news, journals and articles from all over the world.
Scientists looking to understand the fundamental brain mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder have found that a gene mutation known to be associated with the disorder causes an overstimulation of brain cells far greater than that seen in neuronal cells without the mutation.
The Rutgers-led study, spanning seven years, employed some of the most advanced approaches available in the scientific toolbox, including growing human brain cells from stem cells and transplanting them into mouse brains.
Additional insights can help guide interventions that can assist individuals in processing and understanding their surroundings better.
The new study finds brain-wide changes in virtually all of the 11 cortical regions analyzed, regardless of whether they are higher critical association regions – those involved in functions such as reasoning, language, social cognition and mental flexibility – or primary sensory regions.
Shafali Spurling Jeste, MD, shares early findings—and a critical challenge—from the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials. How do you know if a treatment for autism is effective? That’s a question that has no easy answer—due in large part to the heterogeneous nature of autism spectrum disorder.
A research group led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has proposed a new concept for predicting autism and autistic traits. Empathic disequilibrium combines two types of empathy into a single scale for the first time.
Autistic people are more vulnerable to depression and anxiety during pregnancy, according to new research from the University of Cambridge.
Whatever you do, don’t call them “mini-brains,” say University of Utah Health scientists. Regardless, the seed-sized organoids—which are grown in the lab from human cells—contained an array of neural and other cell types found in the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the brain involved in language, emotion, reasoning, and other high-level mental processes. They are providing insights into the brain and uncovering differences that may contribute to autism in some people.
Key differences in male and female mice brains provide new insights into how sex determines the mechanisms by which distinct synapses monitor and regulate dopamine signaling. The impact of sex differences is particularly pronounced when the mice express a human genetic variant found in boys with either ADHD or autism. Behavioral generalizations across the sexes may limit diagnosis of mental illness, especially if one sex translates alterations into outward signs such as hyperactivity and aggression vs. more internal manifestations such as learning, memory and mood, even when the same molecular pathology is at work.
Dr. Daniel Geschwind was awarded the National Academy of Medicine’s top annual prize in mental health in recognition of his pioneering research and leadership in autism genetics.
In an Australian first, South Australia has appointed a new Assistant Minister for Autism, tasked to increase autism supports in public primary schools. This could not have come at a more urgent time as new research from the University of South Australia shows that parents world-wide report a lack of awareness and understanding of the unique learning needs of autistic children across all levels of mainstream school.
Measuring how the eyes’ pupils change in response to light—known as the pupillary light reflex—could potentially be used to screen for autism in young children, according to a study conducted at Washington State University.
Despite a federal mandate requiring access to early intervention programs (EIP) for children with disabilities, fewer than half of autistic children in four New Jersey counties received services before 36 months of age, according to a Rutgers study.
Vanessa Bal, associate professor at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and the Karmazin and Lillard Endowed Chair in Adult Autism and Evan Kleiman, assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers, are available to discuss a newly created resource…
Key takeaways:
• Just like the real thing. The stem cell–derived interneurons, which play a role in sensations like touch and pain, are indistinguishable from their real-life counterparts in the body.
• Tomorrow’s therapies. In addition to potential treatments for injury-related sensation loss, the discovery could lead to new methods for screening drugs for chronic pain.
• Moving forward. While stem cells from mice were used in the research, scientists are now working to replicate the findings with human cells.
People with neurodevelopmental disabilities are often not given the tools to create romantic relationships in a meaningful, safe way. This puts them at risk for sexual abuse. A new educational program, tested in partnership with the UC Davis MIND Institute, may help foster healthy, romantic relationships.
The UC Davis MIND Institute’s annual Summer Institute on Neurodevelopmental Disabilities is focused on strategies to support individuals with ADHD, Down syndrome, autism and more as they prepare for life after high school. The free, virtual event will take place Aug. 3 from 9:00 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. and is open to all.
Researchers documented a shift toward more representation for adults in popular portrayals of autism, which have historically focused on children.
Irvine, Calif., June 27, 2022 — Supported by a $20 million gift from Joe C. Wen and his family, the UCI Health outpatient clinical facility at the new UCI Health–Irvine complex will bring specialty clinical expertise closer to coastal and south Orange County residents on the UCI campus. “The Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care at UCI Health–Irvine will play a special role in the life of south Orange County because of our unique ability to marshal all the resources of a comprehensive research university in support of delivering the best and most up-to-date care,” said UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman.
The reactivity of a mother’s autoantibodies to specific fetal brain protein patterns may predict the child’s diagnosis with a type of autism known as MAR ASD. MAR ASD was present in around 20% of kids with autism in Arkansas and Philadelphia samples and was linked to more significant autistic traits.
In the first study of its kind, researchers found that recordings from the retina could identify distinct signals for both Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) providing a potential biomarker for each condition.
Fentanyl, a mu-opioid receptor agonist, is one of the most commonly used analgesics in the hospital and may induce long-lasting behavioral and somatosensory impairment in rodents.
Analyzing brain stem cells of patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Rutgers scientists have found evidence of irregularities in very early brain development that may contribute to the neuropsychiatric disorder.
Differences in behavior among people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are closely related to differences in neuroanatomy – the shape of a brain – a team of Boston College neuroscientists report today in the journal Science. This discovery could help to understand the causes of ASD, and to develop personalized interventions.
UC San Diego researchers report significant progress in understanding how the combined effects of rare mutations and common genetic variation in determining whether a child will develop ASD and its consequential effects.
A new study looking at the impact of an autism assistance dog for children and their parents has made an unexpected discovery: the dog has expanded their world, literally, giving them the confidence to visit a lot more places.
Based on the positive results of a new pilot study offering personalized aquatic occupational therapy for 19 autistic children, researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine will expand the program to include 36 autistic children over the next year.
Autistic individuals are more likely to have chronic mental and physical health conditions, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. Autistic individuals also report lower quality healthcare than others.
For the first time, scientists have found that brain differences in the visual brain systems of infants who later are diagnosed with autism are associated with inherited genetic factors.
From SOURCEARU.com Based on the positive results of a new pilot study offering personalized aquatic occupational therapy for 19 children with autism, Ohio State University researchers will expand the program to include 36 children over the next year. Initial results…
In an analysis of reviews published between 2009 and 2020 that assessed therapeutic or educational interventions for very young children with or at high likelihood for autism, researchers found that certain types of interventions—called naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions, developmental interventions, and behavioral interventions—can provide benefits, but there were significant limitations in the quality of the evidence and many differences in how studies were performed.
An international research group led by Professor Toru Takumi (Senior Visiting Scientist, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research) and Researcher Chia-wen Lin at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine has shown that idiopathic autism*1 is caused by epigenetic*2 abnormalities in hematopoietic cells during fetal development, which results in immune dysregulation in the brain and gut.
UC San Diego scientists use lab-grown human brain tissue to identify neural abnormalities in Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome and show gene therapy tools can rescue neural structure and function.
Research led by King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has analysed factors associated with self-harm in over 111,000 adolescents aged 11-17 years old.
People who learn they are autistic when they are younger may have a heightened quality of life and sense of well-being in adulthood.
A report from the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P), a multi-site collaboration housed within UCLA Health’s Department of Medicine, highlights the intersection of autism, poverty and race/ethnicity and their compounding impact on health and health care.
Parents and teachers of Jewish autistic children say they frequently have to disregard outdated professional advice not to teach them Hebrew – a recommendation they describe as “stealing” their cultural identity.
In some New Jersey communities up to 8 percent of children have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — more than triple the national average, according to a Rutgers study. The national average of children with ASD is 2 percent.
Rutgers researchers have linked the genetic disorders Fragile X and SHANK3 deletion syndrome – both linked to autism and health problems – to walking patterns by examining the microscopic movements of those wearing motion-sensored sneakers.
Unusual visual inspection of objects in infants may precede the development of the social symptoms characteristic of autism syndrome disorder, a UC Davis Health study has found.
JAMA PediatricsOriginal Investigation Effect of Preemptive Intervention on Developmental Outcomes Among Infants Showing Early Signs of Autism Article PDF JAMA Pediatrics EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 11 A.M. (ET), MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 Media advisory: The full study is linked to this…
Adhering to a diet and exercise program to manage health can be a challenge for anyone.
Genes can be expressed in different ways depending on how cells process their messengers, aka splicing isoforms. Genetic mutations can damage some splicing isoforms but not others. UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that splicing isoforms hit by…
Stem cell models derived from people with specific genomic variation recapitulate aspects of their autism spectrum disorder, providing a valuable model to study the condition and look for therapeutic interventions.
Cognitive deficits are commonly found in children with autism. Research shows that exercise could be an effective intervention to lessen such deficits, yet why and how physical activity impacts cognitive function remains unclear. Investigators believed that apart from physiological factors,…
A new paper comparing the ability to match pitch and duration in speech and song is providing valuable insight into vocal imitation deficits for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder.
Brenna Maddox, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry and an implementation scientist for the UNC TEACCH Autism Program, is co-leading a national study funded by a $9-million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) that will compare the effectiveness of two suicide prevention interventions for autistic individuals.
Researchers at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai have identified specific transient visual evoked potential waveform abnormalities in individuals with Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS), proving the method to be an effective, noninvasive technique to gather objective data from a range of individuals, including those who are profoundly affected.
Autistic adults may have different behaviours or perspectives in the workplace or in social situations which may lead them into compromised situations.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have shown in a brain organoid study that exposure to a common pesticide synergizes with a frequent autism-linked gene mutation.
An electroencephalogram (EEG) study of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) identified a neural signal that may help explain the variation of how those with ASD perceive or understand the mental states of others (called “Theory of Mind”).
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
Esperanto
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Urdu