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Children with autism have a tell-tale difference on brain tests compared with other children
A Florida State University researcher is working with art therapists to find better ways to treat children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Researchers were able to develop a set of guidelines for delivering art therapy to children who have ASD.
Using eye-tracking technology, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta have found compelling evidence that genetics plays a major role in how children look at the world and whether they have a preference for gazing at people’s eyes and faces or at objects. The discovery adds new detail to understanding the causes of autism spectrum disorder. Studying twins, the researchers found that where babies focus their eyes is under stringent genetic control.
Measuring a set of proteins in the blood may enable earlier diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a study from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
New research involving the University of Portsmouth is aiming to develop robots to help children with autism in ways humans can't.
Mount Sinai study suggests that this gives them certain advantages over their peers
A group of researchers from several institutions in the USA, including Johns Hopkins Medicine, reports that its review of 22 clinical trials of fragile X syndrome (FXS) suggests the need for a wider use of newer and improved treatment outcome measurement tools for this and other several neurodevelopmental disorders. FXS is the most common inherited form of intellectual disability and the most common form of autism associated with a single gene mutation.
In two previous studies, University of North Carolina researchers and colleagues linked infant brain anatomy differences to autism diagnoses at age two. Now they show differences in functional connections between brain regions at 6 months to predict autism at age two.
Kristin Sohl, director of ECHO Autism, says that the expanding ECHO Autism will help families and children with autism around the world, especially those living in remote areas.
Baby teeth from children with autism contain more toxic lead and less of the essential nutrients zinc and manganese, compared to teeth from children without autism, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health. The researchers studied twins to control genetic influences and focus on possible environmental contributors to the disease. The findings, published June 1 in the journal Nature Communications, suggest that differences in early-life exposure to metals, or more importantly how a child’s body processes them, may affect the risk of autism.
Mount Sinai study uses a unique source—baby teeth—to reveal that both the timing and amount of exposure can affect diagnosis
Nancy Cheak-Zamora, assistant professor of health sciences at MU, says that as more children with autism enter adulthood, improved communication between providers, adolescents and caregivers is needed to help those with autism make adult health care decisions.
In a small, randomized Phase I/II clinical trial (SAT1), researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say a 100-year-old drug called suramin, originally developed to treat African sleeping sickness, was safely administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who subsequently displayed measurable, but transient, improvement in core symptoms of autism.
A potential dramatic advance in autism from UCSD School of Medicine using an old drug, suramin, in boys may offer both a new view of what autism is and possibility of the first-ever treatment for its core symptoms.
Deletions or duplications of DNA along 22nd chromosome create anatomical features, detected by MRI scans, and hint at biological underpinnings of these disorders
Metformin, the most widely used drug to treat type 2 diabetes, could potentially be used to treat symptoms of Fragile X syndrome, an inherited form of intellectual disability and a cause of some forms of autism.
Georgetown University Medical Center autism specialists working with Latino families in Washington, DC, have developed an effective screening program that identifies Latino infants who may be at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), allowing the opportunity for early intervention.
Vocalization plays a significant role in social communication across species such as speech by humans and song by birds. Male mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations in the presence of females and both sexes sing during friendly social encounters.
A team of University of Iowa researches has discovered a new connection between two regions of the brain that may help explain how motor skills develop. Working with infant rats, the scientists found that the hippocampus and the red nucleus, part of the brain stem, synchronize during REM sleep. Findings published in the journal Current Biology.
Speech or language impairments may not be the cause of more frequent tantrums in children with autism, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
Autism spectrum disorders are being diagnosed in ever increasing numbers. Nationally, there are about 1 in 68 children identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. However, the ADDM estimates that the number is even higher in New Jersey, with 1 in 45 children being diagnosed with an ASD.
A study reported April 18 in the journal of the American Medical Association led by Indiana University suggests that mothers’ use of antidepressants during early pregnancy does not increase the risk of their children developing autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conditions previously associated with these medications.
Researchers from the University of Missouri have found when teenagers and young adults with autism enter adulthood and age out of many of the services designed to help them, they often are anxious about how to handle new adult responsibilities such as paying bills and filing taxes. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating financial management into early education to empower young adults with autism.
The Autism Institute at Florida State University launches a new early intervention approach called the Family Ecosystem.
Recent studies have implicated air pollution from vehicles as playing a role in whether exposed infants develop autism. Now a UWM scientist will try to uncover how the developing brain is affected by these chemicals and whether they also lead to childhood ADHD.
In recognition of Autism Awareness Month, Dr. Catherine Lord, director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center in collaboration with New York Collaborates for Autism, a professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine and a national authority on autism spectrum disorders (ASD), offers families guidance and tips for coping with a child’s diagnosis.
$7 million grant extends Autism Sequencing Consortium through 2022 to collect genetic data of more than 50,000 individuals
In recognition of Autism Awareness Month, Dr. Catherine Lord, director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and a national authority on autism spectrum disorders (ASD), offers families guidance and tips for coping with a child's diagnosis.
In a new study, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, University of Cyprus and Stanford University map the complex biological cascade caused by MIA: the expression of multiple genes involved in autism are turned up or down by MIA, affecting key aspects of prenatal brain development that may increase risk for atypical development later in life.
A new study by Waisman Center researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looks at the daily experiences of the parents of children with autism spectrum disorder to provide a more detailed picture of the strengths and vulnerabilities of couples raising a child with ASD.
An algorithm based on levels of metabolites found in a blood sample can accurately predict whether a child is on the Autism spectrum of disorder (ASD), based upon a recent study.
Frequent interactions with grandparents, especially grandmothers, lowered the age of autism diagnosis by as much as five months in children
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have gained new insight into the genetic and neuronal circuit mechanisms that may contribute to impaired sociability in some forms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
An international research team, led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, has created the first cellular model of anorexia nervosa (AN), reprogramming induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from adolescent females with the eating disorder.
A young songbird sings an intricate melody from its caged perch, trying to echo the mating song heard so many times from his father.
Several public health insurance programs and mandates that were protected or extended by the ACA, including Medicaid, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), are now at risk of being negatively altered or removed, posing a serious threat to the health and well-being of children and adults with disabilities according to a new perspective paper published by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
With so much focus in recent months on the scientifically discredited notion that childhood vaccines cause autism, the real threats to health care and services for people with autism and other disabilities aren’t being given enough attention, argue two leading health policy experts.
In an MRI study, researchers found that many toddlers diagnosed with autism at age 2 had a substantially greater amount of extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at six and 12 months of age, before diagnosis is possible. Researchers also linked increased severity of symptoms to increased CSF.
Researchers from the UC Davis MIND Institute, University of North Carolina (UNC) and other institutions have found that altered distribution of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in high-risk infants can predict whether they will develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study appears today in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Specialized nerve cells, known as somatostatin-expressing (Sst) interneurons, in the outer part of the mammalian brain (or cerebral cortex) — play a key role in controlling how information flows in the brain when it is awake and alert. This is the finding of a study published online in Science March 2 by a team of neuroscientists at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Neuroscience Institute.
Results of a small study of adults with autism at Johns Hopkins has added to evidence that their brains can learn to compensate for some language comprehension challenges that are a hallmark of the disorder in children.
The University of Virginia Health System is teaming up with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to study novice drivers with autism to determine if they would benefit from specialized training to help them become better, safer drivers and feel more comfortable behind the wheel. Researchers will use a high-tech driving simulator and on-road driving to compare the driving performance of novice drivers with autism with those of novice drivers without autism.