Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

In this chapter, we highlight the advantages, progress, and pending challenges of developing electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) biomarkers for use in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We describe reasons why global efforts towards precision treatment in ASD are utilizing EEG indices to quantify biological mechanisms. We overview common sensory processing and attention biomarkers and provide translational examples examining the genetic etiology of autism across animal...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

The promise of individually tailored care for autism has driven efforts to establish biomarkers. This chapter appraises the state of precision-medicine research focused on biomarkers based on the functional brain connectome. This work is grounded on abundant evidence supporting the brain dysconnection model of autism and the advantages of resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) for studying the brain in vivo. After considering biomarker requirements of consistency and clinical relevance, we...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

Since the early 1990s, there have literally been thousands of reports related to magnetic resonance imaging of the autistic brain. The goals of these studies have ranged from identifying the earliest biological predictors of an autistic diagnosis to determining brain systems most altered in autistic individuals. Some of the later works attempt to use distinct patterns of brain alterations to help define more homogenous subtypes of autism. Far less work has been done to identify brain changes...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

There is no simple blood test for autism. Consequently, much attention has been paid to identifying noninvasive biomarkers using imaging (e.g., Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI) and electrophysiological (e.g., electroencephalography, EEG and magnetoencephalography, MEG) methods. While, in general, these lack direct biological specificity, they can (in principle) provide a useful tool, or suite of tools, for diagnostic, prognostic, stratification, and response monitoring purposes.This chapter...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

Given the high co-occurrence of social anxiety in autism, no reviews to date have explored how cognitive and behavioural mechanisms identified to maintain social anxiety in non-autistic individuals may operate in autistic individuals. This systematic review evaluated: (1) empirical evidence underlying the Clark and Wells (1995) Cognitive Model of Social Anxiety in autistic individuals; (2) how vulnerability factors identified from autism literature (beyond core autistic traits) may be associated...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

No abstract

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that using a two-stage model involving autoencoder and SCNN can notably improve the classification of ASD from brain MRI volumetric images. Applying an iterative feature extraction approach allowed to achieve a more accurate identification of ASD-related brain areas. This two-stage approach not only improved classification performance but also enhanced the interpretability of the neuroimaging data.

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

Depression and suicide attempts are reported to be high among medical students. It has also been reported that depression, suicide attempts, and autistic traits may be significantly related. The aim of this study was to determine the suicide probability and autistic traits of medical students with and without depression symptoms, and to examine the relationship between depression symptoms, suicide probability, and autistic traits together in these students. This cross-sectional study was...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

Spoken narrative skills are important for adolescents in their everyday lives. Previous research suggests that producing well-structured and coherent narratives may be challenging for autistic young people. Mentalising, also known as "advanced Theory of Mind" (ToM) and "Executive Function" (EF) are two cognitive abilities frequently explored in relation to autism, both of which may be implicated in narrative ability. The present study investigated these relationships in a group of autistic...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

This paper explores the potential of a Virtual Reality (VR) intervention to facilitate communication about sensitive topics between adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their special education teachers. The VR intervention was developed in collaboration with Special education teachers, incorporating feedback from a design workshop to create a VR application featuring activities like basketball, air hockey, drawing, and avatar customization. The VR application was evaluated through two...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

Societal expectations for social-emotional behavior differ across sexes; however, diagnostic definitions of autism do not account for this when delineating "typical" versus "atypical." This study examines sex differences in autism in one behavior associated with strong gender biases: smiling. Computer vision was used to quantify smiling in 60 autistic (20 female) and 67 neurotypical (25 female) youth during conversations. Effects of sex and diagnosis were examined on degree of smiling, smile...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

Being a father of an autistic son is a profound and complex experience. Fathers adapt to their autistic sons' unique needs and are always in search of services to ease uncertainties about their sons' present and future. We interviewed 10 Hungarian fathers who have adult-aged autistic children. We asked them about their experiences raising their autistic sons during childhood and adulthood. Our study focused on fathers of adult-aged sons because most research has studied mothers' experiences of...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

CONCLUSION: This study is a supplement to the mechanism of the relationship between autistic traits and depression. Interpersonal emotion regulation and social self-efficacy are important predictors of possible depression in individuals with high autistic traits. These findings suggest combining interpersonal emotional regulation training and exploring the clinical value of interpersonal emotional regulation interventions in individuals with high autistic traits and autism spectrum disorder,...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

The association between prenatal phthalate mixture exposure and the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, as well as the potential mechanism and impact of maternal vitamin D, remains unclear. We analyzed data from 3209 mother-child pairs. The associations between prenatal phthalate exposure and autistic traits in children aged 1.5, 3, 5, and 6 years were explored. Furthermore, the modifying effects of maternal vitamin D and the adverse outcome pathway, which elucidates the...

Le Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0500

CONCLUSION: This result indicates that the quality of sibling interactions in families with a child with ASD may play a significant role in reducing ASD severity and improving the quality of sibling interactions, rather than the number of siblings alone affecting the social interactions of children with ASD.