Olga V. Sysoeva

Background: Amplitude rise time is a critical acoustic cue for speech perception, yet its neurophysiological processing remains uninvestigated in autism spectrum disorder characterized by communication deficits, sensory abnormalities and often speech delay. This study examined whether children with autism spectrum disorder differ from typically developing peers in auditory event-related potential components across a continuum of rise times. Methods: Electroencephalography was recorded during passive presentation of pure tones with five rise time values (15, 30, 60, 120, 240 ms) in 42 children (21 with autism spectrum disorder, 21 typically developing, aged 4–10 years). Linear mixed models were used to analyze latencies and amplitudes of P1 and N2 components. Results: Children with autism spectrum disorder showed a less systematic pattern of neural modulation across rise times compared to typically developing peers. P1 amplitude was reduced at 15 and 60 ms (trend at 30 ms), with no significant group differences at longer rise times. N2 latency showed an atypical decrease at 60 ms compared to 30 ms, contrasting with the systematic increase observed in typically developing children. P1N2 amplitude reached a minimum at 60 ms in autism spectrum disorder, whereas typically developing children showed a gradual decrease across rise times. Conclusions: These findings provide the first evidence of atypical neurophysiological processing of rise time in children with autism spectrum disorder, with the most pronounced differences in the range of rapid acoustic onsets. Group differences were not detected at longer rise times, suggesting a selective rather than global deficit in temporal envelope processing.

In a recent Letter to the Editor in Cognitive Science , Németh et al. (2026) published a critical commentary in response to our experimental article on the study of visual statistical learning (visual SL) in children aged 3–9 years. The authors present three critical points regarding (1) the inaccurate interpretation of the results of their article, (2) the importance of longitudinal rather than cross‐sectional studies in identifying age‐related dynamics of visual SL, and (3) our interpretation of SL as not entirely an implicit process. In this letter, we would like to continue the discussion initiated by the authors, as we believe that the issues they have raised are crucial for the studies of SL in general and in the context of children's development in particular. We clarify our interpretation of SL as a not entirely implicit process by addressing the impact of the experimental task and stimulus sequences on the learning process, and the involvement of psychological factors (such as individual expectations from the experiment) on SL.

Background: Sensorimotor (mu) rhythms reflect the functional state of sensorimotor cortical networks and are of increasing interest for understanding typical and atypical neurodevelopment. However, the developmental trajectories of mu rhythm modulation in preschool and early school-age children remain poorly characterized. Objectives: We studied age-related changes in alpha (8–13 Hz) and beta (13–30 Hz) sensorimotor rhythms in children aged 3 to 10 years using a mixed longitudinal design and investigated their relationship with language development. Methods: EEG was recorded twice (interval ~1 year) in 44 typically developing children during three conditions: passive hand movement (PHM), video hand movement observation (VHM), and a control condition (video fractal movement, VFM). Language was assessed with the Preschool Language Scales—Fifth Edition (PLS-5) in a subset of 32 of the 44 participants at the first time point. Modulation indices (log10(experimental/control)) were computed, and repeated-measures ANOVAs and Spearman correlations were performed. Results: PHM elicited desynchronization in both alpha and beta bands, while VHM induced alpha synchronization only. Alpha desynchronization showed contralateral lateralization during right- and left-hand movements, without age-related changes. Beta desynchronization showed no lateralization. Beta desynchronization during PHM correlated negatively with Auditory Comprehension and Total Language scores (ρ up to −0.62, FDR-corrected p < 0.05), indicating that more pronounced desynchronization of sensorimotor rhythms relates to better language abilities. Conclusions: These findings support the involvement of sensorimotor networks in auditory language comprehension and suggest that beta mu rhythm may serve as a sensitive marker of individual differences in language development, though replication in larger samples is warranted.

Objectives: Amplitude rise time (RT) is a critical acoustic cue for speech perception, playing an important role in auditory processing of both speech and non-speech sounds. This study examined neurophysiological processing of RT in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing (TD) peers. Methods: EEG was recorded during passive presentation of pure tones with five RT values (15, 30, 60, 120, 240 ms) in 42 children (ASD: n = 21, TD: n = 21, aged 4–10 years). Linear mixed models were used to analyze latencies and amplitudes of P1 and N2 components of event-related potential. Results: Children with ASD and TD peers showed distinct patterns of neural modulation across RTs. TD children show general increase in latency and decrease in amplitude of ERP components with increase in RT. While this pattern holds for P1 latency also for children with ASD, P1 amplitude was reduced in ASD compared to TD peers specifically at shorter rise times (15–60 ms), indicating weaker encoding of rapid acoustic onsets. For N2 latency children with ASD showed an atypical drop at 60 ms compared to 30 ms RT. P1N2 amplitude reached its minimum at 60 ms RT in ASD contrasting systematic decrease from 15 to 240 ms RT in TD. Conclusions: Together, these findings suggest that children with ASD show a less systematic pattern of neural modulation across the rise time continuum, particularly in the range of rapid acoustic onsets (15–60 ms), while processing of more gradual onsets remains relatively intact.

Time perception is a fundamental yet often underappreciated component of athletic performance. Athletes across various disciplines must continuously process temporal information to coordinate movements, anticipate events, and make effective decisions under pressure. This narrative review synthesizes current knowledge on temporal processing in sports without applying rigid methodological protocols, aiming to identify key patterns and sport-specific mechanisms. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and ScienceDirect for articles published between 2005 and 2025 using keywords related to time perception, sport types, and specific athletic disciplines. Thirty two studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in detail. The reviewed paradigms included duration estimation, production, reproduction, discrimination, motor timing, representational momentum, temporal resolution and time-to-collision tasks. Two main findings emerge. First, distinct processing mechanisms for sub- and suprasecond intervals are consistently observed across paradigms and sport types: subsecond intervals tend to be overestimated/dilated, whereas suprasecond intervals are underestimated/shrunken. This pattern may reflect an adaptive strategy: temporal dilation of brief, critical events may preserve additional time for decision-making, although this mechanism appears limited to subsecond ranges. In contrast, compression of longer intervals may be more advantageous in extended play. Second, athletic experience modulates these effects. Engagement in sport is associated with enhanced suprasecond underestimation and subsecond dilation, particularly in high-stakes contexts where athletes frequently report subjective time slowing. These changes are sport-specific and often correlate with years of training. Physical exertion, fatigue, and emotional arousal systematically modulate temporal judgments, while accumulated expertise—rather than innate ability—appears to refine temporal processing through practice. These findings highlight time perception as a trainable, context-sensitive component of athletic expertise. Understanding how athletes perceive and utilize temporal information has implications for talent identification, training design, and performance optimization across sport disciplines.

This study provides the first investigation of attentional network efficiency in elite winter endurance athletes, comparing biathletes and cross-country skiers. Utilizing the Attention Network Test (ANT), we assessed the orienting, alerting, and executive networks in 44 elite athletes (15 biathletes, 29 skiers) and 20 sedentary controls. The key findings reveal that the winter elite athletes together demonstrated a significantly lower alerting score compared to controls [13.1 ± 2.9 vs. 25.9 ± 5.2, Welsh's t ₍₆₃₎ = 2.134, p = 0.041, Cohen d = 0.592], interpreted as a neural signature of sustained readiness, where the nervous system is perpetually primed, diminishing the benefit of external warning cues. This capacity was manifested even more in biathletes than cross-country skiers and was also extended to spatiotemporal cues [combined score of alerting and orienting: 61.3 ± 9.4 vs. 90.2 ± 4.7, Welsh's t ₍₄₃₎ = 2.740, p = 0.012, Cohen d = 0.918]. This attenuated response to both temporal and spatial cues is posited as a trained “cognitive shield,” enabling biathletes to suppress automatic shifts of attention to spatial cues in parallel with sustained alerting state—a critical adaptation for maintaining precise marksmanship amidst the physiological noise and environmental distractions of shooting under high cardiovascular load. No group differences were found in executive attention networks and overall reaction time, underscoring the relevance of specific components of attention to these sports. The results demonstrate that the attentional architecture of elite athletes is not broadly enhanced but is precisely calibrated by their sport's unique demands, highlighting a remarkable degree of task-specific performance optimization under pressure.

We present a family case study of Phelan–McDermid syndrome (PMS), a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by haploinsufficiency of the SHANK3 gene, in which two of three siblings were clinically diagnosed with PMS. Sanger sequencing identified a novel heterozygous deletion in exon 20 of SHANK3 (c.3679del, p.Ala1227Profs*168), predicted to introduce a premature stop codon and truncate the protein; this variant was absent in the unaffected sibling. Auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) were recorded at 16, 27, and 40 Hz. The 40 Hz ASSR was markedly reduced in both affected siblings, reaching statistical significance in the younger child and remaining non-significant in the older sibling, while it was preserved in the unaffected sibling. These findings suggest that the 40 Hz ASSR is particularly sensitive to SHANK3-related cortical inhibitory dysfunction during childhood and adolescence, with reduced sensitivity in early adulthood. The results highlight the potential of the 40 Hz ASSR as an electrophysiological biomarker in PMS and underscore the need for age-stratified normative control datasets to enable robust individual-level interpretation and support its use in biomarker development, clinical trial stratification, and monitoring of treatment response.

Background: Impulsivity is characterized by impaired inhibition of thoughts and actions and a reduced ability to weigh the consequences of behavior. Importantly, impulsivity has been associated with altered reward processing and reward anticipation. Methods: We aimed to investigate neurophysiological indices of impulsive behavior using an experiential delay discounting task with 64-channel EEG in neurotypical adults ( n = 54). Impulsive behavior was operationalized as the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards with the delay varied from 1 to 30 s in different blocks. Results: We registered feedback-related fronto-central theta and centro-parietal delta power, although did not find any correlation between impulsive behavior and these neurophysiological measures of reward sensitivity. However, we found higher power spectral density in the alpha band over parieto-occipital region during reward anticipation in individuals exhibiting more impulsive behavior in our task. Conclusion: These results suggest that impulsive individuals have less efficient mechanisms of reward anticipation, potentially resulting in lower tolerance for waiting.