A Developmentalist Perspective

Foundations “Historically, Historically, the scientists who devoted themselves to an understanding understa of the nervous system came from different scientific disciplines: medicine, biology, psychology, physics, chemistry, mathematics. The neuroscience revolution occurred when these scientists realized that the best hope for understanding the workings of the brain comes from an interdisciplinary approach, a combination of traditional approaches to yield a new synthesis, a new perspective.” [Bear MF, Connors BW, Paradiso MA. Neuroscience. Exploring the Brain. 2015; p. 4]

Perspective

“The The problems in the world are not within-discipline discipline problems. [...] We have to bring people with different kinds of skills and expertise together. No one has everything that's needed to deal with the issues that we're facing.” [Ledford H.How .How to solve the world's biggest problems. Nature. 2015; 525(7569): 308–11.]

2 2015 in Review

Mind Meld Marschik PB, Pokorny FB, , Einspieler C: : http://www.nature.com/news/mind-meld-1.18353 http://www.nature.com/news/mind Does it need tradition to break new grounds? Among g the key lessons of successful interdisciplinary science is the discovery of the lab individual formula for mainmain taining enthu enthusiasm within and across disci disciplines, keeping in mind that interdisciplinary thinking needs extra time ("true (" interdisciplinary science cannot be rushed"; "; Nature (2015);525 525, 289– 290). . From a ’developmentalist perspective’ we argue that the success rate of this formula will be enhanced when adding a longitudinal/sustainability component or ’pedigree/tradition-factor’ factor’ (see also "Ten Simple Rules to Win a Nobel Prize"; R. J. Roberts PLOS Comput Biol11; Biol 2015). To undertake courageous paradigm changes one needs a clear vision, the guts to leave unidirectional or panelist approaches, perfect timing, all the brilliant minds, and certainly the ultimate ingredient, the ’environment of understanding’ – i.e. being specialist in one discipline and (at least partly)

[Kleine Zeitung Stmk; Oct 29th, 2015; p. 28]

understand the colleagues from other disciplines. After working several years with the Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz, Heinz Prechtl ’left’ ethology and his mentor to establish an interdisciplinary interdi institute to study early human development – a radical transition from what he learned from and with Lorenz and his colleagues. Heinz, as our mentor, had ever since been an advocate of interdisciplinarity paving our way to understand the importance importa of concerted science to reach the ultimate aim – in our case the unraveling of mysteries of early human development. Their lessons learned, it is time to undertake ake another radical change from Prechtl’s ’Gestalt perception as a source of scientific knowledge ledge approach’ to the implementation of an integrated multidimensional-multidisciplinary multidisciplinary perspective: i.e., joining forces of engineers, linguists, machine learners, neurologists, neuroradiologists, pediapedia tricians, physiologists, psychologists, and allied disciplines. Such decisions don't look too spectacular at first, but when it comes to moving forward, the question remains: are we – as scientists – courageous enough and are the decision makers with us? Let the minds meld. [Marschik PB, Pokorny FB, Einspieler C. Comment on: Interdisciplinary science must break down barriers between fields to build common ground.Nature. ground. 2015;525(7569):289-90. http://www.nature.com/news/mind http://www.nature.com/news/mind-meld-1.183]

3 2015 in Review

New Papers (Selection)

Abnormal general movements are among the most reliable early markers for neurodevelopmental dis disorders. Compared to cranial ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging and neurological examination, the general movement assessment (GMA) provided best evidence, with a sensitivity of 98% (95% confidence interval [CI] 74–100) 100) and a specificity of 91% (95% CI 83–93; 93; Bosanquet et al., Dev Med Child Neurol 2013). Apart from the first st promising attempts to analyse general movements with the aid of computer-based based tools, GMA is based on visual Gestalt perception. General movements are considered to be normal if the sequence, amplitude, speed, and intensity are variable. Abnormal general genera movements are characterized by a lack of variability, especially in the movement sequence. In addition to the global assessment of general movement patterns, it can also be worthwhile to look at different aspects and components of general movements, particularly icularly if they are abnormal. The study reported here was based on 783 video recordings of 233 infants (154 males, 79 females) who had been videoed from 27 to 45 weeks postmenstrual age. Apart from assessing the global GM categories (normal, poor repertoire, cramped-synchronized, synchronized, or chaotic GMs), we scored the amplitude, speed, spatial range, proximal and distal rotations, onset and offset, tremulous and cramped components of the upper and lower extremities. Applying the optimality concept, the maximum general gen movement optimality score of 42 indicates the optimal performance. General movement optimality scores (GMOS) differentiated between normal GMs (median 39 [25–75th centile 37–41]), 41]), poor repertoire GMs (median 25 [22–29]), [22 and cramped-synchronized GMs (median median 12 [10– [10 14]; p