Measuring gesture: its cultural and clinical correlates

Item-Based Analysis of Some ADOS-2 Items with Typically Developing Participants Might help Improve Cross-Cultural Validity of ADOS-2

Most internationally recognized instruments for the screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder have been developed in the USA, which calls into question the degree of their cultural adaptation to diverse populations. The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of social communication in typically developing Croatian-speaking participants (N = 220) using ADOS-2-defined item-level normative values. Croatian subjects showed the expected ("typical") results in the domain of verbal communication, slightly atpical results in nonverbal communication (primarily gesture use), and more significant deviations in pragmatics (offering and asking for information), relative to the expectations of the ADOS-2. As ADOS-2 has become an important component of thorough ASD diagnostic evaluations worldwide, identifying methods for increasing the cross-cultural validity is essential.

Walking the talk--speech activates the leg motor cortex

Speech may have evolved from earlier modes of communication based on gestures. Consistent with such a motor theory of speech, cortical orofacial and hand motor areas are activated by both speech production and speech perception. However, the extent of speech-related activation of the motor cortex remains unclear. Therefore, we examined if reading and listening to continuous prose also activates non-brachiofacial motor representations like the leg motor cortex. We found corticospinal excitability of bilateral leg muscle representations to be enhanced by speech production and silent reading. Control experiments showed that speech production yielded stronger facilitation of the leg motor system than non-verbal tongue-mouth mobilization and silent reading more than a visuo-attentional task thus indicating speech-specificity of the effect. In the frame of the motor theory of speech this finding suggests that the system of gestural communication, from which speech may have evolved, is not confined to the hand but includes gestural movements of other body parts as well.

Bimanual gestures: Expressions of spatial representations that accompany speech processes

The present study investigated a possible relationship between gestures and spatial processes underlying speech, with a focus on both unimanual and bimanual gestures. The amount, form, and type of gestures accompanying spontaneous verbal responses were quantified in five conditions that manipulated the degree to which the verbal description required spatial elaboration. Two conditions that required spatial elaboration included describing one's present house or lounge. To assess gestures accompanying temporally ordered events, a third condition required description of one's daily routine. The two remaining conditions assessed time periods associated with the past (describe the house you lived in as a child) and future (describe the house you would like to live in 15-20 years from now). Higher levels of gesture were found in spatial conditions compared to the temporally ordered routine condition for bimanual gestures, and the reverse was found for unimanual gestures. These results are described in terms of a hypothesised link between bimanual gestures and spatial cognition.

A review of the assessment of dyskinesias

Dyskinesias are most prevalent in patients with Huntington's disease (HD), patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who have received chronic levodopa therapy, and in patients who have been treated with neuroleptics (tardive dyskinesia ITD]). Recent therapeutic developments have fueled a growing interest in the clinimetrics of dyskinesias. For dyskinesias in HD, few rating scales are available, but data on validity, reliability, and responsiveness are scarce. Only the interrater reliability of facial dyskinesias has been evaluated and found to be low. Many subjective rating scales for dyskinesias in PD exist, but only the Dyskinesia Rating Scale has undergone sufficient clinimetric evaluation. For TD, numerous rating scales are available, many of them with ample data on reliability and validity. Objective assessment of dyskinesias has been attempted with a number of techniques. All these methods require a laboratory setting, rendering them susceptible to influence of stress. Moreover, they provide only a momentary assessment of dyskinesia severity and fail to take into account diurnal fluctuations. In view of the methodologic shortcomings in the assessment of dyskinesias, more effort needs to be put into strengthening currently available modes of assessment or designing new ones. In the future ambulatory accelerometry might prove to be of value in this field.

Hand preference in gestures and signs in the deaf and hearing: some notes on early evidence and theory

Research has shown that when persons with normal hearing accompany their speech with gestures, right-handers use more right-hand gestures, and left-handers use more left-hand gestures, although to a lesser extent (D. Kimura, 1973a, 1973b, Neuropsychologia, 11, 45-50, 51-55.). Comparable differences have been found in deaf persons when signing, with the direction of hand dominance for signing in both right- and left-handers corresponding to that for nonlinguistic actions (J. Vaid, D. Schemenauer, U. Bellugi, & H. Poizner, 1984, Hand dominance in a visual-gesture language. Paper presented at BABBLE, March, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada). In this paper, I recount early theories and observational data about hand dominance for gesture and signing, both in the hearing and the deaf. Several of these early theories and observations anticipate current work and also suggest new avenues for investigation.

An Ultrasound technique for the measurement of tardive dyskinesia

A simple and portable ultrasound system, using a transducer attached to a pair of spectacles, to measure disorders of facial movement is described and applied to the measurement of tardive dyskinesia. Product-moment coefficients of correlation for the split-half and test-retest assessments of reliability in 20 patients were 0.96 and 0.93 respectively. Concurrent validity was confirmed by assessing the consistency between ultrasound scores and time-sampled scores based on video films (Pearson r = 0.86). Serial measurements of tardive dyskinesia over five months revealed striking individual consistency.