1. Chan KKS, Fung WTW, Leung DCK. Self-compassion mitigates the cognitive, affective, and social impact of courtesy stigma on parents of autistic children. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. 2022.

PURPOSE: Due to the courtesy stigma of autism spectrum disorder, many parents of autistic children are devaluated and discriminated against by the public. Despite the high prevalence of this courtesy stigma, very few studies have examined its negative effects on parents of autistic children and explored the factors that may protect the parents from these negative effects. The present study utilized a 2-year, two-wave prospective longitudinal design to examine the associations of courtesy stigma with adverse cognitive (self-stigma), affective (depressive and anxiety symptoms), and social (parent-child and inter-parental conflicts) consequences for parents of autistic children and to test whether these associations would be moderated and mitigated by self-compassion. METHODS: A total of 381 parents of autistic children completed questionnaires about courtesy stigma, self-compassion, self-stigma, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and parent-child and inter-parental conflicts at time 1 (T1) and time 2 (T2). RESULTS: Courtesy stigma interacted with self-compassion at T1 in predicting self-stigma, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and parent-child and inter-parental conflicts at T2. Specifically, the associations of courtesy stigma with the adverse psychological consequences were weaker for parents with high self-compassion than for those with low self-compassion. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate the prospective associations of courtesy stigma with adverse cognitive, affective, and social consequences for parents of autistic children, as well as the protective effects of self-compassion against such associations. These results highlight the importance of increasing parents’ self-compassion to help them cope with courtesy stigma and improve their psychological well-being.

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2. Guo X, Zhai G, Liu J, Cao Y, Zhang X, Cui D, Gao L. Inter-individual heterogeneity of functional brain networks in children with autism spectrum disorder. Molecular autism. 2022; 13(1): 52.

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with considerable clinical heterogeneity. This study aimed to explore the heterogeneity of ASD based on inter-individual heterogeneity of functional brain networks. METHODS: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database were used in this study for 105 children with ASD and 102 demographically matched typical controls (TC) children. Functional connectivity (FC) networks were first obtained for ASD and TC groups, and inter-individual deviation of functional connectivity (IDFC) from the TC group was then calculated for each individual with ASD. A k-means clustering algorithm was used to obtain ASD subtypes based on IDFC patterns. The FC patterns were further compared between ASD subtypes and the TC group from the brain region, network, and whole-brain levels. The relationship between IDFC and the severity of clinical symptoms of ASD for ASD subtypes was also analyzed using a support vector regression model. RESULTS: Two ASD subtypes were identified based on the IDFC patterns. Compared with the TC group, the ASD subtype 1 group exhibited a hypoconnectivity pattern and the ASD subtype 2 group exhibited a hyperconnectivity pattern. IDFC for ASD subtype 1 and subtype 2 was found to predict the severity of social communication impairments and the severity of restricted and repetitive behaviors in ASD, respectively. LIMITATIONS: Only male children were selected for this study, which limits the ability to study the effects of gender and development on ASD heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest the existence of subtypes with different FC patterns in ASD and provide insight into the complex pathophysiological mechanism of clinical manifestations of ASD.

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3. Hong JS, Perrin J, Singh V, Kalb L, Cross EA, Wodka E, Richter C, Landa R. Psychometric Evaluation of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (6-18 Years Parent Report) in a Clinical Sample. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 2022.

ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder impacting 1 in 44 children and early identification of children with ASD is critical for the intervention. Several screening measures have been developed for early identification, including the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales, 6-18 years Parent Report (ASRS). The ASRS has been understudied, and the current study assessed the validity of the ASRS in a clinical sample of 490 children at a tertiary ASD-specialty clinic. Results indicated that the ASRS demonstrated favorable sensitivity, but poor specificity. True positive screening results were more likely to occur for children with a multiracial background, while they were less likely to occur for children with a high social capital. Overall, though the ASRS has clinical utility as a screening measure, it did not perform effectively to differentiate ASD from Non-ASD clinical disorders.

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4. Koshiyama H, Ishidou M, Ito H, Hirose K, Sakamoto K, Ikai A. Simplified primum ASD closure technique in complete VSD repair: shallow suture crossing on the AV node. General thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. 2022.

The primum atrial septal defect suture line adjacent to the crux is performed carefully with various techniques to avoid atrioventricular block in repair of complete atrioventricular septal defect. We describe our technical modification to simplify the shallow suture line only into the endocardium above the atrioventricular node without conduction disturbance.

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5. Loucaides EM, Zuurmond M, Nemerimana M, Kirk CM, Lassman R, Ndayisaba A, Smythe T, Baganizi E, Tann CJ. Livelihood support for caregivers of children with developmental disabilities: findings from a scoping review and stakeholder survey. Disability and rehabilitation. 2022: 1-16.

PURPOSE: Poverty amongst families with a child with disability adversely impacts child and family quality of life. We aimed to identify existing approaches to livelihood support for caregivers of children with developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: This mixed-method study incorporated a scoping literature review and online stakeholder survey. We utilised the World Health Organization community-based rehabilitation (CBR) matrix as a guiding framework for knowledge synthesis and descriptively analysed the included articles and survey responses. RESULTS: We included 11 peer-reviewed publications, 6 grey literature articles, and 49 survey responses from stakeholders working in 22 countries. Identified programmes reported direct and indirect strategies for livelihood support targeting multiple elements of the CBR matrix; particularly skills development, access to social protection measures, and self-employment; frequently in collaboration with specialist partners, and as one component of a wider intervention. Self-help groups were also common. No publications examined effectiveness of livelihood support approaches in mitigating poverty, with most describing observational studies at small scale. CONCLUSION: Whilst stakeholders describe a variety of direct and indirect approaches to livelihood support for caregivers of children with disabilities, there is a lack of published literature on content, process, and impact to inform future programme development and delivery. Disability and poverty are interlinked, but little is known on approaches to livelihood support for caregivers of children with developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries.Stakeholders report direct and indirect strategies for livelihood support targeting multiple livelihood elements; particularly skills development, access to social protection measures and self-employment; frequently in collaboration with specialist partners, and as one component of a wider intervention.Improved reporting of livelihood targeted activities inclusive of evaluation of feasibility, acceptability and impact would support wider implementation of effective livelihood programmes for caregivers of children with disability. eng.

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6. Xu D, Zhi Y, Liu X, Guan L, Yu J, Zhang D, Zhang W, Wang Y, Tao W, Xu Z. WDR62-deficiency Causes Autism-like Behaviors Independent of Microcephaly in Mice. Neuroscience bulletin. 2022.

Brain size abnormality is correlated with an increased frequency of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. Genetic analysis indicates that heterozygous mutations of the WD repeat domain 62 (WDR62) are associated with ASD. However, biological evidence is still lacking. Our study showed that Wdr62 knockout (KO) led to reduced brain size with impaired learning and memory, as well as ASD-like behaviors in mice. Interestingly, Wdr62 Nex-cKO mice (depletion of WDR62 in differentiated neurons) had a largely normal brain size but with aberrant social interactions and repetitive behaviors. WDR62 regulated dendritic spinogenesis and excitatory synaptic transmission in cortical pyramidal neurons. Finally, we revealed that retinoic acid gavages significantly alleviated ASD-like behaviors in mice with WDR62 haploinsufficiency, probably by complementing the expression of ASD and synapse-related genes. Our findings provide a new perspective on the relationship between the microcephaly gene WDR62 and ASD etiology that will benefit clinical diagnosis and intervention of ASD.

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