Directional uncertainty in chase and escape dynamics.

Intercepting and avoiding collisions with moving targets are crucial skills for survival. However, little is known about how these behaviors are implemented when the trajectory of the moving target introduces variability and ambiguity into the perceptual-motor system. We developed a simple visuomotor task in which participants used a joystick to interact with a computer-controlled dot that moved along two-dimensional trajectories. This virtual system allowed us to define the role of the moving object (predator or prey) and adjust its speed and directional uncertainty (i.e., magnitude and frequency of random directional changes) during chase and escape trials. These factors had a significant impact on participants' performance in both chasing and escaping trials. We developed a simple geometrical model of potential chaser/escaper interactions to distinguish pursuit from interception chasing trajectories. We found that participants initially pursued the target but switched to a late interception strategy. The amount of late interception strategy followed an inverted U-shaped curve with the highest values at intermediate speeds. We tested the applicability of our task and methods in children who showed a robust developmental improvement in task performance and late interception strategy. Our task constitutes a flexible system in a virtual space for studying chasing and escaping behavior in adults and children. Our analytical methods allow detecting subtle changes in interception strategies, a valuable tool for studying the maturation of predictive and prospective systems, with a high potential to contribute to cognitive and developmental research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Therapeutic Approaches for ADHD by Developmental Stage and Clinical Presentation.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder with three presentations: inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive and combined. These may represent an independent disease entity. Therefore, the therapeutic approach must be focused on their neurobiological, psychological and social characteristics. To date, there is no comprehensive analysis of the efficacy of different treatments for each presentation of ADHD and each stage of development. This is as narrative overview of scientific papers that summarize the most recent findings and identify the most effective pharmacological and psychosocial treatments by ADHD presentation and age range. Evidence suggests that methylphenidate is the safest and most effective drug for the clinical management of children, adolescents and adults. Atomoxetine is effective in preschoolers and maintains similar efficacy to methylphenidate in adults, whereas guanfacine has proven to be an effective monotherapy for adults and is a worthy adjuvant for the management of cognitive symptoms. The psychosocial treatments with the best results in preschoolers are behavioral interventions that include training of primary caregivers. In adolescents, the combination of cognitive and cognitive-behavioral therapies has shown the best results, whereas cognitive-behavioral interventions are the most effective in adults. Pharmacological and psychosocial treatments must be adjusted to the ADHD presentation and its neurocognitive characteristics through the patient's development.

Clustering of neuropsychological traits of preschoolers.

Neuropsychological tests (targeting cognitive, linguistic, motor, and executive abilities) are grouped in neuropsychological domains that are thought to be stable through adulthood. However, this assumption does not always hold true, particularly during young children's early developmental phase. Here, we explored how the neuropsychological profile of typical Spanish-speaking preschoolers varied and consolidated with age. We recruited 643 monolingual Latin-American children from Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala, with ages spanning from 30 to 71 months of age, and applied a novel neuropsychological examination which combined a total of 52 tests covering five classical neuropsychological domains: receptive, expressive, attention/memory, processing, and executive functions. These tests' scores uncovered a correlational structure across neuropsychological functions that could not be explained by chance. Notably, these correlations' overall strength, but not their interdependence across domains, dramatically increased with age. Moreover, by applying conventional clustering techniques to classify the experimental data, we found a stable representation of two clusters of children with distinctive traits, with cultural factors contributing to this classification scheme. We also found that the tasks were well organized in a network of abilities, where nodes with highest highest interconnectedness were those that required multimodal processing. These results contribute to our understanding of children's 'normal' development and could help identify how failure in particular functions forecasts the emergence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Our analytic methods might become useful to characterize individual differences and improve educational practices and interventions.

Effects of the Age, Sex, and Maternal Education of Monolingual Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children on Oral Narrative Production.

Purpose The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to determine the effects of age, sex, and maternal education of monolingual Spanish-speaking preschoolers on both macrostructural (oral narrative quality) and microstructural measures (number of different words, communication units, mean length of utterance in both words and morphemes, and number of conjunctions) of their oral narrative production. Method A total of 277 monolingual Spanish-speaking Mexican children aged 2;06-5;11 (years;months) and divided into four age groups (ages 2, 3, 4, and 5 years) were asked to retell a fictional story from the oral narrative ability task of the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-Preescolar. Results Appropriate internal consistency and interrater reliability were demonstrated. Pearson correlations between macro- and microstructural measures showed a positive association. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a main effect for age, but not for sex, maternal education, or between-variables interactions. Partial eta-squared showed that age had a medium effect size on oral narrative quality and the number of different words and conjunctions, with a small effect size on communication units and mean length of utterance in words and morphemes. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that age explained the largest percentage of variance across the oral narrative measures. Conclusions The measures found to be most sensitive to the effect of age (number of different words, oral narrative quality, communication units, conjunctions) are also those most easily assessed by clinicians with limited training in linguistics. Results obtained for the number of different words and communication units were similar to those reported previously for English-speaking children.

Efecto de la deficiencia de hierro sobre el desarrollo neuropsicológico en lactantes / Effect of iron deficiency on neuropsychological development in infants

Resumen La deficiencia de hierro (DFe) es la patología nutrimental infantil de mayor prevalencia en el mundo y afecta la maduración cerebral y el consiguiente desarrollo cognitivo, lingüístico, motor y comportamental de quienes la padecen. El informe que se presenta tuvo como objetivo estudiar, en profundidad, literatura acerca del efecto de la DFe sobre el desarrollo neuropsicológico en lactantes. Para ello, se analizaron 51 estudios originales realizados en humanos, 49 de los cuales fueron obtenidos a través de Pubmed y 2, de Scielo. Cabe resaltar que, con el fin de discutir los hallazgos de estos artículos, se incluyeron investigaciones sobre el efecto de la DFe que utilizan modelo animal, así como estudios en humanos con desarrollo típico. Esta búsqueda se realizó a conveniencia. El reconocimiento de sus implicaciones facilitaría el trabajo terapéutico, así como la inclusión de programas de estimulación temprana junto con el manejo de la deficiencia nutrimental.

Abstract Iron is involved in various aspects related to brain function, including oxygen transport, neurotransmitters metabolism, DNA synthesis, ATP production, dendritic growth, axonal development and transport, myelin production, glial development, in plasticity markers such as the brain-derived growth factor, and in synaptic plasticity. Human development (biological, cognitive, social) is associated with a bidirectional and dynamic interaction between gene activity, neural activity and environment. An environmental variable is nutrition, and it is known that the central nervous system is extremely vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies during pregnancy and in the first two years of life, period in which an accelerated maturational dynamism occurs. Therefore, a disturbance of these by an iron deficiency would result in neuropsychological alterations, with varied expressions depending on the age at which it occurs and the severity and duration of the nutritional disease. Iron deficiency is defined as the depletion of iron reserves in the body by various factors (nutritional, physiological, pathological, etc.). Three stages of the illness have been established: iron depletion, iron deficiency without anemia and iron deficiency anemia. The first is associated with a decrease in iron reserves without reaching the deficiency; it may be due to a reduction in iron intake and or absorption, excessive loss or an increase in iron requirements. At this stage, there are no functional consequences in the organism. The second stage, is characterized by biochemical changes that reflect a pathologically reduced concentration of serum ferritin with a normal hemoglobin concentration. Finally, iron deficiency anemia is defined by the combination of low concentration of serum ferritin and hemoglobin. Given that iron deficiency is the most prevalent childhood nutritional disorder in the world (affecting 43 % of children aged 6-59 months) and that it impacts brain maturation and the consequent cognitive, linguistic, motor and behavioral development of those who suffer from it, in this paper, the literature on the effect of iron deficiency on neuropsychological development in infants is analyzed in depth. The review was performed considering the short, medium and long lasting effects of iron deficiency without anemia, iron deficiency anemia, chronic iron deficiency during the first two years of life and the presence of treatment. To contextualize, the analysis of the relationship between iron and brain functioning is included and the variables that modulate the expression of its effect are addressed. To carry out the search of literature regarding the effect of iron deficiency on neuropsychological development in infants, Pubmed and SciELO were consulted. No date or language restriction was established. Different combinations of terms were used: "iron deficiency infant", "iron deficiency fetal", "iron deficiency neonatal", "iron deficiency long lasting". The analyzed reports fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: a) primary sources, b) establish a value of hemoglobin and at least one of iron (i.e, serum ferritin, mean corpuscular volume, free erythrocyte, protoporphyrin, transferrin saturation) to define the children of each group, c) human sample, d) description of the measures used for the evaluation, e) studies examined after this stage, had to determine that the sample evaluated presented iron deficiency during the first two years of life. In this paper, 51 original articles conducted in humans were analyzed, of which 49 were obtained through Pubmed and 2 from SciELO. It should be noted that, in order to discuss the findings of these reports, literature was included on the effect of iron deficiency using animal models, as well as studies in humans with typical development. The search for these was done at convenience. The recognition of its implications would facilitate the therapeutic work, as well as the inclusion of early stimulation programs together with the management of nutritional deficiency.

Development of early numerical abilities of Spanish-speaking Mexican preschoolers: A new assessment tool.

This article presents a tool for assessing the early numerical abilities of Spanish-speaking Mexican preschoolers. The Numerical Abilities Test, from the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-Preescolar (ENI-P), evaluates four core abilities of number development: magnitude comparison, counting, subitizing, and basic calculation. We evaluated 307 Spanish-speaking Mexican children aged 2 years 6 months to 4 years 11 months. Appropriate internal consistency and test-retest reliability were demonstrated. We also investigated the effect of age, children's school attendance, maternal education, and sex on children's numerical scores. The results showed that the four subtests captured development across ages. Critically, maternal education had an impact on children's performance in three out of the four subtests, but there was no effect associated with children's school attendance or sex. These results suggest that the Numerical Abilities Test is a reliable instrument for Spanish-speaking preschoolers. We discuss the implications of our outcomes for numerical development.

Effect of chronic iron deficiency on neuropsychological domains in infants.

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of chronic iron deficiency on neuropsychological traits in infants. We established the nutritional iron status and assessed the neuropsychological characteristics of 58 Mexican 14- to 18-month-old infants. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development, preschool language scales and an environmental sound perception task designed expressly for the study, were used. The infants' mothers were asked to fill out 2 questionnaires concerning their child's sociodemographic background. Six different neuropsychological domains were analyzed. Results showed that the chronic iron deficiency group did show significantly lower scores on language, environmental sound perception, and motor measures, when compared with infants with normal nutritional iron status at 6 and 14 to 18 months. Our conclusion is that the development of language and motor skills and environmental sound perception appeared to be sensitive to the effects of chronic iron deficiency in infants.