1. Healy A, Rush R, Ocain T. {{Fragile x syndrome: an update on developing treatment modalities}}. {ACS Chem Neurosci};2011 (Aug 17);2(8):402-410.
Intellectual disability (ID; mental retardation) is considered an immutable condition. Current medical practices are aimed at relieving symptoms and not at altering the underlying cognitive deficits. Scientific advancements from the past decade have led to the exciting possibility that ID may now be treatable. Moreover, pharmaceutical therapies targeting the most common form of inherited ID, Fragile X syndrome (FXS), may become the new benchmark for central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery: seeking cures for neurodevelopmental disorders.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
2. Hedley D, Young R, Brewer N. {{Using Eye Movements as an Index of Implicit Face Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Autism Res};2012 (Aug 4)
Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically show impairment on face recognition tasks. Performance has usually been assessed using overt, explicit recognition tasks. Here, a complementary method involving eye tracking was used to examine implicit face recognition in participants with ASD and in an intelligence quotient-matched non-ASD control group. Differences in eye movement indices between target and foil faces were used as an indicator of implicit face recognition. Explicit face recognition was assessed using old-new discrimination and reaction time measures. Stimuli were faces of studied (target) or unfamiliar (foil) persons. Target images at test were either identical to the images presented at study or altered by changing the lighting, pose, or by masking with visual noise. Participants with ASD performed worse than controls on the explicit recognition task. Eye movement-based measures, however, indicated that implicit recognition may not be affected to the same degree as explicit recognition. Autism Res 2012, **: **-**. (c) 2012 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Mazumdar S, Liu KY, Susser E, Bearman P. {{The disappearing seasonality of autism conceptions in california}}. {PloS one};2012;7(7):e41265.
BACKGROUND: Autism incidence and prevalence have increased dramatically in the last two decades. The autism caseload in California increased 600% between 1992 and 2006, yet there is little consensus as to the cause. Studying the seasonality of conceptions of children later diagnosed with autism may yield clues to potential etiological drivers. OBJECTIVE: To assess if the conceptions of children later diagnosed with autism cluster temporally in a systematic manner and whether any pattern of temporal clustering persists over time. METHOD: We searched for seasonality in conceptions of children later diagnosed with autism by applying a one-dimensional scan statistic with adaptive temporal windows on case and control population data from California for 1992 through 2000. We tested for potential confounding effects from known risk factors using logistic regression models. RESULTS: There is a consistent but decreasing seasonal pattern in the risk of conceiving a child later diagnosed with autism in November for the first half of the study period. Temporal clustering of autism conceptions is not an artifact of composition with respect to known risk factors for autism such as socio-economic status. CONCLUSION: There is some evidence of seasonality in the risk of conceiving a child later diagnosed with autism. Searches for environmental factors related to autism should allow for the possibility of risk factors or etiological drivers that are seasonally patterned and that appear and remain salient for a discrete number of years.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
4. McGrath J, Johnson K, Ecker C, O’Hanlon E, Gill M, Gallagher L, Garavan H. {{Atypical Visuospatial Processing in Autism: Insights from Functional Connectivity Analysis}}. {Autism Res};2012 (Aug 4)
Atypical visuospatial processing is commonly described in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however the specific neurobiological underpinnings of this phenomenon are poorly understood. Given the extensive evidence suggesting ASDs are characterized by abnormal neural connectivity, this study aimed to investigate network connectivity during visuospatial processing in ASD. Twenty-two males with ASD without intellectual disability and 22 individually matched controls performed a mental rotation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in which two rotated stimuli were judged to be same (« Same Trials ») or mirror-imaged (« Mirror Trials »). Behavioral results revealed a relative advantage of mental rotation in the ASD group-controls were slower responding to the more difficult Mirror Trials than Same Trials whereas the ASD group completed Mirror Trials and Same-trials at similar speeds. In the ASD group, brain activity was reduced in frontal, temporal, occipital, striatal, and cerebellar regions and, consistent with previous literature, functional connectivity between a number of brain regions was reduced. However, some connections appeared to be conserved and were recruited in a qualitatively different way by the two groups. As task difficulty increased (on Mirror Trials), controls tended to increase connections between certain brain regions, whereas the ASD group appeared to suppress connections between these regions. There was an interesting exception to this pattern in the visual cortex, a finding that may suggest an advantage in early visual perceptual processing in ASD. Overall, this study has identified a relative advantage in mental rotation in ASD that is associated with aberrant neural connectivity and that may stem from enhanced visual perceptual processing. Autism Res 2012, **: **-**. (c) 2012 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
5. Simonoff E. {{Autism spectrum disorder: prevalence and cause may be bound together}}. {Br J Psychiatry};2012 (Aug);201:88-89.
Autism has been in the forefront of science and public concern because of reported increases in its prevalence. Changing diagnostic practice and improved identification explain some of this rise, but there may also be a true increase. Aetiological research needs to include environmental factors to understand the causes of autism.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
6. Storch EA, Ehrenreich May J, Wood JJ, Jones AM, De Nadai AS, Lewin AB, Arnold EB, Murphy TK. {{Multiple Informant Agreement on the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol};2012 (Aug 2)
Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine child, parent, and clinician’s consensus agreement on the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule, Child and Parent versions (ADIS-C/P) in a sample of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Method: Youth with ASD (n=85; age range=7-17 years) and their parents were each administered the ADIS-C/P by a trained clinician. Consensus diagnoses were determined in a clinical conference using best estimate procedures that incorporated all available information. Results: Children and youth with ASD diagnoses generally showed poor diagnostic agreement with parents and clinical consensus, whereas parents showed good-to-excellent diagnostic agreement with clinical consensus diagnoses. Diagnostic agreement between parents and consensus was moderated by the specific ASD diagnosis. Otherwise, the pattern of relationships did not systematically differ as a function of age or externalizing comorbidity. Conclusions: These data suggest that parent and youth agreement regarding the presence of clinical levels of anxiety is markedly poor among youth with ASD. Additionally, clinicians are likely to base their diagnostic impressions on parent report, placing minimal emphasis on child report.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
7. Valicenti-McDermott M, Tarshis N, Schouls M, Galdston M, Hottinger K, Seijo R, Shulman L, Shinnar S. {{Language Differences Between Monolingual English and Bilingual English-Spanish Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {J Child Neurol};2012 (Aug 1)
Bilingualism is common worldwide and increasingly prevalent, but there is little information about bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder. The goal of the study was to compare expressive and receptive language skills in monolingual English and bilingual English-Spanish children with autism spectrum disorder. A review of the multidisciplinary evaluations done in toddlers who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at a university-affiliated center between 2003 and 2010 was performed. Data included demographics, developmental testing, autistic characteristics, and expressive and receptive language skills, obtained from formal speech and language evaluation. A total of 80 toddlers were identified, 40 classified as bilingual English-Spanish. Compared with monolinguals, bilingual children were more likely to vocalize and utilize gestures, with no other differences in language skills. There were no differences in cognitive functioning and autistic features between the groups. In this study, bilingualism did not negatively affect language development in young children with autism spectrum disorder.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
8. Wright B, Alderson-Day B, Prendergast G, Bennett S, Jordan J, Whitton C, Gouws A, Jones N, Attur R, Tomlinson H, Green G. {{Gamma activation in young people with autism spectrum disorders and typically-developing controls when viewing emotions on faces}}. {PloS one};2012;7(7):e41326.
BACKGROUND: Behavioural studies have highlighted irregularities in recognition of facial affect in children and young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Recent findings from studies utilising electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) have identified abnormal activation and irregular maintenance of gamma (>30 Hz) range oscillations when ASD individuals attempt basic visual and auditory tasks. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FNDINGS: The pilot study reported here is the first study to use spatial filtering techniques in MEG to explore face processing in children with ASD. We set out to examine theoretical suggestions that gamma activation underlying face processing may be different in a group of children and young people with ASD (n = 13) compared to typically developing (TD) age, gender and IQ matched controls. Beamforming and virtual electrode techniques were used to assess spatially localised induced and evoked activity. While lower-band (3-30 Hz) responses to faces were similar between groups, the ASD gamma response in occipital areas was observed to be largely absent when viewing emotions on faces. Virtual electrode analysis indicated the presence of intact evoked responses but abnormal induced activity in ASD participants. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings lend weight to previous suggestions that specific components of the early visual response to emotional faces is abnormal in ASD. Elucidation of the nature and specificity of these findings is worthy of further research.
