Autism has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, thanks to dramatically increasing rates of diagnosis, extensive organizational mobilization, journalistic coverage, biomedical ...research, and clinical innovation. Understanding Autism, a social history of the expanding diagnostic category of this contested illness, takes a close look at the role of emotion--specifically, of parental love--in the intense and passionate work of biomedical communities investigating autism.
Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disorders. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders develop differently. These differences are usually present in social interaction, communication, and ...sensory processing, and become visible through a wide variety of behavioral responses that differ from individuals without autism spectrum disorders. Despite significant research efforts, the exact causes of autism spectrum disorders remain poorly understood; however, researchers have gained extensive insights into possible pathomechanisms, even at the molecular level of cells. Many diagnostic criteria have been developed, adapted, and improved. The eight chapters in this book highlight the current state-of-the-art in many areas of autism spectrum disorders. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders and the current knowledge of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Chapter 2 summarizes the diagnostic criteria and procedures and highlights present and upcoming therapeutic strategies. Chapter 3 reviews the adverse events and trauma in people with autism spectrum disorders. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on atypical sensory processing, and Chapter 6 discusses the genetic overlap of autism spectrum disorders with other neuropsychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and schizophrenia. Chapter 7 focuses on the contribution of abnormalities in mitochondria, and chapter 8 discusses gut-brain interactions and a potential role for microbiota in autism spectrum disorders. This book is aimed primarily at clinicians and scientists, but many areas will also be of interest to the layperson.
Abstract Valproic acid (VPA) is one of the most effective antiepileptic drugs, and exposing animals to VPA during gestation has been used as a model for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Numerous ...studies have shown that impaired synaptic transmission in the cerebellar cortical circuits is one of the reasons for the social deficits and repetitive behavior seen in ASD. In this study, we investigated the effect of VPA exposure during pregnancy on tactile stimulation-evoked cerebellar mossy fiber-granule cell (MF-GC) synaptic transmission in mice anesthetized with urethane. Three-chamber testing showed that mice exposed to VPA mice exhibited a significant reduction in social interaction compared with the control group. In vivo electrophysiological recordings revealed that a pair of air-puff stimulation on ipsilateral whisker pad evoked MF-GC synaptic transmission, N1, and N2. The evoked MF-GC synaptic responses in VPA-exposed mice exhibited a significant increase in the area under the curve (AUC) of N1 and the amplitude and AUC of N2 compared with untreated mice. Cerebellar surface application of the selective N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blocker D-APV significantly inhibited facial stimulation-evoked MF-GC synaptic transmission. In the presence of D-APV, there were no significant differences between the AUC of N1 and the amplitude and AUC of N2 in the VPA-exposed mice and those of the untreated mice. Notably, blockade of the GluN2A subunit-containing, but not the GluN2B subunit-containing, NMDA receptor, significantly inhibited MF-GC synaptic transmission and decreased the AUC of N1 and the amplitude and AUC of N2 in VPA-exposed mice to levels similar to those seen in untreated mice. In addition, the GluN2A subunit-containing NMDA receptor was expressed at higher levels in the GC layer of VPA-treated mice than in control mice. These results indicate that gestational VPA exposure in mice produces ASD-like behaviors, accompanied by increased cerebellar MF-GC synaptic transmission and an increase in GluN2A subunit-containing NMDA receptor expression in the offspring.
PURPOSE: Peer-mediated interventions are effective for improving social outcomes for children with ASD (Chang & Locke, 2016). However, parents often report difficulty identifying a typically ...developing (TD) peer who is willing to participate in an intervention for the child with ASD. For many families a TD sibling is a feasible option as the peer mediator (Ferraioli, Hansford, & Harris, 2012). However, little is known about the differences in play performance of the child with ASD when the play partner is a sibling vs a non-sibling. The Ultimate Guide to Play, Language and Friendship (PLF) is a peer-mediated intervention that has demonstrated effectiveness in improving play performance for 6- to 11-year old children with ASD using both TD sibling and non-sibling peers (Kent, Cordier, Joosten, Wilkes-Gillan, & Bundy, under review). The aim of this investigation was to compare the play of sibling and non-sibling peer play partners and examine the influence of the two types of play partners on the play performance of the child with ASD. DESIGN: Participants were 136 children aged between 6 and 11 years, (68 were diagnosed with ASD; 68 were TD playmates), and participated in a two-group parallel randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the PLF. We engaged in a retrospective cohort study to investigate the difference in play performance of sibling (n=37) and non-sibling peer dyads (n=27). METHOD: An independent assessor scored using the Test of Playfulness (ToP; Skard & Bundy, 2008) from video recorded play sessions; we compared the play scores using an independent t-test. To identify mediating factors on play performance, we performed hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: Results revealed a significant difference in ToP scores for children with ASD when they played with a sibling vs a non-sibling play partner (ToP score of children with ASD in sibling dyads M=53.40, SD=12.14; in non-sibling peer dyads M=60.98, SD=12.23, t = -2.43, p=0.018). Individual item differences revealed that the social items 'support of playmate' and 'response to play cues' had the greatest difference, indicating that these need to be a focus of intervention for sibling dyads. CONCLUSION AND IMPACT STATEMENT: The findings revealed that the play performance of children with ASD is influenced significantly by their play partners. Practitioners need to consider these differences explicitly in intervention, particularly when, as is often the case, siblings are the play partners. Improved understanding of the difference in play performance will support practitioners to adapt interventions for children with ASD.
Abstract
Date Presented 03/28/20
The results of this study indicate the need to develop interventions targeting EFP abilities for ASD. Children with ASD showed decreased valence, but not accuracy, of ...their positive-valence facial expressions. In ASD, there was a negative correlation between EFP accuracy and ASD symptoms related to social functioning. There were no relationships found between affect recognition accuracy and EFP accuracy.
Primary Author and Speaker: Sharada Krishnan
Additional Authors and Speakers: Emily Kilroy
Contributing Authors: Christiana Butera, Laura Harrison, Aditya Jayashankar, Anusha Hossain, Alexis Nalbach, Lisa Aziz-Zadeh
PURPOSE: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been found to exhibit lower quantities of pretend play than do typically-developing children, which could be related to their symptom ...severity. However, how symptom severity is associated with pretend play in children with ASD is unknown. Therefore, we applied an elaborate pretend play assessment to characterize the pretend play of children with ASD with different symptom severity levels. DESIGN: This study used a quasi-experimental design. Children were included if they were at a chronological age of 4-12 years old and had received a formal diagnosis of ASD. Children were excluded if they (1) had symptoms associated with organic brain dysfunction or chromosomal abnormality, (2) had uncorrected hearing or visual impairments, and (3) were unable to follow orders or complete the procedures. METHOD: Children's pretend play performance, autistic behaviors, and verbal comprehension were respectively assessed with the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (ChIPPA), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), and Verbal Comprehension Index of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale. The ChIPPA includes three types of raw scores: number of imitated actions (NIA), number of object substitutions (NOS), and percentage of elaborate pretend play actions (PEPA). The three types of scores combined with two contexts of conventional and symbolic play generate 6 raw scores. Children were categorized according to their CARS cut point scores into 3 severity levels: non-ASD, mild/moderate, and severe. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey Post hoc analysis were applied to examine if the three severities were associated with differences in performance in pretend play. RESULTS: A total of 72 children with ASD aged 70-141 months were enrolled. The ANOVA analysis revealed that the 3 severity groups had significant differences symbolic PEPA (F.sub.(2,65) = 3.8, p < 0.05), symbolic NOS (F.sub.(2,65) = 3.2, p < 0.05), and total PEPA scores (F.sub.(2,65) = 3.6, p < 0.05). The post hoc results indicated significant differences between non-ASD and severe ASD groups in symbolic PEPA (group difference = 15.7, p < 0.05), symbolic NOS (group difference = 3.9, p < 0.05), and total PEPA scores (group difference = 27.9, p < 0.05). The results demonstrate that children without ASD display higher frequencies of symbolic object substitution and higher percentages of elaborate pretend play actions than do children with severe ASD during pretend play. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that symptom severity is a significant variable of elaborateness and frequency in symbolic play. Children with very mild autistic traits have more complexity, creativity, and flexibility in symbolic play than do children with severe autistic traits. This study provides evidence on the association of symptom severity with pretend play performance in children with ASD for both clinical and research settings.
