We used eye-tracking to investigate the roles of enhanced discrimination and peripheral selection in superior visual search in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD were faster at visual search than their typically developing peers. However, group differences in performance and eye-movements did not vary with the level of difficulty of…

Previous work has shown that malnutrition has deleterious effects on both IQ and aspects of temperament. It is hypothesized that while malnutrition bears a direct relation to IQ, aspects of temperament are also involved in a mediating role so that they produce indirect associations between malnutrition and IQ. The study examines the association of…

Recent developments in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) have enabled non-invasive clarification of brain functions in psychiatric disorders. Functional neuroimaging studies of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have suggested that the frontal cortex and subcortical structures may play a role in the pathophysiology of the disorder.…

Two experiments explored eye measures (fixations and pupil response patterns) and brain responses (BOLD) accompanying the recognition of visual object stimuli based on familiarity and recollection. In both experiments, the use of a modified remember/know procedure led to high confidence and matched accuracy levels characterising strong familiarity…

Dysfunction in an execution/observation matching system, or mirror neuron system, has been proposed to contribute to the social deficits observed in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Atypical activity in this system, as reflected in attenuation of the EEG mu rhythm, has been demonstrated in several studies; however, normative patterns of activity…

The expertise of adults in face perception is facilitated by their ability to rapidly detect that a stimulus is a face. In two experiments, we examined the role of early visual input in the development of face detection by testing patients who had been treated as infants for bilateral congenital cataract. Experiment 1 indicated that, at age 9 to…

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution…

Brain mitochondrial dysfunction has been proposed as an etiologic factor in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ([superscript 1]HMRS) and MRI were used to assess for evidence of brain mitochondrial dysfunction in longitudinal samples of children with ASD or developmental delay (DD), and cross-sectionally…

Portions of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) play a role in working memory (WM) yet the precise mechanistic function of this region remains poorly understood. The "pure storage" hypothesis proposes that this region functions as a short-lived modality-specific memory store. Alternatively, the "internal attention" hypothesis proposes that the PPC…

The goal of this study is twofold: (1) to assess brain anatomical differences between children meeting diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and healthy controls, and (2) to investigate whether morphological brain characteristics associated with ODD differ in boys and girls. Eight-year-old participants (N = 38) were scanned…

The neurobiological mechanisms by which childhood maltreatment heightens vulnerability to psychopathology remain poorly understood. It is likely that a complex interaction between environmental experiences (including poor caregiving) and an individual's genetic make-up influence neurobiological development across infancy and childhood, which in…

A range of cognitive abilities improves in childhood and adolescence. It has been proposed that the protracted development of executive functions is related to the relatively late maturation of the prefrontal cortex. However, this has rarely been directly investigated. In this cross-sectional study, 98 healthy children and adolescents (8-19 years…

This study examined the cognitive and neural development of attention switching using a simple forced-choice attention task and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fourteen children and adults made discriminations among stimuli based on either shape or color. Performance on these trials was compared to performance during blocked trials…