1. Guxens M, Ghassabian A, Gong T, Garcia-Esteban R, Porta D, Giorgis-Allemand L, Almqvist C, Aranbarri A, Beelen R, Badaloni C, Cesaroni G, de Nazelle A, Estarlich M, Forastiere F, Forns J, Gehring U, Ibarluzea J, Jaddoe VW, Korek M, Lichtenstein P, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, Rebagliato M, Slama R, Tiemeier H, Verhulst FC, Volk HE, Pershagen G, Brunekreef B, Sunyer J. {{Air Pollution Exposure during Pregnancy and Childhood Autistic Traits in Four European Population-Based Cohort Studies: The ESCAPE Project}}. {Environ Health Perspect};2015 (Jun 12)
BACKGROUND: Prenatal exposure to air pollutants has been suggested as a possible etiologic factor for the occurrence of autism spectrum disorder. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether prenatal air pollution exposure is associated with childhood autistic traits in the general population. METHODS: Collaborative study of four European population-based birth/child cohorts -CATSS (Sweden), GENERATION R (the Netherlands), GASPII (Italy), and INMA (Spain). Nitrogen oxides (NO2, NOx) and particulate matter (PM) with diameters of <2.5 microm (PM2.5), <10 microm (PM10), and between 2.5-10 microm (PMcoarse) and PM2.5 absorbance- were estimated for birth addresses by land-use regression models based on monitoring campaigns performed between 2008 and 2011. Levels were extrapolated back in time to exact pregnancy periods. Autistic traits were assessed between four and ten years of age using quantitative assessments. Children were classified with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range and within the clinical range using validated cut-offs. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined using random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 8,079 children were included. Prenatal air pollution exposure was not associated with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range (OR = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.10 per each increase by 10 microg/m3 in NO2 pregnancy levels). Similar results were observed in the different cohorts, for the other pollutants, and assessing children with autistic traits within the clinical range or children with autistic traits as a quantitative score. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to NO2 and PM was not associated with autistic traits in children from four to ten years of age in four European population-based birth/child cohort studies.
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2. Larson FV, Lai MC, Wagner AP, Baron-Cohen S, Holland AJ. {{Testing the ‘Extreme Female Brain’ Theory of Psychosis in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder with or without Co-Morbid Psychosis}}. {PLoS One};2015;10(6):e0128102.
INTRODUCTION: Males and females in the general population differ, on average, in their drive for empathizing (higher in females) and systemizing (higher in males). People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a drive for systemizing over empathizing, irrespective of sex, which led to the conceptualisation of ASD as an ‘extreme of the typical male brain’. The opposite cognitive profile, an ‘extreme of the typical female brain’, has been proposed to be linked to conditions such as psychosis and mania/hypomania. METHODS: We compared an empathizing-over-systemizing bias (for short ’empathizing bias’) in individuals with ASD, who had experienced psychotic illness (N = 64) and who had not (N = 71). RESULTS: There were overall differences in the distribution of cognitive style. Adults with ASD who had experienced psychosis were more likely to show an empathizing bias than adults with ASD who had no history of psychosis. This was modulated by IQ, and the group-difference was driven mainly by individuals with above-average IQ. In women with ASD and psychosis, the link between mania/hypomania and an empathizing bias was greater than in men with ASD. CONCLUSIONS: The bias for empathizing over systemizing may be linked to the presence of psychosis in people with ASD. Further research is needed in a variety of clinical populations, to understand the role an empathizing bias may play in the development and manifestation of mental illness.
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3. Lin IF, Yamada T, Komine Y, Kato N, Kato M, Kashino M. {{Vocal Identity Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {PLoS One};2015;10(6):e0129451.
Voices can convey information about a speaker. When forming an abstract representation of a speaker, it is important to extract relevant features from acoustic signals that are invariant to the modulation of these signals. This study investigated the way in which individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) recognize and memorize vocal identity. The ASD group and control group performed similarly in a task when asked to choose the name of the newly-learned speaker based on his or her voice, and the ASD group outperformed the control group in a subsequent familiarity test when asked to discriminate the previously trained voices and untrained voices. These findings suggest that individuals with ASD recognized and memorized voices as well as the neurotypical individuals did, but they categorized voices in a different way: individuals with ASD categorized voices quantitatively based on the exact acoustic features, while neurotypical individuals categorized voices qualitatively based on the acoustic patterns correlated to the speakers’ physical and mental properties.
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4. Nowack N, Wittsiepe J, Kasper-Sonnenberg M, Wilhelm M, Scholmerich A. {{Influence of Low-Level Prenatal Exposure to PCDD/Fs and PCBs on Empathizing, Systemizing and Autistic Traits: Results from the Duisburg Birth Cohort Study}}. {PLoS One};2015;10(6):e0129906.
BACKGROUND: Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are assumed to act as endocrine disruptor chemicals. Prenatal exposure to these pollutants might influence fetal steroid hormone levels, which are thought to be related to sex-typical development and autistic traits. OBJECTIVES: We examined associations of prenatal levels of PCDD/Fs and PCBs with autism traits and sex-typical behaviour in childhood. METHODS: We measured levels of PCDD/Fs and PCBs in maternal blood samples during pregnancy using gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry. Sex-typical behaviour was assessed at 9 years of age (n = 96) and autistic traits at 10 years of age using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS; n = 100). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to estimate the associations between prenatal exposure and outcome variables. RESULTS: Blood concentrations (WHO2005-TEq) of PCDD/Fs ranged from 2.93-46.45 pg/g lipid base (median = 12.91 pg/g lipid base) and concentrations of PCBs were in the range of 1.24-25.47 pg/g lipid base (median = 6.85 pg/g lipid base) which is within the range of German background exposure. We found significant negative associations between PCDD/F levels in maternal blood and SRS scores in the whole group (beta = -6.66, p < .05), in girls (beta = -10.98, p < .05) and, in one SRS subscale, in boys (beta = -6.86, p < .05). For PCB levels, associations with one SRS subscale were significant for the whole study group as were associations with two subscales in girls. We did not find significant associations between PCDD/F or PCB levels and sex-typical behaviour for either sex. CONCLUSIONS: In an earlier part of this study, prenatal exposure to PCDD/Fs and PCBs was found to be associated with lower testosterone levels, therefore, our findings are consistent with the idea that autism spectrum conditions are related to fetal androgen levels. Several possible mechanisms, through which PCDD/Fs and PCBs might influence autistic behaviour, are discussed.
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5. Peterson CC, Slaughter V, Brownell C. {{Children with autism spectrum disorder are skilled at reading emotion body language}}. {J Exp Child Psychol};2015 (Jun 12);139:35-50.
Autism is commonly believed to impair the ability to perceive emotions, yet empirical evidence is mixed. Because face processing may be difficult for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we developed a novel test of recognizing emotion via static body postures (Body-Emotion test) and evaluated it with children aged 5 to 12years in two studies. In Study 1, 34 children with ASD and 41 typically developing (TD) controls matched for age and verbal intelligence (VIQ [verbal IQ]) were tested on (a) our new Body-Emotion test, (b) a widely used test of emotion recognition using photos of eyes as stimuli (Baron-Cohen et al.’s « Reading Mind in the Eyes: Child » or RMEC [Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders, 2001, Vol. 5, pp. 47-78]), (c) a well-validated theory of mind (ToM) battery, and (d) a teacher-rated empathy scale. In Study 2 (33 children with ASD and 31 TD controls), the RMEC test was simplified to the six basic human emotions. Results of both studies showed that children with ASD performed as well as their TD peers on the Body-Emotion test. Yet TD children outperformed the ASD group on ToM and on both the standard RMEC test and the simplified version. VIQ was not related to perceiving emotions via either body posture or eyes for either group. However, recognizing emotions from body posture was correlated with ToM, especially for children with ASD. Finally, reading emotions from body posture was easier than reading emotions from eyes for both groups.
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6. Reiff M, Giarelli E, Bernhardt BA, Easley E, Spinner NB, Sankar PL, Mulchandani S. {{Parents’ Perceptions of the Usefulness of Chromosomal Microarray Analysis for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2015 (Jun 12)
Clinical guidelines recommend chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) for all children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We explored the test’s perceived usefulness among parents of children with ASD who had undergone CMA, and received a result categorized as pathogenic, variant of uncertain significance, or negative. Fifty-seven parents participated in a semi-structured telephone interview, and 50 also completed a survey. Most parents reported that CMA was helpful for their child and family. Major themes regarding perceived usefulness were: medical care, educational and behavioral interventions, causal explanation, information for family members, and advancing knowledge. Limits to utility, uncertainties and negative outcomes were also identified. Our findings highlight the importance of considering both health and non-health related utility in genomic testing.
