Understanding developmental language disorder-The Helsinki longitudinal SLI study (HelSLI): A study protocol
Background Developmental language disorder (DLD, also called specific language impairment, SLI) is a common developmental disorder comprising the largest disability group in pre-school-aged children. Approximately 7% of the population is expected to have developmental language difficulties. However, the specific etiological factors leading to DLD are not yet known and even the typical linguistic features appear to vary by language. We present here a project that investigates DLD at multiple levels of analysis and aims to make the reliable prediction and early identification of the difficulties possible. Following the multiple deficit model of developmental disorders, we investigate the DLD …
Heritability and genome-wide association analyses of sleep duration in children: The EAGLE Consortium.
STUDY OBJECTIVES: Low or excessive sleep duration has been associated with multiple outcomes, but the biology behind these associations remains elusive. Specifically, genetic studies in children are scarce. In this study, we aimed to: (1) estimate the proportion of genetic variance of sleep duration in children attributed to common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), (2) identify novel SNPs associated with sleep duration in children, and (3) investigate the genetic overlap of sleep duration in children and related metabolic and psychiatric traits.METHODS: We performed a population-based molecular genetic study, using data form the EArly Genetics and Life course Epidemiology (EAGLE) Cons…
Additional file 2 of Understanding developmental language disorder - the Helsinki longitudinal SLI study (HelSLI): a study protocol
Appendix 2 SLT assessment battery. List of speech and language assessments used in the study. (DOCX 25 kb)
Harmonization of Neuroticism and Extraversion phenotypes across inventories and cohorts in the Genetics of Personality Consortium:an application of Item Response Theory
Mega- or meta-analytic studies (e.g. genome-wide association studies) are increasingly used in behavior genetics. An issue in such studies is that phenotypes are often measured by different instruments across study cohorts, requiring harmonization of measures so that more powerful fixed effect meta-analyses can be employed. Within the Genetics of Personality Consortium, we demonstrate for two clinically relevant personality traits, Neuroticism and Extraversion, how Item-Response Theory (IRT) can be applied to map item data from different inventories to the same underlying constructs. Personality item data were analyzed in >160,000 individuals from 23 cohorts across Europe, USA and Australia…
Additional file 1 of Understanding developmental language disorder - the Helsinki longitudinal SLI study (HelSLI): a study protocol
Appendix 1 Neuropsychological assessment battery. List of neuropsychological assessments used in the study. (DOCX 81 kb)
Early Life Stress and Physical and Psychosocial Functioning in Late Adulthood
Background. Severe stress experienced in early life may have long-term effects on adult physiological and psychological health and well-being. We studied physical and psychosocial functioning in late adulthood in subjects separated temporarily from their parents in childhood during World War II. Methods. The 1803 participants belong to the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, born 1934–44. Of them, 267 (14.8%) had been evacuated abroad in childhood during WWII and the remaining subjects served as controls. Physical and psychosocial functioning was assessed with the Short Form 36 scale (SF-36) between 2001 and 2004. A test for trends was based on linear regression. All analyses were adjusted for age…
Work careers in adults separated temporarily from their parents in childhood during World War II.
Introduction: Traumatic experiences, such as separation from parents in childhood causing early life stress (ELS) may increase the risk of adverse long-term health outcomes and biological age-related changes. This may have an impact on work career. Our aim was to examine long term consequences of ELS due to temporary separation from parents during World War II (WWII) in relation to work career. - Material and methods: The Helsinki Birth Cohort Study comprises 13,345 individuals born in Helsinki, Finland, between the years 1934–1944. From the original cohort, 1781 individuals were identified as being separated temporarily from their parents due to World War II. Information on date and type o…
Early life stress and frailty in old age: the Helsinki birth cohort study
Background: Evidence suggests that early life stress (ELS) may extend its effect into adulthood and predispose an individual to adverse health outcomes. We investigated whether wartime parental separation, an indicator of severe ELS, would be associated with frailty in old age. Methods: Of the 972 participants belonging to the present sub-study of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, 117 (12. 0%) had been evacuated abroad unaccompanied by their parents in childhood during World War II. Frailty was assessed at a mean age of 71 years according to Fried's criteria. Results: Thirteen frail men (4 separated and 9 non-separated) and 20 frail women (2 separated and 18 non-separated) were identified. C…
Passive sound exposure induces rapid perceptual learning in musicians: event-related potential evidence.
Musicians show enhanced auditory processing compared to nonmusicians. However, the neural basis underlying the effects of musical training on rapid plasticity in auditory processing has not been systematically studied. Here, the rapid (one session) learning-related plastic changes in event-related potential (ERP) responses for pitch and duration deviants between passive blocks were compared between musicians and nonmusicians. Passive blocks were interleaved with an active discrimination task. In addition to musicians having faster and stronger overall source activation for deviating sounds, source analysis revealed rapid plastic changes in the left and right temporal and left frontal source…
Music training enhances rapid neural plasticity of N1 and P2 source activation for unattended sounds
Neurocognitive studies have demonstrated that long-term music training enhances the processing of unattended sounds. It is not clear, however, whether music training also modulates rapid (within tens of minutes) neural plasticity for sound encoding. To study this phenomenon, we examined whether adult musicians display enhanced rapid neural plasticity compared to non-musicians. More specifically, we compared the modulation of P1, N1, and P2 responses to standard sounds between four unattended passive blocks. Among the standard sounds, infrequently presented deviant sounds were presented (the so-called oddball paradigm). In the middle of the experiment (after two blocks), an active task was p…