Picture perception in Chinese dyslexic children: an eye-movement study / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Currently, whether or not there is visuospatial impairments in Chinese dyslexic children is still a matter of discussion. The relatively recent application of an eye-tracking paradigm may offer an opportunity to address this issue. In China, in comparison with reading studies, there have not been nearly as many eye movement studies dealing with nonreading tasks such as picture identification and whether Chinese children with dyslexia have a picture processing deficit is not clear. The purposes of the present study were to determine whether or not there is visuospatial impairments in Chinese dyslexic children. Moreover, we attempted to discuss whether or not the abnormal eye movement pattern that dyslexic subjects show during reading of text appropriate for their age is a consequence of their linguistic difficulties.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>An eye-link II High-Speed Eye Tracker was used to track the series of eye-movement of 19 Chinese dyslexic children and 19 Chinese normal children. All of the subjects were presented with three pictures for this eye-tracking task and 6 relative eye-movement parameters, first fixation duration, average fixation duration, average saccade amplitude, mean saccade distance, fixation frequency and saccade frequency were recorded for analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Analyzing the relative parameter among three pictures, except for the fixation frequency and the saccade frequency, other eye-movement parameters were significantly different among the three pictures (P<0.05). Among the three pictures, the first fixation duration was longer, and the average fixation duration, the average saccade amplitude and the mean saccade distance were shorter from picture 2 to picture 3. Comparing all eye-movement parameter between the two groups, the scores of average saccade amplitude (P=0.017) and the mean saccade distance (P=0.02) were less in the dyslexia group than in the normal group (P<0.05), other parameters were the same in the two different groups (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The characteristics of the pictures can significantly influence the visuospatial cognitive processing capability of the Chinese children. There is a detectable disability for the Chinese dyslexic children in the visuospatial cognitive processing: their saccade amplitude and mean saccade distance are shorter, which may be interpreted as specific for their reading disability.</p>

Primary survey of avian influenza virus and Newcastle disease virus infection in wild birds in some areas of Heilongjiang Province, China

Two hundred thirty specimens of wild birds were collected from some areas in Heilongjiang Province during the period of 2003~2004, including two batches of specimens collected randomly from a same flock of mallards in Zhalong Natural Reserve in August and December, 2004, respectively. Primary virus isolation and identification for avian influenza virus (AIV) and Newcastle disease virus (NDV) were performed. The results showed that only two specimens of young mallards collected from Zhalong Natural Reserve in August, 2004 were positive to AIV (isolation rate 0.9%), and one strain (D57) of these two virus isolates was identified to be H9 subtype by hemagglutination inhibition test. Meanwhile, the two batches of blood serum samples of mallards from Zhalong were also examined for antibodies against AIV and NDV. Among 38 blood serum samples collected in August, antibodies against the hemagglutinin of H1, H3, H5, H6 and H9 subtypes of AIV were found in 1, 0, 2, 0 and 8 samples, respectively; and 11 samples were found with antibody against NDV. Whereas the NDV isolation in both two batches of specimens of mallard was negative, all of the 32 blood serum samples collected in December were negative for antibodies against AIV and NDV.

Behavior Characteristics in Children with Benign Epilepsy Combined with Centro-Temporal Spikes / 实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To explore the behavior characteristics in children with benign epilepsy combined with centro-temporal spikes(BECTS).Methods Eighty-two children with BECTS aged 2.5-3.0(2.65?2.31)years old,51 male,31 female,who were free of mental retardation assessed with Gesell developmental schedules,untreated with antiepileptic drugs,and were investigated 15 days after the latest seizure.Eighty-two healthy children with sex and age matched to the cases,53 male,29 female,aged 2.5-3.0(2.6?0.4)years old.The behavior characteristics of infants in BECTS group and control group were assessed with CBCL,including 6 behavior factors which were sleep problem,social flinches,depression,physical aspect,attacking,act of sabotage and the infants-middle school student social ability scale.Results The total scores of behavior characteristics and the scores of depression,sleep problem,attacking and act of sabotage in BECTS group were all higher than those in control group,the differences were statistically significant.However,scores of social flinches,and physical aspect in BECTS group had no significant differences compared with those of control group.There were no significant difference of social adaptive component between the BECTS and control group.Conclusions Children with BECTS have behavior disorders to some extent,but their social adaptive capacity are the same as normal children.