1. de Marchena A, Eigsti IM. {{Conversational gestures in autism spectrum disorders: Asynchrony but not decreased frequency}}. {Autism Res};2010 (Dec 9)

Conversational or « co-speech » gestures play an important role in communication, facilitating turntaking, providing visuospatial information, clarifying subtleties of emphasis, and other pragmatic cues. Consistent with other pragmatic language deficits, individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are said to produce fewer conversational gestures, as specified in many diagnostic measures. Surprisingly, while research shows fewer deictic gestures in young children with ASD, there is a little empirical evidence addressing other forms of gesture. The discrepancy between clinical and empirical observations may reflect impairments unrelated to frequency, such as gesture quality or integration with speech. Adolescents with high-functioning ASD (n=15), matched on age, gender, and IQ to 15 typically developing (TD) adolescents, completed a narrative task to assess the spontaneous production of speech and gesture. Naive observers rated the stories for communicative quality. Overall, the ASD group’s stories were rated as less clear and engaging. Although utterance and gesture rates were comparable, the ASD group’s gestures were less closely synchronized with the co-occurring speech, relative to control participants. This gesture-speech synchrony specifically impacted communicative quality across participants. Furthermore, while story ratings were associated with gesture count in TD adolescents, no such relationship was observed in adolescents with ASD, suggesting that gestures do not amplify communication in this population. Quality ratings were, however, correlated with ASD symptom severity scores, such that participants with fewer ASD symptoms were rated as telling higher quality stories. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of communication and neuropsychological functioning in ASD.

2. Fries A. {{[Adult psychiatry makes wrong assessment of autism spectrum conditions. Correct diagnosis can protect against serious therapeutic errors]}}. {Lakartidningen};2010 (Oct 27-Nov 2);107(43):2660-2661.

3. Grether JK, Croen LA, Anderson MC, Nelson KB, Yolken RH. {{Neonatally measured immunoglobulins and risk of autism}}. {Autism Res};2010 (Dec 9)

Previous studies indicate that prenatal exposure to infections is a possible pathway through which autism spectrum disorders (ASD) could be initiated. We investigated whether immunoglobulin levels in archived specimens obtained from newborns subsequently diagnosed with ASD are different from levels in newborn specimens from controls. Children with ASD born in six California counties in 1994 were ascertained through records of the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and Kaiser Permanente; controls were randomly selected using birth certificates. Archived newborn blood specimens were obtained from the California Genetic Disease Screening Program (GDSP) for N = 213 cases and N = 265 controls and assayed to determine levels of total IgG, antigen-specific IgG to selected common pathogens, total IgM, total IgA, and C-reactive protein (CRP). We did not find measurable levels of total IgM or IgA in any neonate and measurable CRP was present in only a few. No antigen-specific IgG antibodies were elevated in cases compared to controls and total IgG levels were lower. In adjusted models, a 10-unit increase in total IgG yielded an OR = 0.72 (95% CI 0.56, 0.91); a significantly decreasing trend in risk of ASD was observed across increasing exposure quartiles of total IgG (P = 0.01). The finding of lower IgG in cases may indicate maternal immune dysfunction during gestation and/or impaired transplacental transfer of immunoglobulins. Further investigation of IgG levels in newborns and the mechanisms by which they might be associated with ASD are warranted.

4. Mengotti P, D’Agostini S, Terlevic R, De Colle C, Biasizzo E, Londero D, Ferro A, Rambaldelli G, Balestrieri M, Zanini S, Fabbro F, Molteni M, Brambilla P. {{Altered white matter integrity and development in children with autism: a combined voxel-based morphometry and diffusion imaging study}}. {Brain Res Bull};2010 (Dec 9)

BACKGROUND: A combined protocol of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was applied to investigate the neurodevelopment of gray and white matter in autism. METHODS: Twenty children with autism (mean age=7+/-2.75 years old; age range: 4-14; 2 girls) and 22 matched normally developing children (mean age=7.68+/-2.03 years old; age range: 4-11; 2 girls) underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). VBM was employed by applying the Template-o-Matic toolbox (TOM), a new approach which constructs the age-matched customized template for tissue segmentation. Also, the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) of water molecules were obtained from the analysis of DWI. Regions of interests (ROIs), standardised at 5 pixels, were placed in cortical lobes and corpus callosum on the non-diffusion weighted echo-planar images (b=0) and were then automatically transferred to the corresponding maps to obtain the ADC values. RESULTS: Compared to normal children, individuals with autism had significantly (1) increased white matter volumes in the right inferior frontal gyrus, the right fusiform gyrus, the left precentral and supplementary motor area and the left hippocampus (2) increased gray matter volumes in the inferior temporal gyri bilaterally, the right inferior parietal cortex, the right superior occipital lobe and the left superior parietal lobule, and (3) decreased gray matter volumes in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the left supplementary motor area. Abnormally increased ADC values in the bilateral frontal cortex and in the left side of the genu of the corpus callosum were also reported in autism. Finally, age correlated negatively with lobar and callosal ADC measurements in individuals with autism, but not in children with normal development. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest cerebral dysconnectivity in the early phases of autism coupled with an altered white matter maturation trajectory during childhood potentially taking place in the frontal and parietal lobes, which may represent a neurodevelopmental marker of the disorder, possibly accounting for the cognitive and social deficits.

5. Ooi YP, Tan ZJ, Lim CX, Goh TJ, Sung M. {{Prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders}}. {Aust N Z J Psychiatry};2010 (Dec 7)

Objective: The goal of the present study was to examine the prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems among children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Method: Archival data from a total of 71 children (Mage = 10.24, SD = 2.91) diagnosed by their clinicians to have high-functioning ASD were obtained. Information on demographics and behavioural and emotional problems from the Child Behavioural Checklist (CBCL) were entered. Results: We found that between 72% and 86% of children with high-functioning ASD had at least one behavioural or emotional problem of clinical concerns as indicated by the CBCL syndromes and DSM-oriented scales. The most commonly reported problems were social problems (60.6%), thought problems (50.7%), attention problems (49.3%), and withdrawn/depressed (40.8%). Using the DSM-oriented scales, the most commonly reported problems were attention deficit/hyperactivity problems (35.2%), anxiety problems (33.8%) and affective problems (31%). Conclusions: Findings from the present study provide further evidence to support the high prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems, which could result in multiple psychiatric diagnoses among children with high-functioning ASD.