1. Deshpande PS, Coffey DB. {{Fragile x syndrome and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms}}. {J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol}. 2011 Dec;21(6):639-42.
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2. Hamilton A, Marshal MP, Sucato GS, Murray PJ. {{Rett Syndrome and Menstruation}}. {J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol}. 2011 Dec 27.
OBJECTIVE: Describe the experience that girls with Rett syndrome have with menstruation including menstrual hygiene, dysmenorrhea, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and attempts at treatment. DESIGN: Anonymous web-based survey. SETTING: Convenience sample recruited from Rett syndrome LISTSERV in July of 2009. PARTICIPANTS: Mothers of girls with Rett syndrome between the ages of 10-25 who have had at least one menses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence, frequency, and severity of dysmenorrhea and PMS; hygiene concerns; and treatments attempts and perceived effectiveness. RESULTS: Dysmenorrhea and PMS are common problems among young women with Rett syndrome. Despite their frequency and severity they do not routinely limit activities. Multiple treatment attempts are common. Hormonal contraception is used mostly for menstrual cycle control with oral contraceptive pills the most commonly used method. CONCLUSIONS: Young women with Rett syndrome have standard symptoms of dysmenorrhea and PMS as well as autism spectrum specific PMS symptoms. Hormonal contraception is commonly used for menstrual management.
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3. Manzardo AM, Henkhaus R, Dhillon S, Butler MG. {{Plasma cytokine levels in children with autistic disorder and unrelated siblings}}. {Int J Dev Neurosci}. 2011 Dec 16.
BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of autistic disorder (AD) is not clearly understood but genetic factors and the immune system have been implicated. Disturbed immunoglobulin levels and autoantibodies to neuronal elements have been reported in AD including cytokines encoded by genes involved with cell proliferation, migration and adhesion but there is a paucity of data comparing cytokine levels in children with AD and unrelated siblings without AD. METHODS: We analyzed 39 plasma cytokines in 99 well-characterized children with AD between 5 and 10 years of age and 40 age and gender matched healthy unrelated siblings without AD under the same clinical assessments, specimen processing and laboratory conditions. Multiplex sandwich immunoassays were used with the Luminex fluorescent-bead based platform. Log-transformed values of the 29 cytokines meeting laboratory criteria for inclusion were analyzed by analysis of covariance with a general linear model adjusting for diagnosis, gender, diagnosis by gender interaction effects, age and days of specimen handling. The Tukey-Kramer post hoc test was used to control for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Eight of 29 cytokine levels analyzed were significantly lower in children with AD compared with unrelated siblings without the diagnosis of AD. Three of the cytokines are known to be involved with hematopoiesis and five with attraction of T-cells, natural killer cells and monocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Plasma cytokine levels representing chemokines involved in the T-helper cell immune system and hematopoiesis were lower in the children with AD compared with unrelated siblings without AD necessitating further studies to confirm immunological disturbances influencing hematopiesis and antibody production in the children with AD. Linking genes that encode immune related proteins and cytokines are important to study for their impact on critical periods of brain development and function.
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4. McGregor KK, Bean A. {{How Children with Autism Extend New Words}}. {J Speech Lang Hear Res}. 2011 Dec 22.
PURPOSE: How do children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) extend a noun to the category of objects it labels? Given their tendency to perceive locally, their extensions might be too narrow. Given their social-communicative deficits and a context in which the knowledge of a social-communicative partner promotes narrow extensions, their extensions might be too broad. METHOD: We tested these predictions by comparing 25 high-functioning school-aged children with ASD to 29 age-matched peers with typical development (TD) in a task that required extraction of commonalities of object referents and use of social communicative context to support the category inference. RESULTS: The children with ASD readily extended a given noun to multiple exemplars thereby demonstrating tacit knowledge that words label categories and the ability to override local perceptual biases they might have. However, unlike their peers with TD, those who had concomitant weaknesses in semantic and syntactic language ability formed broad categories when their social partner’s behavior suggested narrow categories. CONCLUSIONS: Some, but not all, people with ASD fail to use social context to support inferences about word extension. The direction of any causal relationship between failure to use social contextual cues and language deficits awaits determination.
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5. Strauss MS, Newell LC, Best CA, Hannigen SF, Gastgeb HZ, Giovannelli JL. {{The Development of Facial Gender Categorization in Individuals with and without Autism: The Impact of Typicality}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2011 Dec 27.
While much research has examined the development of facial recognition abilities, less is known about the ability of individuals with and without autism to categorize facial gender. The current study tested gender categorization abilities in high-functioning children (5-7 and 8-12 years), adolescents (13-17 years), and adults (18-53 years) with autism and matched controls. Naturalistic videos depicted faces that were either typical or less typical of each gender. Both groups improved in their performance across development. However, control children reached expertise that was similar to control adults by 8-12 years; whereas, adults with autism never reached this level of expertise, particularly with less typical gender faces. Results suggest that individuals with autism employ different face processing mechanisms than typically developing individuals.
