 40-90 Hz) and beta ( approximately 15-40 Hz) oscillations and their associated neuronal assemblies are key features of neuronal sensory processing. However, the mechanisms involved in either their interaction and/or the switch between these different regimes in most sensory systems remain misunderstood. Based on in vivo recordings and biophysical modeling of the mammalian olfactory bulb (OB), we propose a general scheme where OB internal dynamics can sustain two distinct dynamic states, each dominated by either a gamma or a beta regime. The occurrence of each regime depends on the excitability level of granule cells, the main OB interneurons. Using this model framework, we demonstrate how the balance between sensory and centrifugal input can control the switch between the two oscillatory dynamic states. In parallel, we experimentally observed that sensory and centrifugal inputs to the rat OB could both be modulated by the respiration of the animal (2-12 Hz) and each one phase shifted with the other. Implementing this phase shift in our model resulted in the appearance of the alternation between gamma and beta rhythms within a single respiratory cycle, as in our experimental results under urethane anesthesia. Our theoretical framework can also account for the oscillatory frequency response, depending on the odor intensity, the odor valence, and the animal sniffing strategy observed under various conditions including animal freely-moving. Importantly, the results of the present model can form a basis to understand how fast rhythms could be controlled by the slower sensory and centrifugal modulations linked to the respiration. Visual Abstract: See Abstract.

To better understand young children's ability to communicate about their bodies, toddlers' comprehension and production of 27 common body part words was assessed using parental report at 20 and 30 months (n = 64), and self-awareness was assessed using mirror self-recognition. Children at both ages comprehended more body part words that referred to themselves than to others' bodies, and more words referring to locations that they could see on themselves than to those they could not see. Children with more advanced mirror self-recognition comprehended and produced more body part words. These findings suggest that with age and better understanding of the self, children also possess a better understanding of the body, and they provide new information about factors that affect how young children begin to talk about their own and others' bodies. They should be useful for practitioners who need to ask children about their bodies and body parts.

We examined how individual differences in social understanding contribute to variability in early-appearing prosocial behavior. Moreover, potential sources of variability in social understanding were explored and examined as additional possible predictors of prosocial behavior. Using a multi-method approach with both observed and parent-report measures, 325 children aged 18-30 months were administered measures of social understanding (e.g., use of emotion words; self-understanding), prosocial behavior (in separate tasks measuring instrumental helping, empathic helping, and sharing, as well as parent-reported prosociality at home), temperament (fearfulness, shyness, and social fear), and parental socialization of prosocial behavior in the family. Individual differences in social understanding predicted variability in empathic helping and parent-reported prosociality, but not instrumental helping or sharing. Parental socialization of prosocial behavior was positively associated with toddlers' social understanding, prosocial behavior at home, and instrumental helping in the lab, and negatively associated with sharing (possibly reflecting parents' increased efforts to encourage children who were less likely to share). Further, socialization moderated the association between social understanding and prosocial behavior, such that social understanding was less predictive of prosocial behavior among children whose parents took a more active role in socializing their prosociality. None of the dimensions of temperament was associated with either social understanding or prosocial behavior. Parental socialization of prosocial behavior is thus an important source of variability in children's early prosociality, acting in concert with early differences in social understanding, with different patterns of influence for different subtypes of prosocial behavior.

Patterns in parents' socialization of prosocial behavior in 18- and 24-month-olds (n=46) were investigated during an everyday household chore that parents were asked to complete with their toddlers. Two socialization approaches were distinguished, one focused on specific requests for concrete actions needed to complete an immediate, concrete goal ("action-oriented"), and a second focused on the more abstract needs and emotions of the parent and the child's role as a helper ("need-oriented'). Parents were equally active at both ages in trying to elicit children's help but used different strategies with younger and older toddlers. With 18-month-olds they used more action-oriented approaches, whereas with 24-month-olds they increased their use of need-oriented approaches. They also regulated the attention of younger toddlers more, and more often socially approved older toddlers' helping. Thus, how parents prompt, support, and encourage prosocial behavior changes over the second year from utilizing primarily concrete, goal-directed requests in the service of the immediate task, to increasingly emphasizing more abstract needs and emotions of the recipient and the child's role as a helper.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences in comorbid psychopathology rates between individuals who meet criteria of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) according to DSM-5 or the DSM-IV-TR. METHODS: Comorbid psychopathology was measured using the Autism Spectrum Disorders- Comorbid for Children. 424 individuals between the ages of 2 and 18 years of age; including children who met criteria for an ASD according to the DSM-5, the DSM-IV-TR only, and a control group that did not meet either set of criteria. RESULTS: Of the ASD participants, 36% would no longer meet criteria according to proposed DSM-5. Comorbidity rates for the ASD groups were significantly different from the control group; however, ASD groups were not significantly different in terms of total comorbid psychopathology. CONCLUSION: The results elucidate the need for further research regarding services and treatments for those individuals that will no longer meet criteria for an ASD but still have significant rates of comorbid psychopathology.

Social skills are important for both social development and integration. However, few studies have looked at these behaviors in the context of severity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms and comorbid psychopathology in young children. Three hundred twenty eight infants and toddlers between 18 and 36 months of age diagnosed with ASD were studied. More severe symptoms of ASD and various forms of emotional distress such as tantrums and inattention/impulsivity were associated with greater difficulties in social behavior. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.