1. Abd Wahil MS, Ja’afar MH, Md Isa Z. Urinary aluminium and its association with autism spectrum disorder in urban preschool children in Malaysia. PeerJ. 2023; 11: e15132.

BACKGROUND: The presence of aluminium (Al) in the human body may impact brain neurodevelopment and function, and it is thought to contribute to autism spectrum disease (ASD). The main objective of this study was to assess the association between urinary Al and the development of ASD among Malaysian preschool children in the urban city of Kuala Lumpur. METHOD: This was an unmatched case-control study in which children with ASD were recruited from an autism early intervention center and typically developed (TD) children were recruited from government-run nurseries and preschools. Urine samples were collected at home, assembled temporarily at study locations, and transported to the laboratory within 24 h. The Al concentration in the children’s urine samples was determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). RESULT: A total of 155 preschool children; 81 ASD children and 74 TD children, aged 3 to 6 years, were enlisted in the study. This study demonstrated that ASD children had significantly higher urinary Al levels than TD children (median (interquartile range (IQR): 2.89 (6.77) µg/dL versus 0.96 (2.95) µg/dL) (p < 0.001). Higher parental education level, non-Malay ethnicity, male gender, and higher urinary Al level were the significant ASD risk factors (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) >1, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: A higher urine Al level was discovered to be a significant risk factor for ASD among preschool children in the urban area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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2. Alves CL, Toutain T, de Carvalho Aguiar P, Pineda AM, Roster K, Thielemann C, Porto JAM, Rodrigues FA. Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder based on functional brain networks and machine learning. Scientific reports. 2023; 13(1): 8072.

Autism is a multifaceted neurodevelopmental condition whose accurate diagnosis may be challenging because the associated symptoms and severity vary considerably. The wrong diagnosis can affect families and the educational system, raising the risk of depression, eating disorders, and self-harm. Recently, many works have proposed new methods for the diagnosis of autism based on machine learning and brain data. However, these works focus on only one pairwise statistical metric, ignoring the brain network organization. In this paper, we propose a method for the automatic diagnosis of autism based on functional brain imaging data recorded from 500 subjects, where 242 present autism spectrum disorder considering the regions of interest throughout Bootstrap Analysis of Stable Cluster map. Our method can distinguish the control group from autism spectrum disorder patients with high accuracy. Indeed the best performance provides an AUC near 1.0, which is higher than that found in the literature. We verify that the left ventral posterior cingulate cortex region is less connected to an area in the cerebellum of patients with this neurodevelopment disorder, which agrees with previous studies. The functional brain networks of autism spectrum disorder patients show more segregation, less distribution of information across the network, and less connectivity compared to the control cases. Our workflow provides medical interpretability and can be used on other fMRI and EEG data, including small data sets.

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3. Ben Said M, Robel L, Kpenou F, Jais JP, Speranza M. Observational Cohort Study Dedicated to Autism Spectrum Disorder: Milestone Steps, Results Updates, Perspectives. Studies in health technology and informatics. 2023; 302: 716-20.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent difficulties in two domains: social communication and interaction, alongside with restricted, repetitive pattern of behaviors. It affects children and persists into adolescence and adulthood. Its causes and underlying psychopathological mechanisms are unknown and remain to be discovered. TEDIS cohort study developed over the decade 2010-2022, in Ile-de-France region, includes 1300 patients’ files up to date, with valuable health information drawn from ASD evaluation. It provides researchers and decision makers with reliable data source to improve knowledge and practice in the context of ASD patients.

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4. Bundgaard-Nielsen C, Lauritsen MB, Knudsen JK, Rold LS, Larsen MH, Hindersson P, Villadsen AB, Leutscher PDC, Hagstrøm S, Nyegaard M, Sørensen S. Children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder share distinct microbiota compositions. Gut microbes. 2023; 15(1): 2211923.

An association has been suggested between altered gut microbiota, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), respectively. Thus, we analyzed the gut microbiota composition in children and adolescents with or without these disorders and evaluated the systemic effects of these bacteria. We recruited study participants diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, and comorbid ADHD/ASD, while the control groups consisted both of siblings and non-related children. The gut microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the V4 region, while the concentration of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), cytokines, and other signaling molecules were measured in plasma. Importantly the gut microbiota compositions of cases with ADHD and ASD were highly similar for both alpha- and beta-diversity while differing from that of non-related controls. Furthermore, a subset of ADHD and ASD cases had an increased LBP concentration compared to non-affected children, which was positively correlated with interleukin (IL)-8, 12, and 13. These observations indicate disruption of the intestinal barrier and immune dysregulation among the subset of children with ADHD or ASD.

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5. Chen L, Li J, Liu X, Zhao Z, Jin Y, Fu Y, Zhou A, Wang C, Zhou Y. Vitamin B6 Deficiency Induces Autism-Like Behaviors in Rats by Regulating mTOR-Mediated Autophagy in the Hippocampus. Behavioural neurology. 2023; 2023: 6991826.

Vitamin B6 (VB(6)) exhibits therapeutic effects towards autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but its specific mechanism is poorly understood. Rat dams were treated with VB(6) standard, VB(6) deficiency, or VB(6) supplementary diet, and the same treatment was provided to their offspring, with their body weights monitored. Three-chambered social test and open field test were employed to evaluate the effect of VB(6) on autism-like behaviors. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) generation and synaptic inhibition of neurons in the hippocampus of rat were detected via immunofluorescence staining, followed by the measurement of GABA concentration through high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The role of VB(6) in the autophagy and apoptosis of cells was determined via Western blot and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL). In order to conduct rescue experiments, the inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) or the activation of GABA was achieved by drug administration to the offspring rats with VB(6) deficiency. As a result, no evident difference in weight was observed in the offspring with varied VB(6) treatments. VB(6) deficiency impaired social interaction; aggravated self-grooming and bowel frequency; decreased GABA concentration, VIAAT, GAD67, vGAT expressions, and LC3 II/LC3 I ratio; increased p62 level and p-mTOR/mTOR ratio; and promoted cell apoptosis. Inhibition of mTOR reversed the effect of VB(6) deficiency on cell autophagy. GABA activation or mTOR inhibition offset the role of VB(6) deficiency in autism-like behaviors and hippocampal GABA expression. Collectively, VB(6) deficiency induces autism-like behaviors in rats by regulating mTOR-mediated autophagy in the hippocampus.

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6. Constantino JN, Abbacchi AM, May BK, Klaiman C, Zhang Y, Lowe JK, Marrus N, Klin A, Geschwind DH. Prospects for Leveling the Playing Field for Black Children With Autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2023.

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7. Corbett BA, White S, Lerner M, Preacher KJ, Klemencic ME, Simmons GL, Pilkington J, Gable P, Gioia A, Key AP. Peers, play, and performance to build social salience in autistic youth: A multisite randomized clinical trial. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology. 2023.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have significant impairment in social competence and reduced social salience. SENSE Theatre, a peer-mediated, theater-based intervention has demonstrated posttreatment gains in face memory and social communication. The multisite randomized clinical trial compared the Experimental (EXP; SENSE Theatre) to an Active Control Condition (ACC; Tackling Teenage Training, TTT) at pretest, posttest, and follow-up. It was hypothesized that the EXP group would demonstrate greater incidental face memory (IFM) and better social behavior (interaction with novel peers) and social functioning (social engagement in daily life) than the ACC group, and posttest IFM would mediate the treatment effect on follow-up social behavior and functioning. METHOD: Two hundred ninety participants were randomized to EXP (N = 144) or ACC (N = 146). Per protocol sample (≥ 7/10 sessions) resulted in 207 autistic children 10-16 years. Event-related potentials measured IFM. Naive examiners measured social behavior (Vocal Expressiveness, Quality of Rapport, Social Anxiety) and functioning (Social Communication). Structural equation modeling was used to assess treatment effects. RESULTS: SENSE Theatre participants showed significantly better IFM (b = .874, p = .039) at posttest, and significant indirect effects on follow-up Vocal Expressiveness a × b = .064, with 90% CI [.014, .118] and Quality of Rapport a × b = .032, with 90% CI [.002, .087] through posttest IFM. CONCLUSIONS: SENSE Theatre increases social salience as reflected by IFM, which in turn affected Vocal Expressiveness and Quality of Rapport. Results indicate that a neural mechanism supporting social cognition and driven by social salience is engaged by the treatment and has a generalized, indirect effect on clinically meaningful functional outcomes related to core symptoms of autism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

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8. Daly T. Navigating Autism: 9 Mindsets For Helping Kids on the Spectrum. Journal of psychiatric practice. 2023; 29(3): 264-5.

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9. Gabarron E, Dorronzoro E, Reichenpfader D, Denecke K. What Do Autistic People Discuss on Twitter? An Approach Using BERTopic Modelling. Studies in health technology and informatics. 2023; 302: 403-7.

Social media provide easy ways to autistic individuals to communicate and to make their voices heard. The objective of this paper is to identify the main themes that are being discussed by autistic people on Twitter. We collected a sample of tweets containing the hashtag #ActuallyAutistic during the period 10/02/2022 and 14/09/2022. To identify the most discussed topics, BERTopic modelling was applied. We manually grouped the detected topics into 6 major themes using inductive content analysis: 1) General aspects of autism and experiences of autistic individuals; 2) Autism awareness, pride and funding; 3) Interventions, mostly related to Applied Behavior Analysis; 4) Reactions and expressions; 5) Everyday life as an autistic (lifelong condition, work, housing…); and 6) Symbols and characteristics. The majority of tweets were presenting general aspects and experiences as autistic individuals; raising awareness; and about their dissatisfaction with some interventions. The identification of autistic individuals’ main discussion themes could help to develop meaningful public health agendas and research involving and addressed to autistic individuals.

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10. Govarthan PK, Sinha K, Mukherjee S, Agastinose Ronickom JF. Differential Gene Expression Data Analysis of ASD Using Random Forest. Studies in health technology and informatics. 2023; 302: 1047-51.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain regions. Analysis of differential expression (DE) of transcriptomic data allows for genome-wide analysis of gene expression changes related to ASD. De-novo mutations may play a vital role in ASD, but the list of genes involved is still far from complete. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are treated as candidate biomarkers and a small set of DEGs might be identified as biomarkers using either biological knowledge or data-driven approaches like machine learning and statistical analysis. In this study, we employed a machine learning-based approach to identify the differential gene expression between ASD and Typical Development (TD). The gene expression data of 15 ASD and 15 TD were obtained from the NCBI GEO database. Initially, we extracted the data and used a standard pipeline to pre-process the data. Further, Random Forest (RF) was used to discriminate genes between ASD and TD. We identified the top 10 prominent differential genes and compared them with the statistical test results. Our results show that the proposed RF model yields 5-fold cross-validation accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 96.67%. Further, we obtained precision and F-measure scores of 97.5% and 96.57%, respectively. Moreover, we found 34 unique DEG chromosomal locations having influential contributions in identifying ASD from TD. We have also identified chr3:113322718-113322659 as the most significant contributing chromosomal location in discriminating ASD and TD. Our machine learning-based method of refining DE analysis is promising for finding biomarkers from gene expression profiles and prioritizing DEGs. Moreover, our study reported top 10 gene signatures for ASD may facilitate the development of reliable diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers for screening ASD.

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11. Højgaard D, Arildskov TW, Skarphedinsson G, Hybel KA, Ivarsson T, Weidle B, Melin K, Torp NC, Thomsen PH. Do Autistic Traits Predict Outcome of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?. Research on child and adolescent psychopathology. 2023.

The first aim of this study was to explore whether children with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical autistic traits can be differentiated from children with OCD without these traits based on clinical OCD-related characteristics, distinct OCD symptom patterns, and type of comorbidity. The second aim was to investigate whether autistic traits predict immediate and long-term outcome of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in pediatric OCD.The participants in this study were a total of 257 children and adolescents aged 7-17 years, recruited from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as a part of the Nordic long-term OCD treatment study (NordLOTS). Inclusion criteria were an OCD diagnosis based on DSM-IV criteria and a Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) total severity score of 16 or higher. No children with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum were included. An Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) cut-off score of ≥ 17 was used to define the group of OCD patients with autistic traits and all participants were treated with 14 weekly sessions of manualized CBT.Comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and tic disorders, subclinical internalizing and externalizing symptoms, lower insight into OCD symptoms, more indecisiveness and pervasive slowness, and ordering/arranging OCD symptoms were found to be significantly associated with having OCD with autistic traits. No difference was found between the groups on treatment outcomes.Results suggest that children and adolescents with OCD and autistic traits portray a different clinical profile than those without these traits, but that CBT is equally effective for those with and without autistic traits.

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12. Ji Q, Li SJ, Zhao JB, Xiong Y, Du XH, Wang CX, Lu LM, Tan JY, Zhu ZR. Genetic and neural mechanisms of sleep disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder: a review. Frontiers in psychiatry. 2023; 14: 1079683.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of sleep disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is very high. Sleep disorders can exacerbate the development of ASD and impose a heavy burden on families and society. The pathological mechanism of sleep disorders in autism is complex, but gene mutations and neural abnormalities may be involved. METHODS: In this review, we examined literature addressing the genetic and neural mechanisms of sleep disorders in children with ASD. The databases PubMed and Scopus were searched for eligible studies published between 2013 and 2023. RESULTS: Prolonged awakenings of children with ASD may be caused by the following processes. Mutations in the MECP2, VGAT and SLC6A1 genes can decrease GABA inhibition on neurons in the locus coeruleus, leading to hyperactivity of noradrenergic neurons and prolonged awakenings in children with ASD. Mutations in the HRH1, HRH2, and HRH3 genes heighten the expression of histamine receptors in the posterior hypothalamus, potentially intensifying histamine’s ability to promote arousal. Mutations in the KCNQ3 and PCDH10 genes cause atypical modulation of amygdala impact on orexinergic neurons, potentially causing hyperexcitability of the hypothalamic orexin system. Mutations in the AHI1, ARHGEF10, UBE3A, and SLC6A3 genes affect dopamine synthesis, catabolism, and reuptake processes, which can elevate dopamine concentrations in the midbrain. Secondly, non-rapid eye movement sleep disorder is closely related to the lack of butyric acid, iron deficiency and dysfunction of the thalamic reticular nucleus induced by PTCHD1 gene alterations. Thirdly, mutations in the HTR2A, SLC6A4, MAOA, MAOB, TPH2, VMATs, SHANK3, and CADPS2 genes induce structural and functional abnormalities of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and amygdala, which may disturb REM sleep. In addition, the decrease in melatonin levels caused by ASMT, MTNR1A, and MTNR1B gene mutations, along with functional abnormalities of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, may lead to abnormal sleep-wake rhythm transitions. CONCLUSION: Our review revealed that the functional and structural abnormalities of sleep-wake related neural circuits induced by gene mutations are strongly correlated with sleep disorders in children with ASD. Exploring the neural mechanisms of sleep disorders and the underlying genetic pathology in children with ASD is significant for further studies of therapy.

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13. Liu J, Chen L, Chang H, Rudoler J, Belal Ai-Zughoul A, Kang JB, Abrams DA, Menon V. Replicable patterns of memory impairments in children with autism and their links to hyperconnected brain circuits. Biological psychiatry Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging. 2023.

BACKGROUND: Memory impairments have profound implications for social communication and educational outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the precise nature of memory dysfunction in children with ASD and the underlying neural circuit mechanisms remain poorly understood. The default mode network (DMN) is a brain network that is associated with memory and cognitive function, and DMN dysfunction is among the most replicable and robust brain signatures of ASD. METHODS: We employed a comprehensive battery of standardized episodic memory assessments and functional circuit analyses in 8-12-year-old 25 children with ASD and 29 matched typically developing controls. RESULTS: Memory performance was reduced in children with ASD, compared to controls. General and face memory emerged as distinct dimensions of memory difficulties in ASD. Importantly, findings of diminished episodic memory in children with ASD were replicated in two independent data sets. Analysis of intrinsic functional circuits associated with the DMN revealed that general and face memory deficits were associated with distinct, hyperconnected circuits: aberrant hippocampal connectivity predicted diminished general memory while aberrant posterior cingulate cortex connectivity predicted diminished face memory. Notably, aberrant hippocampal-posterior cingulate cortex circuitry was a common feature of diminished general and face memory in ASD. CONCLUSIONS: Results represent a comprehensive appraisal of episodic memory function in children with ASD and identify extensive and replicable patterns of memory reductions in children with ASD that are linked to dysfunction of distinct DMN-related circuits. Findings highlight a role for DMN dysfunction in ASD that extends beyond face memory to general memory function.

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14. Livingston LA, Shah P, Happé F. Linearly integrating speed and accuracy to measure individual differences in theory of mind: Evidence from autistic and neurotypical adults. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006). 2023: 17470218231165251.

It has long been theorised that there is a direct link between individual differences in social cognition and behaviour. One of the most popular tests of this theory has involved examination of Theory of Mind (ToM) difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, evidence for associations between ToM and social behaviour is mixed, both when testing the ToM explanation of ASD and when investigating individual differences in ToM in the general population. We argue that this is due to methodological limitations of many ToM measures, such as a lack of variability in task performance, inappropriate non-ToM control tasks, and a failure to account for general mental ability. To overcome these issues, we designed a novel task, which probed individual differences in ToM fluency through mental state attribution in response to cartoons (Cartoons Theory of Mind [CarToM] task). This task, enabling the linear combination of speed and accuracy, was used to quantify ToM ability and its association with self-reported (a)typical social behaviour in adults with and without ASD. In a large sample (N = 237), we found that having an ASD diagnosis and higher autistic traits predicted lower ToM ability, even after accounting for performance on a well-matched non-ToM condition and general mental ability. Overall, our findings provide fresh support for the existence of a link between individual differences in social cognition (specifically, ToM) and behaviour (specifically, autism). This has implications for social-cognitive theory and research, allowing large-scale, online assessment of individual differences in ToM in clinical groups and the general population.

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15. Marcone R, Borghese V. Parental stress and support perception in southern Italy’s households with intellectual disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research in developmental disabilities. 2023; 138: 104537.

The stress experienced by parents of persons with Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is higher than that of parents of neurotypical children (TD). An important protective factor is the perception of the support received within the family and the social network. The emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the health of people with ASD/ID and their families. The aim of the study was to describe the levels of parental stress and anxiety before and during the lockdown in southern Italy’s families with ASD/ID persons and analyze how the levels of support perceived by these families. 106 parents, the ages of 23 and 74 years (M = 45; SD = 9), from southern Italy responded to an online battery of questionnaires measuring parental stress, anxiety, perception of support and attendance at school activities and rehabilitation centers, before and during lockdown. In addition, descriptive, Chi-Square, MANOVA, ANOVAs, and correlational analyses were conducted. The results showed that during the lockdown, attendance at therapies and extra-moenia activities and participation in school activities drastically dropped. During lockdown, parents felt inadequate. The parental stress and anxiety were moderate, but the perception of support dropped significantly.

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16. Miniarikova E, Audras-Torrent L, Berard M, Peries M, Picot MC, Munir K, Baghdadli A. Adaptive behaviors and related factors in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: Report from ELENA cohort. Journal of psychiatric research. 2023; 163: 43-54.

There are strong individual differences in adaptive behaviors (AB) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with conflicting results in literature about specific patterns and related factors. The present study aims to describe AB and identify related factors in terms of clinical and socio-familial characteristics in 875 children and adolescents with ASD in the multiregional ELENA cohort in France. Results showed that AB in children and adolescents with ASD were lower than in typically developing subjects, regardless of age group. AB were associated with clinical (gender, age at diagnosis, IQ, ASD severity, psychiatric comorbidities, motor and language skills, challenging behaviors), interventional (school attendance, special interventions) and familial characteristics (age, educational and socio-economic status of parents, household status, number of siblings). There is a need of interventions focusing on improvement of AB, tailored to children’s characteristics.

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17. Ni Z, Qian Y, Li H, Yao Z. Predicting Family Implementation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Autism Online Communities. Studies in health technology and informatics. 2023; 302: 123-4.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely adopted by families with autistic children. This study aims to predict family caregivers’ CAM implementation in Autism online communities. Dietary interventions were reported as a case study. We extracted behavioral (degree and betweenness), environmental (positive feedback and social persuasion), and personal features (language style) of family caregivers in online communities. The results of the experiment showed that random forests performed well in predicting families’ tendency to implement CAM (AUC=0.887). It is promising to use machine learning to predict and intervene in the CAM implementation by family caregivers.

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18. Papadopoulos A, Siafaka V, Tsapara A, Tafiadis D, Kotsis K, Skapinakis P, Tzoufi M. Measuring parental stress, illness perceptions, coping and quality of life in families of children newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. BJPsych open. 2023; 9(3): e84.

BACKGROUND: A variety of psychosocial factors have been shown to affect the quality of life of families (FQoL). AIM: This study aimed to assess the impact of mother’s demographic characteristics, parental stress, illness perceptions about autism spectrum disorder (ASD), coping strategies, ASD severity and time since diagnosis on FQoL during the initial period following diagnosis (≤6 months). METHOD: Fifty-three mothers of children newly diagnosed with ASD completed the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale, the Autism Parenting Stress Index, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory. A descriptive analysis was conducted on the demographic characteristics of the family. Eta coefficients and Pearson’s analysis were used to determine the associations between the variables and the FQoL dimensions. Hierarchical regression was used to determine whether variables explained a statistically significant family quality of life variance. RESULTS: Pearson’s analysis and eta coefficients indicated several correlations. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that higher parental stress related to core autism symptoms was associated with poorer FQoL (95% CI -0.08 to -0.02, P = 0.001), and higher perceived treatment control was associated with better FQoL (95% CI 0.04-0.16, P = 0.001). In addition, stronger perceived personal control was associated with higher physical/material well-being (95% CI 0.01-0.16, P = 0.022) and higher disability-related support (95% CI 0.30-0.61, P = 0.001). Higher family monthly income was associated with better FQoL (95% CI 0.08-0.027, P = 0.000), whereas marital status (divorced mother) was correlated with poorer FQoL (95% CI -0.68 to -0.16, P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Interventions should emphasise managing the disorder’s characteristics and implementing psychoeducational and supportive programmes for parents, immediately after the diagnosis, to enhance FQoL.

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19. Sabnis RW, Sabnis AR. Monoacylglycerol Lipase Modulators for Treating Autism Spectrum Disorders. ACS medicinal chemistry letters. 2023; 14(5): 545-6.

Provided herein are monoacylglycerol lipase modulators, pharmaceutical compositions, use of such compounds in treating autism spectrum disorders and processes for preparing such compounds.

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20. Teh EJ, Yap MJ. Short report: Social processing in non-emotional contexts by children with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD). PloS one. 2023; 18(5): e0285972.

BACKGROUND: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been reported to show social-processing deficits in forced-choice social judgment or story interpretation tasks. However, these methods may limit examination of social-processing within a set of acceptable answers. In this pilot study, we propose a novel method predicated on the premise that language carries social information and validate this method to measure social perception in ASD. METHOD: 20 children with ASD and 20 typically developing (TD) children matched-pairwise on age (5-12 years), gender, and non-verbal IQ, described pictures of people in everyday situations varying on extent of social engagement. Their social language production was examined in high- and low-social picture conditions. RESULTS: The TD group produced significantly more social language in high-social than low-social picture conditions, with a large effect size (d = 3.15). The TD group produced significantly more social language than the ASD group under high-social conditions (p< .001, η2p = 0.24), but were not significantly different under low-social conditions (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The study presents proof-of-concept that expressed language carries social information. The findings indicate that social language may be used to measure social perception and examine differences in ASD, with potential applications for other clinical groups with social-processing challenges.

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21. Waddington H, Minnell H, Patrick L, van Der Meer L, Monk R, Woods L, Whitehouse AJ. Community perspectives on the appropriateness and importance of support goals for young autistic children. Autism : the international journal of research and practice. 2023: 13623613231168920.

Researchers do not know much about what autistic adults, parents and professionals think about support goals for young autistic children. People’s views of support goals might also be influenced by their beliefs about early support more generally. This survey involved 87 autistic adults, 159 parents of autistic children and 80 clinical professionals living in New Zealand and Australia. We asked participants questions about themselves and what they thought about early support for young autistic children in general. We then asked participants to rate whether different support goals were appropriate for young autistic children and, if they were appropriate, to rate their level of priority. We found that autistic adults, parents and professionals all rated goals about the adult changing to better support the child, reducing and replacing harmful behaviours and improving the child’s quality of life as the highest priorities. They all rated goals about autism characteristics, play skills and academic skills as the lowest priorities. Compared to parents and/or professionals, autistic adults gave lower priority ratings for play skills, autism characteristics and participation goals. Autistic adults were also more likely to rate goals related to play skills and autism characteristics as inappropriate. While these three participant groups generally agreed on the order of priority of early support goals for young autistic children, autistic adults found goals related to autism characteristics, play and/or participation to be an even lower priority and less appropriate than parents and professionals.

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22. Waterhouse L, Mottron L. Editorial: Is autism a biological entity?. Frontiers in psychiatry. 2023; 14: 1180981.

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