1. Castora FJ. {{Mitochondrial function and abnormalities implicated in the pathogenesis of ASD}}. {Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry};2018 (Dec 29)
Mitochondria are the powerhouse that generate over 90% of the ATP produced in cells. In addition to its role in energy production, the mitochondrion also plays a major role in carbohydrate, fatty acid, amino acid and nucleotide metabolism, programmed cell death (apoptosis), generation of and protection against reactive oxygen species (ROS), immune response, regulation of intracellular calcium ion levels and even maintenance of gut microbiota. With its essential role in bio-energetic as well as non-energetic biological processes, it is not surprising that proper cellular, tissue and organ function is dependent upon proper mitochondrial function. Accordingly, mitochondrial dysfunction has been shown to be directly linked to a variety of medical disorders, particularly neuromuscular disorders and increasing evidence has linked mitochondrial dysfunction to neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Rett Syndrome (RS) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Over the last 40years there has been a dramatic increase in the diagnosis of ASD and, more recently, an increasing body of evidence indicates that mitochondrial dysfunction plays an important role in ASD development. In this review, the latest evidence linking mitochondrial dysfunction and abnormalities in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to the pathogenesis of autism will be presented. This review will also summarize the results of several recent `approaches used for improving mitochondrial function that may lead to new therapeutic approaches to managing and/or treating ASD.
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2. Matsuzaki J, Ku M, Berman JI, Blaskey L, Bloy L, Chen YH, Dell J, Edgar JC, Kuschner ES, Liu S, Saby J, Brodkin ES, Roberts TP. {{Abnormal Auditory Mismatch Fields in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Neurosci Lett};2018 (Dec 29)
The auditory mismatch field (MMF) is a pre-attentive processing component, reflecting neural discrimination and inhibitory processing. Abnormal MMFs have been reported in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) along with an association with abnormal language comprehension; however, relatively little is known about MMF abnormalities to contrasting vowel stimuli in adults with ASD. To better understand the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying auditory language discrimination of vowel stimuli in individuals with ASD, magnetoencephalography was used to measure MMFs during an auditory oddball paradigm with vowel stimuli (/a/ and /u/) in adults with ASD. MMFs arising from left and right superior temporal gyrus are reported from nine high-functioning right handed males with ASD (22.22 +/- 5.74yrs) and sixteen typically developing (TD) right handed males (27.25 +/- 6.63yrs). The MMF was delayed in adults with ASD (188.90 +/- 5.8 ms) as compared to the TD participants (173.08 +/- 4.31, p < 0.05). Replicating previous findings in children, the earlier M100 component to single stimulus tokens was also delayed in adults with ASD (108.59 +/- 4.1 ms) compared to the TD participants (94.60 +/- 3.0, p < 0.05). However, there was no correlation between delayed M100 latency and MMF latency. Furthermore, whereas TD participants showed a leftward lateralization of MMF amplitude, participants with ASD showed an opposite (rightward) lateralization. Findings suggest that adults with ASD have hemispherically- and temporally- abnormal auditory discrimination processing in addition to and distinct from abnormal neurophysiological mechanisms in earlier cortical responses. Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Melo FS, Sardinha A, Belo D, Couto M, Faria M, Farias A, Gamboa H, Jesus C, Kinarullathil M, Lima P, Luz L, Mateus A, Melo I, Moreno P, Osorio D, Paiva A, Pimentel J, Rodrigues J, Sequeira P, Solera-Urena R, Vasco M, Veloso M, Ventura R. {{Project INSIDE: towards autonomous semi-unstructured human-robot social interaction in autism therapy}}. {Artif Intell Med};2018 (Dec 28)
This paper describes the INSIDE system, a networked robot system designed to allow the use of mobile robots as active players in the therapy of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). While a significant volume of work has explored the impact of robots in ASD therapy, most such work comprises remotely operated robots and/or well-structured interaction dynamics. In contrast, the INSIDE system allows for complex, semi-unstructured interaction in ASD therapy while featuring a fully autonomous robot. In this paper we describe the hardware and software infrastructure that supports such rich form of interaction, as well as the design methodology that guided the development of the INSIDE system. We also present some results on the use of our system both in pilot and in a long-term study comprising multiple therapy sessions with children at Hospital Garcia de Orta, in Portugal, highlighting the robustness and autonomy of the system as a whole.
