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What I like about you.

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This week is a “brick-a-brack”: of topics. They include: 1. how COVID-19 is especially dangerous for people with neurodevelopmental disorders; 2. how certain genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders can affect other body functions other than the brain (like the digestive system and kidney function and metabolism); and finally, 3. why parents think their autistic children are so great. No overall theme, just information we hope you can use.

https://www.ijidonline.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1201-9712%2822%2900048-0

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-021-05405-x.pdf

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2788262

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The risk of dementia in older adults

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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34378867/

There have been several small, or small-ish, studies looking at the link between dementia and autism or ID. However, recently, the largest medical record study of 500k people, 12k of which were autistic and 26k were autistic and had ID, examining early onset dementia was published. Those with ASD had a 1.9 increased risk for dementia and it was even higher for those with ASD + ID. Why? Is it psychological or biological or both? Researchers at the AJ Drexel Autism Institute investigate.

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Get some zzzzzz’s

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Sleep is a huge problem in ASD. But is it just “sleep” or can we get more specific? What role do genetics have? And does being autistic make sleep problems worse? Answers come from an unlikely source: mice! Learn more about recent scientific evidence tying sleep problems to ASDs and neurodevelopmental disorders. These include: type of sleep problems autistic people face, why they exist, where they come from, and how mouse models can help solve them.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639428/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.559694/full

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30737588/

https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-021-00426-w

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33549123/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajmg.a.62086

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Autistic Adults Advise and Advance Research

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Have you ever heard of an initiative called “Autistic Adults and other Stakeholders Engaged Together”? If you have, you know their goal is to ensure that autistic perspectives are included in future scientific research. They recently published an article that summarized the research that autistic people feel is critical, and what is missing, and what needs to be done. They concluded most of the research done so far is applicable to males without intellectual disability. That needs to change. Speaking of adults, how many adults are autistic? Is it 5 million? Maybe, maybe not, but it is still unclear even after a recent publication. Listen to hear more.

To learn more about AASET click here

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32390461

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-020-04494-4.pdf

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Where superior ability crosses disability in ASD

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A study conducted by researchers at Yale this week revealed that while people with autism have disabilities in reading individual emotions, they have an unexpected amazing ability to understand and apply social rules to groups of people.  They understand social phenomena much better than those without. So how can this be?  Also, a new groundbreaking study shows scientists that there are changes in brain activity that are observed way before a diagnosis, which can change early detection and early intervention of ASD.

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=31501348

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31519897

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Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the fairest early predictor of adult language ability?

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Scientists study motor skills in early development not just because it is one of the first features to emerge, but because it is predictive of later social communication development, and as it turns out, later expressive language development.   A new study combining data from 2 countries shows that early motor deficits predict language abilities all the way up to age 19, so focusing on early motor skills is imperative for early intervention.  Also this week – a review on why those tiny details in genetics of ASD can be so helpful for people across the spectrum and families.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31429087

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31491383

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How to get and keep a job – from those that know

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There are many different factors that go into successful employment for people with and without autism.  As part of the ASF policy brief on employment, the US, Australia and Sweden held meetings with autistic adults, family members and employers and asked “what are the issues in your words”?  Then they were mapped onto areas of functioning, not ability or disability.  One thing that stands out is “matching interests and skills to job requirements”.  This is important, but a complicated issue.  This week’s podcast reviews what autistic people say, how it maps onto functioning and why we need to be careful about taking a one – sided approach to autism.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31276308

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31177369

 

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Happy Pride all!

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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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Getting Autistic People to Work

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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

Work and study

 

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An update on females with autism, on the double

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Females with autism are different than males with autism in a lot of ways.  This week, researchers used twins to examine the differences between males and females with autism in their brain structure and how it’s associated with autism traits, not a diagnosis.  To do this, researchers in Sweden turned to twins.  As it turns out, females have more of a diversity of differences in brain changes compared to boys, supporting the female protective effect.  But how to females with autism feel?  As them!  A group in the UK interviewed over 20 women on the spectrum or their parents to find out what concerns them most and what they find most challenging.

Both articles cited this week are open access:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10803-019-03906-4     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6373677/