1. Chapleau CA, Larimore JL, Theibert A, Pozzo-Miller L. {{Modulation of dendritic spine development and plasticity by BDNF and vesicular trafficking: fundamental roles in neurodevelopmental disorders associated with mental retardation and autism}}. {J Neurodev Disord};2009 (Sep 1);1(3):185-196.
The process of axonal and dendritic development establishes the synaptic circuitry of the central nervous system (CNS) and is the result of interactions between intrinsic molecular factors and the external environment. One growth factor that has a compelling function in neuronal development is the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF participates in axonal and dendritic differentiation during embryonic stages of neuronal development, as well as in the formation and maturation of dendritic spines during postnatal development. Recent studies have also implicated vesicular trafficking of BDNF via secretory vesicles, and both secretory and endosomal trafficking of vesicles containing synaptic proteins, such as neurotransmitter and neurotrophin receptors, in the regulation of axonal and dendritic differentiation, and in dendritic spine morphogenesis. Several genes that are either mutated or deregulated in neurodevelopmental disorders associated with mental retardation have now been identified, and several mouse models of these disorders have been generated and characterized. Interestingly, abnormalities in dendritic and synaptic structure are consistently observed in human neurodevelopmental disorders associated with mental retardation, and in mouse models of these disorders as well. Abnormalities in dendritic and synaptic differentiation are thought to underlie altered synaptic function and network connectivity, thus contributing to the clinical outcome. Here, we review the roles of BDNF and vesicular trafficking in axonal and dendritic differentiation in the context of dendritic and axonal morphological impairments commonly observed in neurodevelopmental disorders associated with mental retardation.
2. Costa S, Resende J, Soares FO, Ferreira MJ, Santos CP, Moreira F. {{Applications of simple robots to encourage social receptiveness of adolescents with autism}}. {Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc};2009;1:5072-5075.
This paper reports the preliminary research studies regarding the use of LEGO Mindstorms TM robots as a therapy for autistic young people. Most autistic people hardly communicate in a social environment, living in their own world. This is the first step in a broader project which aims to improve the autistic people social life and also their ability to communicate, using the robot as a social bridge between them and the surrounding environment/people. The target group is 17-19 years old having autism disorder and developmental disability. The trials consists of undemanding plays where the intervention of the autistic person is required, using simple inputs, such as voice commands, pressing a button or clapping hands. The presented work intends to evaluate the reaction of this particular target group to the introduction of a toy-like robot in their classroom daily life. The methodology applied, the detailed description as well as the analysis of the experiments are presented and discussed.
3. Gal G, Gross R. {{Time trends and autism}}. {Isr Med Assoc J};2009 (Sep);11(9):577; author reply 577.
4. Glickman G. {{Circadian rhythms and sleep in children with autism}}. {Neurosci Biobehav Rev};2009 (Dec 3)
A growing body of research has identified significant sleep problems in children with autism. Disturbed sleep-wake patterns and abnormal hormone profiles in children with autism suggest an underlying impairment of the circadian timing system. Reviewing normal and dysfunctional relationships between sleep and circadian rhythms will enable comparisons to sleep problems in children with autism, prompt a reexamination of existing literature and offer suggestions for future inquiry. In addition, sleep and circadian rhythms continue to change over the course of development even in typical, healthy humans. Therefore, exploring the dynamic relationship between circadian rhythms and sleep throughout development provides valuable insight into those sleep problems associated with autism. Ultimately, a better understanding of sleep and circadian rhythms in children with autism may help guide appropriate treatment strategies and minimize the negative impact of these disturbances on both the children and their families.
5. Min CH, Tewfik AH, Kim Y, Menard R. {{Optimal sensor location for body sensor network to detect self-stimulatory behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder}}. {Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc};2009;1:3489-3492.
In this study, we investigate various locations of sensor positions to detect stereotypical self-stimulatory behavioral patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study is focused on finding optimal detection performance based on sensor location and number of sensors. To perform this study, we developed a wearable sensor system that uses a 3 axis accelerometer. A microphone was used to understand the surrounding environment and video provided ground truth for analysis. The recordings were done on 2 children diagnosed with ASD who showed repeated self-stimulatory behaviors that involve part of the body such as flapping arms, body rocking and vocalization of non-word sounds. We used time-frequency methods to extract features and sparse signal representation methods to design over-complete dictionary for data analysis, detection and classification of these ASD behavioral events. We show that using single sensor on the back achieves 95.5% classification rate for rocking and 80.5% for flapping. In contrast, flapping events can be recognized with 86.5% accuracy using wrist worn sensors.
6. Mora M, Quintero L, Cardenas R, Suarez-Roca H, Zavala M, Montiel N. {{[Association between HSV-2 infection and serum anti-rat brain antibodies in patients with autism]}}. {Invest Clin};2009 (Sep);50(3):315-326.Infecciones por HSV-2 y su relacion con anticuerpos antiencefalo de rata en suero de pacientes con autismo.
Some cases of autism could be linked to viral infections able to induce autoimmune mechanisms directed against the encephalon. Neurothophic virus infections in animals are associated with clinical signs that are similar to those observed in neurodevelopment disorders. Thus, in this study, we determined the co-existence of antibodies against nerve tissue and viruses with neurothophic competence (HSV-1/2, Epstein-Barr-EBV, cytomegalovirus, measles and rubella) in serum of forty autistic children and forty healthy children. The presence of antibodies against nerve tissue was detected in slices of rat encephalic tissue by indirect immunofluorescence. The levels of anti-viral IgG and IgM antibodies were measured by indirect ELISA. The proportion of autistics with anti-encephalon IgG antibodies (77% anti-amygdala, 70% anti-caudate nucleus, 47.5% anti-cerebellum y anti-brain stem, 45% anti-hippocampus, 40% anti-corpus callosum and 17,5% anti-cortex) was significantly greater than that of controls (10% anti- amygdala y 5% anti- cerebellum) and was directly related to the severity of the autism. The proportion of children with positive levels (greater than 1.1.mg/dL) for anti-HSV IgM antibodies (indicative of acute infection) was significantly greater in autistics (65%) than in healthy children (17.5%). Ninety six percent of the autistics with anti-HSV antibodies also had anti-encephalon antibodies, percentage that was significantly greater than that of autistics negative to the anti-HSV-antibody (43%). In contrast, there were no significant differences for IgG and IgM antibodies for EBV, cytomegalovirus, measles and rubella. This suggests that autoimmunity against encephalic structures elicited by HSV infections could be involved in autism.
7. Pardo-Govea T, Solis-Anez E. {{[Immunogenetic aspects of autism. Review]}}. {Invest Clin};2009 (Sep);50(3):393-406.Aspectos inmunogeneticos del autismo. Revision.
Autism is a generalized or pervasive developmental disorder that affects about five in ten thousand children worldwide (5/10.000). In Maracaibo the incidence is 1.1/1000, with a ratio of male/female, 4:1. The autistic disorder is defined entirely based on the impairment in three areas: 1) Impairment of social interaction, 2) Impairment in communication and 3) Stereotyped and repetitive behavior. Autism is a disorder with a large genetic component and a oligogenic inheritance model has been proposed. Quantitative and qualitative disturbances of certain components of the immune system in patients with autism have been used as endophenotype, one of the strategies used to identify candidate genes for susceptibility to autism. On the other hand the hypersensitivity to specific groups of foods such as casein and gluten has become clear, which has led to the postulation of immunogenetics theories in autism, which mainly involve genes of the histocompatibility major complex. Although it has not been confirmed that immunogenetics factors could be involved in the etiopathogenesis of autism, several studies have shown the influence of the complex Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) HLA DR4, DR13, DR11, A2 and others genes in the clinical status, risk and therapeutic response of some psychiatric disorders. The lack of literature demands a greater number of studies related to different ethnic groups and the participation of HLA, as well as the importance of this complex in the pathogenesis of psychiatric illness.
8. Pellicano E, Macrae CN. {{Mutual eye gaze facilitates person categorization for typically developing children, but not for children with autism}}. {Psychon Bull Rev};2009 (Dec);16(6):1094-1099.
Previous investigations of gaze processing in autism have demonstrated a pattern of intact and impaired performance. Although individuals with autism are capable of discriminating another’s gaze, they fail to interpret gaze direction, especially within the context of sociocommunicative (i.e., mentalistic) interactions. Extending this general line of inquiry, we explored whether typical children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were influenced by gaze direction in a task that demanded a core person-related judgment-namely, sex categorization. The results revealed that typically developing school-aged children were faster to classify faces by sex when targets displayed direct rather than averted gaze, or when the eyes were closed. This was not the case, however, for children with ASD, whose responses were unaffected by gaze direction. These findings suggest that difficulties in gaze processing in autism extend beyond sociocommunicative inferences to include basic person-perception judgments.
9. Perego P, Forti S, Crippa A, Valli A, Reni G. {{Reach and throw movement analysis with support vector machines in early diagnosis of autism}}. {Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc};2009;1:2555-2558.
Movement disturbances play an intrinsic part in autism. Upper limb movements like reach-and-throw seem to be helpful in early identification of children affected by autism. Nevertheless few works investigate the application of classifying methods to upper limb movements. In this study we used a machine learning approach Support Vector Machine (SVM) for identifying peculiar features in reach-and-throw movements. 10 pre-scholar age children with autism and 10 control subjects performing the same exercises were analyzed. The SVM algorithm proved to be able to separate the two groups: accuracy of 100% was achieved with a soft margin algorithm, and accuracy of 92.5% with a more conservative one. These results were obtained with a radial basis function kernel, suggesting that a non-linear analysis is possibly required.
10. Xu D, Gilkerson J, Richards J, Yapanel U, Gray S. {{Child vocalization composition as discriminant information for automatic autism detection}}. {Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc};2009;1:2518-2522.
Early identification is crucial for young children with autism to access early intervention. The existing screens require either a parent-report questionnaire and/or direct observation by a trained practitioner. Although an automatic tool would benefit parents, clinicians and children, there is no automatic screening tool in clinical use. This study reports a fully automatic mechanism for autism detection/screening for young children. This is a direct extension of the LENA(TM) (Language ENvironment Analysis) system, which utilizes speech signal processing technology to analyze and monitor a child’s natural language environment and the vocalizations/speech of the child. It is discovered that child vocalization composition contains rich discriminant information for autism detection. By applying pattern recognition and machine learning approaches to child vocalization composition data, accuracy rates of 85% to 90% in cross-validation tests for autism detection have been achieved at the equal-error-rate (EER) point on a data set with 34 children with autism, 30 language delayed children and 76 typically developing children. Due to its easy and automatic procedure, it is believed that this new tool can serve a significant role in childhood autism screening, especially in regards to population-based or universal screening.
