Altered temporal profile of visual–auditory multisensory interactions in dyslexia Discrimination of temporal synchrony in intermodal events by children with autism and children with developmental disabilities without autism. Independent frontal-system deficits in schizophrenia: cognitive, clinical, and adaptive implications A Virtual Week study of prospective memory function in autism spectrum disorders. Timing abilities among children with developmental coordination disorders (DCD) in comparison to children with typical development. Identification of clinically meaningful relationships among cognition, functionality, and symptoms in subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder Resting-state theta-band connectivity and verbal memory in schizophrenia and in the high-risk state Reduced orienting to audiovisual synchrony in infancy predicts autism diagnosis at 3 years of age Multisensory integration across the senses in young and old adults Predictors of schizophrenia spectrum disorders in early-onset first episodes of psychosis: a support vector machine model Auditory perceptual consolidation in early-onset blindness An electrophysiologic indication of auditory processing defects in autism Childhood-onset schizophrenia: an NIMH study in progress. Impact of comorbid autism spectrum disorders on stimulant response in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a retrospective and prospective effectiveness study. Impulsiveness as a timing disturbance: neurocognitive abnormalities in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder during temporal processes and normalization with methylphenidate Slipped lips: onset asynchrony detection of auditory-visual language in autism. Anatomical differences in the mirror neuron system and social cognition network in autism.
Recent studies have demonstrated that dyslexia is associated with deficits in the temporal encoding of sensory information . While most previous studies have focused on information processing within a single sensory modality , it is clear that the deficits seen in dyslexia span multiple sensory systems . Surprisingly , although the development of linguistic proficiency involves the rapid and accurate integration of auditory and visual cues , the capacity of dyslexic individuals to integrate information between the different senses has not been systematic ally examined . To test this , we studied the effects of task-irrelevant auditory information on the performance of a  visual temporal-order-judgment ( TOJ ) task .  Dyslexic subjects ’ performance differed significantly from that of control subjects , specifically in that they integrated the auditory and visual information over longer temporal intervals . Such a result suggests an extended temporal “ window ” for binding visual and auditory cues in dyslexic individuals . The potential deleterious effects of this finding for rapid multisensory processes such as reading are discussed BACKGROUND This project examined the intermodal perception of temporal synchrony in 16 young children ( ages 4 to 6 years ) with autism compared to a group of children without impairments matched on adaptive age , and a group of children with other developmental disabilities matched on chronological and adaptive age . METHOD A preferential looking paradigm was used , where participants viewed non-linguistic , simple linguistic or complex linguistic events on two screens displaying identical video tracks , but one offset from the other by 3 seconds , and with the single audio track matched to only one of the displays . RESULTS As predicted , both comparison groups demonstrated significant non-r and om preferential looking to violations of temporal synchrony with linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli . However , the group with autism showed an impaired , chance level of responding , except when presented with non-linguistic stimuli . CONCLUSIONS Several explanations are offered for this apparently autism-specific , language -specific pattern of responding to temporal synchrony , and potential developmental sequelae are discussed This study examined whether frontal-system impairments in schizophrenia occur independently of one another and whether they have distinct implication s for information processing , symptom severity , and adaptive functioning . We assessed 26 medication-free schizophrenic out patients and 18 normal control subjects on eight frontally mediated tasks , semantic information processing , IQ , the BPRS , and long-term psychosocial adaptation . Schizophrenic subjects showed three types of deficits , which were uncorrelated with one another : ( 1 ) Executive dysfunction ( inflexible problem solving ) was related to decreased use of expectancy during controlled semantic priming , lower intelligence , more severe negative symptoms and stereotyped mannerisms . ( 2 ) Disinhibition of responses ( to irrelevant stimuli ) was associated with increased automatic priming , a trend for more severe hallucinations , and was unrelated to intelligence . ( 3 ) Motor dyscoordination ( inaccurate , dysfluent motor sequencing ) was not related to semantic processing , intelligence , or symptoms . Furthermore , all three impairments were unrelated to generalized slowness , age , sex , illness length , or pre-washout neuroleptic dose . Two deficits accounted for aspects of long-term psychosocial adaptation , even after statistical correction for IQ : Executive dysfunction was associated with younger illness onset , poor purpose fulness and planning , impaired social relations , and lower global functioning . Motor dyscoordination was associated with poor treatment outcome and restricted educational advancement . Furthermore , executive and motor deficits interacted significantly ; subjects who had both deficits showed the least favorable treatment outcome . These findings are neither consistent with generalized impairment nor with a unitary ' frontal syndrome ' in schizophrenia . They provide preliminary evidence for at least three frontal-system deficits ( dorsolateral , orbital , and premotor ) , which are dissociable from one another , can occur without general intellectual impairment , and have distinct implication s for long-term adaptive functioning Prospect i ve memory ( PM ) refers to the implementation of delayed intentions , a cognitive ability that plays a critical role in daily life because of its involvement in goal -directed behavior and consequently the development and maintenance of independence . Emerging evidence indicates that PM may be disrupted in autism spectrum disorders ( ASDs ) , potentially contributing to the functional difficulties that characterize this group . However , the degree , nature , and specificity of ASD-related impairment remains poorly understood . In the current study , children between 8 and 12 years of age who were diagnosed with ASDs ( n=30 ) were compared with typically developing children ( n=30 ) on a child-appropriate version of the Virtual Week board game . This measure provides an opportunity to investigate the different sorts of PM failures that occur . The ASD group showed significant PM impairment on measures of time-based ( but not event-based ) prospect i ve remembering . However , only a subtle difference emerged between regular and irregular PM tasks , and group differences were consistent across these tasks . Because regular and irregular tasks differentially load retrospective memory , these data imply that the PM difficulties seen in ASDs may primarily reflect a monitoring deficit and not an encoding and memory storage deficit . PM performance was poorer under conditions of high ongoing task absorption , but the magnitude of this effect did not vary as a function of group . In both groups , time-based ( but not event-based ) PM difficulties were associated with functional outcomes in daily life , but only an inconsistent association with executive control emerged Timing ability is essential for common everyday performance . The aim of the study was to compare timing abilities and temporal aspects of h and writing performance and relationships between these two components among children with Developmental Coordination Disorders ( DCD ) and a control group . Forty two children , 21 diagnosed as DCD and 21 with typical development , aged 7 - 12 , were matched for age , gender and school performed 14 tasks of the interactive metronome ( IM ) and three functional h and writing tasks on an electronic tablet that was part of a computerized system ( ComPET -- computerized penmanship evaluation tool ) . The IM supplies  response time  , while on-paper and in-air time per written stroke is received from the ComPET . Results indicated significant differences between the groups for both IM and h and writing tasks ( ComPET ) . Linear regression indicated that the mean IM response time explained 37 % of variance of the in-air time per stroke during a paragraph-copying task . Furthermore , based on one discriminate function including two measures reflected timing ability , 81 % of all participants were correctly classified into groups . Study results strongly recommend consideration of the IM as an evaluation and intervention tool for children with DCD who are faced with timing deficits in their everyday functioning INTRODUCTION Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder is a major determinant of disability . This study explored the relationships among cognitive functioning , clinical symptoms , overall functionality , and demographic characteristics . METHODS This was a post hoc analysis of a 52-week , prospect i ve , r and omized , double-blind study ( N=323 ) comparing 2 doses of risperidone long-acting injectable ( RLAI ) in stable subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder . Cognitive evaluations were performed and st and ardized using a healthy age- and sex-matched comparison group . Simple and multiple regression models were used to identify relationships among neurocognitive composite scores ( NCS ) , clinical symptom end points ( Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale [ PANSS ] total and factor scores ) , overall functionality ( Personal and Social Performance [ PSP ] score ) , and demographics . RESULTS A simple regression model identified significant relationships between the NCS at end point and PANSS total score , PANSS disorganized thoughts factor score , functioning ( PSP ) and age . A 1-point decrease on PANSS total score and PANSS disorganized thoughts factor score corresponded to an increase in NCS of 0.126-point , and 0.81-point increases , respectively . A 1-point increase on the PSP corresponded to a 0.186-point increase in the NCS T-score . Among the demographic variables , only age correlated significantly with cognition ( 10-year increase in age corresponded to 1.1-point decrease in NCS T-score ) in a multiple regression model . CONCLUSION Improved cognition was associated with beneficial changes in functional status and clinical symptoms ( particularly disorganization symptoms ) in subjects with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder . Older subjects showed less overall cognitive improvement . Improved cognitive and functional outcome is correlated with symptom improvements in RLAI-treated  patients with schizophrenia BACKGROUND Disturbed functional connectivity is assumed to underlie neurocognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia . As neurocognitive deficits are already present in the high-risk state , identification of the neural networks involved in this core feature of schizophrenia is essential to our underst and ing of the disorder . Resting-state studies enable such investigations , while at the same time avoiding the known confounder of impaired task performance in patients . The aim of the present study was to investigate EEG resting-state connectivity in high-risk individuals ( HR ) compared to first episode patients with schizophrenia ( SZ ) and to healthy controls ( HC ) , and its association with cognitive deficits . METHODS 64-channel resting-state EEG recordings ( eyes closed ) were obtained for 28 HR , 19 stable SZ , and 23 HC , matched for age , education , and parental education . The imaginary coherence-based multivariate interaction measure ( MIM ) was used as a measure of connectivity across 80 cortical regions and six frequency b and s. Mean connectivity at each region was compared across groups using the non-parametric r and omization approach . Additionally , the network-based statistic was applied to identify affected networks in patients . RESULTS SZ displayed increased theta-b and resting-state MIM connectivity across midline , sensorimotor , orbitofrontal regions and the left temporoparietal junction . HR displayed intermediate theta-b and connectivity patterns that did not differ from either SZ or HC . Mean theta-b and connectivity within the above network partially mediated verbal memory deficits in SZ and HR . CONCLUSIONS Aberrant theta-b and connectivity may represent a trait characteristic of schizophrenia associated with neurocognitive deficits . As such , it might constitute a promising target for novel treatment applications BACKGROUND Effective multisensory processing develops in infancy and is thought to be important for the perception of unified and multimodal objects and events . Previous research suggests impaired multisensory processing in autism , but its role in the early development of the disorder is yet uncertain . Here , using a prospect i ve longitudinal design , we tested whether reduced visual attention to audiovisual synchrony is an infant marker of later-emerging autism diagnosis . METHODS We studied 10-month-old siblings of children with autism using an eye tracking task  previously used in studies of preschoolers . The task assessed the effect of manipulations of audiovisual synchrony on viewing patterns while the infants were observing point light displays of biological motion . We analyzed the gaze data recorded in infancy according to diagnostic status at 3 years of age ( DSM-5 ) . RESULTS Ten-month-old infants who later received an autism diagnosis did not orient to audiovisual synchrony expressed within biological motion . In contrast , both infants at low-risk and high-risk siblings without autism at follow-up had a strong preference for this type of information . No group differences were observed in terms of orienting to upright biological motion . CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that reduced orienting to audiovisual synchrony within biological motion is an early sign of autism . The findings support the view that poor multisensory processing could be an important antecedent marker of this neurodevelopmental condition Stimuli are processed concurrently and across multiple sensory inputs . Here we directly compared the effect of multisensory integration ( MSI ) on reaction time across three paired sensory inputs in eighteen young ( M=19.17 years ) and eighteen old ( M=76.44 years ) individuals . Participants were determined to be non-demented and without any medical or psychiatric conditions that would affect their performance . Participants responded to r and omly presented unisensory ( auditory , visual , somatosensory ) stimuli and three paired sensory inputs consisting of auditory-somatosensory ( AS ) auditory-visual ( AV ) and visual-somatosensory ( VS ) stimuli . Results revealed that reaction time ( RT ) to all multisensory pairings was significantly faster than those elicited to the constituent unisensory conditions across age groups ; findings that could not be accounted for by simple probability summation . Both young and old participants responded the fastest to multisensory pairings containing somatosensory input . Compared to younger adults , older adults demonstrated a significantly greater RT benefit when processing concurrent VS information . In terms of co-activation , older adults demonstrated a significant increase in the magnitude of visual-somatosensory co-activation ( i.e. , multisensory integration ) , while younger adults demonstrated a significant increase in the magnitude of auditory-visual and auditory-somatosensory co-activation . This study provides first evidence in support of the facilitative effect of pairing somatosensory with visual stimuli in older adults Identifying early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders ( SSD ) at a very early stage remains challenging . To assess the diagnostic predictive value of multiple types of data at the emergence of early-onset first-episode psychosis ( FEP ) , various support vector machine ( SVM ) classifiers were developed . The data were from a 2-year , prospect i ve , longitudinal study of 81 patients ( age 9–17 years ) with early-onset FEP and a stable diagnosis during follow-up and 42 age- and sex-matched healthy controls ( HC ) . The input was different combinations of baseline clinical , neuropsychological , magnetic resonance imaging brain volumetric and biochemical data , and the output was the diagnosis at follow-up ( SSD vs. non-SSD , SSD vs. HC , and non-SSD vs. HC ) . Enhanced recursive feature elimination was performed for the SSD vs. non-SSD classifier to select and rank the input variables with the highest predictive value for a diagnostic outcome of SSD . After validation with a test set and considering all baseline variables together , the SSD vs. non-SSD , SSD vs. HC and non-SSD vs. HC classifiers achieved an accuracy of 0.81 , 0.99 and 0.99 , respectively . Regarding the SSD vs. non-SSD classifier , a combination of baseline clinical variables ( severity of negative , disorganized symptoms and hallucinations or poor insight ) and neuropsychological variables ( impaired attention , motor coordination , and global cognition ) showed the highest predictive value for a diagnostic outcome of SSD . Neuroimaging and biochemical variables at baseline did not add to the predictive value . Thus , comprehensive clinical /cognitive assessment remains the most reliable approach for differential diagnosis during early-onset FEP . SVMs may constitute promising multivariate tools in the search for predictors of diagnostic outcome in FEP Early-onset blindness ( EB ) produces measurable advantages in auditory perception , attention , memory and language . Neville and Bavelier [ Neville , H. J. , & Bavelier , D. ( 2001 ) Variability of developmental plasticity . In J. L. McClell and , R. S. Siegler ( Eds . ) Mechanisms of cognitive development : Behavioral and ellon symposia on cognition ( pp . 271 - 301 ) ] hypothesized that faster temporal processing underlies many auditory compensatory effects in the blind . We tested this hypothesis by comparing early-onset blind individuals and sighted counterparts ( SC ) by assessing their rates of perceptual consolidation , the accurate perceptual representation of auditory stimuli . Firstly , we first tested both groups on a  temporal-order judgment task ( TOJ ) .  EB subjects had significantly lower TOJ thresholds than the SC subjects . Secondly , we assessed perceptual consolidation speed using auditory backward masking tasks , taking into account individual TOJ thresholds . Discrimination performance was unaffected at all mask delays in the EB group while the SC subjects needed a mask delay of 160 ms to perform comparably . A backward masking task using single tone stimuli found no differences between the EB and SC groups any mask delay . A simultaneous masking task demonstrated that the mask effectively impaired discrimination in EB subjects at sensory stages . These results suggest that advantages in perceptual consolidation may reflect a mechanism responsible for the short response times and better performance reported in early blind individuals across a number of complex auditory tasks Averaged  evoked potentials ( EPs ) to clicks , r and om pitch changes ( signals ) , and r and om deletions of stimuli within a regular train of tones were examined in five autistic and five normal children .  Brainstem auditory EPs were abnormal in one of the autistic patients . The early cortical EP components P60 and N100 showed no differences across groups , whereas the P200 component of the cortical responses to clicks , as well as the late positive component ( P300 ) to the pitch changes and deleted stimuli , were significantly smaller in the autistic subjects as a group . Furthermore , when P200 and P300 amplitudes were averaged across conditions for the individual subjects , these components were smaller in every autistic subject than in any of the normal subjects . These results are consistent with the view that there are auditory defects in autism that may sometimes involve lower levels of neural transmission as manifested by abnormalities in the brainstem and auditory EP , but are more consistently manifest in higher aspects of processing that involve the registration and storage of stimulus information . It is suggested that the severe language disorder in childhood autism may be secondary to the basic deficits in higher auditory processing An ongoing study of the phenomenology , genetics , neuropsychology , physiology ( eye tracking , autonomic responsivity ) , neuroimaging , biochemistry , and pharmacology of childhood-onset schizophrenia is described , and pilot data are presented for the first 22 subjects . Differentiation from autism " spectrum " disorders and other poorly defined , severe neurodevelopmental disorders is needed . Eye tracking and autonomic results are similar to patterns seen in later-onset schizophrenia and possibly more striking . Magnetic resonance imaging showed larger left frontal ventricular horn area for the schizophrenia subjects , larger left cau date , and lack of normal cau date asymmetry . Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography during an auditory continuous performance task revealed decreased right parietal/occipital glucose metabolic rate in the schizophrenia subjects , which may be secondary to poor attentional performance , and increased glucose metabolic rate in three left frontal regions , a left parietal region , and the right putamen . Clozapine has been effective and well tolerated in an open trial with 12 adolescents who responded poorly to typical neuroleptics ; 16 subjects have been enrolled in a double-blind comparison of haloperidol and clozapine . Longitudinal study of this narrowly defined and possibly more homogeneous group of very early-onset schizophrenia subjects will be relevant to current neurodevelopmental theories addressing the role of puberty , progression of pathology , and continuity or discontinuity with later-onset schizophrenia BACKGROUND In the recent past , psychiatrists and paediatricians have avoided prescribing stimulant medication , such as methylpheni date and dexamphetamine to patients with autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) because of both doubts about efficacy and concern that these medications make stereotypies worse . Recently , a number of small trials have suggested that methypheni date does have a role in the management of hyperactivity in children with autistic spectrum disorders . METHODS Children with ASD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) , and children with ADHD without ASD received st and ard treatment with methypheni date from one specialist centre . A combination of st and ardized and novel outcome tools was used to allow both an exploratory retrospective study of 174 children and then a prospect i ve study of a further 52 children to be carried out . RESULTS After treatment with stimulants , the subjects in both groups showed statistically significant improvements in target symptoms of ' hyperactivity ' , ' impulsivity ' , ' inattention ' , ' oppositionality ' , ' aggression ' and ' intermittent explosive rage ' . The Clinical Global Impression-Improvement and efficacy index measures also improved in each group . In both the retrospective and the prospect i ve studies , there was no statistically significant difference in the degree of improvements between each group . Importantly , neither tics nor repetitive behaviours worsened in either group . Children in the ' ADHD-only ' group who were prescribed stimulants experienced significant ' nausea ' , ' giddiness ' , ' headaches ' and ' sleep difficulties ' , whereas sleep difficulties were the only side effect that emerged in children in the ASD with ADHD group . CONCLUSIONS Both studies presented here support previous findings from smaller studies that show children with autism and ADHD can respond as well to stimulants as children with ADHD alone . Although r and omized controlled trials remain the gold st and ard for efficacy studies , systems like this that allow clinicians to continue rigorous and consistent monitoring for many years have a valuable role to play . Furthermore , such monitoring systems which now exist electronically can easily accumulate large data sets and reveal details about long-term effectiveness and long-term side effects of medication that are unlikely to be discovered in short-term trials We argue that impulsiveness is characterized by compromised timing functions such as premature motor timing , decreased tolerance to delays , poor temporal foresight and steeper temporal discounting . A model illustration for the association between impulsiveness and timing deficits is the impulsiveness disorder of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) . Children with ADHD have deficits in timing processes of several temporal domains and the neural substrates of these compromised timing functions are strikingly similar to the neuropathology of ADHD . We review our published and present novel functional magnetic resonance imaging data to demonstrate that ADHD children show dysfunctions in key timing regions of prefrontal , cingulate , striatal and cerebellar location during temporal processes of several time domains including time discrimination of milliseconds , motor timing to seconds and temporal discounting of longer time intervals . Given that impulsiveness , timing abnormalities and more specifically ADHD have been related to dopamine dysregulation , we tested for and demonstrated a normalization effect of all brain dysfunctions in ADHD children during time discrimination with the dopamine agonist and treatment of choice , methylpheni date . This review together with the new empirical findings demonstrates that neurocognitive dysfunctions in temporal processes are crucial to the impulsiveness disorder of ADHD and provides first evidence for normalization with a dopamine reuptake inhibitor BACKGROUND It has frequently been suggested that individuals with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) have deficits in auditory-visual ( AV ) sensory integration . Studies of language integration have mostly used non-word syllables presented in congruent and incongruent AV combinations and demonstrated reduced influence of visual speech in individuals with ASD . The aim of our study was to test whether adolescents with high-functioning autism are able to integrate AV information of meaningful , phrase-length language in a task of onset asynchrony detection . METHODS Participants were 25 adolescents with ASD and 25 typically developing ( TD ) controls . The stimuli were video clips of complete phrases using simple , commonly occurring words . The clips were digitally manipulated to have the video precede the corresponding audio by 0 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 12 , or 14 video frames , a range of 0 - 500ms . Participants were shown the video clips in r and om order and asked to indicate whether each clip was in-synch or not . RESULTS There were no differences between adolescents with ASD and their TD peers in accuracy of onset asynchrony detection at any slip rate . CONCLUSION These data indicate that adolescents with ASD are able to integrate auditory and visual components in a task of onset asynchrony detection using natural , phrase-length language stimuli . We propose that the meaningful nature of the language stimuli in combination with presentation in a non-distracting environment allowed adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to demonstrate preserved accuracy for bi-modal AV integration Autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with impaired social and emotional skills , the anatomical substrate of which is still unknown . In this study , we compared a group of 14 high-functioning ASD adults with a group of controls matched for sex , age , intelligence quotient , and h and edness . We used an automated technique of analysis that accurately measures the thickness of the cerebral cortex and generates cross-subject statistics in a coordinate system based on cortical anatomy . We found local decreases of gray matter in the ASD group in areas belonging to the mirror neuron system ( MNS ) , argued to be the basis of empathic behavior . Cortical thinning of the MNS was correlated with ASD symptom severity . Cortical thinning was also observed in areas involved in emotion recognition and social cognition . These findings suggest that the social and emotional deficits characteristic of autism may reflect abnormal thinning of the MNS and the broader network of cortical areas subserving social cognition
By further separating studies into unisensory and multisensory ( bimodal : audiovisual ) ones , subgroup analysis indicated heterogeneous and unstable effects for unisensory temporal binding in the ASD group , but a more consistent and severe impairment in multisensory temporal integration represented by an enlarged temporal binding window in both clinical groups .
Such multisensory dysfunction is associated with symptoms like hallucinations and impaired social communications .
HighlightsMultisensory temporal dysfunction represented by an extended temporal binding window is a common feature of ASD and SSD.Unisensory temporal acuity is impaired in schizophrenia but may be spared in ASD.Multisensory dysfunction is associated with incoherent perception and communicative deficit that characterize SSD and ASD . &
NA ; Multisensory temporal integration could be compromised in both autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders ( SSD ) and may play an important role in perceptual and cognitive impairment in these two disorders .
This review aim ed to quantitatively compare the sensory temporal acuity between healthy controls and the two clinical groups ( ASD and SSD ) .