1. Prenatal exposure to paracetamol and the risk of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An umbrella review and meta-meta-analysis. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2026.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

2. Bagui S, Nanda A, Dey G. Effect of Probiotics on GI Symptom Management in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2026; 70(20).

Autism spectrum disorder has increased worldwide over the past few decades. Medical comorbidities are common in patients with ASD, with gastrointestinal (GI) diseases being especially common. Involvement of the gut-brain axis that communicates between the enteric and central nervous systems has been confirmed by several studies that have reported abnormal microbiota profiles in ASD subjects. In this review, a systematic database search was conducted. Six trials were included in the subgroup analysis that compared probiotic therapy with single or multiple strains to a placebo with respect to gastrointestinal severity index. The pooled effect size model revealed a slight decrease in gastrointestinal symptoms that favored probiotic supplementation (SMD = -0.189; 95% CI = -0.398 to 0.020; Z = -1.773, p = 0.07; I(2) = 39.4%). There was a moderate level of heterogeneity among the included studies. Additionally, the effects of single-strain and multiple-strain probiotic formulations were compared to their respective placebo groups using subgroup analysis. The results demonstrated that single-strain probiotic medication reduced gastrointestinal symptoms when compared to the placebo group. However, there was no statistically significant difference between multiple-strain probiotic therapy and a placebo. To accurately establish the therapeutic effects of probiotics on ASD, more randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies are required.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

3. Clarke EB, Wellmann M, Kubis-Badilla J, Lord C, Bal VH. Potential for Life Skills Growth in Adults With Profound Autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2026.

PURPOSE: Research on autistic adults has expanded rapidly in recent years. However, few studies focus on adults with profound autism, despite this subgroup having substantial support needs across the life course. Daily living skills (DLS)-including personal care, household chores, and community tasks-are closely tied to independence and service needs in adulthood. The current study applied an item-level coding framework to informant-report DLS data to identify intervention targets for this population. METHOD: Parents and staff members of 36 autistic adults (m(age) = 35.23 [5.31], 19.4% female, 77% White) who met profound criteria (m(verbal IQ) = 19.56 [13.17] m(nonverbal IQ) = 25.0 [19.14]) completed the Vineland adaptive behavior scales, third edition (VABS-3) caregiver interview. A coding scheme developed by Teh and colleagues (2023) was applied to DLS items scored as « never or seldom » completed independently to characterize why skills were not achieved. RESULTS: Patterns of reasons why skills were not achieved differed significantly across DLS domains (i.e., Personal, Domestic, Community; χ(2)(10) = 137.99, p < .001). Domestic skills were significantly more likely to be rated "Able-Reminded," while Community skills were significantly more likely to be rated "Unable-Cognitive." Many unachieved skills reflected modifiable barriers (e.g., limited opportunities for learning, reliance on prompts) rather than inability, highlighting concrete targets for improving life skills in adults with profound autism. CONCLUSION: Autistic adults with profound autism retain meaningful potential for continued growth in DLS in adulthood. Item-level analysis of adaptive behavior may pinpoint intervention targets that are not apparent from summary scores alone.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

4. Han S, Wang D, Sheng W, Chu N. Integrating multi-omics data through deep learning with applications to autism risk gene prioritization. Brief Bioinform. 2026; 27(5).

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder. Advances in genetic research, particularly whole-exome sequencing studies, have identified an increasing number of ASD risk genes, especially through large-effect rare variant analyses. However, current rare-variant studies still have limited power to recover the full spectrum of ASD risk genes, leaving a substantial gap between known genes and the estimated genetic architecture of ASD. To address this challenge, we developed Deep-MOTIFs (Multi-Omics inTegratIon For autiSm), a Bayesian-guided positive-unlabeled deep learning framework for multi-omics integration that combines genetic, transcriptomic, and protein-interaction evidence for genome-wide ASD risk-gene prioritization. Deep-MOTIFs achieved stronger performance than existing methods across held-out ASD gene prediction, top-ranked prioritization, positive-label efficiency, and label-noise robustness analyses. Functional enrichment and genome-wide decile analyses further supported the biological relevance of the top-ranked candidates, showing convergence on ASD-related phenotypic annotations and synaptic, neurodevelopmental, and chromatin-regulatory mechanisms. Together, these results support Deep-MOTIFs as a robust framework for ASD risk-gene prioritization under incomplete supervision. Source code is available at: https://github.com/shan-team/Deep-MOTIFs.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

5. Hendry A, Begum Ali J, Johnson MH, Jones EJH, Charman T. Associations between Simple and Complex Executive Function skills and adaptive function in a sample of 3-year-olds enriched for variation in autism and ADHD traits. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2026.

BACKGROUND: Adaptive Functioning-including communication, socialization, and daily living skills-predicts outcomes and quality of life for individuals who are autistic or have ADHD, yet its cognitive underpinnings in early development remain poorly understood. Executive Functions (EFs) are a plausible mechanism linking developmental level or IQ to Adaptive Functioning, but prior work in preschoolers has relied largely on parent-reported EF measures, which are vulnerable to shared method variance with parent-reported Adaptive Functioning. Here, we examine associations between performance-based EF and parent-reported Adaptive Functioning among 3-year-olds enriched for variation in autism and ADHD traits. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-nine children (109 with a family history of autism and/or ADHD) completed six EF tasks, reduced through factor analysis to scores for Simple EF (pertaining to simple response inhibition, holding information in mind, and applying a rule) and Complex EF (involving complex response inhibition, shifting response in accordance with a new task set, and updating information). Adaptive Functioning was assessed using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition. Autism traits, ADHD traits and developmental level were measured using the SRS-2, CBCL-Preschool, and MSEL, respectively. Hierarchical regression models tested whether each EF index was positively associated with Adaptive Functioning, and whether these effects remained after controlling for developmental level, autism traits, and ADHD traits. RESULTS: Both Simple and Complex EF were positively associated with Adaptive Functioning (β = .293, .316). While associations between Simple EF and Adaptive Functioning were accounted for by general developmental level, Complex EF showed associations with Adaptive Functioning above and beyond developmental level, autism, and ADHD traits. CONCLUSIONS: EFs in general, and Complex EF in particular, represent a promising, developmentally-sensitive target for early support in the toddler or preschool years, which could positively impact the day-to-day functioning of children with a family history of autism/ADHD, or already showing elevated autism traits.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

6. Hwang E, Shin S, Lee A, Kim W, Yoon HG, Kwon Y, Seo D, Kim D, Kim E, Lee E. Entrainment of prefrontal theta synchrony increases interbrain coupling and enhances social interaction in mouse models of autism. Nat Commun. 2026; 17(1).

Social interaction requires the integration of information about self, other, and shared context. One of the proposed mechanisms supporting this coordination is interbrain synchrony – correlated neural activity between interacting individuals – yet its role in shaping social behavior remains unresolved. Here, we show that theta band synchrony in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is closely linked to social interaction in mice and often precedes its onset. In male Shank2 mutant mice, a genetic model of social dysfunction, mPFC interbrain synchrony was diminished, along with a reduced population of mPFC neurons encoding multiple dimensions of social information. Optogenetic entrainment of theta synchrony was accompanied by increased interbrain coupling and social interaction in male Shank2(-/-) and Tbr1(+/K228E) mutant mice, two well-established genetic models of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These findings identify prefrontal theta synchrony as a neural substrate that supports social behavior and provide a framework for understanding how coordinated neural activity across brains contributes to social interaction.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

7. Jalowska P, Prokopczyk A, Sokołowski M. Physical Fitness Outcomes in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder Following Judo Training in Inclusive Settings with Neurotypical Peers. Pediatr Rep. 2026; 18(5).

BACKGROUND: Physical fitness plays an important role in healthy development; however, children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically demonstrate lower physical fitness levels than their neurotypical peers. This study examined changes in physical fitness during 10 months of judo training in inclusive groups. METHODS: Ninety children and adolescents aged 7-14 years (36 with ASD and 54 neurotypical peers) participated. Physical fitness was assessed with the EUROFIT test battery at baseline and after 5 and 10 months of training. RESULTS: Both groups significantly improved in overall physical fitness and in most individual tests. The Group × Time interaction was significant only for balance, flexibility, and the total EUROFIT (European Physical Fitness Test Battery) score; in the remaining tests, both groups changed at similar rates. CONCLUSIONS: Judo training conducted in inclusive groups may be a valuable form of physical activity for children and adolescents with ASD, as it was accompanied by improvements in physical fitness. The findings also support the feasibility of implementing judo programs in inclusive settings.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

8. Ke Y, He Q, Jiang W, Chen Y, Ke Y. Cortical surface-based descriptors for childhood autism classification using segmentation-guided cortical reconstruction from sMRI. Biomed Tech (Berl). 2026; 71(4-5): 335-48.

OBJECTIVES: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves subtle and heterogeneous brain-structural differences that are not usually visible on routine structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). This study investigated a segmentation-guided sMRI feature-classification framework for childhood ASD analysis. METHODS: Pediatric T1-weighted sMRI scans were obtained from the publicly available Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange II (ABIDE-II) dataset. Preprocessing used the FMRIB Software Library (FSL) Brain Extraction Tool (BET), N4 bias-field correction, intensity normalization, and Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs) registration. Gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were segmented using FSL FAST, and cortical reconstruction/parcellation was performed using FreeSurfer recon-all. Extracted features included global structural summaries, regional cortical gray-matter volume, cortical surface area, cortical thickness, cortical-thickness variability, mean curvature, and folding index. Each participant was represented by a 414-dimensional numerical feature vector. Features were normalized, filtered, selected using minimum-redundancy maximum-relevance (mRMR) analysis, and classified using support vector machine, random forest, k-nearest neighbors, and multilayer perceptron models. RESULTS: The multilayer perceptron achieved 69.4 % accuracy, 67.9 % precision, 70.0 % sensitivity, 68.8 % specificity, 68.9 % F1-score, and 72.6 % area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). CONCLUSIONS: Extracted quantitative sMRI features supported ASD-versus-typical-control classification.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

9. Li Y, Wang W, Liu W. CNTN4: A Possible Candidate Gene for Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Autism. 2026: 13623613261493643.

The gut microbiota plays a significant role in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), though findings vary substantially across studies. Using gut microbiome data from a genome-wide association study of 5,959 participants and summary statistics from 46,351 ASD and 55,374 ADHD cases, we conducted bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses with inverse variance weighting as the primary method. Reverse MR analysis assessed potential reverse causality. We annotated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with SNP-nexus to identify associated genes, followed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses to characterize their functional roles. Seventeen gut microbial taxa showed causal associations with ASD risk, while 27 were linked to ADHD. Reverse MR analysis revealed associations between aSD and species Desulfovibrio piger as well as species Bacillus U, but no reverse causality was detected for ADHD. Biological annotation identified five novel conserved genes in host-microbiome interactions shared by ASD and ADHD, with CNTN4 emerging as a common candidate gene. These findings support a potential causal relationship between gut microbiota and ASD/ADHD risk while uncovering novel conserved genes implicated in host-microbiome interactions for both disorders.Lay AbstractDistinct gut microbiota profiles were observed in individuals with ADHD and ASD. Seventeen microbial species showed significant associations with ASD, while 27 were linked to ADHD. CNTN4 emerged as a potential candidate gene shared across both neurodevelopmental conditions and host-microbiome interactions.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

10. Papatheodorou S, Choi HM, Huybrechts KF, Hernandez-Diaz S, Liu Y, Zhang D, Shupler M, Leung M, Huang W, Qiu X, Wei Y, McDougle CJ, Papatheodorou E, Schwartz JD, Coull BA, Weisskopf MG, Zanobetti A. Prenatal Exposure to Wildfire PM2.5 and Risk of ASD and ADHD in Children Enrolled in Medicaid. JAMA Pediatr. 2026.

IMPORTANCE: Wildfires are an increasing source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), yet evidence on prenatal wildfire smoke exposure and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes remains limited. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether prenatal exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 is associated with risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a population-based cohort study of the US nationwide Medicaid population using Medicaid Analytic Extract (MAX) data from 2007 to 2014 with follow-up through childhood. Included were mother-child pairs with continuous enrollment and stable residential zip code during pregnancy. EXPOSURE: Weekly wildfire smoke-attributable PM2.5 at 1-km2 resolution, aggregated to the zip code level across pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Incident ASD and ADHD identified using validated claims-based algorithms. Associations were estimated using Cox proportional-hazards models with distributed lag nonlinear models. RESULTS: A total of 893 212 mother-child pairs (mother mean [SD] age, 24.7 [5.9] years) were included in this analysis. Children entered the cohort at birth (452 218 [50.6%] male). Mean (SD) observed follow-up was 6.3 (2.4) years for children diagnosed with ASD and 7.1 (1.9) years for children diagnosed with ADHD. Among 893 212 children, 8357 were diagnosed with ASD and 22 302 with ADHD. The cumulative incidence until age 8 years was 1.9% for ASD and 10.4% for ADHD. An IQR increase in cumulative wildfire PM2.5 exposure (0.75 µg/m3) during pregnancy was associated with increased risk of ASD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.30; 95% CI, 1.07-1.59) but not ADHD (HR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.91-1.17). Associations for ASD were strongest during midpregnancy to late gestation compared with early gestation. Results were robust to sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Results of this cohort study show that prenatal exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 may be associated with increased risk of ASD but not ADHD. These findings highlight the potential neurodevelopmental impacts of wildfire smoke and underscore the need for strategies to reduce exposure during pregnancy as wildfire activity intensifies.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

11. Schröder SS, Danner UN, Spek A, Elburg AV. The Association Between Cognitive Flexibility and Eating Behaviors in Autistic Women With Eating Disorders. J Clin Psychol. 2026.

OBJECTIVE: Reduced cognitive flexibility is a trait associated with autism and has also been implicated in eating disorders (EDs). However, most studies have not distinguished between autistic and non-autistic individuals in ED samples, potentially obscuring group-specific patterns. This study investigated self-reported cognitive flexibility and its association with eating behaviors (traditional ED pathology and ARFID symptomatology) across four groups: autistic women with EDs (ASD + ED), non-autistic women with EDs (ED), autistic women without EDs (ASD), and non-autistic controls. METHOD: Participants included 30 ASD + ED, 30 ED, 29 ASD, and 60 control women (N = 149). All completed the Detail and Flexibility Questionnaire (DFlex), the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), and the Nine Item ARFID Screen (NIAS). Group comparisons were conducted on self-reported cognitive flexibility (cognitive rigidity, attention to detail), ED pathology, and ARFID symptoms. Associations between cognitive flexibility and eating behaviors were examined across and within groups. RESULTS: ASD + ED and ASD groups showed significantly greater difficulties in self-reported cognitive flexibility than ED and control groups, which did not differ from each other. Associations between self-reported cognitive flexibility and eating behaviors varied across groups, with attention to detail showing the clearest pattern. Attention to detail was associated with ED pathology in the ASD + ED group and with ARFID symptomatology in the ASD + ED, ASD, and control groups, but not in the ED group. CONCLUSION: These exploratory findings suggest that self-reported cognitive inflexibility may be more strongly associated with autism than with EDs alone and highlight the importance of considering co-occurring autism when examining cognitive characteristics in ED populations. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This study explored how cognitive traits – like attention to detail – relate to eating behaviors in autistic and non-autistic women with and without eating disorders. Findings suggest that certain thinking patterns may be more closely linked to autism than to eating disorders alone, underscoring the need for greater clinical awareness of autism-specific features when assessing and supporting individuals with disordered eating.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

12. Xing Y, Zakaria N, Zhou X, Xu H, Jomhari N. A systematic review of collaborative interventions between physical products and digital applications for children with autism spectrum disorder from an evidence-based perspective – Evidence accumulation characteristics and implications for design review. Assist Technol. 2026: 1-14.

Integrated physical product-digital application systems support autistic children, but component collaboration and evidence generation remain underexamined. Following PRISMA 2020, six databases were searched (2015-2025); two reviewers screened studies involving autistic participants aged ≤ 18 years and appraised artifact and evaluation reporting using DSR-oriented appraisal. Of 7,245 records, 20 studies were included. Social interaction was the most common target, followed by emotional skills and attention. Studies were concentrated among school-aged children and in structured educational or clinical settings. Applications most frequently served as content or training hubs, followed by personalizers or decision engines; other roles were uncommon. DSR-oriented reporting adequacy was high in five studies, acceptable in four, and low in eleven. More complete evidence chains generally involved clearer component roles, stronger links between system functions and outcomes, and more transparent evaluation procedures. Research themes expanded over time but remained parallel and heterogeneous rather than forming a unified cumulative pathway. The findings suggest that progress may depend less on technological variety than on stable links among user requirements, system architecture, implementation conditions, and long-term outcome assessment. We propose an evidence-oriented heuristic framework covering deployment controllability, outcome verifiability and evaluation-chain complexity, which supports cumulative evidence generation for tangible-digital autism interventions.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

13. Zhang K, Zhang S, Kong J, Chen J. Exploring ASD Identification Using Different Types of Eye-Tracking Features. J Eye Mov Res. 2026; 19(5).

Eye tracking offers a non-invasive way of examining social visual attention in children and may support the objective identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, small-sample studies are often affected by individual differences, inconsistent feature selection, and limited integration of different gaze representations. This study explored a dynamic and static multiscale feature fusion framework for classifying children with pre-existing clinical ASD diagnoses and typically developing (TD) children using eye-tracking data collected during an emotion recognition task. After quality screening, 44 children aged 4-7 years were included (18 ASD and 26 TD). Static statistical features, dynamic sequences, early feature concatenation, and multiscale fusion were evaluated using participant-independent data partitioning, with static feature selection restricted to the training participants in each split. CNN-LSTM with multiscale fusion achieved an accuracy of 0.78 ± 0.08, ASD recall of 0.65 ± 0.22, F1-score of 0.71 ± 0.12, and AUC of 0.76 ± 0.16. A fully nested leave-one-participant-out evaluation provided additional internal validation of participant-level classification. Overall, the results indicate that different approaches to combining static and dynamic gaze representations may lead to different classification outcomes, while further validation in larger independent samples is needed.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)

14. Zuk NJ, Slobodskoy-Plusnin JY, Weiss Y, Sampath V, Düsterwald KM, Akrami A, Ahissar M. Neurocognitive characteristics of perceptual feedback processing differ in autism. J Neurosci. 2026.

Autistic individuals often show reduced adaptation to changing environmental demands, but the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this difference remain unclear. We asked whether it may be explained by reduced sensitivity to external feedback and changes in task difficulty. Autistic and non-autistic adults of either sex, matched for cognitive ability, performed a pitch discrimination task in which their response was immediately followed by feedback. Accuracy was similar between the two groups, yet autistic participants exhibited a markedly reduced feedback-related negativity (FRN), an event-related EEG potential differentiating explicit negative versus positive feedback. They also showed weaker modulation of feedback-evoked EEG responses by perceptual difficulty. Lastly, they showed reduced trial-by-trial behavioral updating of perceptual bias following recent correct and easy trials. These effects were replicated in a follow-up experiment conducted 1-2 years later. When combined they classified autistic and non-autistic participants with about 80% accuracy. Together, our findings indicate that multiple processes for evaluating perceptual decisions and adjusting subsequent behavior differ in autism and likely contribute to slow updating in changing contexts.Significance Statement Autism is associated with reduced adaptation to changing environments in both behavior and neural signals, but the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that autistic individuals exhibit a reduced feedback-related negativity (FRN), an EEG component that is present when receiving negative instead of positive feedback. They also show weaker neural modulation by perceptual difficulty and reduced trial-by-trial behavioral updating of perceptual bias following recent correct and easy trials. These effects were replicated in a follow-up study. When combined, they classified autistic and non-autistic participants with high accuracy. These findings suggest that reduced flexibility in autism is associated with reduced processing of external feedback and task difficulty.

Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)