1. Curtin C, Hubbard K, Anderson SE, Mick E, Must A, Bandini LG. {{Food Selectivity, Mealtime Behavior Problems, Spousal Stress, and Family Food Choices in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2015 (Jun 13)
Mealtime behavior problems and family stress occur frequently among families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it is unknown whether food selectivity is an associated factor. The associations of high food selectivity with mealtime behavior problems, spousal stress, and influence on family members were assessed among 53 children with ASD and 58 typically developing (TD) children ages 3-11 years. Compared to TD children, children with ASD were more likely to have high food selectivity, and their parents reported more mealtime behavior problems, higher spousal stress, and influence on what other family members ate. High food selectivity was associated with mealtime behavior problems in both groups. Interventions to reduce food selectivity may lead to decreases in mealtime behavior problems.
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2. Johnson CM, Cui N, Zhong W, Oginsky MF, Jiang C. {{Breathing abnormalities in a female mouse model of Rett syndrome}}. {J Physiol Sci};2015 (Jun 13)
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a female neurodevelopmental disease with breathing abnormalities. To understand whether breathing defects occur in the early lives of a group of female Mecp2 +/- mice, a mouse model of RTT, and what percentage of mice shows RTT-like breathing abnormality, breathing activity was measured by plethysmography in conscious mice. Breathing frequency variation and central apnea in a group of Mecp2 +/- females displayed a distribution pattern similar to Mecp2 -/Y males, while the rest resembled the wild-type mice. Similar results were obtained using the k-mean clustering statistics analysis. With two independent methods, about 20 % of female Mecp2 +/- mice showed RTT-like breathing abnormalities that began as early as 3 weeks of age in the Mecp2 +/- mice, and were suppressed with 3 % CO2. The finding that only a small proportion of Mecp2 +/- mice develops RTT-like breathing abnormalities suggests incomplete allele inactivation in the RTT-model Mecp2 +/- mice.
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3. May T, Cornish K, Rinehart NJ. {{Mechanisms of Anxiety Related Attentional Biases in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2015 (Jun 13)
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have high levels of anxiety. It is unclear whether they exhibit threat-related attentional biases commensurate with anxiety disorders as manifest in non-ASD populations, such as facilitated attention toward, and difficulties disengaging engaging from, threatening stimuli. Ninety children, 45 cognitively able with ASD and 45 age, perceptual-IQ, and gender matched typically developing children, aged 7-12 years, were administered a visual dot probe task using threatening facial pictures. Parent-reported anxiety symptoms were also collected. Children with ASD showed similarly high levels of anxiety compared with normative data from an anxiety disordered sample. Children with ASD had higher levels of parent-reported anxiety but did not show differences in disengaging from, or facilitated attention toward, threatening facial stimuli compared with typically developing children. In contrast to previously published studies of anxious children, in this study there were no differences in attentional biases in children with ASD meeting clinical cutoff for anxiety and those who did not. There were no correlations between attentional biases and anxiety symptoms and no gender differences. These findings indicate the cognitive mechanisms underlying anxiety in cognitively able children with ASD could differ from those commonly found in anxious children which may have implications for both understanding the aetiology of anxiety in ASD and for anxiety interventions.
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4. Puig-Alcaraz C, Fuentes-Albero M, Calderon J, Garrote D, Cauli O. {{Increased homocysteine levels correlate with the communication deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder}}. {Psychiatry Res};2015 (May 29)
The clinical significance of high levels of homocysteine in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is unknown. An experimental study was conducted in order to evaluate the concentration of homocysteine in children with ASD and typically developing children and to analyse any relationships with the severity of core symptoms of ASD and other clinical features (drugs, co-morbidities, gender, age, diet). Core symptoms of autism were evaluated by DSM-IV criteria. Homocysteine, glutathione, methionine, 3-nitrotyrosine were measured in urine. The increase in homocysteine concentration was significantly and directly correlated with the severity of the deficit in communication skills, but was unrelated to deficit in socialisation or repetitive/restricted behaviour. Urinary homocysteine concentration may be a possible biomarker for communication deficits in ASD and a potential diagnostic tool useful to evaluate new treatment options since no treatment for core symptoms of ASD are available.
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5. Trembath D, Vivanti G, Iacono T, Dissanayake C. {{Accurate or Assumed: Visual Learning in Children with ASD}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2015 (Jun 13)
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often described as visual learners. We tested this assumption in an experiment in which 25 children with ASD, 19 children with global developmental delay (GDD), and 17 typically developing (TD) children were presented a series of videos via an eye tracker in which an actor instructed them to manipulate objects in speech-only and speech + pictures conditions. We found no group differences in visual attention to the stimuli. The GDD and TD groups performed better when pictures were available, whereas the ASD group did not. Performance of children with ASD and GDD was positively correlated with visual attention and receptive language. We found no evidence of a prominent visual learning style in the ASD group.
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6. Wang G, Liu Z, Xu G, Jiang F, Lu N, Baylor A, Owens J. {{Sleep Disturbances and Associated Factors in Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective and Cross-Sectional Study}}. {Child Psychiatry Hum Dev};2015 (Jun 14)
Sleep disturbances in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exist worldwide, but little is known about this issue in non-Western cultures. This study aimed to characterize sleep disturbances in Chinese children with ASD and to examine associated sociodemographic factors and emotional/behavioral problems. Parents of 60 Chinese children with ASD (aged 6-17 years) from Shenzhen, China completed the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Sleep disturbances were severe and common, with rates of 70.0 % for overall disturbances and 15.0 % (daytime sleepiness) to 40.0 % (sleep duration) for specific domains. The severity and rate of sleep disturbances were higher compared to previous studies in typically developing children from the same region of China and American children with ASD, respectively. Further, there were significant correlations between most CSHQ and SDQ domains. Female gender, older parental age, higher hyperactivity, and poorer prosocial behavior were associated with increased overall sleep disturbances.
