The impact of daily affective touch on cortisol levels in institutionalized & fostered children.

Institutionalized children are often deprived of affective touch. Such tactile deprivation often leads to constant stress, as measured by the levels of salivary cortisol. We report here the impact of an affective touch program, optimized to activate a specific population of unmyelinated mechanosensitive nerves in the skin called c-tactile afferents (CT) on stress resistance. Two populations of children (age 4-10) were recruited: (i) a cohort living in an orphanage and (ii) a fostered cohort. Both groups received the affective touch program daily for 10-15 min for 5-6 weeks. A cohort of age-matched children living in a family environment acted as a control group and did not receive any instructions for tactile stimulation. Salivary cortisol was collected at the beginning (T1) and at the end (T2) of the study in all three groups. For institutionalized and fostered children there was a significant improvement in the level of cortisol (p < 0.0001) between T1 and T2, which is manifested in the balancing cortisol levels: a decrease where it was elevated and an increase, where the critically low level testified to the distress of the child. Balancing cortisol levels is a process of recovery to normal values, which indicates the restoration of neurohumoral mechanisms of stress regulation. The effect of balancing cortisol levels was more pronounced in the group of fostered children compared to the group of orphanage children (p = 0.0326). The children in the control group had no significant differences.

The Levels of Auditory Processing during Emotional Perception in Children with Autism.

BACKGROUND: The perception of basic emotional sounds, such as crying and laughter is associated with effective interpersonal communication. Difficulties with the perception and analysis of sounds that complicate understanding emotions at an early development age may contribute to communication deficits. METHODS: This study focused on auditory nonverbal emotional perception including emotional vocalizations with opposite valences (crying and laughter) and neutral sound (phoneme "Pᴂ"). We conducted event-related potential analysis and compared peak alpha frequencies (PAFs) for different conditions in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children aged 4 to 6 years old (N = 25 for each group). RESULTS: Children with ASD had a higher amplitude of P100 and lower amplitude of N200 for all types of sounds and higher P270 in response to neutral phoneme. During the perception of emotional sounds, children with ASD demonstrated a single P270 electroencephalography (EEG) component instead of a P200-P300 complex specific to TD children. However, the most significant differences were associated with a response to emotional valences of stimuli. The EEG differences between crying and laughter were expressed as a lower amplitude of N400 and higher PAF for crying compared to laughter and were found only in TD children. CONCLUSIONS: Children with ASD have shown not just abnormal acoustical perception but altered emotional analysis of affective sounds as well.

A fight for life and dignity: A case of massive traumatic brain injury and the paths for treatment and neurorehabilitation.

We present a clinical case of treatment and neurorehabilitation of a patient with severe neurological deficit due to extensive traumatic lesion of the left hemisphere of the brain. Until recently, such cases were considered incurable and remained marginalized throughout their lives. This clinical case illustrates the compensatory brain possibilities under long-term integrated multidisciplinary treatment and neurorehabilitation with mandatory application of medical, medico-psychological, medico-pedagogical, and medico-social methods, the importance and intensity of which vary at different stages of the disease. This process is addressed in the individual patient. The greatest efficiency of the neurorehabilitation treatment of patients with severe consequences of a stroke and traumatic brain injury can be reached under the following conditions: the earliest possible start of rehabilitation with a sufficient duration and intensity; interdisciplinary and integrative rehabilitation process at various stages of rehabilitation treatment; systematic clinical and neuropsychological diagnostics; systematic monitoring of somatic, neurological, psychiatric, and psychological condition of the patient; assistance with sociopsychological and labor issues; and problem-solving support.