1. Amadi CN, Orish CN, Frazzoli C, Orisakwe OE. Dietary interventions for autism spectrum disorder: An updated systematic review of human studies. Psychiatrike = Psychiatriki. 2022.

Autism is a complex spectrum of disorders with genetic, epigenetic, autoimmune, oxidative stress, and environmental etiologies. Treatment of ASD using dietary approach is a promising strategy, especially owing to its safety and availability. Our study critically analysed the roles and efficacy of antioxidants, probiotics, prebiotics, camel milk and vitamin D. This systematic review provides an updated synopsis of human studies that investigated therapeutic benefits of these dietary interventions in autism. A total of 943 papers were identified out of which 21 articles were included in the systematic review. The selected studies investigated the impact of 5 different dietary supplementations in ASD symptom and behaviours. These agents include; antioxidants/polyphenolic compounds, probiotics, prebiotics, camel milk and vitamin D. From the results of the present review, antioxidants/polyphenolic compounds decreased the levels of inflammatory cytokines and improved behavioural symptoms. Probiotics improved behavioural and GI symptoms as well as restored gut microbiota equilibrium. Prebiotics decreased levels of inflammatory cytokines, improved behavioural and GI symptoms and improved gut microbiota. Vitamin D improved behavioural symptoms and offered protective effects against neurotoxicity. Camel milk reduced inflammatory responses and oxidative stress. Given the chronic nature as well as early onset of ASD, dietary supplements become useful to complement nutritional deficiencies in children with ASD. Key benefits of these agents stem from their ability to target multiple physiological areas via the gut brain-axis and are devoid of potential harmful or aggravating effects on ASD patients. The evidence collated in this review propose that dietary intervention may provide a new platform for the management of autism.

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2. Ardalan M, Chumak T, Quist A, Hermans E, Rafati AH, Gravina G, Shiadeh SMJ, Svedin P, Alabaf S, Hansen B, Wegener G, Westberg L, Mallard C. Reelin cells and sex-dependent synaptopathology in autism following postnatal immune activation. British journal of pharmacology. 2022.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders with considerably increased risk in male infants born preterm and with neonatal infection. Here we investigated the role of postnatal immune activation on hippocampal synaptopathology by targeting Reelin+ cells in mice with ASD-like behavior. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: C57/Bl6 mouse pups of both sexes received lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 1mg/kg) on postnatal day (P) 5. At P45, animal behavior was examined by marble burying and sociability test, followed by ex-vivo brain MRI diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). Hippocampal synaptogenesis, number and morphology of Reelin+ cells, and mRNA expression of trans-synaptic genes, including neurexin-3, neuroligin-1, and cell-adhesion molecule nectin-1 were analyzed at P12 and P45. KEY RESULTS: Social withdrawal and increased stereotypic activities in males were related to increased mean diffusivity on MRI-DKI and overgrowth in hippocampus together with retention of long-thin immature synapses on apical dendrites, decreased volume and number of Reelin+ cells as well as reduced expression of trans-synaptic and cell-adhesion molecules. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The study provides new insights into sex-dependent mechanisms that may underlie ASD-like behavior in males following PIA. We identify GABAergic interneurons as core components of dysmaturation of excitatory synapses in the hippocampus following postnatal infection and provide cellular and molecular substrates for the MRI findings with translational value.

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3. Fernandes FDM, Amato CAH, Perissinoto J, Lopes-Herrera SA, Souza APR, Tamanaha AC, Montenegro ACA, Segeren L, Machado FP, Goulart BNG, Molini-Avejonas DR. The role of the phonoaudiologist and the focus on ASD intervention. CoDAS. 2022; 34(5): e20210264.

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4. Freitas BMS, Gaudenzi P. « We, mothers of autistic people »: between knowledge of the experience and collective memories in videos on YouTube. Ciencia & saude coletiva. 2022; 27(4): 1595-604.

This paper results from research that analyzed the narratives of mothers of autistic children about their experiences with their children, produced and shared by them through videos on YouTube. We used a qualitative methodology to debate the logic and meanings attributed to illness, health, motherhood, and childcare, towards a narrative reconstruction produced by us researchers. We observed that these women spoke primarily about their experiences as mothers of autistic children and directly addressed the emotional difficulties of having a child with autism, such as mourning the ideal child promoted by the diagnosis and the construction of care for an autistic child. Through the videos, the mothers form an identification group based on the premise that they lived everyday experiences, generating significant value and becoming an existential capital. Talking about such experiences in public and far-reaching spaces like YouTube produces, among other things, collective memories that develop a caring community. We understand that the individual story reported and produced in the videos can emotionally and pragmatically help others with a similar experience, re-inhabiting daily life.

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5. Mantas V, Pehlivanidis A, Papanikolaou K, Kotoula V, Papageorgiou C. Strategic decision making and prediction differences in autism. PeerJ. 2022; 10: e13328.

BACKGROUND: Several theories in autism posit that common aspects of the autism phenotype may be manifestations of an underlying differentiation in predictive abilities. The present study investigates this hypothesis in the context of strategic decision making in autistic participants compared to a control group. METHOD: Autistic individuals (43 adults, 35 male) and a comparison group (42 adults, 35 male) of age and gender matched individuals, played a modified version of the prisoner’s dilemma (PD) task where they were asked, if capable, to predict their opponents’ move. The predictive performance of the two groups was assessed. RESULTS: Overall, participants in the autism group had a significantly lower number of correct predictions. Moreover, autistic participants stated, significantly more frequently than the comparison group, that they were unable to make a prediction. When attempting a prediction however, the success ratio did not differ between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that there is a difference in prediction performance between the two groups. Although our task design does not allow us to identify whether this difference is due to difficulty to form a prediction or a reluctance in registering one, these findings could justify a role for prediction in strategic decision making during the PD task.

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6. Orji CS, Sharkey L. Crisis Presentations of Children and Adolescents with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Irish medical journal. 2021; 114(7): 417.

Aim To inform the development of a care pathway for children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders presenting to Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Tallaght Emergency Department. Methods A retrospective study of cases with a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis (Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Mild to Profound Intellectual Disability) presenting to the hospital Child Psychiatry services over a six-year period (Jan 2014 – December 2019). Results 72 patients identified, Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis most common (N=67, 93%). Nearly half of cases presenting with risk concerns (N= 35, 49%), same day hospital discharge (N = 53, 74%) and inpatient admission (N=19, 29%). Discussion Access to relevant community disability supports is significantly limited in Ireland with a resultant increase in carer stress and crisis presentations to the emergency department for psychosocial and disability related reasons.

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7. Richey JA, Gracanin D, LaConte S, Lisinski J, Kim I, Coffman M, Antezana L, Carlton CN, Garcia KM, White SW. Neural Mechanisms of Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism: Distinct Roles for Anterior Cingulate and dlPFC. Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53. 2022: 1-21.

OBJECTIVE: The present study sought to measure and internally validate neural markers of facial emotion recognition (FER) in adolescents and young adults with ASD to inform targeted intervention. METHOD: We utilized fMRI to measure patterns of brain activity among individuals with ASD (N = 21) and matched controls (CON; N = 20) 2 s prior to judgments about the identity of six distinct facial emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised, fearful, disgust). RESULTS: Predictive modeling of fMRI data (support vector classification; SVC) identified mechanistic roles for brain regions that forecasted correct and incorrect identification of facial emotion as well as sources of errors over these decisions. BOLD signal activation in bilateral insula, anterior cingulate (ACC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) preceded accurate FER in both controls and ASD. Predictive modeling utilizing SVC confirmed the utility of ACC in forecasting correct decisions in controls but not ASD, and further indicated that a region within the right dlPFC was the source of a type 1 error signal in ASD (i.e. neural marker reflecting an impending correct judgment followed by an incorrect behavioral response) approximately two seconds prior to emotion judgments during fMRI. CONCLUSIONS: ACC forecasted correct decisions only among control participants. Right dlPFC was the source of a false-positive signal immediately prior to an error about the nature of a facial emotion in adolescents and young adults with ASD, potentially consistent with prior work indicating that dlPFC may play a role in attention to and regulation of emotional experience.

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8. Saeed G, Brown HK, Lunsky Y, Welsh K, Proulx L, Havercamp S, Tarasoff LA. Barriers to and facilitators of effective communication in perinatal care: a qualitative study of the experiences of birthing people with sensory, intellectual, and/or developmental disabilities. BMC pregnancy and childbirth. 2022; 22(1): 364.

BACKGROUND: Effective provider-patient communication is a key element of quality health care, including perinatal care. What constitutes « effective communication » in perinatal care may vary according to the population seeking care, such as women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and sensory disabilities. Research broadly indicates that communication issues are among the barriers to perinatal care experienced by women with disabilities. However, few studies have explicitly explored their communication experiences in this context. The purpose of this study was to understand the communication experiences of birthing people with IDD and/or sensory disabilities in perinatal care. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 people with IDD (e.g., autism, cognitive delay) and/or sensory disabilities (e.g., d/Deaf, blind) in Ontario, Canada, who had recently given birth, to explore barriers to and facilitators of effective communication in perinatal care. A combination of deductive and inductive thematic analysis guided data analysis. RESULTS: We found that birthing people with IDD and/or sensory disabilities encountered multiple barriers to effective communication in perinatal care, namely, lack of policies and guidelines, lack of provider experience, lack of provider effort, as well as ableism and provider assumptions. Facilitators included knowledgeable, aware, and supportive providers; access to communication aids and services; tailoring information to patients’ disability-related communication needs; empathic communication; and, communication among providers. CONCLUSION: Unmet communication needs may contribute to negative health and social outcomes for birthing people with disabilities and their newborns. Accessibility policy implementation and practice change are needed to meet the communication needs of people with IDD and/or sensory disabilities in perinatal care to ensure positive experiences and outcomes.

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9. Shao E, Chang CW, Li Z, Yu X, Ho K, Zhang M, Wang X, Simms J, Lo I, Speckart J, Holtzman J, Yu GQ, Roberson ED, Mucke L. TAU ablation in excitatory neurons and postnatal TAU knockdown reduce epilepsy, SUDEP, and autism behaviors in a Dravet syndrome model. Science translational medicine. 2022; 14(642): eabm5527.

Intracellular accumulation of TAU aggregates is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases. However, global genetic reduction of TAU is beneficial also in models of other brain disorders that lack such TAU pathology, suggesting a pathogenic role of nonaggregated TAU. Here, conditional ablation of TAU in excitatory, but not inhibitory, neurons reduced epilepsy, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, overactivation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase-AKT-mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, brain overgrowth (megalencephaly), and autism-like behaviors in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome, a severe epileptic encephalopathy of early childhood. Furthermore, treatment with a TAU-lowering antisense oligonucleotide, initiated on postnatal day 10, had similar therapeutic effects in this mouse model. Our findings suggest that excitatory neurons are the critical cell type in which TAU has to be reduced to counteract brain dysfunctions associated with Dravet syndrome and that overall cerebral TAU reduction could have similar benefits, even when initiated postnatally.

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