1. Cardoso C, Sousa-Morato PF, Andrade S, Fernandes FD. {{[Social-cognitive performance and social-communicative adaptation in different groups of the autistic spectrum.]}}. {Pro Fono} (Mar);22(1):43-48.
BACKGROUND: researches about the relationship between language, cognition and socialization have evolved since the 70s. Language mediates social development allowing the individual to participate in social situations that include balanced communicative exchanges. AIM: to assess the effectiveness of the Social-Communicative Adaptation Protocol in two groups of children and adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders and to verify the relationship between the referred protocol and the Social-Cognitive Profile. METHOD: participants were 16 children and adolescents with ages between 8.0 and 16.0 years, of both genders, who were diagnosed within the autistic spectrum by neurologists and/or psychiatrists. All participants were receiving, once a week, specialized language therapy by a speech-language pathologist for a period of at least six months. Participants were assessed using the Social-cognitive Profile and the Social-Communicative Adaptation questionnaire. RESULTS: the analysis of the results indicated absence of significant statistical differences in the Social-Cognitive Profile between the two groups. The Social-Communicative Adaptation demonstrated to be extremely variable among the participants. CONCLUSION: this research shows that autistic spectrum children do not have a symmetric and linear development of language, socialization and cognition.
2. Didden R, Korzilius H, Smeets E, Green VA, Lang R, Lancioni GE, Curfs LM. {{Communication in Individuals with Rett Syndrome: an Assessment of Forms and Functions}}. {J Dev Phys Disabil} (Apr);22(2):105-118.
In the present study we assessed the forms and functions of prelinguistic communicative behaviors for 120 children and adults with Rett syndrome using the Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA) (Sigafoos et al. Communication Disorders Quarterly 21:77-86, 2000a). Informants completed the IPCA and the results were analysed to provide a systematic inventory and objective description of the communicative forms and functions present in each individual’s repertoire. Results show that respondents reported a wide variety of communicative forms and functions. By far most girls used prelinguistic communicative behaviors of which eye contact/gazing was the most common form. The most often endorsed communicative functions were social convention, commenting, answering, requesting and choice-making. Problematic topographies (e.g., self-injury, screaming, non-compliance) were being used for communicative purposes in 10 to 41% of the sample. Exploratory analyses revealed that several communicative forms and functions were related to living environment, presence/absence of epilepsy, and age. That is, higher percentages of girls who showed some forms/functions were found in those who lived at home, who had no epilepsy and who were relatively young.
3. Magliaro FC, Scheuer CI, Assumpcao Junior FB, Matas CG. {{[Study of auditory evoked potentials in autism.]}}. {Pro Fono} (Mar);22(1):31-36.
BACKGROUND: electrophysiological assessment of hearing in autistic individuals. AIM: to characterize the findings obtained in the electrophysiological assessments of autistic individuals, as well as to compare these to the results obtained for individuals of the same age who present typical development. METHOD: 16 individuals with autism (study group) and 25 normal individuals (control group), ranging in age from eight to 20 years underwent anamnesis, pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, acoustic immitance measures, brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP), middle latency response (MLR) and cognitive potential (P300). RESULTS: the study group presented altered results in all auditory evoked potentials, showing statistically significant differences when compared to the control group. Concerning the types of alterations found in the study group the following results were observed: higher occurrence of lower brainstem alteration in the BAEP, both (electrode and ear effects occurring simultaneously) in the MLR, and absence of response in the P300. In the quantitative data analysis, statistically significant differences between the groups were found only for the BAEP regarding the latencies of waves III and V and interpeaks I-III and I-V. CONCLUSION: autistic individuals present altered BAEP and P300, suggesting impairment in the brainstem auditory pathway and corticals / subcorticals areas.
4. Ponde MP, Novaes CM, Losapio MF. {{Frequency of symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in autistic children}}. {Arq Neuropsiquiatr} (Feb);68(1):103-106.
BACKGROUND: Both DSM-IV and the ICD-10 exclude diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when autism diagnostic is present. Some authors suggest, however, that autism can be associated to other comorbidity amongst which the ADHD. OBJECTIVE: To estimate prevalence of ADHD in children with autism. METHOD: Children were selected from a specialized school, all of then had previous diagnosis or diagnostic suspicion of autism. The Brazilian version of the KIDDIE-SADS PL was applied to parents for diagnostic of ADHD. DSM-IV diagnostic of autism was based on parents’ interview and child observation. RESULTS: 32 children were included in the study. Results show that 53.1% of the ASD child had ADHD symptoms enough to fulfill DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, whereas 56.9% did not fulfill DSM-IV criteria for ADHD. CONCLUSION: Results suggest a high frequency of ADHD symptoms in ASD patients. Elucidating if we are facing a comorbity or an autism distinct phenotype can contribute for a more adjusted pharmacotherapy approach for these children.
5. Watanabe K, Ikeda H, Miyao M. {{Learning efficacy of explicit visuomotor sequences in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and Asperger syndrome}}. {Exp Brain Res} (Mar 26)
Developmental disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger syndrome (AS) are often associated with learning disabilities. This study investigated the explicit learning of visuomotor sequences in 17 ADHD children (mean age 12.1), 21 AS children (mean age 12.7), and 15 typically developing children (mean age: 12.3). The participants were required to explore a hidden sequence of button presses by trial and error and elaborate the learned sequence (2 x 10 task: Hikosaka et al. 1996). The results indicated that although ADHD and AS children had a tendency of repeating the same errors and took longer to complete a sequence, both showed a degree and pattern of improvement in accuracy and speed similar to that of typically developing children. These results suggest that the explicit learning of visuomotor sequence in ADHD and AS patients is largely unimpaired.
6. Yap IK, Angley M, Veselkov KA, Holmes E, Lindon JC, Nicholson JK. {{Urinary metabolic phenotyping differentiates children with autism, from their unaffected siblings and age-matched controls}}. {J Proteome Res} (Mar 25)
Autism is an early-onset developmental disorder with a severe life-long impact on behavior and social functioning that has associated metabolic abnormalities. The urinary metabolic phenotypes of individuals (age range= 3 – 9 years old) diagnosed with autism using the DSM-IV-TR criteria (n=39; male=35; female=4), together with their non-autistic siblings (n=28; male=14; female=14) and age-matched healthy volunteers (n=34, male=17; female=17) have been characterized for the first time using 1H NMR spectroscopy and pattern recognition methods. Novel findings associated with alterations in nicotinic acid metabolism within autistic individuals showing increased urinary excretion of Nmethyl- 4-pyridone-3-carboxamide, N-methyl nicotinic acid and N-methyl nicotinamide, indicate a perturbation in tryptophan-nicotinic acid metabolic pathway. Urinary patterns of the free amino acids glutamate, alanine, glycine and taurine were significantly different between groups with the autistic children showing higher levels of urinary alanine, glycine and taurine and a lower level of urinary glutamate indicating perturbation in sulfur and amino acid metabolism in these children. Additionally, metabolic phenotype (metabotype) differences were observed between autistic and control children, which were associated with perturbations of urinary mammalian-microbial co-metabolites including dimethylamine, hippurate, phenyacetylglutamine and 4-cresol sulfate. These biochemical changes are consistent with the known abnormalities of gut microbiota found in autistic individuals and the associated gastrointestinal dysfunction and may be of value in monitoring the success of therapeutic interventions.
