The latest autism research news stories with ASF Chief Science Officer Alycia Halladay
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As college and university semesters come to a close, new research is determining the factors that lead to success in college for the individuals with autism but without intellectual disability. They include: help with time management, relationships (both peer and romantic), self-advocacy and organizational skills. Students, parents and educators agree on what is needed, but institutions are struggling to make sure they are available.
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Two studies from Sweden came out this week with the same idea: study autism across time, and focus on other things besides just autism. This podcast reviews both. The first examined quality of life in adults over the course of 20 years and the other followed preschoolers into school age. The results are consistent. That is, people with autism have high levels of psychiatric comorbidities which depended on a number of factors. Of particular importance is the role of intellectual functioning on outcome. These recent data are further evidence that while people with autism share struggles, those with ID may need to be considered differently in clinical care, housing, employment, and obviously intervention.
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Most people with autism have some sort of sensory issue. This week, researchers at University of Wisconsin and University of North Carolina create new categories of sensory challenges in people with autism to figure out if they can predict functioning. The story is complicated (isn’t it always) but the findings that certain sensory subtypes lead to different adaptive outcomes. This information will help different groups people with autism rather than lumping them together. Also, this podcast discusses new findings on the risk of psychiatric problems in siblings of people with an autism diagnosis. Normally the literature focuses on people with autism, and as it turns out, siblings need extra attention as well.
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This week is a more philosophical, ideological discussion of the origins of social behaviors inspired by review articles written by Mayada Elsabbagh at McGill University and Boaz Barak and Guoping Feng at MIT. The focus of these papers are: when social behaviors emerge, and what brain regions are responsible for their existence. While Dr. Elsabbagh thinks of the question in terms of when behaviors and symptoms emerge in infancy, Drs. Barak and Feng consider the issue by comparing autism to Williams Syndrome. Williams Syndrome is very similar to autism except people with WS are hyper social and empathetic and sometimes gregarious. One tiny change on one area of one gene makes all the difference. This podcast doesn’t settle the question, but hopefully shows you listeners why there is a debate and how it is important for people with autism.
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In honor of world autism awareness day, this podcast is dedicated to the new prevalence numbers of 8 year old children with autism. Is this a trend that it is no longer on the rise? Given that people with autism need awareness, support, understanding, help and boatloads of help getting them, this is a good time to know where those numbers came from. There is more that needs to be done, especially for those that are not caucasian and need better access to services.
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This was a very genetics-centric week because of two exciting new publications that focused on genetic risk factors. In the first, Dr. William Brandler at UCSD demonstrates that mutations in autism risk genes come in all sorts of different forms, but they must be in the right genes to lead to a diagnosis. Just having different mutations is not enough. Also, in an intriguing analysis led by Dr. Elise Robinson at the Broad Institute (and also summarized on SpectrumNews), she looked at these autism risk genes in people without autism and found that we all have them. Reiterating what Dr. Brandler found, she showed that the spectrum of autism genetics may be broader than the spectrum of an autism diagnosis. It may explain symptoms of autism without a diagnosis in family members as well.
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Studies of very early signs of autism, even before an official diagnosis can be made, has led to better recognition of early signs and driven earlier and earlier interventions. These interventions have improved the lives of people with autism. The biological signs like brain activity, structure and genetics could further improve early intervention paradigms that look at biomarkers rather than just behavioral features. Studies of these early signs are best looked at through symptoms in younger siblings of those with a diagnosis, who have a 20x higher risk of ASD compared to those who do not. To move to even more high impact discoveries, researchers need more families to participate. But what do families really think of this type of research? Adults and parents agree on the value of understanding the early signs of autism, but not always about what to call it. This week’s podcast explains.
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About 25-30% of children with autism show language impairment or no language at all, and these families often use assisted communication devices like picture exchange to help their children communicate. Recently, electronic communication devices like the iPad have revolutionized the way that people communicate, but little research has been done on how and if they are really effective. This week, a multidisciplinary group of researchers added an assisted communication device, an iPad, to behavioral intervention for a 9 month trial. As it turns out, the group with all 3 (language intervention, behavioral intervention and the communication device) showed the greatest gains in language and speech, but only when the intervention was intense. This new study shows that in the right context, these devices can help those who do not communicate with words, and provides preliminary proof that this technology is indeed helpful.
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On Friday, February 19, the NIH organized a workshop on regression in autism. It included autism researchers as well as neurobiologists studying regression in other disorders, specifically Rett Syndrome. Rett Syndrome is characterized by a regression in symptoms around 18-30 months of age but is the result of a known genetic mutation. Because the genetic mutation is know, researchers have been able to make huge advancements in the study of the cellular causes of regression. Do they apply to autism? The theory of overturning is presented and discussed in the workshop and on the podcast. You can see the full agenda at: https://iacc.hhs.gov/non-iacc-events/2016/loss-of-skill-agenda-february19.shtml
Here are some screen shots of the workshop:
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In honor of President’s Day in the United States, today’s podcast is a summary of a few more recent studies on employment of people with autism spectrum disorder. In addition to identifying challenges between the perspectives between employees and employers on the purpose of job supports, new methods to increase and maintain employment of people with ASD are reviewed. They include supportive employment environments and self-instruction. Both could be cost-effective in the long run. These studies add to an ever emerging literature on employment strategies in people with autism, and hopefully there will be more on this topic in the future.