The latest autism research news stories with ASF Chief Science Officer Alycia Halladay
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This week’s ASF podcast is a special treat – Dr. Daniel Geschwind from UCLA provides an understanding of the brains of people with autism, focusing on those with a mutation in chromosome 15. He goes over how they are similar and different (teaser: they are more similar) and answers questions from families about how this research is important for helping improve the lives of people across the spectrum.
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This week two groups of heroes of autism research published studies that may not be the type of major breakthrough that the media reports on, but they are more important to families: These studies help translate what works in the research clinic into the community. Specifically, is it even possible, how, and what do families need to know when they receive an intervention that has yet to be “field tested”. This is a whole field of research called implementation science, and it deals with how scientists and community services implement what is learned in research settings into real world settings.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31206690
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31241851
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This week’s podcast is dedicated to the “T” in LGBTQ – trans. Several studies over the past few years have linked higher rates of gender variance in people with autism and higher rates of autism traits in those who are trans. Why? Are they biologically or psychologically linked or both? This is important for understanding, not treatment or intervention. This week’s podcast celebrates trans people who are also autistic.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30547258
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29752630
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30920347
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23864402
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A new animal model of autism appeared this week: the monkey. This adds to the ever growing list of different model systems from autism, from fruit flies to mice and rats now up to monkeys. Are these animal models useful and for what, and why isn’t there just ONE model of autism rather than the dozen that exist? This week’s podcast discusses research from scientists at the UC Davis MIND Institute and what they are doing to improve these models of ASD.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810939/pdf/nihms906435.pdf
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People with autism are less likely to be physically active and more likely to be sedentary. A number of studies have looked into different physical activities, both group based and individually, on improvements in health as well as core features of autism, and most have had positive results. New animal model research demonstrates a benefit of exercise using the maternal immune activation model of ASD, pruning back the excess of connections and cell fibers. As people with autism also have too many connections in the brain, this may have a direct therapeutic benefit. But besides all the scientific conjecture, we all need more exercise, physical activity interventions seem to only help, not hurt, people across the spectrum, and should be used to complement, not replace existing therapies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29693781
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31102193
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10803-019-04050-9
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This week’s podcast includes a summary of the new study, this time in an animal model, looking at microbiome transplantation. Because this was more of an experimental model, the researchers could be more rigorous in their design and look at things like behavior, brain activity, and specific biological pathways. While a mouse does not have autism, transplantation of the autism microbiome resulted in autistic-like behaviors. Second, a hopeful message of the value of participating in research on outcomes – those infants that were tracked prospectively showed improved outcomes later on, suggesting that all of the extra attention they get leads to a reduction in symptoms and an improvement in adaptive behavior. Even if you do not have a family history of autism – participate in research. It’s good for your child, and it’s good for other people’s children.
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30502-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31032937
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Did you know that in addition to the DoD’s support of the military, they all have funded $65 million in autism research? This podcast discusses some of their programs and how they support military families and benefit the autism community. Want to read more about what they fund? There’s a list here: https://cdmrp.army.mil/search.aspx
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This week’s podcast is dedicated to the recently released INSAR – supported employment policy brief. This was a 2 year project by ASF, Stony Brook, University, Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Curtin University in Australia to provide a cross-cultural perspective on getting autistic people who want to work, employed, and stay employed. Thank you to all the participants in the surveys, community meetings, and GoldNFish for putting together a document that is not just informative, but fun to read.
Click to access 2018-insar_policy_brief.pdf
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This week’s podcast combines two important post Mother’s Day topics – parents and eating. Two recent studies have shown the promise of using parent – delivered interventions to help improve food selectivity and food aversions in kids with autism. These two behaviors can be one of the most frustrating and challenging for parents and kids, and can lead to nutritional deficiencies. These behaviors can range from mild to severe, and previously, only inpatient or outpatient clinic based approaches seemed to have any benefit. Now it seems that with coaching, encouragement and instruction from trained experts, parents can help their kids eat better foods.
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Lots of news outlets have great summaries of things that were presented at the International Society for Autism Research. However, one area was relatively missed: technology. This week’s podcast summarizes advances in technology for people with autism, how they are being used, what they could be used for and how they will improve services and help for those on the spectrum. They range from ways to aid diagnosis, to better understanding of features and symptoms in different settings, to improved intervention.