https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/ Journal of Neurodevelopmental Cognition en daily 1 Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0330 Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0330 https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_106534.html Objective: Anxiety is one of the most prevalent comorbid disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is inconsistency in research investigating the predictors of anxiety in children with ASD. Thus, this study aimed to explore age, gender, ASD symptom severity, and functional language use as potential risk factors for developing anxiety in this sample.Method: This study involved 150 children with ASD and their caregivers. The Gilliam Autism Rating Scale–Third Edition (GARS-3) and the Preschool Anxiety Scale (PAS) were used to gather data. The data were analysed using Independent sample t-tests, MANOVA, Pearson’s r correlations, the point biserial correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis with the stepwise procedure.Results: The findings indicated that anxiety was positively correlated with age and functional language use and negatively with ASD symptom severity. There wasn’t a significant relationship between anxiety and gender.Discussions: The findings suggest age and ASD symptom severity were significant predictors of anxiety in this sample. In other words, older children and cases with lower symptom severity are more likely to experience anxiety. It is also implied to examine the role of cognitive deficits in the development of anxiety in autism. https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_105905.html Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, alongside restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Recent studies investigating the role of screen time in the manifestation of autistic-like symptoms suggest that excessive early digital exposure may contribute to these symptoms in children. This umbrella review systematically examined existing systematic reviews that explored the relationship between the excessive use of digital devices and autistic-like symptoms. The initial systematic search yielded 219 records. After removing duplicates, 72 articles underwent rigorous title and abstract screening, leading to the exclusion of 66 non-qualifying articles. A full-text review of the remaining 6 articles resulted in the exclusion of 3 systematic reviews that did not specifically focus on the ASD-screen time association. Consequently, the final analysis included 3 qualifying systematic reviews. The findings of this umbrella review reveal a complex and nuanced relationship between screen time and Autism Spectrum Disorder. While some studies indicate a potential association and emphasize factors such as content, context, ASD assessment measures, and screen type, others report conflicting results or find no significant correlation. https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_106330.html This study aimed to investigate the relationship between social skills and perceived teacher support with students' academic boredom. The research method was a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population of this study encompassed all male and female students in the sixth grade of elementary school in Ardabil city who were studying in the academic year 2023-2024. The research sample consisted of 80 students (40 boys and 40 girls) who were recruited from schools in Ardabil District 1 through convenience sampling. Data were collected using, the academic boredom questionnaire, teacher support perception questionnaire, and social skills questionnaire were used. For data analysis, SPSS-23 statistical software, Pearson correlation tests, and multiple regressions were used. According to the results of the analysis of variance and regression statistical indicators, the F value obtained from the relationship between perceived teacher support and social skills with students' academic boredom is significant (F=10.173, P≤0.001), indicating that perceived teacher support and social skills can explain part of the changes related to students' academic boredom. The components of perceived teacher support and social skills have a significant relationship with students' academic boredom (R=0.753) and explain 0.56 of the changes related to students' academic boredom in total (R2=0.56). These findings suggest that students possessing positive social skills generally attract more attention from the teacher and therefore are more likely to receive more support from the teacher, which in turn can reduce academic boredom and lead to greater academic success. https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_106130.html Music significantly influences emotional and cognitive functions, and its direct impact on emotion processing is well-documented. The proliferation of music on social media platforms highlights the need to consider music as a context during the processing of other stimuli. This aimed to understand how specific acoustic features of widely consumed music influence human emotion processing. Manipulated acoustic cues—pitch, tempo, and timbre—in popular instrumental music from social media were used to influence perceived emotion of image stimuli. An innovative online experimental platform was developed and used to collect data from 109 participants (aged 15–62 years). Participants were exposed to music excerpts in which one of the three acoustic components was altered (high, low, or normal state) while viewing images from the International Affective Picture System and rated their emotional responses using the Self-Assessment Manikin questionnaire. Statistical analysis revealed that tempo was the strongest acoustic predictor of emotional arousal, with distinct patterns across age and gender. Increased tempo was also associated with higher valence ratings. Pitch manipulations had a stronger impact on the arousal levels of older participants, while timbre primarily influenced valence perception in younger listeners. Significant gender differences were also observed: male participants were more sensitive to changes in pitch and timbre, while female participants were more responsive to tempo variations. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how specific acoustic characteristics of contemporary, widely disseminated music shape emotional perception and highlight the complex interplay of acoustic cues with individual differences such as age and gender. https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_106535.html Objective: Understanding how the brain processes visual information with and without awareness is a key challenge.Method: We developed a novel binocular rivalry paradigm combining Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS) with a name–picture verification task to compare identity level versus category level priming under conscious and unconscious conditions. Our fully factorial design simultaneously manipulated all potential factors (visual field laterality, prime modality, trial congruency, stimulus type, and abstraction level), a combination not previously tested. Using mixed-effects regression, we regressed out these factors and isolated the specific impact of each.Results: Crucially, we found that only the abstraction level (basic-category vs subordinate-identity) showed a significant effect: Abstraction level processing produced opposite behavioral effects when prime stimuli were consciously perceived versus when suppressed. We confirmed this pattern with subject-wise regressions, finding a reliable reversal for the abstraction factor.Discussions: These results highlight that conscious and unconscious vision rely on distinct representational dynamics rather than differing only in strength. Our approach – integrating all variables in one experiment and using mixed-effects GLM – provides a comprehensive test of priming influences. https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_105865.html Designing a system that can accurately notify the doctor of the patient's level of consciousness in the operating room and ICU departments, has always been one of the challenges of the treatment team in hospitals. The usual method of measuring the depth of anesthesia in operating rooms is to use hemodynamic criteria, which is not satisfactory. Using bispectral index (BIS) is an advanced and reliable method to measure the depth of anesthesia, and its number has an inverse relationship with the depth of anesthesia. In this article EEG signals have been used for estimating of BIS using Time Delay Neural Network (TDNN). Using the designed software, all parameters of the extraction time domain, such as brain signal, Burst Suppression Ratio (BSR), frequency range of the bi spectrum, 95% spectral edge frequency (95%SEF), median frequency (MF), and relative delta power (RDP) have been extracted. These parameters are feed to the as input of a neural network for estimating the BIS. EEG signals during anesthesia were saved by BIS XP monitor (Aspect medical system Inc.). https://jncog.sbu.ac.ir/article_107072.html Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether empathy components, measured via the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), can predict the diverse dimensions of interpersonal reactivity assessed by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI).Method: A sample of 92 Iranian adults (Mage = 26.7, SD = 3.98; 75% female) completed the MET and the IRI. Four simultaneous multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to predict IRI dimensions (perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress) from cognitive empathy, positive affective empathy, and negative affective empathy scores derived from the MET.Results: The regression model for Empathic Concern was statistically significant (F = 2.94, p = .037, R2 = 0.091), driven by a shared, combined predictive effect among empathy components rather than standalone predictors. For perspective taking, the overall model was marginally significant (F = 2.64, p = .054, R2 = .083), with cognitive empathy emerging as a significant positive predictor (𝛽 = .256, p = .015). In the non-significant fantasy model (F = 1.47, p = .228), positive affective empathy acted as a significant negative individual predictor (𝛽 = -.269, p = .045). The personal distress model was not significant (F = 1.05, p = .373). Conclusion: The results suggest that these relationships may vary across different dimensions of interpersonal functioning and should be interpreted with caution.