TOPIC

Autism spectrum research

Everything we have read on autism spectrum. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

2,764 PAPERS · PAGE 4 OF 56 · NEWEST FIRST

• SLPOther2017Leveraging blood serotonin as an endophenotype to identify de novo and rare variants involved in autism.Molecular autismWhen autism families were split by blood serotonin, genes hit by new variants in probands with normal serotonin lined up with known autism risk genes; genes in high-serotonin probands lined up with a different biological group. No treatment or clinical test was studied.
• SLPCase-Control2017I tawt i taw a puddy tat: Gestures in canary row narrations by high-functioning youth with autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchHigh-functioning youth with ASD produced fewer gestures while retelling a cartoon, and their gestures were harder to read as gestures or as meaningful messages. The same range of gesture types appeared, so the concern was clarity and amount, not repertoire.
• SLPCase-Control2017Auditory spatial attention to speech and complex non-speech sounds in children with autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchWhen listening to sounds straight ahead, children with autism responded more to nearby non-target sounds than controls, even when detecting the target sound was similar. The study did not show a speech-specific difficulty.
• SLPSurvey2017Brief Report: Examining the Association of Autism and Adverse Childhood Experiences in the National Survey of Children's Health: The Important Role of Income and Co-occurring Mental Health Conditions.Journal of autism and developmental disordersAutism alone did not stay linked to more adverse childhood experiences once co-occurring anxiety, depression, attention, or behavior problems were considered. Before that, children with autism had more reported adversity, especially in lower-income families.
• OTSLPSurvey2017Priority service needs and receipt across the lifespan for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchCaregivers reported that people with autism across Canada rarely received services matching their top needs, and priority services were received less often after early childhood.
• SLPCohort2017Shared genetic influences between dimensional ASD and ADHD symptoms during child and adolescent development.Molecular autismChildren with social-communication difficulties and ADHD symptoms showed shared common genetic influences across childhood and adolescence. ADHD symptoms also linked to genetic risk for ADHD. Genetic risk for autism did not clearly link to ADHD symptoms or social-communication scores.
• SLPRCT2017Moderating Effects of Parental Characteristics on the Effectiveness of a Theory of Mind Training for Children with Autism: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of autism and developmental disordersAn eight-week group social-cognition training improved children's knowledge of others' minds, parent-reported social behaviors, and reduced autistic features. Knowledge gains were smaller when a parent had or was suspected of having ASD.
• PTOTSLPNarrative Review2017Clinical and genetic aspects of the 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 microdeletion disorder.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDRThis microdeletion disorder is associated with speech, motor, learning and behaviour problems, but many carriers are unaffected. Diagnosis requires genetic testing, usually microarray. Therapy should target each person's specific delays, not assume the deletion alone explains all difficulties.
• SLPRCT2017Brief Report: Does Gender Matter in Intervention for ASD? Examining the Impact of the PEERS® Social Skills Intervention on Social Behavior Among Females with ASD.Journal of autism and developmental disordersNo significant gender differences were found before or after PEERS social-skills intervention. Females and males with ASD followed a similar response pattern on social-behavior outcomes.
• SLPCohort2017Neurogenetic analysis of childhood disintegrative disorder.Molecular autismChildren with childhood disintegrative disorder had severe loss of language, social skills, and play. Rare genetic variants were found, face-related brain activity was unusual, and they looked more at the eyes than high-functioning autism did. This is exploratory biology, not a test or treatment.
• SLPOther2017Is there sexual dimorphism of hyperserotonemia in autism spectrum disorder?Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchBefore puberty, more boys than girls with autism had whole blood serotonin above 270 ng/mL; after puberty, this sex difference was not seen. Serotonin levels did not link to behavior, language, or adaptive scores.
• SLPOther2017Next Generation Sequencing Mitochondrial DNA Analysis in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchRare mitochondrial DNA variants were shared by affected members of ten autism families, including two variants previously seen in mitochondrial disease. This cannot show these variants cause autism or change therapy.
• SLPCase-Control2017Maternal Exposure to Childhood Abuse is Associated with Mate Selection: Implications for Autism in Offspring.Journal of autism and developmental disordersMothers who reported severe childhood abuse were more likely to have a partner with high autistic traits. Their children were also more likely to have ASD, and parents' autistic traits did not fully explain this link.
• SLPSurvey2017The attitudes of typically developing adolescents towards their sibling with autism spectrum disorder.The South African journal of communication disorders = Die Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir KommunikasieafwykingsAdolescent siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder reported more positive feelings and beliefs now than they remembered when younger. Reported positive behaviour did not change.
• SLPSurvey2017Parent-Reported Severity and Health/Educational Services Use Among US Children with Autism: Results from a National Survey.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPHigher parent-reported autism severity was linked with more therapy and specialist visits. School-based speech and social-skills therapy were common; behavioral intervention was less common. Ask what services a child actually receives.
• SLPCohort2017A Discrepancy in Comprehension and Production in Early Language Development in ASD: Is it Clinically Relevant?Journal of autism and developmental disordersAt about 30 months, toddlers with autism often understood less than they said relative to age expectations, while late talkers showed the reverse. This faded by 66 months, so check receptive and expressive language separately.
• SLPOther2017Is the Autism-Spectrum Quotient a Valid Measure of Traits Associated with the Autism Spectrum? A Rasch Validation in Adults with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders.Journal of autism and developmental disordersThe AQ does not measure one single autism trait, though it separates adults with and without autism on average. Some items worked poorly, especially detail-focused ones, and only a subset worked as one trait.
• SLPOther2017Using Time Perception to Explore Implicit Sensitivity to Emotional Stimuli in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of autism and developmental disordersAdults with autism and adults without autism judged emotional pictures as lasting longer than neutral pictures by a similar amount. Their automatic timing response did not differ between groups.
• SLPOther2016The Communication Play Protocol: Capturing Variations in Language Development.Perspectives of the ASHA special interest groupsNo clinical outcome is reported. The paper describes a research observation method for parent-child communication, not a tested intervention.
• SLPOther2017Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum.Journal of autism and developmental disordersBrain measures showed no difference between low and high autistic traits when asked to reinterpret emotional pictures. Self-report did: people with more autistic traits reported fewer helpful and more unhelpful emotion regulation strategies, with anger standing out.
• PTSLPCase-Control2017Medical Conditions in the First Years of Life Associated with Future Diagnosis of ASD in Children.Journal of autism and developmental disordersBefore an ASD diagnosis, language delay was much more common in records of children later diagnosed, especially with global delay or central nervous system problems. Motor delay without language delay was also more common.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2017Meta-analysis of GWAS of over 16,000 individuals with autism spectrum disorder highlights a novel locus at 10q24.32 and a significant overlap with schizophrenia.Molecular autismThe main autism-only genetic analysis found no variant that met the study's very strict threshold. Adding a replication sample produced a chromosome 10q24.32 signal, and separate schizophrenia comparisons showed shared genetic risk.
• OTSLPQualitative2017Maternal experience raising girls with autism spectrum disorder: a qualitative study.Child: care, health and developmentMothers of verbally fluent girls with autism described delayed diagnosis, disbelief from others, and few resources about girls. They also described adolescence bringing social, puberty, and safety worries, and a changed mother-daughter bond.
• SLPOther2017A Screening Tool to Measure Eye Contact Avoidance in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome.Journal of autism and developmental disordersBoys with fragile X avoided eye contact more with unfamiliar people than familiar people on a parent-report scale. Lower communication ability and comorbid ASD were associated with higher avoidance scores.
• SLPOther2017The Influence of Maternal Pragmatics on the Language Skills of Children with Autism.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPMothers of children with autism had more conversation style problems in a parent interview than mothers of children with other language delays. In both groups, more problems went with lower child language scores, but in different language areas.
• SLPRCT2017Verbal, Visual, and Intermediary Support for Child Witnesses with Autism During Investigative Interviews.Journal of autism and developmental disordersFor children with autism, none of the interview supports increased correct details compared with best-practice police interviewing. For typically developing children, a registered intermediary and verbal labels increased details, but verbal labels also increased made-up details.
• OTSLPQualitative2017"Putting on My Best Normal": Social Camouflaging in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions.Journal of autism and developmental disordersMost participants described camouflaging their autism as effortful and exhausting. They masked stimming, copied others, and rehearsed conversations to fit in or connect, often delaying diagnosis and hiding support needs.
• SLPCase-Control2017Differential Fairness Decisions and Brain Responses After Expressed Emotions of Others in Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders.Journal of autism and developmental disordersOverall unfairness did not differ between boys with ASD and typical boys, but written emotional reactions changed their choices. ASD boys were less unfair after happiness than typical boys. Brain findings were exploratory and not a treatment effect.
• OTSLPCohort2017Evaluating the quality of peer interactions in children and adolescents with autism with the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS).Molecular autismTeacher reports of withdrawn or disconnected play lined up with parent reports of friendship quality. More severe repetitive behaviors and lower verbal ability were linked to less peer connection. It did not match parent reports for all kinds of play behavior.
• PTOTSLPOther2017General Pediatrician-Staffed Behavioral/Developmental Access Clinic Decreases Time to Evaluation of Early Childhood Developmental Disorders.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPA general pediatrician access clinic saw children under 5 sooner for developmental evaluation: 159 days instead of 327 for already scheduled patients, and 11 days for new callers.
• SLPCohort2017The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP): design and methodologies to identify and validate stratification biomarkers for autism spectrum disorders.Molecular autismPeople with ASD and controls from childhood through adulthood have been recruited into a longitudinal autism research project that tracks brain, cognitive, genetic and symptom profiles. No result changes therapy choices yet.
• OTSLPCohort2017The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP): clinical characterisation.Molecular autismAutism symptoms looked more severe in males than females on clinician and parent interview measures, but parent questionnaires showed no sex difference and adult females reported higher symptoms. Adults had lower parent-reported symptoms than children.
• SLPCohort2017Use of clinical chromosomal microarray in Chinese patients with autism spectrum disorder-implications of a copy number variation involving DPP10.Molecular autismA DPP10 duplication was found in 1 of 258 Chinese patients with autism and 6 of 653 typical controls, so it was not more common in autism. Clinical genetic testing found a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in 9 of 258 patients.
• SLPSystematic Review2017Bio-collections in autism research.Molecular autismLarge autism research collections have supported genetic studies of autism, including studies of language and communication differences. They are research resources, not clinical tests or treatments.
• SLPRCT2017Typical versus delayed speech onset influences verbal reporting of autistic interests.Molecular autismAutistic adults with delayed speech onset described interests using more perceptual words, while those with typical speech onset used more thematic words. The interests themselves and their reported functions were largely similar across groups.
• SLPOther2017Identification of autism-related MECP2 mutations by whole-exome sequencing and functional validation.Molecular autismThree MECP2 mutations were found among 120 Chinese children with autism. When overexpressed in lab neurons, P152L and P376S did not alter dendrite growth, and P376S appeared to increase axon length. This is a genetic finding, not evidence for a therapy.
• SLPRCT2017Balanced bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation enhances working memory in adults with high-functioning autism: a sham-controlled crossover study.Molecular autismOverall working memory improved in 12 adults with high-functioning autism after 40-minute balanced bifrontal tDCS versus sham. Both left and right anodal montages helped. This was a pilot, so do not change practice.
• SLPCohort2017Psychiatric comorbidity in autism spectrum disorder: Correspondence between mental health clinician report and structured parent interview.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceClinician diagnoses missed many psychiatric conditions in children with autism. Structured parent interviews found ADHD in 78% of cases, while clinicians reported it in only 36%. Agreement between the two methods was poor across all diagnostic categories.
• SLPOther2017Anxious Imagery in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Investigation into Occurrence, Content, Features and Implications for Therapy.Journal of autism and developmental disordersChildren with autism and high anxiety reported spontaneous anxious imagery more often and more frequently than anxious children without autism. These images were rated as more upsetting. However, the characteristics of the images, such as vividness and controllability, did not differ significantly between the groups.
• SLPOther2017Conducting research with minimally verbal participants with autism spectrum disorder.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAdapting ABA principles allowed researchers to obtain nonverbal IQ scores from most participants. Eye-tracking and EEG success rates were lower, with older adolescents generally easier to test than younger children. These methods enable data collection but require significant time and family cooperation.
• SLPOther2018Reduced sensitivity to context in language comprehension: A characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders or of poor structural language ability?Research in developmental disabilitiesChildren with autism and normal language understood context as well as peers. When autism came with weaker grammar and vocabulary, context understanding dropped, like in children with language impairment. Check structural language before assuming an autism-specific comprehension style.
• SLPOther2017Spoken word recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder: The role of visual disengagement.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceChildren with autism who more often failed to look away from a central video were slower and less accurate at recognizing spoken words. This link remained after vocabulary and age in 18 children, but no treatment was tested.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2018Figurative language comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analytic review.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceIndividuals with ASD showed poorer figurative language comprehension than typically developing controls on average, but language-matched groups showed little difference. Metaphor differences were larger than irony or sarcasm.
• SLPCohort2017Comorbidity prevalence, healthcare utilization, and expenditures of Medicaid enrolled adults with autism spectrum disorders.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceMedicaid adults with autism spectrum disorder had high psychiatric comorbidity, more outpatient visits, prescriptions, and spending, but less inpatient and emergency use than matched adults without autism.
• SLPCohort2017Anxiety and Attentional Bias to Threat in Children at Increased Familial Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of autism and developmental disordersSiblings of children with autism who themselves did not meet autism criteria were slower to orient to threatening pictures than positive pictures, and this pattern tracked parent-reported anxiety. Siblings who did meet autism criteria had higher anxiety but no such threat pattern.
• OTSLPSurvey2017Barriers to healthcare: Instrument development and comparison between autistic adults and adults with and without other disabilities.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults reported more healthcare barriers than adults with other disabilities or no disability. Anxiety, difficulty processing information quickly, cost, sensory discomfort in facilities, and trouble communicating with providers were especially common.
• SLPOther2017Examining the reinforcing value of stimuli within social and non-social contexts in children with and without high-functioning autism.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceBoys with high-functioning autism chose social activities with their mothers just as often as solitary ones, and worked just as hard to earn them. They did not show the reduced preference for social interaction seen in some other studies. The social context was familiar and individualized.
• SLPPilot2017Towards a Treatment for Intolerance of Uncertainty in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Development of the Coping with Uncertainty in Everyday Situations (CUES©) Programme.Journal of autism and developmental disordersParents rated this eight-week group programme as highly useful and satisfactory. While child anxiety measures showed only modest changes, parents reported significant improvements in their own stress and confidence. The study confirms feasibility and acceptability, not clinical efficacy.
• SLPCase-Control2018What's the story? A computational analysis of narrative competence in autism.Autism : the international journal of research and practicePeople with autism told stories from emotional pictures that were less like the typical group's stories, used fewer complex sentences, and gave fewer reasons for characters' feelings, but still included basic story elements.
• OTSLPCase-Control2018Relationship between physiological and parent-observed auditory over-responsiveness in children with typical development and those with autism spectrum disorders.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceChildren with autism blinked more strongly to sounds of 95 dB or lower and took longer to blink. These body responses were related to parent reports of sensory difficulties, but the study was small and did not test treatment.