We aimed to assess whether modulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLFPC) with noninvasive brain stimulation, namely transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), modifies food craving in healthy subjects. We performed a randomized sham-controlled cross-over study in which 23 subjects received sham and active tDCS (anode left/cathode right and anode right/ cathode left) of the DLPFC. Subjects were exposed to food and also watched a movie of food associated with strong craving. Desire for food consumption was evaluated by visual analogue scales (VAS) and food consumption before and after treatment. In addition we measured visual attention to food using an eye tracking system. Craving for viewed foods as indexed by VAS was reduced by anode right/cathode left tDCS. After sham stimulation, exposure to real food or foodrelated movie increased craving; whereas after anode left/cathode right tDCS, the food-related stimuli did not increase craving levels, as revealed by the VAS scale. Moreover, compared with sham stimulation, subjects fixated food-related pictures less frequently after anode right/cathode left tDCS and consumed less food after both active stimulation conditions. These changes were not related to mood changes after any type of tDCS treatment. The effects of tDCS on food craving might be related to a modulation of neural circuits associated with reward and decisionmaking.

No abstract

Scales with evidence of validity and reliability are important to evaluate child development. In Brazil, there is a lack of standardized instruments to evaluate young children. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III). It was translated into Brazilian Portuguese, culturally adapted and tested on 207 children (12-42 months of age). Evidence of convergent validity was obtained from correlations of the Bayley-III with the: Peabody Developmental Motor Scale 2, Leiter International Performance Scale-R, Expressive Vocabulary Assessment List and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Exploratory factor analyses showed a single component explaining 86% of the variance, supported by goodness-of-fit indexes in confirmatory factor analysis. The Bailey-III demonstrated good internal consistency with alpha coefficients greater than or equal to .90 and stability for fine motor scale only. These robust psychometric properties support the use of this tool in future national studies on child development.

Eye movements help to infer the cognitive strategy that a person uses in fluid intelligence tests. However, intelligence tests demand different relations/rules tokens to be solved, such as rule direction, which is the continuation, variation or overlay of geometric figures in the matrix of the intelligence test. The aim of this study was to understand whether eye movements could predict the outcome of an intelligence test and in the rule item groups. Furthermore, we sought to identify which measure is best for predicting intelligence test scores and to understand if the rule item groups use the same strategy. Accordingly, 34 adults completed a computerized intelligence test with an eye-tracking device. The toggling rate, that is, the number of toggles on each test item equalized by the item latency explained 45% of the variance of the test scores and a significant amount of the rule tokens item groups. The regression analyses also indicated toggling rate as the best measure for predicting the score and that all the rule tokens seem to respect the same strategy. No correlation or difference were found between baseline pupil size and fluid intelligence. Wiener Matrizen-Test 2 was demonstrated to be a good instrument for the purpose of this study. Finally, the implications of these findings for an understanding of cognition are discussed.

ABSTRACTobjectIve. This systematic review sought to conduct a general analysis of the Brazilian scientific output on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) published between 2002 and 2009. Methods. A literature search was conducted in the scientific databases PubMed, SciELO, and LILACS and in the CAPES portal, using keywords such as "autism" and "pervasive developmental disorders". results. A total of 93 articles were identified, most of which were authored by researchers from Southeast Brazil and affiliated with public universities. Approximately one-third of all articles were published in journals with an impact factor ranging from 0.441 to 3.211; most were based on small sample sizes. Furthermore, 140 theses and dissertations were identified, 82.1% of which were master's theses. Interventions for ASD were the predominant research topic. conclusIon. Brazilian researchers are clearly interested in the topic of ASD; however, a substantial portion of their scientific output is limited to doctoral dissertations or master's theses. A minority of articles was published in journals with a high impact factor. These findings suggest the need for studies with larger sample sizes, which could produce higher-impact findings and thus increase visibility of the Brazilian scientific output in the field of ASD research.

No abstract

The literature shows that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate a heterogeneous pattern of cognitive abilities, including nonverbal abilities. However, there is a need for better cognitive characterization of this population for both research and intervention purposes. The present study aims to verify the Leiter-R performance profile for 40 children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old with ASD. The performance of the ASD children in each subtest and their total scores were compared to those of a control group of typically developing children, and intragroup analysis was conducted to verify the strengths and weaknesses of the children with ASD. The results show that individuals with ASD have difficulties with abstract reasoning related to fluid intelligence as well as selective attention and inhibition. Conversely, their visuo-spatial abilities are their strength. Cluster and comparative intra-group analyses indicate that nonverbal cognitive abilities are heterogeneous among the individuals within the ASD group. Performance in nonverbal tasks is positively correlated with adaptive functioning in communication and daily skills domains and inversely correlated with symptom severity as measured by the Autism Behavior Checklist. These results corroborate the literature associating cognition and functionality in ASD.

Studies have suggested that reading speed (RS) or fluency should be a component of reading comprehension (RC) models. There is also evidence of a relationship between RS and RC. However, some questions remain to be explored, as the changes in such a relationship may be a function of development. In addition, while there are studies published with English speakers and learners, less evidence exists in more transparent orthographies, such as Portuguese. This study investigated the relationship between RC and RS in typical readers. Objectives included elucidating the following: (1) the contribution of RS to RC controlling for intelligence, word recognition, and listening and (2) the differential relationships and contributions of RS to comprehension in different school grades. The sample of participants comprised 212 students (M = 8.76; SD = 1.06) from 2nd to 4th grade. We assessed intelligence, word recognition, word RS, listening, and RC. Performance in all tests increased as a function of grade. There were significant connections between RC and all other measures. Nonetheless, the regression analysis revealed that word RS has a unique contribution to RC after controlling for intelligence, word recognition, and listening, with a very modest but significant improvement in the explanatory power of the model. We found a significant relationship between RS and RC only for 4th grade and such relationship becomes marginal after controlling for word recognition. The findings suggest that RS could contribute to RC in Portuguese beyond the variance shared with listening and, mainly, word recognition, but such a contribution was very small. The data also reveal a differential relationship between RS and RC in different school grades; specifically, only for the 4th grade does RS begins to relate to RC. The findings add a developmental perspective to the study of reading models.