1. {{International Society for Autism Research news}}. {Autism Res};2011 (Oct);4(5):392.
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2. Badia M, Orgaz BM, Verdugo MA, Ullan AM, Martinez MM. {{Personal factors and perceived barriers to participation in leisure activities for young and adults with developmental disabilities}}. {Res Dev Disabil};2011 (Nov);32(6):2055-2063.
Participation in leisure activities has been identified as a factor that favors inclusion in the community and it also contributes to a better quality of life. This study analyzed the influence of certain personal characteristics and environmental factors in the participation in leisure activities of youngsters and adults with developmental disabilities. A cross-sectional design was used with a convenience sample of 237 people, aged 17-65, living in the community. The participants completed the Spanish version of the Leisure Assessment Inventory, and information about the personal and disability-related factors was obtained through a questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the personal factors, disability-related factors, and perceived barriers to leisure participation. The results show that participation in leisure activities is determined more by personal factors and perceived barriers than by disability-related factors.
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3. Cheon KA, Kim YS, Oh SH, Park SY, Yoon HW, Herrington J, Nair A, Koh YJ, Jang DP, Kim YB, Leventhal BL, Cho ZH, Castellanos FX, Schultz RT. {{Involvement of the anterior thalamic radiation in boys with high functioning autism spectrum disorders: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging study}}. {Brain Res};2011 (Oct 12);1417:77-86.
Background: Autism has been hypothesized to reflect neuronal disconnection. Several recent reports implicate the key thalamic relay nuclei and cortico-thalamic connectivity in the pathophysiology of autism. Accordingly, we aimed to focus on evaluating the integrity of the thalamic radiation and sought to replicate prior white matter findings in Korean boys with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). Methods: We compared fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD) in 17 boys with ASD and 17 typically developing controls in the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), superior thalamic radiation (STR), posterior thalamic radiation (PTR), corpus callosum (CC), uncinate fasciculus (UF) and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). Results: The two groups were group-matched on age, IQ, handedness and head circumference. In whole-brain voxel-wise analyses, FA was significantly reduced and MD was significantly increased in the right ATR, CC, and left UF in subjects with ASD (p<0.05, corrected). We found significantly lower FA in right and left ATR, CC, left UF and right and left ILF and significantly higher MD values of the CC in the ASD group in region of interest-based analyses. We also observed significantly higher RD values of right and left ATR, CC, left UF, left ILF in subjects with ASD compared to typically developing boys and significantly lower AD values of both ILF. Right ATR and right UF FA was significantly negatively correlated with total SRS score within the ASD group (r=-.56, p=.02). Conclusions: Our preliminary findings support evidence implicating disturbances in the thalamo-frontal connections in autism. These findings highlight the role of hypoconnectivity between the frontal cortex and thalamus in ASD.
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4. Chevallier C, Grezes J, Molesworth C, Berthoz S, Happe F. {{Brief Report: Selective Social Anhedonia in High Functioning Autism}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2011 (Oct 11)
Diminished social motivation is one of the most striking features in autism. Yet, few studies have directly assessed the value people with an ASD place on social interactions, or how rewarding they report it to be. In the present study, we directly measure social motivation by looking at responses to a questionnaire assessing self-reported pleasure in social and non social situations. Twenty-nine adolescents with ASD and matched controls took part in the study. Our results reveal that children with an ASD differ from the controls with respect to social enjoyment, but not with respect to physical and other sources of hedonism. Further analyses demonstrate that the degree of social anhedonia correlates with autism severity.
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5. Dundas EM, Best CA, Minshew NJ, Strauss MS. {{A Lack of Left Visual Field Bias When Individuals with Autism Process Faces}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2011 (Oct 11)
It has been established that typically developing individuals have a bias to attend to facial information in the left visual field (LVF) more than in the right visual field. This bias is thought to arise from the right hemisphere’s advantage for processing facial information, with evidence suggesting it to be driven by the configural demands of face processing. Considering research showing that individuals with autism have impaired face processing abilities, with marked deficits in configural processing, it was hypothesized that they would not demonstrate a LVF bias for faces. Eye-tracking technology was used to show that individuals with autism were not spontaneously biased to facial information in the LVF, in contrast to a control group, while discriminating facial gender.
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6. Fernell E, Hedvall A, Westerlund J, Hoglund Carlsson L, Eriksson M, Barnevik Olsson M, Holm A, Norrelgen F, Kjellmer L, Gillberg C. {{Early intervention in 208 Swedish preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. A prospective naturalistic study}}. {Res Dev Disabil};2011 (Nov);32(6):2092-2101.
Early intervention has been reported to improve outcome in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Several studies in the field have been randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The aim of this study was to assess ASD outcome in a large naturalistic study. Two hundred and eight children, aged 20-54 months, with a clinical diagnosis of ASD were given intervention and monitored prospectively in a naturalistic fashion over a period of 2 years. The toddlers were considered representative of all but the most severely multiple disabled preschool children with ASD in Stockholm county. They fell into three cognitive subgroups: one with learning disability, one with developmental delay, and one with normal intellectual functioning. Data on intervention type and intensity were gathered prospectively in a systematic fashion. Intervention was classified into intensive applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and non-intensive, targeted interventions, also based on ABA principles. Children were comprehensively assessed by a research team before the onset of intervention, and then, again, 2 years later. Change in Vineland adaptive behaviour scales composite scores from intake (T1) to leaving the study (T2) was set as the primary outcome variable. The research team remained blind to the type and intensity of interventions provided. One hundred and ninety-eight (95%) of the original samples stayed in the study throughout the whole 2-year period and 192 children had a complete Vineland composite score results both at T1 and T2. Vineland composite scores increased over the 2-year period. This increase was accounted for by the subgroup with normal cognitive functioning. There was no significant difference between the intensive and non-intensive groups. Individual variation was considerable, but no child in the study was « problem-free » at follow-up. Our data do not support that children with ASD generally benefit more from the most intensive ABA intervention programs than from less intensive interventions or targeted interventions based on ABA.
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7. Gobayashi Y, Takumi T. {{[A mouse model with human chromosomal abnormality observed in autism]}}. {Brain Nerve};2011 (Oct);63(10):1111-1116.
Abstract Substantial evidence suggests that chromosomal abnormalities contribute to the risk of autism. The duplication of human chromosome 15q11-q13 is known to be the most frequent cytogenetic abnormality observed in autism. We replicate this genetic abnormality in mice by using chromosome engineering to generate a 6.3 Mb duplication of the conserved linkage group on mouse chromosome 7. Mice with paternal duplication showed poor social interaction, behavioral inflexibility, abnormal ultrasonic vocalizations, and correlates of anxiety. This chromosome-engineered mouse model for autism seems to replicate various aspects of human autistic phenotypes and validates the relevance of the human chromosomal abnormality. This model will help in understanding the genetics of developmental brain disorders and thereby serve as an invaluable tool for therapeutic development.
8. Hagerman RJ. {{The Fragile X-associated Disorders: Time to Order Fragile X DNA Testing}}. {Biol Psychiatry};2011 (Nov 1);70(9):802-803.
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9. Hattier MA, Matson JL, Sipes M, Turygin N. {{Communication deficits in infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities}}. {Res Dev Disabil};2011 (Nov);32(6):2108-2113.
Research that focuses on detecting and assessing the presence of communication impairments in children with developmental disabilities exists. However, more research is needed which compares these deficits across individuals with various developmental disabilities. This information could inform the assessment process and treatment programs. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine communication deficits in toddlers who were diagnosed with Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy (CP), had a history of seizures or a seizure disorder, and who were born premature. A total of 140 toddlers 17-35 months of age met inclusion criteria for the study. Those diagnosed with CP evinced significantly fewer communication impairments on the Baby and Infant Screen for aUtIsm Traits-Part 1 (BISCUIT-Part 1) than children with Down syndrome and children with a history of seizures or seizure disorder. No significant differences were found on the communication subscale for the comparison of those with CP and those born prematurely. Children diagnosed with CP had fewer endorsements, indicating less impairment, on all six items of the Communication subscale of the BISCUIT-Part 1 when compared to the three other diagnostic groups. Implications of these results are discussed for children with differing handicaps.
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10. Izuma K, Matsumoto K, Camerer CF, Adolphs R. {{Insensitivity to social reputation in autism}}. {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A};2011 (Oct 10)
People act more prosocially when they know they are watched by others, an everyday observation borne out by studies from behavioral economics, social psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. This effect is thought to be mediated by the incentive to improve one’s social reputation, a specific and possibly uniquely human motivation that depends on our ability to represent what other people think of us. Here we tested the hypothesis that social reputation effects are selectively impaired in autism, a developmental disorder characterized in part by impairments in reciprocal social interactions but whose underlying cognitive causes remain elusive. When asked to make real charitable donations in the presence or absence of an observer, matched healthy controls donated significantly more in the observer’s presence than absence, replicating prior work. By contrast, people with high-functioning autism were not influenced by the presence of an observer at all in this task. However, both groups performed significantly better on a continuous performance task in the presence of an observer, suggesting intact general social facilitation in autism. The results argue that people with autism lack the ability to take into consideration what others think of them and provide further support for specialized neural systems mediating the effects of social reputation.
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11. Mashal N, Kasirer A. {{Thinking maps enhance metaphoric competence in children with autism and learning disabilities}}. {Res Dev Disabil};2011 (Nov);32(6):2045-2054.
The primary goal of the current study was to examine the ability of children with autism (ASD) and children with learning disabilities (LD) to improve their metaphoric competence by an intervention program using « thinking maps ». Twenty ASD children, 20 LD, and 20 typically developed (TD) children were tested on metaphors and idioms comprehension tests, homophone meaning generation test, and fluency tests. Both ASD and LD groups performed poorly compared with TD on all tests, with the LD group outperformed the ASD group in the executive function tests. The results indicate that the LD group was able to use the « thinking maps » to understand metaphors that were encountered for the first time more efficiently than the ASD group. Furthermore, in the autistic group the homophone meaning generation test, associated with mental flexibility mechanism, correlated with novel metaphors understanding, which do not rely on prior knowledge. In the learning disabilities group, conventional metaphors understanding correlated with the homophone meaning generation test.
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12. Palmer SB, Wehmeyer ML, Davies DK, Stock SE. {{Family members’ reports of the technology use of family members with intellectual and developmental disabilities}}. {J Intellect Disabil Res};2011 (Oct 12)
Background A nationwide survey of family members of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities ranging in age from birth through adulthood was conducted to replicate a similar effort by Wehmeyer and update the knowledge base concerning technology use by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Method Survey responses provided information about use of technology for mobility, hearing and vision, communication, independent living, and in the area of computer use. In addition, survey items queried the use of electronic and information technology devices such as use of email, mobile telephones and digital cameras. Results Survey results showed that although the use of computers for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is more prevalent, other technology use frequency is much the same as in the late 1990s. However, technology needs did vary among school-age individuals over time. Conclusion Implications of results for technology use of people with disabilities are discussed through the lens of frequency of use and needs for individuals with disabilities.
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13. Sucksmith E, Roth I, Hoekstra RA. {{Autistic Traits Below the Clinical Threshold: Re-examining the Broader Autism Phenotype in the 21st Century}}. {Neuropsychol Rev};2011 (Oct 12)
Diagnosis, intervention and support for people with autism can be assisted by research into the aetiology of the condition. Twin and family studies indicate that autism spectrum conditions are highly heritable; genetic relatives of people with autism often show milder expression of traits characteristic for autism, referred to as the Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP). In the past decade, advances in the biological and behavioural sciences have facilitated a more thorough examination of the BAP from multiple levels of analysis. Here, the candidate phenotypic traits delineating the BAP are summarised, including key findings from neuroimaging studies examining the neural substrates of the BAP. We conclude by reviewing the value of further research into the BAP, with an emphasis on deriving heritable endophenotypes which will reliably index autism susceptibility and offer neurodevelopmental mechanisms that bridge the gap between genes and a clinical autism diagnosis.
