1. Fadlalmola HA, Abedelwahed HH, Hamid HI, Ali AB, Algadi HAA, Farg SJ, Ali NMA, Elbashir AA, Mohammed MH, Mohmmed SS, Mousa SA, Gaafar DA, Eltyeb AA. Effects of Massage on Self-regulatory Difficulties, Tactile and Oral Abnormalities, and Parenting Stress in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Int J Ther Massage Bodywork. 2024; 17(4): 4-19.

BACKGROUND: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that about 1 in every 44 children between the ages of 4 and 8 years old had been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Complementary interventions such as massage are crucial for the improvement of the health outcomes of ASD patients, such as abnormal sensory response; Autism Behavior Checklist; parenting stress, self-regulatory difficulties, social, language, and communication abilities; tactile or oral abnormalities; Vineland daily living skills; Vineland socialization; Childhood Autism Rating Scale; Preschool Language Scale 5th Edition (PLS-5) auditory communication; and PLS-5 expressive communication. PURPOSE: We aim to systematically investigate the effects of different types of massage on self-regulatory difficulties, tactile and oral abnormalities, and parenting stress in children with ASD. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science were scoured from their inception through November 15, 2022. Research comparing massage efficacy in children with ASD to other methods or a control group was included. For randomized controlled trials (RCTs), we utilized the Cochrane risk of bias tool; and for cohort studies, we used the tool developed by the National Institutes of Health. Meta-analysis was carried out with Review Manager 5.4. For our continuous data, we calculated the mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). RESULTS: We included 10 studies with a total number of 485 children with autism. Our analysis showed a significant decrease in the massage group regarding self-regulatory difficulties (MD = -9.15; 95% CI (-13.69 to -4.60), p < 0.0001). Also, the massage group showed a significant decrease in tactile or oral abnormalities compared with the control group (MD = -4.83; 95% CI (-7.86 to -1.80), p = 0.002). Moreover, parenting stress significantly decreased in the massage group compared to the control group (MD = -4.31; 95% CI (-7.02 to -1.61), p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Qigong and traditional Thai massage improved self-regulatory difficulties and decreased tactile or oral abnormalities in children with autism. Moreover, they decreased parenting stress. However, we need more RCTs with larger sample sizes with high quality to assess the different types of massage effects on autistic children and produce more valid results. So, Qigong and traditional Thai massage could be used as a complement to educational and training interventions in children with autism.

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2. Ferguson EF, Clarke E, Schisterman N, Lord C. Family Experiences with Supplemental Social Security Income and Legal Guardianship for Autistic Adults: A Mixed-Methods Study. Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2025; 119.

BACKGROUND: Family interactions with the Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI) program and the decision to pursue legal guardianship are poorly understood in services research for autistic adults. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods study and incorporated quantitative survey data from 122 autistic adults in an existing longitudinal cohort with qualitative interviews with 12 autistic adults and/or legal guardians. We explored associations between sociodemographic, developmental, and behavioral features with the likelihood of having SSI and a legal guardian at 25 years old. Spoken interviews were transcribed verbatim, and interviews were analyzed using a rapid qualitative analytic approach. RESULTS: There were quantitative differences in whether families were able to obtain SSI and guardianship based on intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, adaptive behavior, and autistic characteristics, but not by race, ethnicity, or maternal education. Qualitative data analysis revealed six themes that highlighted the challenges associated with obtaining and maintaining SSI, along with the complex, nuanced decisions associated with legal guardianship. Families noted many challenges in navigating these procedures and some potential benefits for each unique circumstance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings offer new perspectives on experiences associated with pursuing SSI benefits and legal guardianship for autistic adults, including similarities and key differences in these procedures. Findings also provide suggestions for future research to improve coordination and supports for families throughout adulthood.

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3. Ibáñez-Sandoval DN, Hidalgo-Balbuena AE, Velázquez Contreras R, Saderi N, Flores G, Rueda-Orozco PE, Ibáñez-Sandoval O. Striatal Interneuron Imbalance in a Valproic Acid-Induced Model of Autism in Rodents Is Accompanied by Atypical Somatosensory Processing. eNeuro. 2024; 11(12).

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication, cognitive rigidity, and atypical sensory processing. Recent studies suggest that the basal ganglia, specifically the striatum (NSt), plays an important role in ASD. While striatal interneurons, including cholinergic (ChAT(+)) and parvalbumin-positive (PV(+)) GABAergic neurons, have been described to be altered in animal models of ASD, their specific contribution remains elusive. Here, we combined behavioral, anatomical, and electrophysiological quantifications to explore if interneuron balance could be implicated in atypical sensory processing in cortical and striatal somatosensory regions of rats subjected to a valproic acid (VPA) model of ASD. We found that VPA animals showed a significant decrease in the number of ChAT(+) and PV(+) cells in multiple regions (including the sensorimotor region) of the NSt. We also observed significantly different sensory-evoked responses at the single-neuron and population levels in both striatal and cortical regions, as well as corticostriatal interactions. Therefore, selective elimination of striatal PV(+) neurons only partially recapitulated the effects of VPA, indicating that the mechanisms behind the VPA phenotype are much more complex than the elimination of a particular neural subpopulation. Our results indicate that VPA exposure induced significant histological changes in ChAT(+) and PV(+) cells accompanied by atypical sensory-evoked corticostriatal population dynamics that could partially explain the sensory processing differences associated with ASD.

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4. Jacokes Z, Adoremos I, Hussain AR, Newman BT, Pelphrey KA, Van Horn JD. Unsupervised Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for the Assessment of ASD Biomarkers. Pac Symp Biocomput. 2025; 30: 614-30.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) encompasses a range of developmental disabilities marked by differences in social functioning, cognition, and behavior. Both genetic and environmental factors are known to contribute to ASD, yet the exact etiological factors remain unclear. Developing integrative models to explore the effects of gene expression on behavioral and cognitive traits attributed to ASD can uncover environmental and genetic interactions. A notable aspect of ASD research is the sex-wise diagnostic disparity: males are diagnosed more frequently than females, which suggests potential sex-specific biological influences. Investigating neuronal microstructure, particularly axonal conduction velocity offers insights into the neural basis of ASD. Developing robust models that evaluate the vast multidimensional datasets generated from genetic and microstructural processing poses significant challenges. Traditional feature selection techniques have limitations; thus, this research aims to integrate principal component analysis (PCA) with supervised machine learning algorithms to navigate the complex data space. By leveraging various neuroimaging techniques and transcriptomics data analysis methods, this methodology builds on traditional implementations of PCA to better contextualize the complex genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity linked to sex differences in ASD and pave the way for tailored interventions.

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5. Jin F, Wang Z. Mapping the structure of biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: a review of the most influential studies. Front Neurosci. 2024; 18: 1514678.

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder is a distinctive developmental condition which is caused by an interaction between genetic vulnerability and environmental factors. Biomarkers play a crucial role in understanding disease characteristics for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. This study employs bibliometric analysis to identify and review the 100 top-cited articles’ characteristics, current research hotspots and future directions of autism biomarkers. METHODS: A comprehensive search of autism biomarkers studies was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database with a combined keyword search strategy. A comprehensive analysis of the top 100 articles was conducted with CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Excel, including citations, countries, authors, and keywords. RESULTS: The top 100 cited studies were published between 1988 and 2021, with the United States led in productivity. Core biomarkers such as genetics, children, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction are well-established. Potential trends for future research may include brain studies, metabolomics, and associations with other psychiatric disorders. CONCLUSION: This pioneering bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive compilation of the 100 most-cited studies on autism, which not only offers a valuable resource for doctors, and researchers but shedding insights into current shortcomings and future endeavors. Future research should prioritize the application of emerging technologies for biomarkers, longitudinal study of biomarkers, and specificity of autism biomarkers to advance the precision of ASD diagnosis and treatment.

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6. Moore DJ, Jordan A, Wainwright E, Failla MD, Connell H, Gauntlett-Gilbert J. The effects of autistic traits in adolescents on the efficacy of paediatric Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment (IIPT). J Pain. 2024: 104757.

Autistic adolescents are at greater risk of chronic pain, but it is unclear how autistic features may relate to individual aspects of chronic pain. As autism traits exist in the general population as well, it is important to know if autistic traits could impact how effective chronic pain management is for adolescents. Here we examined autistic traits in 112 patients (12-18yrs) recruited from a UK national specialist adolescent pain rehabilitation programme. Participants completed screening questionnaires for autistic traits upon entry to the programme, as well as clinically recognised pain measures before and after the 3-week treatment program. Autistic traits predicted greater psychological challenges at treatment onset. Critically, autistic traits were not related to the magnitude of improvement in pain measures during the pain management program. Our study suggests that adolescents with greater autistic traits may benefit from existing pain rehabilitation programs at similar rates to their peers. Additionally, these data suggest no reason for therapeutic pessimism for autistic pain patients. We do however acknowledge that these data may differ in populations with an autistic diagnosis, and that barriers may still exist for autistic people in treatment for pain. PERSPECTIVE: Autistic traits were explored in patients undergoing an Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment (IIPT). Higher autistic traits correlated with more pain related psychological difficulties at intake. Autistic traits were not related to the magnitude of improvement following IIPT. Our data therefore suggests that autism should not be a barrier to IIPT. DATA AVAILABILITY: Data is held in the PAIRED Pain Rehabilitation Database: Bath and Bristol, individual data used in the current analyses are therefore not available.

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7. Selvam P, Mares Beltrán CF, Sen K, Morales Corado A. Trofinetide approved for children and adults with Rett syndrome (RTT): A therapeutics bulletin of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG). Genet Med Open. 2024; 2: 101856.

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8. Zoltowski AR, Convery CA, Eyoh E, Plump E, Sullivan M, Arumalla ER, Quinde-Zlibut JM, Keceli-Kaysili B, Lewis B, Cascio CJ. Sensory Processing and Anxiety: Within and Beyond the Autism Spectrum. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2024.

In this article, we briefly overview how the expression, measurement, and treatment of anxiety in autism may be different from the general population. We review the literature on links between sensory processing differences and anxiety, which show transdiagnostic patterns but are an especially prominent feature of anxiety in autism. Specifically, we focus on how the sense of interoception, i.e., how we perceive sensory information from within our bodies, contributes to anxiety in autism. We present new findings integrating multimodal interoceptive measures and total anxiety symptoms in a sample of n = 38 non-autistic and n = 43 autistic individuals, ages 8-55 years. Using principal components analysis, we found two components relating to interoceptive confusion (i.e., self-reported ability to localize and interpret interoceptive cues): one component that closely relates to anxiety symptoms and one component that is distinct from anxiety. Interoceptive perception (i.e., performance on a lab-based task) was uniformly related to interoceptive confusion when distinguished from anxiety but showed complex relations with total anxiety symptoms. Combined, these findings suggest meaningful subtypes of interoceptive difficulties and their interrelationship with anxiety. We present conclusions and future directions for consideration of individual differences, toward creating a personalized understanding of anxiety-interoception links.

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