1. Bolkan S, Gordon JA. {{Neuroscience: Untangling autism}}. {Nature}. 2016.
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2. Fujioka T, Inohara K, Okamoto Y, Masuya Y, Ishitobi M, Saito DN, Jung M, Arai S, Matsumura Y, Fujisawa TX, Narita K, Suzuki K, Tsuchiya KJ, Mori N, Katayama T, Sato M, Munesue T, Okazawa H, Tomoda A, Wada Y, Kosaka H. {{Gazefinder as a clinical supplementary tool for discriminating between autism spectrum disorder and typical development in male adolescents and adults}}. {Mol Autism}. 2016; 7: 19.
BACKGROUND: Gaze abnormality is a diagnostic criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, few easy-to-use clinical tools exist to evaluate the unique eye-gaze patterns of ASD. Recently, we developed Gazefinder, an all-in-one eye-tracking system for early detection of ASD in toddlers. Because abnormal gaze patterns have been documented in various ASD age groups, we predicted that Gazefinder might also detect gaze abnormality in adolescents and adults. In this study, we tested whether Gazefinder could identify unique gaze patterns in adolescents and adults with ASD. METHODS: We measured the percentage of eye fixation time allocated to particular objects depicted in movies (i.e., eyes and mouth in human face movies, upright and inverted biological motion in movies that presented these stimuli simultaneously, and people and geometry in movies that presented these stimuli simultaneously) by male adolescents and adults with ASD (N = 26) and age-matched males with typical development (TD; N = 35). We compared these percentages between the two groups (ASD and TD) and with scores on the social responsiveness scale (SRS). Further, we conducted discriminant analyses to determine if fixation times allocated to particular objects could be used to discriminate between individuals with and without ASD. RESULTS: Compared with the TD group, the ASD group showed significantly less fixation time at locations of salient social information (i.e., eyes in the movie of human faces without lip movement and people in the movie of people and geometry), while there were no significant groupwise differences in the responses to movies of human faces with lip movement or biological motion. In a within-group correlation analysis, a few of the fixation-time items correlated with SRS, although most of them did not. No items significantly correlated with SRS in both ASD and TD groups. The percentage fixation times to eyes and people, which exhibited large effect sizes for the group difference, could differentiate ASD and TD with a sensitivity of 81.0 % and a specificity of 80.0 %. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that Gazefinder is potentially a valuable and easy-to-use tool for objectively measuring unique gaze patterns and discriminating between ASD and TD in male adolescents and adults.
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3. Garcia-Lopez C, Sarria E, Pozo P. {{Parental Self-Efficacy and Positive Contributions Regarding Autism Spectrum Condition: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2016.
Couples affect each other cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally. The goal of this study is to test the benefits and potential use of the actor-partner interdependence model in examining how parental self-efficacy and positive contributions of fathers and mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Condition influence each other’s psychological adaptation. The sample includes 76 Spanish couples who completed validated questionnaires measuring predictors, i.e., self-efficacy and positive contributions, and adaptation outcomes i.e., stress, anxiety, depression and psychological well-being. Multilevel analysis revealed many actor and some partner effects of parental self-efficacy and positive contributions to be important determinants of adaptation above and beyond child and sociodemographic factors, and as such, these effects should be targeted in clinical intervention programs.
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4. Harker CM, Ibanez LV, Nguyen TP, Messinger DS, Stone WL. {{The Effect of Parenting Style on Social Smiling in Infants at High and Low Risk for ASD}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2016.
This study examined how parenting style at 9 months predicts growth in infant social engagement (i.e., social smiling) between 9 and 18 months during a free-play interaction in infants at high (HR-infants) and low (LR-infants) familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Results indicated that across all infants, higher levels of maternal responsiveness were concurrently associated with higher levels of social smiling, while higher levels of maternal directiveness predicted slower growth in social smiling. When accounting for maternal directiveness, which was higher in mothers of HR-infants, HR-infants exhibited greater growth in social smiling than LR-infants. Overall, each parenting style appears to make a unique contribution to the development of social engagement in infants at high- and low-risk for ASD.
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5. Jumah F, Ghannam M, Adeeb N, Tubbs RS. {{Neuroanatomical variation in autism spectrum disorder: A comprehensive review}}. {Clin Anat}. 2016.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in socialization, communication, and behavior. Many investigators have described the anatomical abnormalities in autistic brains, in an attempt to correlate them with the manifestations of ASD. Herein, we reviewed all the available literature about the neuroanatomical findings in ASD available via « PubMed » and « Google Scholar. » References found in review articles were also searched manually. There was substantial discrepancy throughout the literature regarding the reported presence and significance of neuroanatomical findings in ASD, and this is thoroughly discussed in the present review. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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6. Pedapati EV, Gilbert DL, Erickson CA, Horn PS, Shaffer RC, Wink LK, Laue CS, Wu SW. {{Abnormal Cortical Plasticity in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Case-Control Pilot Study}}. {J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol}. 2016.
OBJECTIVE: This case-control study investigated the use of a low-intensity repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocol to measure motor cortex (M1) plasticity in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with typically developing children (TDC). We hypothesized that impairments in long-term potentiation-like properties represent a neurophysiological biomarker of abnormal cortical function in ASD. METHODS: We studied youth with ASD aged 11-18 years and matched controls (TDC). Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) was delivered to the dominant M1 at an intensity of 70% of resting motor threshold. Suprathreshold single-pulse TMS was performed to compare amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials (MEP) measured from surface electromyography electrodes on a target muscle before (20 pulses) and after (10 pulses/time point) iTBS at predefined timepoints (up to 30 minutes) to measure any potentiation effects. A linear mixed model was used to examine group differences in MEP amplitudes over time following iTBS. RESULTS: Nine youth with ASD (mean age 15.6; 7 males; 6 right-hand dominant) and 9 TDC (mean age 14.5; 5 males; 9 right-hand dominant) participated. All subjects tolerated the procedure well. Both groups had a mean increase in excitability after iTBS for 30 minutes; however, the time course of excitability changes differed (F9,144 = 2.05; p = 0.038). Post-hoc testing identified a significant decrease in amplitude of the ASD group at 20 minutes following iTBS compared with the TDC after correcting for multiple comparisons. CONCLUSION: In this study, we demonstrate early evidence for a potential physiological biomarker of cortical plasticity in youth with ASD using a rapid low-intensity rTMS protocol with a discriminate measure at 20 minutes following stimulation. The procedure was well tolerated by all 18 participants. Future work will include modification of the protocol to improve the ability to distinguish subtypes of ASD based on behavioral and cognitive testing.
