This study covers the interesting field of the development in gifted children which is often neglected in pediatrics because psychomotor development data are still rare, since “gifted” children are generally noticed towards the end of their primary schooling by IQ measurement. Developmental studies have shown the evidence from several fields that children identified as “high-level potentialities” or “intellectually gifted” develop sensory, locomotor, neuropsychological, and language skills earlier than typically expected. The hypothesis is offered that the earlier development originates from biological processes affecting the physical development of the brain and in turn even intellectual abilities are developed earlier, potentially allowing for advanced development. Further it is discussed how these developmental advances interact with the social environment and in certain circumstances may entail increased risk for developing socioemotional difficulties and learning disabilities that often go unaddressed due to the masking by the advance intellectual abilities.

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Developmental and cognitive characteristics of "high-level potentialities" (highly gifted) children.

The number of eye movements during sleep increased during the first sleep period in zero gravity but returned to normal by the second night. These rapid-eye-movement functions in flight may be the first variations of an oscillatory system. The ratio of the higher and lower eye movement frequencies oscillates within normal-gravity limits.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/225/4658/221.full.pdf

Eye Movements during Sleep in Weightlessness

Several investigators have described the altered sleep patterns in Down's syndrome subjects. The most relevant findings have been a reduction in percentage of REM sleep, a prolonged latency to the first REM episode, an increase in undifferentiated sleep, and a reduced ratio of the oculomotor frequencies. Because it is of interest to identify new drugs able to increase the percentage of REM sleep in mentally retarded subjects, we studied the effects of butoctamide hydrogen succinate (BAHS) on nocturnal sleep in eight young institutionalized Down's syndrome subjects. BAHS produced a significant increase in the percentage of REM sleep as well as a decrease in undifferentiated sleep and latency to the first REM.

Sleep patterns of Down's syndrome children: effects of butoctamide hydrogen succinate (BAHS) administration.

Publisher Summary Psychophysiology embraces several subdisciplines The first subdivision may be into autonomic and central nervous system functions The focus of the latter is the electroencephalogram (EEG), with recording during sleep as one area of concern, and event related cortical responses as another The latter may in turn be either averaged evoked responses (ER) also called averaged evoked potentials (EP), or the changes in steady potentials reflecting the attitudinal condition of expectation, the so-called contingent negative variation (CNV)This chapter reviews the studies on sleep patterns and ER in mental retardation A preliminary review of recording procedures, general concepts and normative data in sleep, and ER research is also presented Differences are demonstrated with respect to sleep patterns and evoked cortical potentials between normal controls and categories of the mentally retarded, particularly Down's syndrome subjects The initial goal in psychophysiology is applied to mental retardation to make general assessments concerning impairment or deviant features in central nervous system functions

Petre-Quadens O

Papers

Study of paradoxical sleep