1. Cheng Y, Shi J, Wei Y, Luo J, Shi Y, Jiang Z. Psychometric properties and screening accuracy of the Chinese version of the Autism Symptom Dimensions Questionnaire. Asian J Psychiatr. 2025; 115: 104790.

This study aims to explore the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Autism Symptom Dimensions Questionnaire (ASDQ) among children aged 3-8 years in China. It further investigates the optimal cutoff score and screening accuracy of this questionnaire for both primary and secondary screening of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study recruited a total of 575 Chinese children, including 106 children with ASD, 117 children with non-ASD neurodevelopmental disorders, and 352 typically developing children. The Chinese version of the ASDQ retained the original 9-factor model of the ASDQ, with 39 items in total. The reliability test results indicate that the Cronbach’s α for internal consistency reliability was 0.944. In split-half reliability, the Cronbach’s α for the first half was 0.878, while that for the second half was 0.916. The ICC coefficient for test-retest reliability was 0.917. Validity test results showed that the I-CVI for each item ranged from 0.857 to 1.000. In convergent validity, the AVE values for each factor ranged from 0.513 to 0.763; In discriminant validity, the square root of the AVE for each factor exceeded the maximum correlation coefficient with other factors; criterion-related validity analysis revealed that the absolute values of correlation coefficients ρ between the Chinese version of the ASDQ scores and criterion scales ranged from 0.615 to 0.889, all statistically significant. The results of the screening accuracy study showed that the optimal screening cutoff score for the primary screening was 2.49. For the secondary screening, the optimal cutoff score was 2.82. Research has found that the Chinese version of the ASDQ has good reliability and validity, demonstrating high screening accuracy in the detection of ASD. The Chinese version of ASDQ as an effective screening tool for ASD has high clinical application value and public health research value.

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2. Huang PW, Liang SC, Sun CK, Cheng YS, Hung KC. A Meta-analysis of Randomized Placebo-controlled Trials on the Effects of Probiotics for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. 2025; 23(4): 560-71.

OBJECTIVE: The current meta-analysis aimed at updating evidence regarding the therapeutic potential of probiotics against autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms and identifying outcome confounders. METHODS: Following PRISMA guidelines, randomized placebo-controlled trials retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, and ScienceDirect were analyzed for effect size of primary outcomes (i.e., overall behavioral symptom changes) expressed as standardized mean difference (SMD) and odds ratios (ORs) for continuous and categorical variables, respectively, with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Meta-analysis of eight studies (465 participants, mean age: 6.03, range: 1.5-45, female: 17.4%) revealed total ASD symptom improvements in the probiotic group compared to placebos (SMD: -0.19, 95% CI: -0.38 to -0.01, p = 0.04, I(2) = 0%, eight studies, 465 participants, certainty of evidence [COE]: low). Subgroup analyses showed probiotics-associated improvements only in studies recruiting predominantly preschool children (SMD: -0.30, 95% CI: -0.59 to -0.01, p = 0.04, three studies, 191 participants) or those using probiotics for over three months (SMD: -0.39, 95% CI: -0.73 to -0.06, p = 0.04, three studies, 144 participants) without difference between multiple-and single-strain probiotics. No difference was noted in overall dropouts between individuals treated with probiotics and those taking placebos (OR: 0.98, p = 0.94, eight studies, I(2) = 0%, 464 participants, COE: low). Despite a low risk of bias in most studies, COE was deemed low from limited trials and inconsistencies on sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSION: The current study showed an association between probiotics use and an improvement in ASD symptoms, mainly in those aged below six or over three-month treatments. More large-scale investigations are warranted to support our findings.

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3. Kish N, Hoff P, Kish A, Hurwitz R, Garg P. Development and evaluation of an autism information pack for culturally and linguistically diverse families: a quality improvement initiative. BMJ Paediatr Open. 2025; 9(1).

BACKGROUND: Parents of children newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often feel overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of information provided at diagnosis. For the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families in our district, these challenges are compounded by language barriers and limited health literacy. This quality improvement initiative aimed to develop and evaluate an Autism Information Pack to support families during the postdiagnostic period, assessing its feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness, with parent feedback incorporated into future resource development. METHODS: A mixed methods convergent design was used. The pack was developed as part of the first cycle of a quality improvement project by a multidisciplinary clinician stakeholder team, incorporating high-quality existing resources and new content aligned with health literacy principles. Evaluation was conducted across Child Development Assessment Service clinics in South Western Sydney. 19 parents from culturally diverse backgrounds received the pack and completed a baseline questionnaire, followed by a phone interview 3 weeks later. Measures assessed ASD understanding, service navigation confidence, pack engagement and suggestions for improvement. RESULTS: 14 parents completed follow-up. Of these, six read the full pack, four read part of it and four did not engage. Among readers, most reported that it improved their understanding of ASD and confidence in finding supports. All found the content clear, though six noted it was not in their preferred language. Qualitative feedback emphasised the pack’s cultural relevance, value in clarifying ASD and role in supporting navigation. Parents recommended more practical strategies, emotional support and diverse delivery formats. CONCLUSION: This initiative addressed a key service gap for CALD families. The resource is now in routine use and will be translated into Arabic and Vietnamese. Parent feedback will directly inform the next codesigned iteration, which will improve content and multimodal delivery to meet the needs of diverse communities.

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4. Reuter MS, Salazar NB, Howe JL, Hoang N, Sarikaya E, Selvanayagam T, Mendes de Aquino M, Vicente AM, Oliveira G, Freitag CM, Thiruvahindrapuram B, Trost B, Scherer SW. UBR5 loss-of-function variants in autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability: case series and review of the literature. NPJ Genom Med. 2025.

UBR5 encodes an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase which targets distinct N-terminal residues of proteins for degradation. Heterozygous loss-of-function variants were reported in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and developmental delay, and recently in a cohort of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders and variable other features. Here, we report three unrelated individuals with de novo loss-of-function variants in UBR5, presenting with ASD and intellectual disability. We review the literature for other de novo predicted loss-of-function variants in probands with ASD or developmental delay (in total n = 11 variants), providing further evidence that UBR5 haploinsufficiency is associated with ASD and atypical neurodevelopmental trajectories, including developmental delay and intellectual disability.

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5. Saei S, Alizadeh Zarei M, Hassani Mehraban A, Karamali Esmaili S, Kashefimehr B, Abolghasemi J. A mindful parenting program for self-care co-occupation of autistic children on parental outcomes: a feasibility pilot randomized clinical trial. Disabil Rehabil. 2025: 1-17.

PURPOSE: This pilot randomized clinical trial (RCT) evaluated the feasibility and exploratory effects of a mindful parenting participation program integrated into occupational therapy (OT) to enhance parental engagement in the self-care co-occupation of autistic children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to the intervention (mindfulness-based training + conventional OT) or the comparison groups (conventional OT). The two-month intervention was followed by assessments immediately post-intervention and at two months. Outcomes were measured using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Mindfulness in Parenting Questionnaire (MIPQ), Parenting Stress Index (PSI), and CAPES-DD for parental self-efficacy. RESULTS: Feasibility was confirmed, with high rates of acceptability (87.5%), attendance (75%), compliance (75%), and fidelity. The intervention group showed preliminary and exploratory improvement in parental satisfaction with the child’s self-care co-occupation compared to the control group, with a clinically meaningful change (SMD: 2.1 at the post-test, 1.4 at the follow-up). Improvements were also observed in mindful parenting and parenting stress. Parental self-efficacy showed delayed gains, becoming comparable at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Embedding mindfulness into parenting co-occupations is feasible and potentially beneficial in improving parental satisfaction and psychological well-being. Future studies with larger samples and longer follow-up are warranted.

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6. Sartin EB, O’Malley L, Tomlinson AZ, Bennett L, Myers RK, Metzger KB, Bishop HJ, Yerys BE, Curry A. Autistic young adults’ routine travel pre- and post-license. Autism. 2025: 13623613251394558.

Compared with their non-licensed peers, licensed autistic adults appear to report more positive outcomes in objective measures of quality of life, particularly participation in activities outside of the home. We examined if this is due to individual differences/factors or the ability to independently drive. We conducted a prospective follow-up survey study of 16-21 years old in the United States and compared engagement in activities outside of the home over time by licensing status. Our final sample included 111 young adults; at follow-up, 62% did not have a permit or a license, 18% had obtained a permit, and 20% were licensed. Generally, travel patterns were consistent, except for reported increases in employment. The lack of overall differences across groups over time suggests individual differences in resources, barriers/facilitators to traveling, or general characteristics may underlie objective measures of quality of life rather than the obtainment of a license. Furthermore, regardless of licensure status, most respondents were not traveling everywhere they wanted to go, and nearly 80% were interested in a transportation modality they did not currently use. Thus, there is a continued need to support autistic adults’ independent use of various transportation modalities.Lay abstractShort Report: Obtaining a driver’s license may not change autistic young adults’ engagement in activities outside of the homeAutistic adults who have a driver’s license say they participate in activities outside of their home, like employment or socializing, more often than those who do not have a license. It is unclear if this is because these adults can drive or if people who obtain licenses are different in some way than those who do not obtain a license. To examine this, we administered multiple surveys to a group of autistic young adults (16-21 years old) to see if their travel patterns changed after obtaining a license. In total, 111 young adults completed our surveys. Generally, we did not see changes in adults’ travel patterns, regardless of if they obtained a license or not. The only change was an increase in employment over time among young adults who never obtained a learner’s permit/license and those who obtained a license. Overall, our findings suggest that individual differences may be why some adults are engaged in activities outside of the home more often than others. We also found that most adults in our sample were not traveling everywhere they wanted to go or using all the modes of transportation they were interested in. This suggests more efforts are needed that improve autistic adults’ independent mobility across transportation modes (e.g., driving, public transportation).

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7. Shafieizadegan S, Shayegh F, Amirfattahi R. Age-Related Changes in Default Mode Network in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Insights From Effective Connectivity. Hum Brain Mapp. 2025; 46(17): e70410.

Altered brain connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) has frequently been reported in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) patients compared to typically developing control (TC) participants. Most of these studies have focused on a specific age group or mixed-age groups with ASD. This study investigates age-related changes in effective connectivity (EC) within the DMN in individuals with ASD compared to TC. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the ABIDE-I and ABIDE-II databases, we analyzed 591 ASD and 725 TC participants across three age cohorts: children (≤ 12 years), adolescents (12-18 years), and adults (≥ 18 years). Spectral Dynamic Causal Modeling was employed to estimate EC within the DMN, focusing on eight regions of interest: posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), left/right inferior parietal cortex (lIPC/rIPC), left/right middle temporal cortex (lMTC/rMTC), and left/right hippocampus (lHIP/rHIP). Parametric Empirical Bayes (PEB) analysis was used to assess group differences and age-related changes in EC, while controlling for covariates such as gender, handedness, eye status, and head motion. Key findings revealed significant group differences in EC between ASD and TC across all age groups. In children, ASD exhibited both hyper- and hypo-connectivity in various DMN connections, with most connections showing increased EC in ASD. Adolescents and adults with ASD displayed a mixed pattern of group differences in EC, though the majority of connections showed hypo-connectivity in ASD. Age-by-group interactions observed in children and adolescents not adults, highlighted nonlinear developmental trajectories, with significant differences in EC patterns between ASD and TC. Additionally, in children and adults several extrinsic and intrinsic connections were associated significantly with diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS) symptom severity, such as overall ASD symptoms, communication and stereotyped behaviors, which these connections may serve as a neural marker of symptom severity in ASD. These findings underscore the dynamic nature of EC abnormalities in ASD across the lifespan, suggesting that early hyper-connectivity may transition to hypo-connectivity in later developmental stages. The study highlights the potential of EC as a biomarker for ASD and emphasizes the importance of age-specific approaches in understanding the neural underpinnings of the disorder. Future research with larger datasets is needed to validate these findings and further explore the clinical relevance of EC in ASD diagnostics and interventions.

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8. Uisma AM, Virkki T, Ylilahti M. Misunderstood, Minimised, Misrepresented: Autistic Young Adults’ Experiences of Epistemic Injustices in Healthcare Interactions Around Autism. Sociol Health Illn. 2026; 48(1): e70124.

This article explores autistic young adults’ experiences of epistemic injustice in healthcare interactions where autism is invoked and a subject of misaligned sensemakings. We take a particular focus on hermeneutical injustice, which refers to the difficulty of understanding and communicating one’s experiences due to gaps and biases in sensemaking resources. Earlier research concerning autistic individuals from this perspective is sparse and mostly theoretical. Our study addresses this gap by conducting abductive thematic analysis on interview and questionnaire data from Finnish autistic young adults. This approach enabled us to recognise biases and hierarchies, such as neuronormativity and epistemic hierarchies, while also describing a new, paradoxical kind of hermeneutical injustice not covered by earlier research. Our results indicate how the often-intertwined forms of epistemic injustices are related to a lack of representativeness in how autism is understood as well as to how the exclusion of certain kinds of knowledge and knowers, along with the devaluations of expressive styles, impact autistic people’s epistemic agency, identities and access to care. We argue for more inclusive epistemic approaches in healthcare that appreciate autistic contributions, recognise the diversity of autistic experience and expression, and challenge the reductive assumptions embedded in diagnostic and professional practices.

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9. Wang LL, Gao Y, Yan C, Hu HX, Huang J, Lui SSY, Wang Y, Chan RCK. Altered posterior mid-cingulate cortex activation during adaptive coding in individuals with schizotypal traits, subthreshold depression and autistic traits. J Psychiatr Res. 2025; 193: 163-71.

Anhedonia is a shared symptom for schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Adaptive coding concerns the rescaling of the neural output to the range of values expected in the current context, and impaired adaptive coding may contribute to anhedonia. Previous research seldom compared the neural correlates of adaptive coding between individuals with schizotypal trait (ST), subthreshold depression (SD), autistic trait (AT). Thirty-five ST, 35 SD, 23 AT and 34 HC completed the adaptive version of the Monetary Incentive Delay Task in fMRI. Adaptive coding performance for the expected value (EV) and outcome value (OV) was recorded. Another separate task was used to measure the adaptive coding performance behaviourally. Anhedonia was measured using self-reported questionnaires. ST, SD and AT groups showed hyper-activation of the posterior mid-cingulate cortex (pMCC) during EV adaptation of reward as compared to HC. SD showed hyper-activation in supplementary motor area (SMA) as compared to HC during OV adaptation to rewards. The neural and behavioural performance of adaptive coding were correlated with self-reported pleasure experience in ST, SD and AT groups. These findings suggested shared and distinct aberrant neural patterns of adaptive coding in individuals with ST, SD and AT. The atypical adaptive coding performance was linked to anhedonia in all subclinical groups. Adaptive coding may have an important role in intervention or prevention of anhedonia symptoms.

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10. Yahia S, El-Gilany AH, Magdy RM, Bebars GM, Fadle YS, Dawoud H, NS EL, Moussa MM, Assy R, Sadek AA, Abdelmoneim Z. A multicenter study on clinico-epidemiological profile of phenylketonuria in Egyptian children. Sci Rep. 2025; 15(1): 42928.

Phenylketonuria is the most common heritable metabolic disorder. Early detection through newborn screening and proper nutritional management are essential for preventing neurodevelopmental complications. This study aims to describe the epidemiological profile of PKU in Egypt, assess the impact of early diagnosis, and examine the relationship between dietary adherence and comorbidities, including developmental and growth impairment. This is a multicenter retrospective cross-sectional study conducted in four university hospitals in Egypt between January 2024 and January 2025. A total of 365 patients with PKU aged 0-18 years were included. Data on demographics, phenotype classification, complications, and diet adherence were collected. We found that the most common PKU phenotype was classic PKU (36.3%). Early diagnosis through NBS was reported in 67.7%, and dietary adherence in 79.5%. Developmental delay was significantly lower in early-diagnosed children (3.2%) than in late-diagnosed children (100%). BH4 deficiency (1.6%) was associated with developmental delay and epilepsy despite early diagnosis. Diet adherence was linked to lower phenylalanine levels and fewer complications. Neurodevelopmental problems in PKU were decreased by the national NBS program. Better results depend on early diagnosis, diet adherence, and awareness of BH4 deficiency. Diet non-adherence not only worsens neurodevelopmental outcomes but also negatively affects growth parameters in these children.

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11. Yeung MK, Chung HCW, Han YMY. Comorbid psychopathological symptoms mediate the relationships between autistic traits and both well-being and neurocognitive functioning. J Psychiatr Res. 2025; 193: 198-207.

Higher autistic traits are associated with poorer well-being and neurocognitive functioning in the general population. Given the connection between various psychopathological symptoms and autistic traits, as well as their influence across different domains, this study aimed to investigate whether comorbid psychopathological symptoms could explain the impacts of autistic traits on subjective well-being and neurocognitive functioning in a nonclinical sample. Fifty-nine young adults self-reported their autistic traits and symptoms of inattention/hyperactivity, depression, anxiety, and psychosis. Subjective well-being, defined by quality of life and satisfaction with life, was also measured. In addition, neurocognitive functioning was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, which measured frontal cortex activation during working memory and facial age/emotion recognition tasks. We found that higher levels of autistic traits were associated with increased symptoms across various psychopathologies and with lower subjective well-being and poorer cognitive functioning. However, multiple regression analyses showed that comorbid psychopathological symptoms, rather than autistic traits, predicted poorer well-being, reduced cognitive task performance, and lower frontal cortex activation during a challenging working memory task. One exception was the negative association between autistic traits and quality of life in social relationships, which was not predicted by comorbid psychopathology. Mediation analyses further revealed a mediating role of comorbid psychopathological symptoms in most of the relationships between autistic traits and well-being or cognitive task performance. Almost no relationships involving autistic traits remained significant after controlling for comorbid psychopathology. Overall, these findings have clarified the specificity and mechanisms underlying the impacts of autistic traits on well-being and cognitive task performance. They underscore the importance of considering comorbid psychopathological symptoms when trying to understand the impact of autistic traits on well-being and neurocognitive functioning.

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