1. Bone D, Lee CC, Black MP, Williams ME, Lee S, Levitt P, Narayanan S. {{The Psychologist as an Interlocutor in Autism Spectrum Disorder Assessment: Insights from a Study of Spontaneous Prosody}}. {J Speech Lang Hear Res};2014 (Feb 11)
PURPOSE To examine relationships between prosodic speech cues and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) severity, hypothesizing a mutually interactive relationship between the psychologists’ and the children’s speech characteristics. We objectively quantified acoustic-prosodic cues of psychologists and children with ASD during spontaneous interaction, establishing a methodology for future large-sample analysis. METHODS Speech acoustic-prosodic features were semi-automatically derived from segments of semi-structured interviews (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule; ADOS) with 28 children previously diagnosed with ASD. Prosody was quantified in terms of intonation, volume, rate, and voice quality. Research hypotheses were tested via correlation and hierarchical and predictive regression between ADOS severity and prosodic cues. RESULTS Automatically extracted speech features demonstrated prosodic characteristics of dyadic interactions. As rated ASD severity increased, both participants demonstrated effects for turn-end pitch slope, and both spoke with atypical voice quality. The psychologist’s acoustic cues predicted the child’s symptom severity better than the child’s acoustic cues. CONCLUSION The psychologist, acting as evaluator and interlocutor, was shown to adjust behavior in predictable ways based on the child’s social-communicative impairments. The results support future study of speech prosody of both interaction partners during spontaneous conversation, while making use of automatic computational methods that allow for scalable analysis on much larger corpora.
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2. Emberti Gialloreti L, Benvenuto A, Benassi F, Curatolo P. {{Are caesarean sections, induced labor and oxytocin regulation linked to Autism Spectrum Disorders?}}. {Med Hypotheses};2014 (Mar 13)
The etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) continues to be elusive. While ASDs have been shown to be heritable, several environmental co-factors, such as, e.g. pre- or perinatal adverse events, could play a role in the pathogenesis of the disorder as well. Prevalence of ASDs appears to have increased in the last three decades, but the causes of this surge are not fully understood. As perinatal adverse events have increased as well, they have been regarded as logical contributors to the risen prevalence of ASDs. Over the last three decades there has been also a considerable increase in the rates of induced labor and caesarean sections (CS). However, even if a causal association between CS and ASDs increase has been suggested, it has not yet been proven. Nevertheless, we hypothesize here that such an association is actual and that it might help to explain a part of the increase in ASD diagnoses. Our assumption is based on the wider epidemiological picture of ASDs and CS, as well as on the possible biological plausibility of this correlation, by postulating potential epigenetic and neurobiological mechanisms underpinning this relationship. Today, several observations point toward the existence of epigenetic dysregulation in ASDs and this raises the issue of the role of environmental factors in bringing about epigenetic modifications. Epigenetic dysregulations in some brain neuropeptide systems could play a role in the behavioral dysfunctions of ASDs. Particularly, some evidence suggests a dysregulation of the oxytocinergic system in autistic brains. Perinatal alterations of oxytocin (OT) can also have life-long lasting effects on the development of social behaviors. Within the perinatal period, various processes, like pitocin infusion or CS, can alter the OT balance in the newborn; OT dysregulation could then interact with genetic factors, leading ultimately to the development of ASDs. Large long-term prospective studies are needed to identify causal pathways for ASDs and examine whether and how (epi-)genetic susceptibility interacts with obstetric risk factors in the development of ASDs. A better understanding of such a potential interplay could become paradigmatic for a wide range of genetic-environmental interactions in ASDs.
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3. Field SS. {{Interaction of genes and nutritional factors in the etiology of autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders: A case control study}}. {Med Hypotheses};2014 (Feb 25)
OBJECTIVE: To compare risk factors of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to age/sex-matched controls with particular attention to family history, parental age and nutrition. METHOD: 31 ASD and 81 ADHD patients were compared to 612 age/sex-matched controls by reviewing charts for parental age, sibling order, gestational age, and early feeding, and by parental interview for early feeding and family history of psychopathology on affected patients and 139 of those controls. FINDINGS: Parental age affected ASD and ADHD females but not males. First-born males were at increased risk for both disorders even though their siblings had older parents and their parents were not more likely to stop having children. Breastfeeding in the absence of parental psychopathology reduced ADHD risk, but breastfeeding of first-born males by older mothers with psychopathology was a risk for ASD. Breastfeeding was only a risk for ADHD if the mother had psychopathology. Parent emigration from a place of high fish consumption was a significant ASD risk factor. RESULTING HYPOTHESES: ADHD and ASD share risk factors due to shared genetic and nutritional interactions, likely revolving around deficiencies of omega-3 fatty acids (n3FAs) during brain development. Fatty acid metabolism genes are important in that process. The 4:1 male to female ratio for both disorders results from hormonally driven fat metabolism differences. Risk factors for both disorders including maternal smoking, prematurity, and gestational diabetes may also be attributed to their effect on n3FA supplies. Breastfeeding can be a risk factor when the mother’s genes and/or age affect her milk quality. Parental age and gene defects may affect female more than male offspring. Childbirth with adequate spacing and breastfeeding can override maternal age and protect subsequent offspring. Genetic variations in fat metabolism can be influenced by cultural/geographic diet, causing deficiencies in offspring with migration-influenced diet changes. Interaction of n3FA deficient diets, delayed child-bearing, and breastfeeding by mothers with psychopathology may be important factors in the rising incidence of ASD and ADHD in recent decades. Partial prevention through diet and supplements may be possible.
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4. Forrester GS, Pegler R, Thomas MS, Mareschal D. {{Handedness as a marker of cerebral lateralization in children with and without autism}}. {Behav Brain Res};2014 (Apr 2)
We employed a multiple case studies approach to investigate lateralization of hand actions in typically and atypically developing children between 4 and 5 years of age. We report on a detailed set of over 1200 hand actions made by four typically developing boys and four boys with autism. Participants were assessed for unimanual hand actions to both objects and the self (self-directed behaviors). Individual and group analyses suggest that typically developing children have a right hand dominance for hand actions to objects and a left hand dominance for hand actions for self-directed behaviors, revealing a possible dissociation for functional specialization of the left and right hemispheres respectively. Children with autism demonstrated mixed-handedness for both target conditions, consistent with the hypothesis that there is reduced cerebral specialization in these children. The findings are consistent with the view that observed lateralized motor action can serve as an indirect behavioral marker for evidence of cerebral lateralization.
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5. Hahn LJ, Zimmer BJ, Brady NC, Swinburne Romine RE, Fleming KK. {{Role of Maternal Gesture Use in Speech Use by Children With Fragile X Syndrome}}. {Am J Speech Lang Pathol};2014 (Mar 12):1-14.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate how maternal gesture relates to speech production by children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). METHOD Participants were 27 young children with FXS (23 boys, 4 girls) and their mothers. Videotaped home observations were conducted between the ages of 25 and 37 months (toddler period) and again between the ages of 60 and 71 months (child period). The videos were later coded for types of maternal utterances and maternal gestures that preceded child speech productions. Children were also assessed with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning at both ages. RESULTS Maternal gesture use in the toddler period was positively related to expressive language scores at both age periods and was related to receptive language scores in the child period. Maternal proximal pointing, in comparison to other gestures, evoked more speech responses from children during the mother-child interactions, particularly when combined with wh-questions. CONCLUSION This study adds to the growing body of research on the importance of contextual variables, such as maternal gestures, in child language development. Parental gesture use may be an easily added ingredient to parent-focused early language intervention programs.
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6. Klusek J, Martin GE, Losh M. {{A Comparison of Pragmatic Language in Boys with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome}}. {J Speech Lang Hear Res};2014 (Mar 1)
PURPOSE Impaired pragmatic language (i.e., language use for social interaction) is a hallmark feature of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known monogenic disorder associated with ASD. However, few cross-population comparisons of ASD and FXS have been conducted, and it is unclear whether pragmatic language profiles in these conditions overlap. METHOD This study used semi-naturalistic and standardized assessment methods to characterize pragmatic language abilities of 29 school-aged boys with idiopathic ASD, 38 with FXS and comorbid ASD, 16 with FXS without ASD, 20 with Down syndrome and 20 with typical development. RESULTS Similar severity of pragmatic language deficits was observed in both of the groups with ASD (idiopathic and fragile X-associated). ASD comorbidity had a detrimental effect on the pragmatic language skills of boys with FXS. Some different patterns emerged across the two pragmatic assessment tools, with more robust group differences observed in pragmatics assessed in a semi-naturalistic conversational context. CONCLUSIONS These findings have implications for pragmatic language assessment and intervention, as well as for understanding the potential role of the fragile X gene, Fragile X Mental Retardation-1, in the pragmatic language phenotype of ASD.
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7. Kover ST, Ellis Weismer S. {{Lexical Characteristics of Expressive Vocabulary in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Speech Lang Hear Res};2014 (Feb 17)
PURPOSE Vocabulary is a domain of particular challenge for many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recent research has drawn attention to ways in which lexical characteristics relate to vocabulary acquisition. The current study tested the hypothesis that lexical characteristics account for variability in vocabulary size of young children with ASD, applying the Extended Statistical Learning theory of vocabulary delay in late talkers (Stokes, Kern, & dos Santos, 2012) to toddlers with ASD. METHOD Parents reported the words produced by toddlers with ASD (n = 57; ages 21-37 months) or toddlers without ASD (n = 41; ages 22-26 months) on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. The average phonological neighborhood density, word frequency, and word length of each toddler’s lexicon was calculated. These lexical characteristics served as predictors of vocabulary size. RESULTS Findings differed for toddlers with and without ASD and according to subsamples. Vocabulary size was predicted by word length for toddlers with ASD and by phonological neighborhood density for toddlers without ASD. CONCLUSIONS Distinct relationships between lexical characteristics and vocabulary size were observed for toddlers with and without ASD. Experimental studies on distributional cues to vocabulary acquisition are needed to inform what is known about mechanisms of learning in neurodevelopmental disorders.
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8. Kover ST, Haebig E, Oakes A, McDuffie A, Hagerman RJ, Abbeduto L. {{Sentence Comprehension in Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Am J Speech Lang Pathol};2014 (Mar 1)
PURPOSE Previous research suggests that language comprehension might be particularly impaired in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but this profile has been only broadly characterized. The current study examined sentence comprehension in school-age boys with ASD, including a subgroup with intellectual disability, with particular attention to errors that might differentiate between lexically and syntactically based difficulties. METHOD Participants were boys with ASD (n = 45; ages 4 – 11 years) and younger typically developing boys (n = 45; ages 2 – 6 years). Comprehension was assessed with the Test for Reception of Grammar-2 (TROG-2). Error types were analyzed for a subset of items. RESULTS Boys with ASD did not differ from younger typically developing boys matched on receptive vocabulary in overall sentence comprehension on the TROG-2 or the number of lexical errors committed. In contrast, the subgroup of boys with ASD and intellectual disability (n = 16) had poorer overall performance and committed more lexical errors than younger typically developing boys matched on nonverbal cognition. CONCLUSIONS On average, comprehension is delayed in school-age boys with ASD, but not beyond receptive vocabulary expectations. Boys with ASD and intellectual disability, however, have a weakness in sentence comprehension beyond nonverbal cognitive-expectations.
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9. Lodhia V, Brock J, Johnson BW, Hautus MJ. {{Reduced object related negativity response indicates impaired auditory scene analysis in adults with autistic spectrum disorder}}. {PeerJ};2014;2:e261.
Auditory Scene Analysis provides a useful framework for understanding atypical auditory perception in autism. Specifically, a failure to segregate the incoming acoustic energy into distinct auditory objects might explain the aversive reaction autistic individuals have to certain auditory stimuli or environments. Previous research with non-autistic participants has demonstrated the presence of an Object Related Negativity (ORN) in the auditory event related potential that indexes pre-attentive processes associated with auditory scene analysis. Also evident is a later P400 component that is attention dependent and thought to be related to decision-making about auditory objects. We sought to determine whether there are differences between individuals with and without autism in the levels of processing indexed by these components. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure brain responses from a group of 16 autistic adults, and 16 age- and verbal-IQ-matched typically-developing adults. Auditory responses were elicited using lateralized dichotic pitch stimuli in which inter-aural timing differences create the illusory perception of a pitch that is spatially separated from a carrier noise stimulus. As in previous studies, control participants produced an ORN in response to the pitch stimuli. However, this component was significantly reduced in the participants with autism. In contrast, processing differences were not observed between the groups at the attention-dependent level (P400). These findings suggest that autistic individuals have difficulty segregating auditory stimuli into distinct auditory objects, and that this difficulty arises at an early pre-attentive level of processing.
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10. McCarthy M. {{Autism diagnoses in the US rise by 30%, CDC reports}}. {BMJ};2014;348:g2520.
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11. Miniscalco C, Rudling M, Rastam M, Gillberg C, Johnels JA. {{Imitation (rather than core language) predicts pragmatic development in young children with ASD: a preliminary longitudinal study using CDI parental reports}}. {Int J Lang Commun Disord};2014 (Mar 31)
BACKGROUND: Research in the last decades has clearly pointed to the important role of language and communicative level when trying to understand developmental trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). AIMS: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether (1) core language skills, measured as expressive vocabulary and grammar, and/or (2) pre-linguistic social-communicative skills, including gestures and imitation abilities, drive pragmatic language development in young children with ASD. METHODS & PROCEDURES: We examined correlates and longitudinal predictors of pragmatic growth in a sample of 34 children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whose parents were given parts of two MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories (CDI: Words & Gestures and CDI: Words & Sentences) for completion at two time points (at time 1 the mean child age was 41 months, and at time 2 it was 54 months). A novel feature in this study is that the relevant parts from both CDI forms were included at both time points, allowing us to examine whether pre-linguistic social-communication skills (e.g. imitation and gesturing) and/or core language skills (i.e. grammar and vocabulary) predict pragmatic language growth. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The results show that basically all pre-linguistic, linguistic and pragmatic skills were associated concurrently. When controlling for possible confounders and for the autoregressive effect, imitation skills predicted pragmatic growth over time, whereas core language did not. This could only have been shown by the use of both CDI forms. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: This preliminary study may be of both conceptual and methodological importance for research in the field of language and communication development in ASD. Imitation may play a pivotal role in the development of subsequent conversational pragmatic abilities in young children with ASD. Future research should be directed at unravelling the mechanisms underlying this association.
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12. Moore DJ. {{Acute pain experience in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: A review}}. {Autism};2014 (Mar 31)
In addition to the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder, a number of clinically important comorbid complaints, including sensory abnormalities, are also discussed. One difference often noted in these accounts is hyposensitivity to pain; however, evidence for this is limited. The purpose of the current review therefore was to examine sensitivity to pain of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. This review is interested in reports which consider differences in subjective experience of pain (i.e. different pain thresholds) and differences in behavioural response to pain (i.e. signs of pain-related distress). Studies were included if they were conducted with human subjects, included a clearly diagnosed autism spectrum disorder population and reported data pertaining to pain experience relative to the neurotypical population. Studies were classified as being self/parent report, clinical observations, observations of response to medical procedures or experimental examination of pain. Both self/parent report and clinical observations appeared to report hyposensitivity to pain, whereas observations of medical procedures and experimental manipulation suggested normal or hypersensitive responses to pain. This review suggests that contrary to classical reports, individuals with autism spectrum disorder do not appear to have systematically altered pain responses or thresholds. More systematic experimental examination of this area is needed to understand responses to pain of individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
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13. Murza KA, Nye C, Schwartz JB, Ehren BJ, Hahs-Vaughn DL. {{A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Inference Generation Strategy Intervention for Adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Am J Speech Lang Pathol};2014 (Mar 1)
PURPOSE The present intervention study investigated the efficacy of the ACT & Check Strategy intervention to improve inference generation when reading, metacognitive ability, general reading comprehension, and social inference ability in adults with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD). METHOD Twenty-five adults with HF-ASD were randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. Treatment sessions were conducted in one-hour sessions, twice a week, for a total of six weeks. Treatment focused on explicit instruction of components of inference generation, categories of inferences, and increasingly independent strategy use. RESULTS The treatment group demonstrated a significantly superior performance on one of two measures of inference generation in reading and one measure of metacognitive ability compared to the control group. Significant differences between groups were not found on measures of reading comprehension or social inference ability. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the ACT & Check Strategy was effective in improving participants’ ability to generate inferences in reading and certain metacognitive abilities, but the skills do not appear to generalize to other social communication contexts such as social inference generation. This research provides a measure of support for explicitly teaching inference generation to address a reading inference deficit in adults with HF-ASD.
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14. Ngounou Wetie AG, Wormwood K, Thome J, Dudley E, Taurines R, Gerlach M, Woods AG, Darie CC. {{A pilot proteomic study of protein markers in autism spectrum disorder}}. {Electrophoresis};2014 (Mar 29)
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis is increasing, with 1/88 children believed to be affected by the disorder, with a most recent survey suggesting numbers as high as 1/50. Treatment and understanding of ASD causes is a pressing health concern. ASD protein biomarkers may provide clues about ASD cause. Protein biomarkers for ASDs could be used for ASD diagnosis, subtyping, treatment monitoring and identifying therapeutic targets. Here we analyzed the sera from 7 children with ASD and 7 matched controls using Tricine gel electrophoresis (Tricine-PAGE) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Overall, we found increased levels of apolipoproteins (Apos) ApoA1 and ApoA4, involved in cholesterol metabolism and of serum paraoxanase/arylesterase 1 (PON1), involved in preventing oxidative damage, in the sera of children with ASD, compared with their matched controls. All three proteins are predicted to interact with each other and are parts of High Density Lipoproteins (HDLs). Further studies are needed to validate these findings in larger subject numbers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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15. Petersen DB, Brown CL, Ukrainetz TA, Wise C, Spencer TD, Zebre J. {{Systematic individualized narrative language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism}}. {Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch};2014 (Jan 1);45(1):67-86.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an individualized, systematic language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism. METHOD A single-subject, multiple-baseline design across participants and behaviors was used to examine the effect of the intervention on language features of personal narratives. Three 6- to 8-year-old boys with autism participated in 12 individual intervention sessions that targeted 2-3 story grammar elements (e.g., problem, plan) and 3-4 linguistic complexity elements (e.g., causal subordination, adverbs) selected from each participant’s baseline performance. Intervention involved repeated retellings of customized model narratives and the generation of personal narratives with a systematic reduction of visual and verbal scaffolding. Independent personal narratives generated at the end of each baseline, intervention, and maintenance session were analyzed for presence and sophistication of targeted features. RESULTS Graphical and statistical results showed immediate improvement in targeted language features as a function of intervention. There was mixed evidence of maintenance 2 and 7 weeks after intervention. CONCLUSION Children with autism can benefit from an individualized, systematic intervention targeting specific narrative language features. Greater intensity of intervention may be needed to gain enduring effects for some language features.
