News by Subject Social & Behavior

Researchers have developed a new voice assistant that allows people with visual impairments to get web content as quickly and as effortlessly as possible from smart speakers and similar devices.

A novel palliative care intervention developed at Children's National Health System for caregivers of children and adolescents with rare diseases has shown preliminary success at helping families talk about potentially challenging medical decisions before a crisis occurs.

Mothers of young children with autism who focus on improving the quality of their own relationship skills -- as opposed to teaching developmental skills to their children -- experience dramatic improvements in their level of parenting stress and depression.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have conducted the largest ever study involving 1,117 people diagnosed with motor neurone disease to address the question of 'nature vs. nurture' in the causes of MND. The team from the Trinity MND Research Group found that one in 347 men and one in 436 women can be expected to develop motor neurone disease (MND) during their lifetime. Their research has been published in the American medical journal JAMA Neurology.

Until now, there has been no ideal way for healthcare providers to measure walking ability, since it involves more than just walking speed. It also is about how you deal with your environment (such as uneven pavement) and demands on your attention (such as traffic, other pedestrians, and street crossings). In a new study, researchers assessed ways to measure complex walking tasks to learn more about early, subtle changes in walking. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

This is a peer-reviewed, randomized controlled trial conducted in humans. The study shows that people with progressive MS who used a standing frame intervention at home for 36 weeks saw significant improvements in their motor function, balance and quality of life. The study also shows that the standing frame intervention appears cost-effective within an NHS setting. The research does not show a potential cure for MS.

Researchers have developed a new technique to help doctors more quickly and accurately detect autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children. In a study led by the University of Waterloo, researchers characterized how children with ASD scan a person's face differently than a neuro-typical child. Based on the findings, the researchers were able to develop a technique that considers how a child with ASD gaze transitions from one part of a person's face to another.