1. Online resources for autism spectrum disorder. Nursing. 2022; 52(4): 62.

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2. Baraka K, Couto M, Melo FS, Paiva A, Veloso M. « Sequencing Matters »: Investigating Suitable Action Sequences in Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy. Frontiers in robotics and AI. 2022; 9: 784249.

Social robots have been shown to be promising tools for delivering therapeutic tasks for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, their efficacy is currently limited by a lack of flexibility of the robot’s social behavior to successfully meet therapeutic and interaction goals. Robot-assisted interventions are often based on structured tasks where the robot sequentially guides the child towards the task goal. Motivated by a need for personalization to accommodate a diverse set of children profiles, this paper investigates the effect of different robot action sequences in structured socially interactive tasks targeting attention skills in children with different ASD profiles. Based on an autism diagnostic tool, we devised a robotic prompting scheme on a NAO humanoid robot, aimed at eliciting goal behaviors from the child, and integrated it in a novel interactive storytelling scenario involving screens. We programmed the robot to operate in three different modes: diagnostic-inspired (Assess), personalized therapy-inspired (Therapy), and random (Explore). Our exploratory study with 11 young children with ASD highlights the usefulness and limitations of each mode according to different possible interaction goals, and paves the way towards more complex methods for balancing short-term and long-term goals in personalized robot-assisted therapy.

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3. Bhat AN, Boulton AJ, Tulsky DS. A further study of relations between motor impairment and social communication, cognitive, language, functional impairments, and repetitive behavior severity in children with ASD using the SPARK study dataset. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research. 2022.

Motor impairments are pervasive and persistent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) throughout childhood and adolescence. Based on recent studies examining motor impairments in children with ASD between 5 and 15 years (i.e., SPARK study sample), 87-88% of this population is at-risk for a motor impairment, these problems persisted until 15 years, and related to their core (social communication skills and repetitive behaviors [RBs]) and comorbid (language, cognitive, and functional) impairments. Persistent motor impairments extending into adolescence/adulthood could negatively impact their independent daily living skills, physical fitness/activity levels, and physical/mental health. While multiple studies have examined relations between motor dimensions and core/comorbid impairments in young children with ASD, few studies have examined such relations in school-age children/adolescents with ASD. This paper conducts a further multidimensional study of which motor domains (i.e., gross-motor including visuo-motor or multilimb coordination/planning, fine motor [FM] or general coordination [GC] skills) best distinguish subgroups of school-age children/adolescents with ASD and help predict core and comorbid impairments after accounting for age and sex. Visuomotor, FM and certain GC skills were better at explaining variations in/predicting social communication impairments whereas FM skills were slightly better at explaining variations in/predicting RB severity. Multilimb coordination/planning and FM skills explained variations in/predicted cognitive delays whereas visuomotor and FM skills explained variations in and better predicted language delays. All three motor dimensions explained variations in/predicted functional delays. This study provides further evidence for inclusion of motor impairments within the ASD definition (criteria or specifiers). LAY SUMMARY: Gross-motor skills were related to social communication and functional delays of children with ASD (visuomotor skills related to language delays and multilimb coordination/planning skills related to cognitive delays). Fine-motor skills were related to repetitive behavior severity, language, cognitive, and functional delays in ASD. Diagnosticians should recommend systematic motor screening, further evaluations, and treatments for children at-risk for and diagnosed with ASD. Motor advocacy and enhanced public/clinical community awareness is needed to fulfill the unmet motor needs of children with ASD.

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4. Cai XE, Le J, Shou XJ, Wu-Yun GW, Wang XX, Han SP, Han JS, Kendrick KM, Zhang R. The salience of competing nonsocial objects reduces gaze toward social stimuli, but not the eyes, more in typically developing than autistic boys. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research. 2022.

Decreased attention to social information is considered an early emerging symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although the underlying causes remain controversial. Here we explored the impact of nonsocial object salience on reduced attention to social stimuli in male ASD compared with typically developing (TD) children. Correlations with blood concentrations of neuropeptides linked with social cognition were also investigated. Eye-tracking was performed in 102 preschool-aged boys (50 ASD, 52 TD) using a paradigm with social (faces) versus nonsocial (objects) stimuli presented in pairs in two conditions where nonsocial stimulus salience was varied. Basal oxytocin (OXT) and vasopressin concentrations were measured in blood. Compared with TD boys those with ASD viewed social stimuli less only when they were paired with low-salience nonsocial objects. Additionally, boys with ASD spent less time than TD ones viewing facial features, particularly the eyes. In TD boys, OXT concentrations and cognitive development scores were positively associated with time spent viewing the eye region, whereas for boys with ASD associations with time spent viewing faces were negative. Reduced gaze toward social stimuli in ASD relative to TD individuals may therefore be influenced by how salient the paired nonsocial objects are for the latter. On the other hand, reduced interest in the eyes of faces in boys with ASD is not influenced by how salient competing nonsocial stimuli are. Basal OXT concentrations and cognitive development scores are predictive of time spent viewing social stimuli in TD boys (eyes) and those with ASD (faces) but in the opposite direction. LAY SUMMARY: Children with autism exhibit reduced attention to social paired with nonsocial stimuli compared to typically developing children. Using eye-tracking we show this difference is due to typically developing rather than autistic boys being more influenced by how interesting competing nonsocial objects are. On the other hand, reduced time looking at the eyes in autistic relative to typically developing boys is unaffected by nonsocial object salience. Time spent viewing social stimuli is associated with cognitive development and blood levels of oxytocin.

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5. Chen Z, Lv H, Yu J, Fang S, Li F. Generation of an induced pluripotent stem cell line SJTUXHi001-A from an autism spectrum disorder patient carrying a heterozygous mutation in HDAC8 (p.P359S). Stem cell research. 2022; 61: 102756.

Mutations in the HDAC8 are considered to be a prominent cause of Cornelia de Lange syndrome 5, a leading cause of intellectual disability and social disability. Here, we report the generation of an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line from a 5-year-old girl diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who carries a heterozygous mutation in HDAC8 (c.1075C > T, p.Pro359Ser).

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6. Dimitriou D, Esposito G. Management and support of individuals with developmental disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research in developmental disabilities. 2022; 125: 104228.

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7. Durrleman S, Bentea A, Prisecaru A, Thommen E, Delage H. Training Syntax to Enhance Theory of Mind in Children with ASD. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 2022.

Preschool children with neurotypical development (ND) trained on sentential complements (« X thinks/says that ») improve their Theory of Mind (ToM) performance. Can complementation training also enhance ToM in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? Thirty-three children with ASD (Mage = 8;11) and 20 younger ND peers (Mage = 4;3) were trained on sentential complements (4-6 weeks, 2-3 times per week, via the DIRE i-Pad App). Pre-training and post-training comparisons show that (1) training boosted both complementation and ToM performance across groups; (2) improvements remained 4-6 weeks after training ended; (3) participants with milder ASD symptoms made most gains. Training on sentential complements thus seems beneficial for addressing ToM difficulties in children with ASD, especially those with milder symptoms.

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8. Flores Gutiérrez J, Natali G, Giorgi J, De Leonibus E, Tongiorgi E. Mirtazapine treatment in a young female mouse model of Rett syndrome identifies time windows for the rescue of early phenotypes. Experimental neurology. 2022; 353: 114056.

Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a rare X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder, mainly caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. Reduction in monoamine levels in RTT patients and mouse models suggested the possibility to rescue clinical phenotypes through antidepressants. Accordingly, we tested mirtazapine (MTZ), a noradrenergic and specific-serotonergic tetracyclic antidepressant (NaSSA). In previous studies, we showed high tolerability and significant positive effects of MTZ in male Mecp2(1m1.1Bird)-knock-out mice, adult female Mecp2(tm1.1Bird)-heterozygous (Mecp2(+/-)) mice, and adult female RTT patients. However, it remained to explore MTZ efficacy in female Mecp2(+/-) mice at young ages. As RTT-like phenotypes in young Mecp2(+/-) mice have been less investigated, we carried out a behavioural characterization to analyze Mecp2(+/-) mice in « early adolescence » (6 weeks) and « young adulthood » (11 weeks) and identified several progressive phenotypes. Then, we evaluated the effects of either a 15- or a 30-day MTZ treatment on body weight and impaired motor behaviours in 11-week-old Mecp2(+/-) mice. Finally, since defective cortical development is a hallmark of RTT, we performed a histological study on the maturation of perineuronal nets (PNNs) and parvalbuminergic (PV) neurons in the primary motor cortex. The 30-day MTZ treatment was more effective than the shorter 15-day treatment, leading to the significant rescue of body weight, hindlimb clasping and motor learning in the accelerating rotarod test. Behavioural improvement was associated with normalized PV immunoreactivity levels and PNN thickness. These results support the use of MTZ as a new potential treatment for adolescent girls affected by RTT and suggest a possible mechanism of action.

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9. Haller K, Stolfi A, Duby J. Comparison of unmet health care needs in children with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and both disorders combined. Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR. 2022.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the unmet health care needs of children with intellectual disability (ID) compared with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and whether access to health insurance coverage is a contributing factor. Children with ID may be masked in the health care system due to increased diagnosis and awareness of ASD. The needs, unmet needs and insurance coverage of children with ID alone, ASD alone, and co-occurring ID and ASD were assessed in this study. METHODS: The 2016 to 2019 United States’ Census Bureau National Survey of Children’s Health was used to determine differences in unmet needs, care not received and health insurance coverage during the past year for children with ID and/or ASD. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for care not received were determined controlling for sex, insurance, race, age and parents’ highest education level. RESULTS: Children with ID were nearly four times more likely not to receive needed medical care as children with ASD. Results were similar for unmet hearing and mental health care. Children with both ID and ASD were more likely to have unmet health care but less likely to have unmet medical care compared with children with ASD alone. There were no significant differences for unmet dental or vision care. Children with ID were 3.58 (95% confidence interval: 1.6-8.0) times more likely to have inconsistent health insurance compared with children with ASD. CONCLUSIONS: Children with ID alone are more likely to have unmet medical, hearing and mental health care needs than children with ASD alone. Children with co-occurring ID and ASD have a large amount of general unmet health care needs but less unmet medical needs. Children with ID are less likely to have consistent health insurance than children with ASD. This hinders the ability of children with ID to receive quality care. Further research is needed to determine if the diagnosis of ASD in children in the United States is negatively affecting children with ID alone.

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10. Hermann H, Berndt N, Lytochkin A, Sappok T. Behavioural phenomena in persons with an intellectual developmental disorder according to the level of emotional development. Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR. 2022; 66(5): 483-98.

BACKGROUND: Challenging behaviours in people with an intellectual developmental disorder (IDD) are complex and often difficult to understand. The developmental perspective may provide additional insights into the specific behavioural patterns and underlying motives in different emotional reference ages. METHODS: The behaviours of 185 adults with IDD who were admitted to psychiatry were systematically assessed with the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist (ABC) and the Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS). The association of the different behaviours with various emotional reference age groups as assessed with the Scale of Emotional Development – Short (SED-S) was analysed to deduce behavioural patterns typical for a certain level of functioning. RESULTS: Overall, the severity of challenging behaviours decreases in higher emotional reference age groups. Physical aggression was most prevalent in persons in the second phase of emotional development (7-18 months reference age). In SED-S-1 (reference age 0-6 months), the persons appeared to be searching for physical comfort and showed high scores in social withdrawal, stereotypies and aggression towards the self. Persons functioning in SED-S-2 (reference age 7-18 months) scored highest in irritability and physical aggression (searching for security), while those in SED-S-3 (19-36 months) exhibited the searching for autonomy type characterised by defiant and socially inappropriate behaviours. Persons with an emotional reference age of 4-7 years (SED-S-4) showed inappropriate speech, verbal self-regulation and depressive-like behavioural aspects (searching for identity). CONCLUSIONS: The behavioural phenomena exhibited in a certain emotional reference age may support the clinician to differentiate behavioural problems from psychopathological symptoms to yield the proper diagnosis.

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11. Hu C, Yang F, Yang T, Chen J, Dai Y, Jia F, Wu L, Hao Y, Li L, Zhang J, Ke X, Yi M, Hong Q, Chen J, Fang S, Wang Y, Wang Q, Jin C, Li T, Chen L. A Multi-Center Study on the Relationship Between Developmental Regression and Disease Severity in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Frontiers in psychiatry. 2022; 13: 796554.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of developmental regression in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to explore its relationship with disease severity. METHODS: We finally included 1,027 ASD children aged 2-5 years from 13 cities in China: 138 with regressive ASD and 889 with non-regressive ASD. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Child Autism Rating Scale (CARS), and Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale-Revision 2016 (CNBS-R2016) were used to evaluate the core symptoms and developmental status of children in the two groups. RESULTS: Among the 1,027 ASD children eventually included, 138 (13.44%) cases showed regressive behavior and the average regression occurring age was 24.00 (18.00-27.00) months. Among the regressive children, 105 cases (76.09%) had language regression, 79 cases (57.25%) had social regression, and 4 cases (2.90%) had motor regression. The total scores of ABC and the sub-score of sensory and stereotypic behavior (β = 5.122, 95% CI: 0.818, 9.426, P < 0.05; β = 1.104, 95% CI: 0.120, 2.089, P < 0.05; β = 1.388, 95% CI: 0.038, 2.737, P < 0.05), the SRS total scores and the sub-score of autistic mannerisms (β = 4.991, 95% CI: 0.494, 9.487, P < 0.05; β = 1.297, 95% CI: 0.140, 2.453, P < 0.05) of children in the regressive group were all higher than the non-regressive group. The total developmental quotient (DQ) of CNBS-R2016 and the DQ of gross motor, fine motor, adaptive behavior, language (β = -5.827, 95% CI: -11.529, -0.125, P < 0.05) and personal society in the regressive group were lower than the non-regressive group and the proportion of children with intelligent developmental impairment was higher the non-regressive group. CONCLUSION: Regressive autism is mainly manifested as language and social regression. Children with regressive ASD have more severe core symptoms, lower neurodevelopmental level DQ, and more serious disease degree than children with non-regressive ASD, which requires further etiological examinations and more clinical attention.

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12. LaSalle JM. X Chromosome Inactivation Timing is Not eXACT: Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Frontiers in genetics. 2022; 13: 864848.

The etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is complex, involving different combinations of genetic and environmental factors. My lab’s approach has been to investigate DNA methylation as a tractable genome-wide modification at the interface of these complex interactions, reflecting past and future events in the molecular pathogenesis of ASD. Since X-linked genes were enriched in DNA methylation differences discovered from cord blood from newborns later diagnosed with ASD, this has prompted me to review and revisit the recent advancements in the field of X chromosome inactivation (XCI), particularly in humans and other primates. In this Perspective, I compare XCI mechanisms in different mammalian species, including the finding of the noncoding transcript XACT associated with X chromosome erosion in human pluripotent stem cells and recent findings from non-human primate post-implantation embryos. I focus on the experimentally challenging peri- and post-implantation stages of human development when the timing of XCI is prolonged and imprecise in humans. Collectively, this research has raised some important unanswered questions involving biased sex ratios in human births and the male bias in the incidence of ASD.

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13. Liu S, Mao S. An Intervention Study on Children’s Healthy Joint Attention Skills Based on a Mixed Instructional Approach of DTT and PRT. Journal of healthcare engineering. 2022; 2022: 5987582.

Joint attention is an important element that influences children’s early development of communication and sociality, and joint attention is more often than not the earliest incipient of their prosocial behavior. Joint attention skills are one of the core deficits of children with autism, and identifying and remediating the core problems of autism is a popular area of interest, with joint attention being the focus of attention. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the combined orientation model of Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) and Pivotal Response Training (PRT) could improve the joint attention skills of children with autism. This study used a cross-behavioral multitest design in a single-subject study with two preschool children with autism as subjects, with the independent variable being joint attention teaching and the dependent variable being the three joint attention skills (eye gaze, following directions, and active display). After the instructional intervention, children with autism showed a significant increase in the correctness of « eye alternation, » « following directions, » and « moving displays. ».

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14. Mintál K, Tóth A, Hormay E, Kovács A, László K, Bufa A, Marosvölgyi T, Kocsis B, Varga A, Vizvári Z, Cserjési R, Péczely L, Ollmann T, Lénárd L, Karádi Z. Novel probiotic treatment of autism spectrum disorder associated social behavioral symptoms in two rodent models. Scientific reports. 2022; 12(1): 5399.

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has rapidly increased in the past decades, and several studies report about the escalating use of antibiotics and the consequent disruption of the gastrointestinal microbiome leading to the development of neurobehavioral symptoms resembling to those of ASD. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether depletion of the gastrointestinal microbiome via antibiotics treatment could induce ASD-like behavioral symptoms in adulthood. To reliably evaluate that, validated valproic acid (VPA) ASD animal model was introduced. At last, we intended to demonstrate the assessed potential benefits of a probiotic mixture (PM) developed by our research team. Male Wistar rats were used to create antibiotics treated; antibiotics and PM treated; PM treated, VPA treated; VPA and PM treated; and control groups. In all investigations we focused on social behavioral disturbances. Antibiotics-induced microbiome alterations during adulthood triggered severe deficits in social behavior similar to those observed in the VPA model. Furthermore, it is highlighted that our PM proved to attenuate both the antibiotics- and the VPA-generated antisocial behavioral symptoms. The present findings underline potential capacity of our PM to improve social behavioral alterations thus, indicate its promising therapeutic power to attenuate the social-affective disturbances of ASD.

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15. Puścian A, Winiarski M, Borowska J, Łęski S, Górkiewicz T, Chaturvedi M, Nowicka K, Wołyniak M, Chmielewska JJ, Nikolaev T, Meyza K, Dziembowska M, Kaczmarek L, Knapska E. Targeted therapy of cognitive deficits in fragile X syndrome. Molecular psychiatry. 2022.

Breaking an impasse in finding mechanism-based therapies of neuropsychiatric disorders requires a strategic shift towards alleviating individual symptoms. Here we present a symptom and circuit-specific approach to rescue deficits of reward learning in Fmr1 knockout mice, a model of Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common monogenetic cause of inherited mental disability and autism. We use high-throughput, ecologically-relevant automated tests of cognition and social behavior to assess effectiveness of the circuit-targeted injections of designer nanoparticles, loaded with TIMP metalloproteinase inhibitor 1 protein (TIMP-1). Further, to investigate the impact of our therapeutic strategy on neuronal plasticity we perform long-term potentiation recordings and high-resolution electron microscopy. We show that central amygdala-targeted delivery of TIMP-1 designer nanoparticles reverses impaired cognition in Fmr1 knockouts, while having no impact on deficits of social behavior, hence corroborating symptom-specificity of the proposed approach. Moreover, we elucidate the neural correlates of the highly specific behavioral rescue by showing that the applied therapeutic intervention restores functional synaptic plasticity and ultrastructure of neurons in the central amygdala. Thus, we present a targeted, symptom-specific and mechanism-based strategy to remedy cognitive deficits in Fragile X syndrome.

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16. Safar K, Vandewouw MM, Pang EW, de Villa K, Crosbie J, Schachar R, Iaboni A, Georgiades S, Nicolson R, Kelley E, Ayub M, Lerch JP, Anagnostou E, Taylor MJ. Shared and Distinct Patterns of Functional Connectivity to Emotional Faces in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Children. Frontiers in psychology. 2022; 13: 826527.

Impairments in emotional face processing are demonstrated by individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is associated with altered emotion processing networks. Despite accumulating evidence of high rates of diagnostic overlap and shared symptoms between ASD and ADHD, functional connectivity underpinning emotion processing across these two neurodevelopmental disorders, compared to typical developing peers, has rarely been examined. The current study used magnetoencephalography to investigate whole-brain functional connectivity during the presentation of happy and angry faces in 258 children (5-19 years), including ASD, ADHD and typically developing (TD) groups to determine possible differences in emotion processing. Data-driven clustering was also applied to determine whether the patterns of connectivity differed among diagnostic groups. We found reduced functional connectivity in the beta band in ASD compared to TD, and a further reduction in the ADHD group compared to the ASD and the TD groups, across emotions. A group-by-emotion interaction in the gamma frequency band was also observed. Greater connectivity to happy compared to angry faces was found in the ADHD and TD groups, while the opposite pattern was seen in ASD. Data-driven subgrouping identified two distinct subgroups: NDD-dominant and TD-dominant; these subgroups demonstrated emotion- and frequency-specific differences in connectivity. Atypicalities in specific brain networks were strongly correlated with the severity of diagnosis-specific symptoms. Functional connectivity strength in the beta network was negatively correlated with difficulties in attention; in the gamma network, functional connectivity strength to happy faces was positively correlated with adaptive behavioural functioning, but in contrast, negatively correlated to angry faces. Our findings establish atypical frequency- and emotion-specific patterns of functional connectivity between NDD and TD children. Data-driven clustering further highlights a high degree of comorbidity and symptom overlap between the ASD and ADHD children.

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17. Setien-Ramos I, Lugo-Marín J, Gisbert-Gustemps L, Díez-Villoria E, Magán-Maganto M, Canal-Bedia R, Ramos-Quiroga JA. Eye-Tracking Studies in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 2022.

Eye-tracking studies have shown potential in effectively discriminating between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and non-ASD groups. The main objective of the present study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies in adults with ASD. A total of 22 studies were included for meta-analysis. Eyes and Non-Social regions proved better for discriminating between ASD and non-ASD adults, while fixation duration seems to be the outcome to choose. Active engaged tasks seem to reduce differences between ASD and non-ASD adults, regardless of the emotional content of the stimuli/task. Proportional fixation duration on eyes and non-social areas in non-active tasks (e.g. free viewing) seems to be the best eye-tracking design for increasing the sensitivity and specificity in ASD adults.

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18. Tantucci V, Wang A. Dialogic Priming and Dynamic Resonance in Autism: Creativity Competing with Engagement in Chinese Children with ASD. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 2022.

A growing body of research has focused on the relationship between priming and engagement through dialogue (e.g. Tantucci and Wang in Appl Linguist 43(1):115-146, 2022; Mikulincer et al. in Cognit Emotion 25:519-531, 2011). The present study addresses this issue also in relation to creativity and provides a new applied model to measure intersubjective engagement in ASD vs neurotypical populations’ speech. We compared two balanced corpora of naturalistic Mandarin interaction of typically developing children and children diagnosed with ASD (cf. Zhou and Zhang in Xueqian jiaoyu yanjiu [Stud Preschool Educ] 6:72-84, 2020). We fitted a mixed effects linear regression showing that in both neurotypical and ASD populations, dialogic priming significantly correlates with engagement and with whether the child could creatively re-use the original input to produce a new construction. What we found is that creativity and intersubjective engagement are in competition in children with ASD in contrast with the neurotypical population. This finding points to a relatively impeded ability in ASD to re-combine creatively a priming input during the here-and-now of a dialogic event.

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19. Taylor EC, Farmer GD, Livingston LA, Callan MJ, Shah P. Rethinking fast and slow processing in autism. Journal of psychopathology and clinical science. 2022; 131(4): 392-406.

Following the popularity of dual process models in social and cognitive psychology, there is major interest in the possibility that autism is associated with impaired « fast » intuitive thinking but enhanced « slow » or « rational » deliberative thinking. If correct, this has great potential to help understand various strengths and difficulties characteristic of autism. Previous empirical investigations of this phenomenon, however, are marred by concerns about the measurement of intuitive and deliberative processing, as well as broader problems in clinical psychological science (e.g., small underpowered studies, lack of replication). Making a step change, we conducted four large-scale studies to examine dual processing in autism, including a preregistered comparison of 200 autistic and nonautistic adults. Participants completed contemporary cognitive and self-report measures of intuitive and deliberative processing, as well as a psychometrically robust measure of general cognitive ability. Except for lower self-reported intuitive thinking, we found no unique contributions of autism to intuitive or deliberative thinking across all four studies, as evidenced by frequentist and Bayesian analyses. Overall, these studies indicate that intuitive and deliberative thinking is neither enhanced nor particularly impaired in relation to autism. We deliberate on the implications of these findings for theories of autism and future investigation of strengths and difficulties in autistic people. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

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20. Zaro C, Harris H, Sideridis G, Barbaresi W, Harstad E. Description of Clinician-Diagnosed Regression at Time of Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis in Toddlers. Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP. 2022.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have reported varying rates of regression in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We sought to (1) determine the rate of clinician-diagnosed regression for young children with ASD and (2) compare developmental functioning and ASD symptoms of children with versus without regression. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of toddlers (age 18-36 months) with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5 ASD. We abstracted cognitive, language, adaptive, and motor functioning standard scores and ASD core symptoms. Regression was defined as « clinician-diagnosed regression accompanied by recommendation for a medical workup. » We used propensity scores to match each participant with regression (n = 20) one-to-one with a participant without regression (n = 20). We compared the groups on developmental scores using independent sample t tests and on core ASD symptoms using Pearson’s χ2 test. RESULTS: Of the 500 children with ASD, n = 20 (4%) had regression (defined above). Children with regression had lower Bayley cognitive and language scores and lower Vineland adaptive scores compared with those without regression (cognitive: 78.0 vs 85.5, p < 0.05; language: 56.9 vs 68.2, p < 0.01; adaptive: 70.0 vs 80.3; p < 0.01). There was no difference in motor scores across groups. There were no significant differences in the frequency of exhibiting core ASD symptoms for those with versus without regression. CONCLUSION: In this clinical sample of children with ASD, regression was diagnosed in a small percentage (4%). Those with regression had lower cognitive, language, and adaptive skills compared with those without regression. Rates of clinician-diagnosed regression referred for medical workup are significantly lower than prior estimates based on parent report.

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