Autism spectrum disorder or autism is seen world-wide, however in Tanzania there is emerging awareness and understanding about the disorder among teachers. This study examines the knowledge outcomes of teachers after a multi-day training on autism at three sites across the country. A total of 99 teachers completed the training. At the end of the training, there was a significant increase in the knowledge scores on an autism knowledge measure across all sites. There was a significant difference in knowledge scores across sites, with teachers at one site scoring higher than teachers in both other sites. Reasons why are further discussed. This study provides a detailed description of how to increase the awareness of autism in the teaching community in Tanzania with positive outcomes.

Cognitive performance and cerebral hemispheric function are known to vary with fluctuating levels of estradiol and progesterone across the menstrual cycle in naturally cycling females. However, the literature is mixed with regard to how each hemisphere may be affected by elevated ovarian hormones. To better understand this, the current study employed a dual-task paradigm to examine potential shifts in hemispheric involvement for a verbal problem-solving task across the menstrual cycle in 30 right-handed, normally cycling young adult females (18–21 years old). To our knowledge, no study to date has utilized dual-task procedures to directly investigate the potential shifts in hemispheric function across the menstrual cycle. Specifically, participants were tested during both menses and their estimated midluteal phase where they engaged in repetitive unilateral finger-tapping while concurrently solving anagrams silently or aloud. Analysis of finger-tapping interference during the dual-task conditions revealed that solving anagrams silently was lateralized to the left hemisphere while solving anagrams aloud yielded a pattern of more bilateral hemispheric involvement, both of which were consistent across both menses and midluteal phases. Analysis of cognitive performance, however, revealed that silent anagrams performance while tapping with the right, but not left, hand significantly increased during the midluteal phase. Consistent with a number of other studies using different methodological approaches, the current dual-task findings suggest that when ovarian hormone levels are putatively elevated, there is enhanced recruitment of left hemisphere resources while performing a lateralized verbal task.

Increased physical activity has shown positive effects on various hippocampal memory functions through accumulating evidence that physical exercise and higher cardiorespiratory fitness can enhance human performance on nonspatial mnemonic discrimination tasks that rely on hippocampal pattern separation. However, there is less direct evidence of exercise effects on spatial pattern separation in humans, despite evidence for this association in rodent models. We examined the influence of strenuous exercise habits on spatial mnemonic discrimination among 176 young adults. We used a delayed match-/non-match-to-sample (same/different) task to assess pattern separation for spatial locations across varying degrees of similarity. Participants who reported regularly engaging in strenuous exercise three or more times per week performed significantly better than those who reported engaging in strenuous exercise fewer than three times per week, even when pattern separation tasks involved higher spatial similarity. These apparent exercise effects were observed for female, but not male, participants. These findings support likely benefits of strenuous exercise habits for human spatial pattern separation skills, and they suggest a need to explore potential interaction effects of exercise and gender.

Autism spectrum disorder or autism is seen world-wide, however in Tanzania there is emerging awareness and understanding about the disorder among teachers. This study examines the knowledge outcomes of teachers after a multi-day training on autism at three sites across the country. A total of 99 teachers completed the training. At the end of the training, there was a significant increase in the knowledge scores on an autism knowledge measure across all sites. There was a significant difference in knowledge scores across sites, with teachers at one site scoring higher than teachers in both other sites. Reasons why are further discussed. This study provides a detailed description of how to increase the awareness of autism in the teaching community in Tanzania with positive outcomes.