1. Kaboski JR, Diehl JJ, Beriont J, Crowell CR, Villano M, Wier K, Tang K. {{Brief Report: A Pilot Summer Robotics Camp to Reduce Social Anxiety and Improve Social/Vocational Skills in Adolescents with ASD}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers. Eight individuals with ASD and eight TD peers ages 12-17 participated in a weeklong robotics camp, during which they learned robotic facts, actively programmed an interactive robot, and learned « career » skills. The ASD group showed a significant decrease in social anxiety and both groups showed an increase in robotics knowledge, although neither group showed a significant increase in social skills. These initial findings suggest that this approach is promising and warrants further study.
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2. Maccari L, Pasini A, Caroli E, Rosa C, Marotta A, Martella D, Fuentes LJ, Casagrande M. {{Visual Search and Emotion: How Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Scan Emotional Scenes}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
This study assessed visual search abilities, tested through the flicker task, in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Twenty-two children diagnosed with ASD and 22 matched typically developing (TD) children were told to detect changes in objects of central interest or objects of marginal interest (MI) embedded in either emotion-laden (positive or negative) or neutral real-world pictures. The results showed that emotion-laden pictures equally interfered with performance of both ASD and TD children, slowing down reaction times compared with neutral pictures. Children with ASD were faster than TD children, particularly in detecting changes in MI objects, the most difficult condition. However, their performance was less accurate than performance of TD children just when the pictures were negative. These findings suggest that children with ASD have better visual search abilities than TD children only when the search is particularly difficult and requires strong serial search strategies. The emotional-social impairment that is usually considered as a typical feature of ASD seems to be limited to processing of negative emotional information.
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3. Murray AL, McKenzie K, Kuenssberg R, O’Donnell M. {{Are We Under-Estimating the Association Between Autism Symptoms?: The Importance of Considering Simultaneous Selection When Using Samples of Individuals Who Meet Diagnostic Criteria for an Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
The magnitude of symptom inter-correlations in diagnosed individuals has contributed to the evidence that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a fractionable disorder. Such correlations may substantially under-estimate the population correlations among symptoms due to simultaneous selection on the areas of deficit required for diagnosis. Using statistical simulations of this selection mechanism, we provide estimates of the extent of this bias, given different levels of population correlation between symptoms. We then use real data to compare domain inter-correlations in the Autism Spectrum Quotient, in those with ASD versus a combined ASD and non-ASD sample. Results from both studies indicate that samples restricted to individuals with a diagnosis of ASD potentially substantially under-estimate the magnitude of association between features of ASD.
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4. Pineda M. {{[Autism spectrum disorders.]}}. {An Pediatr (Barc)};2014 (May 31)
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5. Slaughter V, Ong SS. {{Social Behaviors Increase More When Children With ASD Are Imitated by Their Mother vs. an Unfamiliar Adult}}. {Autism Res};2014 (Jun 5)
Previous research suggests that being imitated by an adult increases the social behaviors of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the current study, we examined whether familiarity with the imitating social partner modulates this effect. Ten children with ASD and their mothers participated. The children’s social behaviors were observed prior to and following a 3-min period in which an adult social partner imitated everything they did. In one condition the partner was the child’s mother, and in the other condition the partner was an unfamiliar experimenter. The results revealed significant increases in distal social behaviors (gazes toward the adult, vocalizing) following imitation by both partners. There was a significantly greater increase in proximal social behaviors (including approach, being physically close, and touching) and a greater decrease in playing alone when the imitator was the child’s mother as opposed to the experimenter. The findings suggest that the experience of being imitated creates an atmosphere of mutuality and rapport between children with ASD and their social partners, which increases their sociability even in interactions with already familiar adults. Autism Res 2014, : -. (c) 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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6. Takahashi J, Yasunaga D, Gyoba J. {{Differences in the Efficiency of Pattern Encoding in Relation to Autistic-Like Traits: An Event-Related Potential Study}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
We examined the effects of complexity on the efficiency of pattern encoding in the general population differing on autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores. We compared brain activity (electroencephalography) during a same-different task for High and Low AQ groups. The task was composed of identical comparison and categorical comparison (CC) conditions that presented simple or complex patterns. In the CC condition, the Low AQ showed large P3b amplitudes with simple patterns than with complex patterns, whereas the High AQ showed the same amplitude levels for these patterns. These indicate that, similar to simple patterns, complex patterns are efficiently encoded in the High AQ. Moreover, the High AQ had no impairment in the global pattern encoding compared with the Low AQ.
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7. Wilson CE, Happe F, Wheelwright SJ, Ecker C, Lombardo MV, Johnston P, Daly E, Murphy CM, Spain D, Lai MC, Chakrabarti B, Sauter DA, Baron-Cohen S, Murphy DG. {{The Neuropsychology of Male Adults With High-Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome}}. {Autism Res};2014 (Jun 5)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is diagnosed on the basis of behavioral symptoms, but cognitive abilities may also be useful in characterizing individuals with ASD. One hundred seventy-eight high-functioning male adults, half with ASD and half without, completed tasks assessing IQ, a broad range of cognitive skills, and autistic and comorbid symptomatology. The aims of the study were, first, to determine whether significant differences existed between cases and controls on cognitive tasks, and whether cognitive profiles, derived using a multivariate classification method with data from multiple cognitive tasks, could distinguish between the two groups. Second, to establish whether cognitive skill level was correlated with degree of autistic symptom severity, and third, whether cognitive skill level was correlated with degree of comorbid psychopathology. Fourth, cognitive characteristics of individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) were compared. After controlling for IQ, ASD and control groups scored significantly differently on tasks of social cognition, motor performance, and executive function (P’s < 0.05). To investigate cognitive profiles, 12 variables were entered into a support vector machine (SVM), which achieved good classification accuracy (81%) at a level significantly better than chance (P < 0.0001). After correcting for multiple correlations, there were no significant associations between cognitive performance and severity of either autistic or comorbid symptomatology. There were no significant differences between AS and HFA groups on the cognitive tasks. Cognitive classification models could be a useful aid to the diagnostic process when used in conjunction with other data sources-including clinical history. Autism Res 2014, : -. (c) 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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8. Wong AY, Hsia Y, Chan EW, Murphy DG, Simonoff E, Buitelaar JK, Wong IC. {{The Variation of Psychopharmacological Prescription Rates for People With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 30 Countries}}. {Autism Res};2014 (Jun 3)
There is significant variation in prescriptions among countries in clinical practice for the treatment of comorbidities associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been suggested that many people with mental health disorders in low-/middle-income countries do not receive adequate treatment. Hence, this study investigated psychopharmacological treatment patterns for ASD comorbidities in 30 countries and the association between country’s income and prescription rates. The IMS Prescribing Insights database was used to investigate prescription patterns for ASD comorbidity treatment from 2007 to 2012. Data were obtained from 30 countries in continents of Europe, Asia, Oceania, Central America, South America, and Africa. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was used as a proxy for each country’s income. Spearman correlation was used to examine the association between prescription rate and GDP per capita. The highest prescription rates were found in Western Europe (3.89-36.36/10,000) while the lowest prescription rates were found in Asian countries, such as Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan (0.04-0.82/10,000). The most commonly prescribed drug for ASD comorbidity treatment in most of the countries was risperidone, but antidepressants and antiepileptic drugs were also frequently prescribed. There was a significant positive correlation between GDP per capita and prescription rate (Spearman rho = 0.60; P = 0.0011; 95% confidence interval 0.27-0.81), that is, the higher the GDP per capita, the higher the prescription rate. There are marked international differences in prescription rates, and this is partially accounted by economic factors. Future research should combine more data for ASD comorbidity treatment to explore the disparity of psychopharmacological treatment between countries. Autism Res 2014, : -. (c) 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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9. Raff M. {{Open questions: What has genetics told us about autism spectrum disorders?}}. {BMC Biol};2014;12(1):45.
Some of the most interesting questions in biology today, in my view, derive from the real advances in neuropsychiatry that have come largely from human genetics. Research in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has been leading the way, mainly because it has become especially well funded and has recently attracted many outstanding scientists. (I must make it clear that I am an outsider in this field, as I have never worked on any neuropsychiatric disorder).
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10. Blumenthal I, Ragavendran A, Erdin S, Klei L, Sugathan A, Guide JR, Manavalan P, Zhou JQ, Wheeler VC, Levin JZ, Ernst C, Roeder K, Devlin B, Gusella JF, Talkowski ME. {{Transcriptional consequences of 16p11.2 deletion and duplication in mouse cortex and multiplex autism families}}. {Am J Hum Genet};2014 (Jun 5);94(6):870-883.
Reciprocal copy-number variation (CNV) of a 593 kb region of 16p11.2 is a common genetic cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet it is not completely penetrant and can manifest in a wide array of phenotypes. To explore its molecular consequences, we performed RNA sequencing of cerebral cortex from mouse models with CNV of the syntenic 7qF3 region and lymphoblast lines from 34 members of 7 multiplex ASD-affected families harboring the 16p11.2 CNV. Expression of all genes in the CNV region correlated well with their DNA copy number, with no evidence of dosage compensation. We observed effects on gene expression outside the CNV region, including apparent positional effects in cis and in trans at genomic segments with evidence of physical interaction in Hi-C chromosome conformation data. One of the most significant positional effects was telomeric to the 16p11.2 CNV and includes the previously described « distal » 16p11.2 microdeletion. Overall, 16p11.2 CNV was associated with altered expression of genes and networks that converge on multiple hypotheses of ASD pathogenesis, including synaptic function (e.g., NRXN1, NRXN3), chromatin modification (e.g., CHD8, EHMT1, MECP2), transcriptional regulation (e.g., TCF4, SATB2), and intellectual disability (e.g., FMR1, CEP290). However, there were differences between tissues and species, with the strongest effects being consistently within the CNV region itself. Our analyses suggest that through a combination of indirect regulatory effects and direct effects on nuclear architecture, alteration of 16p11.2 genes disrupts expression networks that involve other genes and pathways known to contribute to ASD, suggesting an overlap in mechanisms of pathogenesis.
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11. Beaudoin AJ, Sebire G, Couture M. {{Parent Training Interventions for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Autism Res Treat};2014;2014:839890.
Background. Now that early identification of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is possible, efforts are being made to develop interventions for children under three years of age. Most studies on early intervention have focused on intensive and individual interventions. However, parent training interventions that help parents interact and communicate with their toddlers with ASD might be a good alternative to promote the development of their child’s sociocommunicative skills. Objective. This review aims to systematically examine (1) the use of parent training interventions for children with ASD under three years of age and (2) their effects on children’s development, parents’ well-being and parent-child interactions. Methods. Systematic searches were conducted to retrieve studies in which at least one parent was trained to implement ASD-specific techniques with their toddlers (0-36 months old) with a diagnosis of or suspected ASD. Results. Fifteen studies, involving 484 children (mean age: 23.26 months), were included in this review. Only two of them met criteria for conclusive evidence. Results show that parents were able to implement newly learned strategies and were generally very satisfied with parent training programs. However, findings pertaining to the children’s communication and socioemotional skills, parent-child interactions, and parental well-being were inconclusive.
