Klaus Libertus

Integrating audiovisual information for the control of overt attention

In everyday life, our brains decide about the relevance of huge amounts of sensory input. Further complicating this situation, this input is distributed over different modalities. This raises the question of how different sources of information interact for the control of overt attention during free exploration of the environment under natural conditions. Different modalities may work independently or interact to determine the consequent overt behavior. To answer this question, we presented natural images and lateralized natural sounds in a variety of conditions and we measured the eye movements of human subjects. We show that, in multimodal conditions, fixation probabilities increase on the side of the image where the sound originates showing that, at a coarser scale, lateralized auditory stimulation topographically increases the salience of the visual field. However, this shift of attention is specific because the probability of fixation of a given location on the side of the sound scales with the saliency of the visual stimulus, meaning that the selection of fixation points during multimodal conditions is dependent on the saliencies of both auditory and visual stimuli. Further analysis shows that a linear combination of both unimodal saliencies provides a good model for this integration process, which is optimal according to information-theoretical criteria. Our results support a functional joint saliency map, which integrates different unimodal saliencies before any decision is taken about the subsequent fixation point. These results provide guidelines for the performance and architecture of any model of overt attention that deals with more than one modality.

Sit to Talk: Relation between Motor Skills and Language Development in Infancy.

Relations between walking skills and language development have been reported in 10- to 14-month-old infants. However, whether earlier emerging motor milestones also affect language skills remains unknown. The current research fills this gap by examining the relation between reaching and sitting skills and later language development, respectively. Reaching and sitting were assessed eight times, starting when infants (N = 29) were around 3 months of age. All assessments were completed and recorded remotely via videoconference using Skype or FaceTime. Subsequently, infants’ language and motor skills were assessed via parent questionnaires (Communicative Development Inventories and Early Motor Questionnaire) at 10 and 14 months of age. Results revealed a significant correlation between the emergence of sitting skills and receptive vocabulary size at 10 and 14 months of age. Regression analyses further confirmed this pattern and revealed that the emergence of sitting is a significant predictor of subsequent language development above and beyond influences of concurrent motor skills. These findings suggest that the onset of independent sitting may initiate a developmental cascade that results in increased language learning opportunities. Further, this study also demonstrates how infants’ early motor skills can be assessed remotely using videoconference.

The Early Motor Questionnaire (EMQ): A Parental Report Measure of Early Motor Development

Childrens early motor skills are critical for development across language, social, and cognitive domains, and warrant close examination. However, examiner-administered motor assessments are time consuming and expensive. Parent-report questionnaires offer an efficient alternative, but validity of parent report is unclear and only few motor questionnaires exist. In this report, we use cross-sectional and longitudinal data to investigate the validity of parent report in comparison to two examiner-administered measures (Mullen Scales of Early Learning, MSEL; Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, PDMS-2), and introduce a new parent-report measure called the Early Motor Questionnaire (EMQ). Results indicate strong correlations between parent report on the EMQ and a childs age, robust concurrent and predictive validity of parent report with both the MSEL and PDMS-2, and good test-retest reliability of parent report on the EMQ. Together, our findings support the conclusion that parents provide dependable accounts of early motor and cognitive development.

Scaffolded reaching experiences encourage grasping activity in infants at high risk for autism

Recent findings suggest impaired motor skill development during infancy in children later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, it remains unclear whether infants at high familial risk for ASD would benefit from early interventions targeting the motor domain. The current study investigated this issue by providing 3-month-old infants at high familial risk for ASD with training experiences aimed at facilitating independent reaching. A group of 17 high-risk (HR) infants received 2 weeks of scaffolded reaching experiences using “sticky mittens,” and was compared to 72 low-risk (LR) infants experiencing the same or alternative training procedures. Results indicate that HR infants – just like LR infants – show an increase in grasping activity following “sticky mittens” training. In contrast to LR infants, evidence that motor training encouraged a preference for faces in HR infants was inconclusive.

Face Preference in Infancy and Its Relation to Motor Activity.

Infants’ preference for faces was investigated in a cross-sectional sample of 75 children, aged 3 to 11 months, and 23 adults. A visual preference paradigm was used where pairs of faces and toys were presented side-by-side while eye gaze was recorded. In addition, motor activity was assessed via parent report and the relation between motor activity and face preference was examined. Face preference scores followed an inverted U-shaped developmental trajectory with no face preference in 3-month-olds, a strong face preference in 5- and 9-month-olds, and a weaker face preference in 11-month-olds. Adults showed no reliable face preference. Motor activity was a significant predictor of face preference in 3-month-old infants, supporting the presence of motor-social connections in early infancy.

Editorial: Motor Skills and Their Foundational Role for Perceptual, Social, and Cognitive Development

Learning occurs through dynamic interactions and exchanges with the physical environment and the social world. In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the contributions of a healthy and well-functioning motor system for children’s learning. Consequently, it seems evident that motor development is critical for children’s understanding of the physical and social world. The current Research Topic examines this timely question and provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the field on the role of motor skills during development. A total of 27 articles, covering applied and theoretical perspectives, are included in this Research Topic and examine the cascading influences of motor skills on perceptual, social, and cognitive processes. The contributions include both general overviews by review articles, presentation of novel findings in empirical articles, and opinion pieces that discuss future directions. Broadly speaking, the Research Topic covers three areas: First, articles that examine and describe the relation between motor skills and cognitive, perceptual, or social skills. Second, articles that discuss practical applications and implications by examining the role played by motor skills in developmental disorders. And third, articles that explore the direct effects of motor experiences on development across domains using training and enrichment paradigms. We will introduce and discuss each of these three areas in the following.

Social Intervention Impacts Action Anticipation, Goal Extraction, and Social Interest in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Anticipatory looking in the context of goal-directed actions emerges during the first year of life. However, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show diminished social gaze and anticipation while observing goal-directed actions. The current study examined a therapist-mediated social intervention targeting action-anticipation, goal-extraction, and social gaze in 18 children with ASD diagnosis. Before and after the intervention period, children viewed a video displaying a toddler repeatedly placing blocks into a bowl using a cross-body motion. Gaze to the actor’s face and anticipatory gaze to the goal location were analyzed. Results revealed that young children with ASD understand repeated actions and demonstrate goal-extraction even before exposure to the intervention. Further, targeted social intervention experience led to a redistribution of attention in favor of the actor’s face, while retaining action intention comprehension of the block transfer activity. Attention to social aspects during action observation by children with ASD could have favorable cascading effects on social reciprocity, social contingency, and theory of mind development.

Development of attention to faces during the first 3 years: Influences of stimulus type

The development of attention toward faces was explored during the first 3 years of life in 54 children aged between 3 and 36 months. In contrast to previous research, attention to faces was assessed using both static images and a dynamic video sequence in the same participants. Separate analyses at each age and exploratory longitudinal analyses indicate a preference for faces during the first year, followed by a decline during the second year. These results suggest that attention to faces does not follow a linear increasing pattern over development, and that social attention patterns are influenced by stimulus characteristics.

Response to changing contingencies in infants at high and low risk for autism spectrum disorder

One recently proposed theory of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) hypothesizes that individuals with the disorder may have difficulty using prior experiences to predict future events [Hellendoorn et al., 2015; Northrup, 2016; Sinha et al., 2014]. To date, this theory has not been tested in infancy. The current study analyzed how young infants at heightened (HR; older sibling with ASD) vs. low risk (LR; no first degree relatives with ASD) for ASD responded to changing contingencies when interacting with two visually identical rattles—one that produced sounds during shaking (Sound), and one that did not (Silent). Infants were given the rattles in a Sound‐Silent‐Sound order at 6 and 10 months, and shaking behavior was coded. Results indicated that LR and HR infants (regardless of ASD diagnosis) did not differ from each other in shaking behavior at 6 months. However, by 10 months, LR infants demonstrated high initial shaking with all three rattles, indicating expectations for rattle affordances, while HR infants did not. Significantly, HR infants, and particularly those with an eventual ASD diagnosis, did not demonstrate an “extinction burst”—or high level of shaking—in the first 10 sec with the “silent” rattle, indicating that they may have difficulty generalizing learning from one interaction to the next. Further, individual differences in the strength of this “extinction burst” predicted cognitive development in toddlerhood among HR infants. Difficulty forming expectations for new interactions based on previous experiences could impact learning and behavior in a number of domains. Autism Res 2017.