Socioeconomic Factors Account for Variability in Language Skills in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Developmental Behavioural Pediatrics :Although no longer required for a diagnosis, language delays are extremely common in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Factors associated with socioeconomic status (SES) have broad-reaching impact on language development in early childhood. Despite recent advances in characterizing autism in early childhood, the relationship between SES and language development in ASD has not received much attention.

"weak evidence that EIBI may be an effective behavioral treatment for some children with ASD"

Questioning Answers: Today I bring to your attention the 'Cochrane does...' findings reported by Brian Reichow and colleagues [1] which concluded that: "There is weak evidence that EIBI [early intensive behavioral intervention] may be an effective behavioral treatment for some children with ASD [autism spectrum disorder]."

Sulforaphane and autism continued: metabolomics wades in..

QuestioningAnswers: "We identified 77 urinary metabolites that were correlated with changes in symptoms, and they clustered into pathways of oxidative stress, amino acid/gut microbiome, neurotransmitters, hormones, and sphingomyelin metabolism."
So said the findings reported by Stephen Bent and colleagues [1] continuing a theme in autism research circles examining the use of a compound called sulforaphane - "a supplement with indirect antioxidant effects that are derived from broccoli sprouts and seeds" - in the context of [some] autism . Once again, I'm sure that there may be people out there with brows furrowing when it comes to talk of a 'broccoli chemical' potentially impacting on the presentation of autism. But peer-reviewed science (placebo-controlled) is peer-reviewed science [2] and not just to be 'put to one side' because it doesn't follow the trends or [research] fashions of the day.

Why do some people with autism have restricted interests and repetitive movements?

TheConversation: As a society, we’ve come a long way in our understanding of the challenges people with autism face with social communication. But there is a large gap in our understanding of another cluster of behaviours that form part of an autism diagnosis: restrictive and repetitive behaviours and interests (RRBs). These behaviours and interests appear to be made up of two dimensions. The first is a pattern of overly regulated thinking: obsessions and intense interests; a strong preference for maintaining sameness; and ritualistic or habitual patterns of behaviour, such as fiddling, or motor tics like blinking or throat clearing.

Kids at higher risk of autism if mum has diabetes

Scimex: Kids of mums who have any of the three main types of diabetes during pregnancy are at higher risk of developing autism, according to US research. The study showed that type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as gestational, or pregnancy related diabetes, diagnosed before 26 weeks were all linked to an increased risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder. The authors say that, while the study cannot show that diabetes causes autism, it does suggest the severity of the mother's diabetes and the timing of exposure (early vs late in pregnancy) may be linked with the risk of children developing autism.

Association of Food Allergy, Other Allergies With Autism Spectrum Disorder

JAMA: Food and other types of allergies are more likely to be reported in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than in children without ASD but the underlying reasons for this association aren’t clear.
Why The Research Is Interesting: A diagnosis of ASD has become more common among U.S. children but it isn’t clear why or what causes ASD. Some studies have suggested immune system dysfunction may potentially play a role. Allergies are common medical conditions of immune dysfunction in children.

Autism not linked to eating fish during pregnancy – large new study

The Conversation: Eating fish while you’re pregnant does not increase the chance that your child will be autistic or have autistic traits, our latest study shows. In fact, our study suggests that fish may be beneficial for the development of a healthy nervous system. A possible link between mercury exposure and autism has been the subject of much debate over the years. In pregnancy, mercury travels in the mother’s blood through the placenta and into the foetus, where it acts as a toxin, affecting the development of the foetal nervous system.

Early brain changes may help predict autism among high-risk infants

NIH: Brain changes at age 6 or 12 months may help predict the development of autism spectrum disorder by age 2 years among infants with a high family risk, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Currently, autism can be diagnosed as early as age 2 years, based on certain behaviors and communication difficulties. The study, funded by the NIH Autism Centers of Excellence Program, is published in the February 16, 2017, issue of Nature.

Brain Scans Show Early Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder

NIH: For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), early diagnosis is critical to allow for possible interventions at a time when the brain is most amenable to change. But that’s been tough to implement for a simple reason: the symptoms of ASD, such as communication difficulties, social deficits, and repetitive behaviors, often do not show up until a child turns 2 or even 3 years old.
Now, an NIH-funded research team has news that may pave the way for earlier detection of ASD. The key is to shift the diagnostic focus from how kids act to how their brains grow. In their brain imaging study, the researchers found that, compared to other children, youngsters with ASD showed unusually rapid brain growth from infancy to age 2. In fact, the growth differences were already evident by their first birthdays, well before autistic behaviors typically emerge.

Behavior-based moral judgment in early adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders

Kyoto: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by problems with reciprocal social interaction, repetitive behaviors/narrow interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), and impairments in the social cognition and emotional processing necessary for intention-based moral judgements (Moran et al., 2011). We examined the information used by early adolescents (mean age = 12.4 years) with and without ASD when they judge story protagonists as good or bad. We created stories consisted of three sentences (first sentence: characteristics; second sentence: behaviors; and third sentence: outcomes). In Experiment 1, we measured sentence by sentence reading times and percentages for good or bad judgements. In Experiment 2, two stories were presented and the participants determined which protagonist was better or worse.

Genetic risk of autism spectrum disorder linked to evolutionary brain benefit

Yale: Genetic variants linked to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may have been positively selected during human evolution because they also contribute to enhanced cognition, a new Yale study suggests. A study based on a genome-wide association study of ASD conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and information regarding evolutionary gene selection showed that inherited variants linked to ASD were found under positive selection in larger numbers than would have been expected by chance.

Autism Risk Linked to Herpes Infection During Pregnancy

Columbia: Women actively infected with genital herpes during early pregnancy had twice the odds of giving birth to a child later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a study by scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The study is the first to provide immunological evidence on the role of gestational infection in autism, reporting an association between maternal anti-herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) antibodies and risk for ASD in offspring. Results appear in mSphere, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

New treatment helps children with autism overcome fears

Newcastle: The Blue Room, a unique immersive virtual reality which helps children with autism overcome their fears and phobias is being offered on the NHS. Following research showing that the Blue Room can help, the first patients have been referred for treatment. In 2014, the Newcastle University team reported in PLOS ONE, how eight out of nine children treated in the Blue Room were able to tackle the situation they feared and some were found to have completely overcome their phobias, even a year later. Now the immersive reality treatment is available as a NHS service, where there is funding by the children’s Clinical Commissioning Group, and each child referred will receive four sessions at the facility in County Durham.

Brain network connections may underlie social behavior linked to autism

Saint-Louis: Evaluating the strength of connections in the brain is one avenue researchers have been exploring to help identify children at risk for autism spectrum disorder earlier in life. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, with colleagues from the multicenter Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) network, have found associations between brain connectivity and a key social behavior that is a central feature of autism. If it becomes possible to identify children with autism spectrum disorder earlier in life, such knowledge could jump-start efforts to begin therapies that might help improve a child’s language and social skills.

Autism May Begin Early in Brain Development Research Shows

Maryland: Autism is not a single condition, but a spectrum of disorders that affect the brain’s ability to perceive and process information. Recent research suggests that too many connections in the brain could be at least partially responsible for the symptoms of autism, from communication deficits to unusual talents.
New research from the University of Maryland suggests that this overload of connections begins early in mammalian development, when key neurons in a region of the brain known as the cerebral cortex begin to form their first circuits.  

Autism-Linked Protein Crucial For Feeling Pain

Duke: Sensory problems are common to autism spectrum disorders. Some individuals with autism may injure themselves repetitively -- for example, pulling their hair or banging their heads -- because they’re less sensitive to pain than other people. New research points to a potential mechanism underlying pain insensitivity in autism. The study, conducted by two teams at Duke University and appearing online Dec. 1 in the journal Neuron, is the first to connect autism to one of the most well-studied pain molecules, called TRPV1 (transient receptor potential ion channel subtype V1), which is a receptor for the main spicy component of chili peppers.

No Association Between Mother Flu in Pregnancy and Increased Child Autism Risk

JAMA: A study of more than 196,000 children found no association between a mother having an influenza infection anytime during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in children, according to a new study published online by JAMA Pediatrics. The study by Ousseny Zerbo, Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, and coauthors included 196,929 children born in the health system from 2000 through 2010 at a gestational age of at least 24 weeks.

New study finds common link across autism spectrum disorders

TheConversation: There have been a multitude of studies attempting to find causes, both genetic and environmental, for autism. One of the big questions in autism research is whether autism is a single disorder or many different disorders that happen to present in the same way. Although recent genetic research has indicated hundreds of different genes contribute to autism, a new discovery has found there could also be commonality among most patients with autism. Autism is characterised by a certain pattern of social communication and social interaction skills and repetitive and restricted behaviours that differ from the rest of the population. Symptoms can range from mild to severe.

Sensory subtypes and anxiety and autism

Questioning Aswers: "This is the first study to identify the existence of sensory subtypes among older children and adolescents with ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and explore their association with anxiety levels."
Far be it from me to question the above quote provided in the paper by Mirko Uljarević and colleagues [1] but I'm inclined to suggest that there has already been some research published on the link between sensory issues and anxiety in the context of the autism spectrum before. Indeed, I do wonder whether the assertions put forward by Mazurek and colleagues [2] on how gastrointestinal (GI) issues (yes, they are over-represented) might be an important part of any sensory/anxiety mix in autism could be something that is further looked at by Uljarević in their cohort?

Scientists link single gene to some cases of autism spectrum disorder

St Louis: Scientists have linked mutations in a single gene to autism in people who have a rare tumor syndrome typically diagnosed in childhood.
The findings, in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), may lead to a better understanding of the genetic roots of autism in the wider population.
The findings are published Oct. 19 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.