1. Artuso R, Papa FT, Grillo E, Mucciolo M, Yasui DH, Dunaway KW, Disciglio V, Mencarelli MA, Pollazzon M, Zappella M, Hayek G, Mari F, Renieri A, Lasalle JM, Ariani F. {{Investigation of modifier genes within copy number variations in Rett syndrome}}. {J Hum Genet};2012 (May);57(5):342-344.
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2. Brandwein AB, Foxe JJ, Butler JS, Russo NN, Altschuler TS, Gomes H, Molholm S. {{The Development of Multisensory Integration in High-Functioning Autism: High-Density Electrical Mapping and Psychophysical Measures Reveal Impairments in the Processing of Audiovisual Inputs}}. {Cereb Cortex};2012 (May 24)
Successful integration of auditory and visual inputs is crucial for both basic perceptual functions and for higher-order processes related to social cognition. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social cognition and are associated with abnormalities in sensory and perceptual processes. Several groups have reported that individuals with ASD are impaired in their ability to integrate socially relevant audiovisual (AV) information, and it has been suggested that this contributes to the higher-order social and cognitive deficits observed in ASD. However, successful integration of auditory and visual inputs also influences detection and perception of nonsocial stimuli, and integration deficits may impair earlier stages of information processing, with cascading downstream effects. To assess the integrity of basic AV integration, we recorded high-density electrophysiology from a cohort of high-functioning children with ASD (7-16 years) while they performed a simple AV reaction time task. Children with ASD showed considerably less behavioral facilitation to multisensory inputs, deficits that were paralleled by less effective neural integration. Evidence for processing differences relative to typically developing children was seen as early as 100 ms poststimulation, and topographic analysis suggested that children with ASD relied on different cortical networks during this early multisensory processing stage.
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3. Clopper CG, Rohrbeck KL, Wagner L. {{Perception of Talker Age by Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2012 (May 26)
People with high-functioning Autism (HFA) can accurately identify social categories from speech, but they have more difficulty connecting linguistic variation in the speech signal to social stereotypes associated with those categories. In the current study, the perception and evaluation of talker age by young adults with HFA was examined. The participants with HFA performed similarly to a typically-developing comparison group in age classification and estimation tasks. Moreover, the participants with HFA were able to differentiate among talkers of different ages in a language attitudes task and rated older talkers as more intelligent than younger talkers. These results suggest that people with HFA are able to make reasonable social judgments about talkers based on their speech, at least for familiar social categories and personally relevant social attitudes.
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4. Reynolds S, Millette A, Devine DP. {{Sensory and Motor Characterization in the Postnatal Valproate Rat Model of Autism}}. {Dev Neurosci};2012 (May 24)
Although autism is diagnosed according to three core features of social deficits, communication impairments, and repetitive or stereotyped behaviors, other behavioral features such as sensory and motor impairments are present in more than 70% of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Exposure of rat pups to the teratogen valproate during sensitive periods of brain development has been shown to elicit behavioral features associated with autism diagnosis and has been proposed as a valid animal model of the disorder. The purpose of this study was to characterize sensory and motor performance in rats postnatally treated with valproate. Thirty-four rat pups were injected with either valproate (150 mg/kg) or saline on postnatal days 6-12. Auditory and tactile startle as well as auditory sensory gating was assessed during both the juvenile and adolescent stages of development; motor testing was conducted during late adolescence and included a sunflower seed eating task and a vermicelli handling task. Valproate-treated rats were underresponsive to auditory stimuli, showed deficits in auditory sensory gating, and demonstrated impairments in motor speed and performance. These findings suggest that postnatal valproate treatment elicits sensory and motor features often seen in individuals with ASD. Further, the hyposensitivity seen in postnatally valproate-treated rats contrasted with hypersensitivity previously reported in prenatally valproate-exposed rats. This suggests that timing of teratogenic exposure during early brain development may be important to consider when investigating the neurobiological basis of sensorimotor impairments in ASD.
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5. Yanardag M, Akmanoglu N, Yilmaz I. {{The effectiveness of video prompting on teaching aquatic play skills for children with autism}}. {Disabil Rehabil};2012 (May 25)
Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of the video prompting procedure on teaching aquatic play skills and to determine the effects of aquatic exercise training on the motor performance of children with autism. Design: A multiple probe design across behaviours was used and replicated across subjects for the instructional part of this study. Pretest-posttest design was applied for the exercise training part of this study. Methods: Three children with autism were taught three aquatic play skills in a one-to-one training format. Aquatic play skills intervention and aquatic exercise training were performed separately throughout 12 weeks at three sessions per week, each lasting 1 h. The video prompting procedure was utilized for the instruction part of this study. Results: Video prompting was effective in teaching aquatic play skills to children with autism. In addition, aquatic exercise training increased the total motor performance scores of all the participants after 12 weeks. According to the social validity results, the families gave positive feedback about the learned skills and movement capabilities of their children. Conclusion: Aquatic play skills and swimming pools are favoured for children with autism. This attractive intervention is recommended as a means to extend knowledge of leisure skills and motor development of children with autism. [Box: see text].
