1. Bouck EC, Joshi GS. {{Does Curriculum Matter for Secondary Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Analyzing the NLTS2}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Oct 19)
A common presumption of secondary education is that what occurs in-school impacts students after they exit school. Previous researchers found transition-services received in school by students with autism spectrum disorder predicted their post-school success with regards to employment and independent living. This secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 sought to understand the relationship between curriculum-functional versus non-functional-and seven measures of post-school outcomes for students with autism spectrum disorder. The main results of the study include low rates of receipt of a functional curriculum, poor post-school outcomes, and the lack of relationship between curriculum and post-school outcomes for students with autism spectrum disorder.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
2. Haigh SM, Heeger DJ, Dinstein I, Minshew N, Behrmann M. {{Cortical Variability in the Sensory-Evoked Response in Autism}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Oct 19)
Previous findings have shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) evince greater intra-individual variability (IIV) in their sensory-evoked fMRI responses compared to typical control participants. We explore the robustness of this finding with a new sample of high-functioning adults with autism. Participants were presented with visual, somatosensory and auditory stimuli in the scanner whilst they completed a one-back task. While ASD and control participants were statistically indistinguishable with respect to behavioral responses, the new ASD group exhibited greater IIV relative to controls. We also show that the IIV was equivalent across hemispheres and remained stable over the duration of the experiment. This suggests that greater cortical IIV may be a replicable characteristic of sensory systems in autism.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Komeda H, Kosaka H, Saito DN, Mano Y, Jung M, Fujii T, Yanaka HT, Munesue T, Ishitobi M, Sato M, Okazawa H. {{Autistic empathy toward autistic others}}. {Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci};2014 (Oct 20)
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are thought to lack self-awareness and to experience difficulty empathising with others. Although these deficits have been demonstrated in previous studies, most of the target stimuli were constructed for typically developing (TD) individuals. We employed judgment tasks capable of indexing self-relevant processing in individuals with and without ASD. Fourteen Japanese males and one Japanese female with high-functioning ASD (17-41 years of age) and 13 Japanese males and two TD Japanese females ( 22-40 years of age), all of whom were matched for age and full and verbal intelligence quotient scores with the ASD participants, were enrolled in this study. The results demonstrated that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was significantly activated in individuals with ASD in response to autistic characters and in TD individuals in response to non-autistic characters. Whereas the frontal-posterior network between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus participated in the processing of non-autistic characters in TD individuals, an alternative network was involved when individuals with ASD processed autistic characters. This suggests an atypical form of empathy in individuals with ASD toward others with ASD.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
4. Lake JK, Weiss JA, Dergal J, Lunsky Y. {{Child, Parent, and Service Predictors of Psychotropic Polypharmacy Among Adolescents and Young Adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol};2014 (Oct 20)
Abstract Objective: This study examined the child, parent, and service factors associated with polypharmacy in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: As part of an online survey examining health service utilization patterns among individuals with ASD, parents provided demographic and clinical information pertaining to their child. This included information on current medication use, as well as information on clinical services received, clinical history, and parent well-being. Analyses examined the bivariate association between individual child, parent, and service variables and polypharmacy. Variables significantly associated with polypharmacy were included in a multiple variable logistic regression. Results: Of the 363 participants sampled, approximately 25% were receiving two or more psychotropic drugs concurrently. The patient’s psychiatric comorbidity, history of hurting others, therapy use, and parent burden were predictors of polypharmacy. Conclusions: Adolescents and young adults with ASD are a highly medicated population with multiple factors associated with psychotropic polypharmacy. Although there may be circumstances in which polypharmacy is necessary, a richer understanding of what predicts polypharmacy may lead to targeted interventions to better support these individuals and their families. Findings also highlight the need to support families of children with ASD prescribed multiple psychotropic medications.
