Abstract& The ability to inhibit saccades toward suddenly appearing peripheral stimuli (prosaccades) and direct them to contralateral locations instead (antisaccades) is a crucial marker of eye movement control. Typically developing infants as young as 4-month-olds can learn to inhibit reflexive saccades to peripheral stimuli, but they do not produce antisaccades, whose development later in infancy and its underlying neural computations remain unexplored. Here we tested oculomotor control in typically developing toddlers and toddlers with fragile X syndrome (FXS), a disorder of known genetic origin that allows the investigation of the neurocomputational properties contributing to the development of saccadic control. Typically developing toddlers decreased looking toward peripheral cues that predicted contralateral rewards, whose appearance they anticipated. Furthermore, this correlated with age, indicating a gradual development of saccadic control. In contrast with the typical case, toddlers with FXS did not decrease their looks to peripheral onsets that predicted contralateral events.

The infancy literature situates the perceptual narrowing of speech sounds at around 10 months of age, but little is known about the mechanisms that influence individual differences in this developmental milestone. We hypothesized that such differences might in part be explained by characteristics of mother-child interaction. Infant sensitivity to syllables from their native tongue was compared longitudinally to sensitivity to non-native phonemes, at 6 months and again at 10 months. We replicated previous findings that at the group level, both 6- and 10- month-olds were able to discriminate contrasts in their native language, but only 6-month-olds succeeded in discriminating contrasts in the non-native language. However, when discrimination was assessed for separate groups on the basis of mother-child interaction—a ‘high contingency group’ and a ‘moderate contingency’ group—the vast majority of infants in both groups showed the expected developmental pattern by 10 months, but only infants in the ‘high contingency’ group showed early specialization for their native phonemes by failing to discriminate non-native contrasts at 6-months. The findings suggest that the quality of mother-child interaction is one of the exogenous factors influencing the timing of infant specialization for speech processing.

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Rythmic Abilities In WS 79Music Perception vo lu m e 29, issue 1, pp. 79-91. issn 0730-7829, electronic issn 1533-8312. © 2011 by t h e regents o f t h e university o f california all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photo copy or reproduce article content through the university of california press's rights a n d permissions w e b s i t e , h t t p ://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp.although rhythmic abilities have often been described as strengths within the cognitive profile of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), the literature in this respect is limited and has offered inconsistent results. In this study, 20 adolescents and adults with WS and a control group of 40 typically developing individuals matched for chronological age were presented with a rhythmic patterns discrimination task and a rhythmic patterns reproduction task. Individuals with WS performed significantly lower than their control peers in both tasks. In addition, rhythmic impairments in WS were explained by the cognitive deficits that are characteristic of the syndrome. These results suggest that rhythmic performance in individuals with WS is affected by their cognitive deficits and that rhythmic skills in WS are not independent of general cognition.

Although absolute pitch (AP) is a rare skill in typical development, individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are often referred to as possessing this musical ability. However, there is paucity of research on the topic. In this article, 2 studies were conducted to evaluate AP in WS. In Study 1, seven musically trained individuals with WS, 14 musically trained typically developing controls matched for chronological age, and 2 experienced musicians with AP completed a pitch-identification task. Although the task was a classical assessment of AP, it required participants to have musical knowledge, and the availability and accessibility of musically trained individuals with WS is very low. In Study 2, a paradigm suitable for evaluating AP in individuals without musical training was used, which made it possible to evaluate a larger group of participants with WS. A pitch memory test for isolated tones was presented to 27 individuals with WS, 54 typically developing peers matched for chronological age, and the 2 musicians with AP. Both individuals with WS and their controls obtained low results in the two studies. They showed an arbitrary pattern of response, and their performance was far from that of musicians with AP. Therefore, participants with WS did not appear to possess AP. Unlike what is usually claimed, results suggest that AP is not a remarkable ability in WS and that, as in the typically developing population, this musical ability is also rare in individuals with WS.

Rivière proposed a taxonomy of psychological functions organized around a set of dimensions that qualify human development. Type 3 functions involve the inculturation of aspects defined in biology. Its alteration comprises the core of the cognitive phenotype in autism, and understanding its genesis allows for conceptualizing autism as the product of a process of adaptation to the physical and social environment, based on atypical restrictions both in processing social stimuli and in participating in meaningful interactions. RESUMENRivière propuso una taxonomía de funciones psicológicas, organizadas en torno a un conjunto de dimensiones que cualifican el desarrollo humano. Las funciones tipo 3 implican la enculturación de aspectos definidos en la biología. Su alteración constituye el núcleo del fenotipo cognitivo en autismo, y la comprensión de su génesis permite conceptualizar el autismo como el producto de un proceso de adaptación al medio físico y social, que parte de restricciones atípicas tanto en el procesamiento de estímulos sociales, como en la participación en interacciones significativas.

In this article we critique the use of traditional standardized tests for the cognitive assessment of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Limitations stem from the lack of integrating (a) results from research into the psychological functioning of these populations, and (b) the main arguments underlying models of human development. We identify four secondary issues in this discussion: (1) these instruments cannot be used with children who have particularly low cognitive functioning; (2) little or no variance in the scores obtained by individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, because all are at floor, prevent adequate interpretations; (3) measurements do not provide information useful for the design of intervention strategies; and (4) different cognitive and/or neural processes may underlie behavioural scores 'in the normal range'. Rethinking traditional assessment methods in favour of technologically-mediated games yields new cognitive assessment possibilities.

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