Autism
25 Nov Autism Disorders after NICU Stays
MedicalResearch.com Interview
Dr. Michael Shevell
Chair of the Pediatrics Department at the McGill Faculty of Medicine and Pediatrician-in-Chief at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and the McGill University Health Centre
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Shevell: At risk term infants who have spent some time in a Level III NICU after birth are at substantially increased later risk for an autistic spectrum disorder. Frequently this disorder occurs in conjunction with substantial co-morbidity.
30 Oct Autism and Language Impairment: Possible Common Genetic Link
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Linda Brzustowicz, M.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Genetics
Rutgers University,Piscataway, NJ 08854
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Brzustowicz: The objective of this study was to search for locations in the human genome that impact language ability in individuals with autism as well as in their family members without autism. To do this, we recruited families with an individual with autism and at least one other family member without autism but with a language learning impairment. We identified two locations in the human genome that are linked to language ability in these families. Importantly, these locations do not appear to be specific to language impairment in the individuals with autism, but are related to language ability in other family members as well. This suggests that while individuals with autism may have new, or de novo, genetic variations that are important for risk of illness, they may also carry inherited genetic variation that influence the expression of their illness. The effects of these inherited variants can also be seen in the language performance of family members without autism.
20 Aug Autism Risk in Siblings
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Therese Koops Grønborg PhD student/ph.d.-studerende, MSc Section of Biostatistics/Sektion for Biostatistisk Department of Public Health/Institut for Folkesundhed Aarhus University Bartholins Allé 2, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: There are three important findings in our study. We estimated a population-based Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) sibling recurrence risk relative to the background population and found an almost seven-fold increase. While this indeed is an increased risk, it is also lower than what other recent studies have suggested. We also compared the relative recurrence risk for full and maternal/paternal half siblings and found a lower relative recurrence risk in half siblings than in full siblings, which supports the genetic pathway to ASD. The recurrence risk for maternal half siblings is still higher than for the background population suggesting that factors unique to the mother, such as the intrauterine environment and perinatal history, may contribute to ASD. Last, but not least, we estimated the time trends in the relative recurrence risk. While the ASD prevalence has been increasing for several years, we found no time trends in the relative recurrence risk, suggesting that the factors contributing to the risk for ASDs recurrence in siblings (perhaps a combination of genes and environment) have not changed over time.05 Sep Researchers report distinct features of Autistic brain in novel analysis of MRI scans
STANFORD, Calif. - Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have used a novel method for analyzing brain-scan data to distinguish children with autism from typically developing children. Their discovery reveals that the gray matter in a network of brain regions known to affect...
01 Aug New brain imaging research reveals why autistic individuals confuse pronouns
Posted at 20:26h
in Autism
PITTSBURGH—Autism is a mysterious developmental disease because it often leaves complex abilities intact while impairing seemingly elementary ones. For example, it is well documented that autistic children often have difficulty correctly using pronouns, sometimes referring to themselves as "you" instead of "I." A new brain imaging study published in the journal...