1. Kodish I, Rockhill CM, Webb SJ. {{ASD: Psychopharmacologic Treatments and Neurophysiologic Underpinnings}}. {Curr Top Behav Neurosci};2014 (Mar 30)
Autism Spectrum Disorder Autism Spectrum Disorder encompasses a range of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by early deficits in social communication in addition to restricted and repetitive behaviors. Symptoms are increasingly understood to be associated with abnormalities in the coordination of neuronal assemblies responsible for processing information essential for early adaptive behaviors. Pharmacologic treatments carry evidence for clinically significant benefit of multiple impairing symptoms of ASD, yet these benefits are limited and range across a broad spectrum of medication classes, making it difficult to characterize associated neurochemical impairments. Increasing prevalence of both ASD and its pharmacologic management calls for greater understanding of the neurophysiologic basis of the disorder. This paper reviews underlying alterations in local brain regions and coordination of brain activation patterns during both resting state and task-related processes. We propose that new pharmacologic treatments may focus on realigning trajectories of network specialization across development by working in combination with behavioral treatments to enhance social and emotional learning by bolstering the impact of experience-induced plasticity on neuronal network connectivity.
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2. Morgan L, Leatzow A, Clark S, Siller M. {{Interview Skills for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Mar 30)
The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy of the interview skills curriculum (ISC), a manualized 12-week group-delivered intervention for young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This intervention aims to increase social-pragmatic skills essential to a successful job interview. Twenty-eight adults (18-36 years) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: ISC or waitlist control. Results revealed that the experimental group showed larger gains in social-pragmatic skills observed during a mock job interview than the control group. Treatment effects on distal outcomes, including social adaptive behaviors and depressive symptoms were not significant, although the respective effect sizes were medium/large. Results indicate that a brief, low-intensity treatment can improve the job-interview performance of young adults with ASD.
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3. Taylor CM, Vehorn A, Noble H, Weitlauf AS, Warren ZE. {{Brief Report: Can Metrics of Reporting Bias Enhance Early Autism Screening Measures?}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Mar 30)
The goal of the current study was to develop and pilot the utility of two simple internal response bias metrics, over-reporting and under-reporting, in terms of additive clinical value within common screening practices for early detection of autism spectrum disorder risk. Participants were caregivers and children under 36 months of age (n = 145) participating in first-time diagnostic appointments across our clinical research center due to developmental concerns. Caregivers were asked to complete the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (MCHAT) as well as a questionnaire embedding six response bias indicator questions. These questions were items that in previous clinical studies had been endorsed by an overwhelming majority of parents within clinically identified populations. Results indicated that removal of self-reports indicative of potential response bias dramatically reduced both false positives and false negatives on the MCHAT within this sample. This suggests that future work developing internal metrics of response bias may be promising in addressing limits of current screening measures and practices.
