Typically developing adults with low and high Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores made rapid social evaluations of neutral faces when these were primed by briefly presented emotional faces. High AQ participants rated neutral faces as more threatening than low AQ participants, regardless of the prime condition. Both groups rated target neutral…

This study examines the effect of Spanish learners' gender on their rate of recall of abstract and concrete words. The experiment included forty-six learners of Spanish who were taught twentyfour new words via an instructional treatment based on L2-L1 and L1-L2 translations. The results of the immediate and a delayed posttest showed no effect for…

Studies are needed that examine neurobiological characteristics in high-risk individuals prior to substance use disorder (SUD) development. In this pilot study, 4 adolescent subjects at high risk for SUD (having at least 1 parent with an SUD) were compared with 4 adolescent reference subjects on a cortico-limbic reactivity paradigm, where they…

Purpose: This preliminary investigation assessed the attentional processes of preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) during Traditional cueing and Affect cueing tasks. Method: Participants consisted of 12 3- to 5-year-old CWS and the same number of CWNS (all boys). Both talker groups participated in two tasks of shifting and…

Objective: The current study examined the impact of risperidone and divalproex on affective and working memory circuitry in patients with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). Method: This was a six-week, double-blind, randomized trial of risperidone plus placebo versus divalproex plus placebo for patients with mania (n = 21; 13.6 [plus or minus] 2.5…

Eyeblink and postauricular reflexes to standardized affective images were examined in individuals without (n = 37) and with (n = 20) autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Affective reflex modulation in control participants replicated previous findings. The ASD group, however, showed anomalous reflex modulation patterns, despite similar self-report…

We compared the primacy of affective versus semantic categorization by using forced-choice saccadic and manual response tasks. Participants viewed paired emotional and neutral scenes involving humans or animals flashed rapidly in extrafoveal vision. Participants were instructed to categorize the targets by saccading toward the location occupied by…

This study examined physiological response and affective report in 10 adult individuals with autism and 10 typically developing controls. An emotion induction paradigm using stimuli from the International Affective Picture System was applied. Blood pressure, heart and self-ratings of experienced valence (pleasure), arousal and dominance (control)…

The purpose of the study was to examine sensory modulation items on the Sensory Profile in individuals with autism as compared to community controls. The data for this study were collected as part of a cross-sectional study that examined sensory processing, using the Sensory Profile, in 103 individuals with autism and/or pervasive developmental…

Explored 14- and 18-month olds' ability to identify the target of the experimenter's emotional display of happiness or disgust in response to something seen or felt inside a box. Findings suggested that, regardless of age, infants used the experimenter's attentional cues to interpret her emotional signals and behaved as if they understood that she…