1. Fietz J, Valencia N, Silani G. {{Alexithymia and autistic traits as possible predictors for traits related to depression, anxiety, and stress: A multivariate statistical approach}}. {Journal of evaluation in clinical practice}. 2018.
RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES: Our study focused on the general population and explored the relationships between autistic traits and alexithymia, on the one hand, and traits related to depression, anxiety, and stress, on the other, using a multivariate statistical approach. In previous research, autistic traits and alexithymia have been linked to these traits both in clinical populations and in the general population. We also investigated a possible multiplicative effect of autistic traits and alexithymia and attempted to determine which of these two variables is the better predictor for health outcomes. METHODS: An online survey was conducted, and 302 participants were included in the statistical analysis. A structural equation modelling approach was chosen, and a model based on prior findings was designed and tested by using IBM SPSS AMOS 21. RESULTS: The results showed significant, medium-sized effects of alexithymia on depression, anxiety, and stress. Additionally, a medium-sized significant effect of autistic traits on depression, a small significant effect on stress, and a small nonsignificant effect on anxiety were found. The interaction term of alexithymia and autistic traits had no significant effects on any of the endogenous variables. CONCLUSIONS: Alexithymia can be considered the better predictor for anxiety in this sample, and it is unlikely that a multiplicative effect of alexithymia and autistic traits exists. The use of multivariate statistical methods provided additional information for understanding the investigated constructs and their interdependence.
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2. Fu Z, Tu Y, Di X, Du Y, Sui J, Biswal BB, Zhang Z, de Lacy N, Calhoun VD. {{Transient increased thalamic-sensory connectivity and decreased whole-brain dynamism in autism}}. {Neuroimage}. 2018.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with social communication deficits and restricted/repetitive behaviors and is characterized by large-scale atypical subcortical-cortical connectivity, including impaired resting-state functional connectivity between thalamic and sensory regions. Previous studies have typically focused on the abnormal static connectivity in ASD and overlooked potential valuable dynamic patterns in brain connectivity. However, resting-state brain connectivity is indeed highly dynamic, and abnormalities in dynamic brain connectivity have been widely identified in psychiatric disorders. In this study, we investigated the dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) between 51 intrinsic connectivity networks in 170 individuals with ASD and 195 age-matched typically developing (TD) controls using independent component analysis and a sliding window approach. A hard clustering state analysis and a fuzzy meta-state analysis were conducted respectively, for the exploration of local and global aberrant dynamic connectivity patterns in ASD. We examined the group difference in dFNC between thalamic and sensory networks in each functional state and group differences in four high-dimensional dynamic measures. The results showed that compared with TD controls, individuals with ASD show an increase in transient connectivity between hypothalamus/subthalamus and some sensory networks (right postcentral gyrus, bi paracentral lobule, and lingual gyrus) in certain functional states, and diminished global meta-state dynamics of the whole-brain functional network. In addition, these atypical dynamic patterns are significantly associated with autistic symptoms indexed by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. These converging results support and extend previous observations regarding hyperconnectivity between thalamic and sensory regions and stable whole-brain functional configuration in ASD. Dynamic brain connectivity may serve as a potential biomarker of ASD and further investigation of these dynamic patterns might help to advance our understanding of behavioral differences in this complex neurodevelopmental disorder.
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3. Jiang Y. {{Pediatric neurology in China: challenges and solutions}}. {Dev Med Child Neurol}. 2018; 60(7): 635.
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4. LaBianca S, Pagsberg AK, Jakobsen KD, Demur AB, Bartalan M, LaBianca J, Werge T. {{Brief Report: Clusters and Trajectories Across the Autism and/or ADHD Spectrum}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2018.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) frequently co-occur and show high genetic correlation. With the introduction of DSM-5, there is a new concept of an ASD and/or ADHD spectrum (ASD/ADHD). This study aimed to identify predictors of severity and need of healthcare within this spectrum. 39 families with multiple individuals affected by ASD/ADHD were recruited from a psychiatric clinic. Diagnoses, functional and demographic characteristics were retrieved from journals while hospital admissions were identified in the Danish health register. An estimated fraction of 31% ASD/ADHD patients had never been hospitalized and 35% remained undiagnosed despite hospitalization. Cluster analysis identified trajectories that discriminate age of diagnosis, educational attainment to degree of severity, need of hospitalization and genetic risk.
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5. Lim YH, Lee HC, Falkmer T, Allison GT, Tan T, Lee WL, Morris SL. {{Effect of Visual Information on Postural Control in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2018.
Sensory processing difficulties affect the development of sensorimotor skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the effect of sensory information on postural control is unclear in the ASD adult population. The present study examined the effect of visual information on postural control as well as the attentional demands associated with postural control in fourteen adults with ASD and seventeen typically developed adults. The results showed that postural sway and attention demands of postural control were larger in adults with ASD than in typically developed adults. These findings indicate that visual processing used for postural control may be different in adults with ASD. Further research in visual field processing and visual motion processing may elucidate these sensorimotor differences.
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6. Mitra M, Parish SL, Akobirshoev I, Rosenthal E, Moore Simas TA. {{Postpartum Hospital Utilization among Massachusetts Women with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study}}. {Maternal and child health journal}. 2018.
Objectives This study examined the risk of postpartum hospital admissions and emergency department (ED) visits among US women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Methods We used the 2002-2012 Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal Data System and identified deliveries to women with and without IDD. Women with IDD (n = 1104) or case subjects were identified from the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 9th Revision (ICD-9 CM) codes. The study primary outcome measures were any postpartum hospital admission and any ED visit during three critical postpartum periods (1-42, 43-90, and 1-365 days). We conducted unadjusted and adjusted survival analysis using Cox proportional hazard models to compare the occurrence of first hospital admission or ED visits between women with and without IDD. Results We found that women with IDD had markedly higher rates of postpartum hospital admissions and ED visits during the critical postpartum periods (within 1-42, 43-90, and 91-365 days) after a childbirth. Conclusion for Practice Given the heightened risk of pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes and the findings of this study, there is an urgent need for clinical guidelines related to the frequency and timing of postpartum care among new mothers with IDD. Further, this study provides evidence of the need for evidence-based interventions for new mothers with IDD to provide preventive care and routine assessments that would identify and manage complications for both the mother and the infant outside of the traditional postpartum health care framework.
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7. Prawer Y, Hunter M, Cronin S, Ling L, Aliaga Vera S, Fahey M, Gelfand N, Oertel R, Bartlett E, Francis D, Godler D. {{Prenatal Diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome in a Twin Pregnancy Complicated by a Complete Retraction}}. {Genes}. 2018; 9(6).
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is usually associated with a CGG repeat expansion >200 repeats within the FMR1 gene, known as a full mutation (FM). FM alleles produce abnormal methylation of the FMR1 promoter with reduction or silencing of FMR1 gene expression. Furthermore, premutation (PM: 55(-)199 CGGs) and full mutation alleles usually expand in size when maternally transmitted to progeny. This study describes a PM allele carried by the mother decreasing to a normal sized allele in a male from a dichorionic diamniotic (DCDA) twin pregnancy, with the female twin inheriting FM (200(-)790 CGGs), PM (130 CGGs) and normal-sized (39 CGGs) alleles. Further evidence of instability of the maternal PM allele was shown by a male proband (older brother) mosaic for PM (CGG 78 and 150 CGGs) and FM (200(-)813 CGGs), and a high level of FMR1 promoter methylation, between 50 and 70%, in multiple tissues. The fully-retracted, normal-sized allele was identified by PCR CGG sizing in the male twin, with no evidence of a FM allele identified using Southern blot analysis in multiple tissues collected postnatally and prenatally. Consistent with this, prenatal PCR sizing (35 CGGs) showed inconsistent inheritance of the maternal normal allele (30 CGGs), with single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) linkage analysis confirming that the abnormal FMR1 chromosome had been inherited from the mother’s PM chromosome. Importantly, the male twin showed no significant hypermethylation of the FMR1 promoter in all pre and postnatal tissues tested, as well as normal levels of FMR1 mRNA in blood. In summary, this report demonstrates the first postnatal follow up of a prenatal case in which FMR1 mRNA levels were approaching normal, with normal levels of FMR1 promoter methylation and normal CGG size in multiple pre and postnatally collected tissues.
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8. Unruh KE, Bodfish JW, Gotham KO. {{Adults with Autism and Adults with Depression Show Similar Attentional Biases to Social-Affective Images}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2018.
Individuals with ASD have increased rates of depression compared to the general population. Repetitive cognition is a core feature of ASD; in typically developing adults, repetitive cognition has been associated with attentional biases to negative emotional material and increased prospective depression risk. We compared adults with ASD to typically developing adults with depression and never-depressed controls, using a paired preference paradigm sensitive to affective biases in the context of repetitive cognition. Both clinical cohorts oriented faster to negative social-emotional material and spent less time overall on positive material, compared to healthy controls. Exploratory analyses within ASD revealed specific influences of repetitive behavior on patterns of affective bias. Findings help pinpoint susceptibilities in ASD that may confer increased risk for depression.
