1. Gossett A, Sansone S, Schneider A, Johnston C, Hagerman R, Tassone F, Rivera SM, Seritan AL, Hessl D. {{Psychiatric disorders among women with the fragile X premutation without children affected by fragile X syndrome}}. {Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet};2016 (Sep 12)
Several studies have demonstrated increased rates of anxiety and depressive disorders among female carriers of the fragile X premutation. However, the majority of these studies focused on mothers of children with fragile X syndrome, who experience higher rates of parenting stress that may contribute to the emergence of these disorders. The present study compared psychiatric symptom presentation (utilizing measures of current symptoms and lifetime DSM-IV Axis I disorders) in 24 female carriers without affected children (mean age = 32.1 years) to 26 non-carrier women from the community (mean age = 30.5 years). We also examined the association between CGG repeat size (adjusted for X activation ratio) and mRNA, with severity of psychiatric symptoms. Women with the premutation reported significantly elevated symptoms of anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsiveness, and somatization relative to controls during the past week. Carriers had significantly higher rates of lifetime social phobia (42.3%) compared to controls (12.5%); however, this comparison did not remain significant after multiple comparison adjustment. Rates of other psychiatric disorders were not significantly elevated relative to controls, though it should be noted that lifetime rates among controls were much higher than previously published population estimates. Although the sample is relatively small, the study of this unique cohort suggests the premutation confers risk for mood and anxiety disorders independent of the stress of parenting children with FXS. Screening for psychiatric disorders in women with the premutation, even before they become parents, is important and highly encouraged. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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2. Lonnqvist L, Loukusa S, Hurtig T, Makinen L, Siipo A, Vayrynen E, Palo P, Laukka S, Mammela L, Mattila ML, Ebeling H. {{How Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder Watch and Interpret Pragmatically Complex Scenes}}. {Q J Exp Psychol (Hove)};2016 (Sep 12):1-41.
The aim of the current study was to investigate subtle characteristics of social perception and interpretation in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and to study the relation between watching and interpreting. As a novelty, we used an approach that combined moment-by-moment eye tracking and verbal assessment. Sixteen young adults with ASD and 16 neurotypical control participants watched a video depicting a complex communication situation while their eye movements were tracked. The participants also completed a verbal task with questions related to the pragmatic content of the video. We compared verbal task scores and eye movements between groups, and assessed correlations between task performance and eye movements. Individuals with ASD had more difficulty than the controls in interpreting the video and during two short moments there were significant group differences in eye movements. Additionally, we found significant correlations between verbal task scores and moment-level eye movement in the ASD group, but not among the controls. We concluded that participants with ASD had slight difficulties in understanding the pragmatic content of the video stimulus and attending to social cues, and that the connection between pragmatic understanding and eye movements was more pronounced for participants with ASD than for neurotypical participants. PQJE_1233988_Supplemental_Material.docx.
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3. Takasaki Y, Koide T, Wang C, Kimura H, Xing J, Kushima I, Ishizuka K, Mori D, Sekiguchi M, Ikeda M, Aizawa M, Tsurumaru N, Iwayama Y, Yoshimi A, Arioka Y, Yoshida M, Noma H, Oya-Ito T, Nakamura Y, Kunimoto S, Aleksic B, Uno Y, Okada T, Ujike H, Egawa J, Kuwabara H, Someya T, Yoshikawa T, Iwata N, Ozaki N. {{Mutation screening of GRIN2B in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder in a Japanese population}}. {Sci Rep};2016;6:33311.
N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) play a critical role in excitatory synaptic transmission and plasticity in the central nervous systems. Recent genetics studies in schizophrenia (SCZ) show that SCZ is susceptible to NMDARs and the NMDAR signaling complex. In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), several studies report dysregulation of NMDARs as a risk factor for ASD. To further examine the association between NMDARs and SCZ/ASD development, we conducted a mutation screening study of GRIN2B which encodes NR2B subunit of NMDARs, to identify rare mutations that potentially cause diseases, in SCZ and ASD patients (n = 574 and 152, respectively). This was followed by an association study in a large sample set of SCZ, ASD, and normal healthy controls (n = 4145, 381, and 4432, respectively). We identified five rare missense mutations through the mutation screening of GRIN2B. Although no statistically significant association between any single mutation and SCZ or ASD was found, one of its variant, K1292R, is found only in the patient group. To further examine the association between mutations in GRIN2B and SCZ/ASD development, a larger sample size and functional experiments are needed.
