Feature Channels: Autism

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A new study by researchers at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology raises hope that autism may be more easily diagnosed and that its effects may be more reversible than previously thought. Researchers have identified potentially removable chemical tags (called “methyl groups”) on specific genes of autistic individuals that led to gene silencing. They also observed these changes in cells derived from blood, opening the way to molecular screening for autism using a blood test.

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A new study by researchers at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology highlights a mechanism for significant disruption of gene activity in autism that may be reversible. Published in the journal Genome Medicine on April 7, the study focuses on the differential expression of microRNA and addresses the issue of higher level regulation of gene expression in autism.

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Children with developmental regression at increased risk for more severe autism.

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Kids with autism typically have issues with balance and sound, but they love to careen a tiny toy tractor through the topsy-turvy 3-D toyland of an EASe video game from Vision Audio, Inc., collecting treasures while listening to specially designed music. The video game is more than fun – it helps children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) learn to cope with noise, regulate their balance and improve sensory processing.

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A unique treatment program at Canisius College offers hope to children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Randomized clinical trial finds innovative, multi-component social development program is effective in improving social performance.

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Interactive Autism Network survey gives grandparents a voice in autism research community.

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The numbers are startling: New research now indicates that that 1 in 110 children in the United has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). “While researchers seek to assess the risk factors and better identify potential causes, there is an urgent need to provide opportunities for children and adults with autism to live their best lives,” says Michelle Rowe, Ph.D., executive director of the Kinney Center for Autism Education and Support and professor of Health Services at Saint Joseph’s University.

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University of Kentucky assistant professor Lisa Ruble and her co-investigators received a prestigious $998,940 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study educational programs for children with autism.

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A new study suggests a trend toward developing hyperactivity among typically developing elementary-school-aged siblings of autistic preschoolers and supports the notion that mothers of young, autistic children experience more depression and stress than mothers with typically developing children.

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When a gene implicated in human autism is disabled in mice, the rodents show learning problems and obsessive, repetitive behaviors, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

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Cathy Pratt, director of the Indiana Resource Center for Autism at Indiana University, comments on proposed changes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - 5.

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As a pivotal paper linking childhood vaccinations to autism is discredited, a new study finds no evidence that the measles vaccine—given alone or as part of a combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—increases the risk of autism in children. The study appears in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

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Rae Sonnenmeier of UNH’s Institute on Disability can discuss the announcement by The Lancet regarding the retraction of a paper that caused a 12-year international battle over the links between childhood vaccines and autism.

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The Lancet, a premier British medical journal, today retracted a study published in 1998 that drew a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and increased incidence of autism. Alan Percy, M.D., professor of pediatric neurology and medical director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Civitan International Research Center, said the retracted study’s findings long have been questioned by the scientific community.

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A Rowan University professor and his partner have developed Mi-Stories, videotaped scenarios of common social situations to assist people with autism. The videos are downloadable, and readily available, on Apple i-Pods.

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School psychologists, counselors and social workers are often the first line of support for children with behavioral, emotional or family problems. Problems can range from attention deficit disorder and homelessness to depression and bullying all of which can make academic success a challenge.

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Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) process sound and language a fraction of a second slower than children without ASDs, and measuring magnetic signals that mark this delay may become a standardized way to diagnose autism. The pattern of delayed brain response could become the first imaging biomarker for autism.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center has entered into a collaborative research agreement with Seaside Therapeutics LLC to discover and develop potential drugs to treat developmental disorders such as Fragile X syndrome and autism.

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A canine chromosome 7 locus that confers a high risk of compulsive disorder susceptibility has been identified through a collaboration between the Behavior Service at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the Program in Medical Genetics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The findings are published in the January 2010 edition of Nature Molecular Psychiatry.

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Like a spotlight that illuminates an otherwise dark scene, attention brings to mind specific details of our environment while shutting others out. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies shows that the superior colliculus, a brain structure that primarily had been known for its role in the control of eye and head movements, is crucial for moving the mind’s spotlight.

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Drexel University’s Dr. Craig Newschaffer, a renowned autism expert and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Drexel's School of Public Health, is available to comment on the recently released report by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.

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A new study shows that one in 110 American 8-year-olds is classified as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a 57 percent increase compared to four years earlier. With a prevalence rate approaching 1 percent for that age group, social and educational services designed for spectrum-disorder children are going to need to keep pace, says a public-health researcher at UAB.

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Autism research led by scientists at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has been named one of the top ten medical breakthroughs of 2009 by Time Magazine. Time cited the Hospital's largest-ever genetic study of autism spectrum disorders, which identified a gene region that affects how brain cells connect with each other in early childhood.

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Canisius College announces the creation of the Institute for Autism Research to continue leading-edge research on autism spectrum disorders at the college.

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The first study to examine handwriting quality in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has uncovered a relationship between fine motor control and poor quality of handwriting in children with ASD.

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Children with autism may have lower quality handwriting and trouble forming letters compared to children without autism, according to a study published in the November 10, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Johns Hopkins scientists report having used a commercially available drug to successfully “rescue” animal brain cells that they had intentionally damaged by manipulating a newly discovered gene that links susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and autism.

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A study published October 19th ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) found that 2- to 5-year-old children diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum disorders (AU/ASD) had blood mercury levels similar to those of typically developing control children after adjusting for a variety of sources. The study was conducted through Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE), an ongoing study to identify and understand factors contributing to childhood AU/ASD and developmental delays.

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A Florida State University College of Medicine researcher has been awarded two separate grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling $2.4 million to continue her work in detecting autism in children as young as 18 months.

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Scientific understanding and medical treatments for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have advanced significantly over the past several years, but much remains to be done. In a scientific review of the field, experts highlight the expanding knowledge of early brain development and the role of early diagnosis of ASDs, accompanied by intensive early treatment.

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About 90 percent of autism spectrum disorders have suspected genetic causes but few genes have been identified so far. Now, leading an international team, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified several genetic links to autism, chief among them a variant of semaphorin 5A, whose protein product controls nerve connections in the brain.

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In one of the first studies of its kind, an international team of researchers has uncovered a single-letter change in the genetic code that is associated with autism. The finding, published in the October 8 issue of the journal Nature, implicates a neuronal gene not previously tied to the disorder and more broadly, underscores a role for common DNA variation.

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Results from the largest ever twin study confirms that genetics play a role in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but also suggest that environmental factors play a role. The study examined concordance rates between identical and fraternal twins and was published in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

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Two University of Southern California (USC) neuroscientists have been awarded nearly $9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to map how genes are expressed in different regions of the human brain throughout development.

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UNC awarded $8.6 million from NIH over five years to fund center for research in underlying causes of psychiatric disorders, including autism and schizophrenia, and responses to drug therapy.

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While infant and toddler brains are rapidly developing, a window of opportunity exists to reduce the impact of autism, which now affects one of every 150 children born in the United States. Gerald Mahoney, director of the Center on Interventions for Children and Families at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences of Case Western Reserve University, received a three-year, $780,000 grant from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development

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Saint Joseph's University will open the doors to its $8 million Kinney Center for Autism Education and Support on October 2. The Center is unique in that it provides support and service, instead of focusing on medicine and research.

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After a child is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), many parents feel overwhelmed and experience high levels of stress. While this is a very challenging time, there are steps parents can take to accept the diagnosis and move forward.

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Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have now discovered that establishing the neural wiring necessary to function normally depends on the ability of neurons to make finger-like projections of their membrane called filopodia.

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A new analysis of government data on more than 6,000 American women indicates that deposition of mercury within the human population due to chronic mercury exposure is increasing over time, and that deposition of mercury increases with age. The study demonstrates significant associations between chronic mercury exposure and both the immune and endocrine systems that may explain a mechanism for development of associated neurological disease.

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A genetic search using patients and mouse models has uncovered an unlikely gene involved in Dandy-Walker malformation, a common birth defect which causes mental retardation, motor delays and sometimes autism. This newly discovered function of the gene, which is never expressed in the brain, reveals a novel role for the skull in directing brain development.

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Children with autism spectrum disorders have great difficulty understanding emotions. For this reason UCLA researchers have developed a music education program designed to help children with ASD better understand emotions and learn to recognize emotions in others.

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Mothers of children with autism had higher levels of parenting-related stress and psychological distress than mothers of children with developmental delay. Children's problem behavior was associated with increases in both parenting-related stress and distress in both groups, but this relationship was stronger in moms of children with autism.

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Researchers from Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine collaborated on a new study, published in Nature Neuroscience, examining patterns of movement as children with autism and typically developing children learned to control a novel tool. Findings suggest children with autism appear to learn new actions differently than typically developing children.

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More pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and several collaborating institutions.

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More pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest gene study of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study identified 27 different genetic regions where rare copy number variations "“ missing or extra copies of DNA segments "“ occurred in the genes of children with ASDs, but not in healthy controls.

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A UCLA study has discovered that chronic exposure during pregnancy to miniscule levels of carbon monoxide damages the cells of the fetal brain, resulting in permanent impairment. The journal BMC (BioMed Central) Neuroscience published the findings June 22 in its online edition.

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Laughter differs in children with autism. A recent study recorded laughter during a series of playful interactions with an examiner. The results showed that children with autism exhibited only one type of laughter, compared to two types of laughter for nonautistic children. Expert available. Satellite uplink available.

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Citalopram (Celexa), a medication commonly prescribed to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), was no more effective than a placebo at reducing repetitive behaviors, according to a multi-site clinical trial.

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A new multi-center study, conducted at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in collaboration with five other centers throughout the country, tested the commonly prescribed antidepressant citalopram and found that it was no more effective than placebo in altering obsessive features of the condition "“ the spinning, rocking and repetitive behavior.