Autism and Asperger

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Autism and Asperger

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Autism

"Most parents of autistic children suspect that something is wrong by the time the child is 18 months old and seek help by the time the child is 2. Children with autism typically have difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interactions, and pretend play. In some, aggression -- toward others or self -- may be present. Some children with autism appear normal before age 1 or 2 and then suddenly "regress" and lose language or social skills they had previously gained. This is called the regressive type of autism. People with autism may perform repeated body movements, show unusual attachments to objects or have unusual distress when routines are changed. Individuals may also experience sensitivities in the senses …"

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Asperger syndrome

"The child with Asperger shows below-average nonverbal communication gestures, fails to develop peer relationships, has an inability to express pleasure in other people's happiness, and lacks the ability to reciprocate emotionally in normal social interactions. The condition appears to be more common in boys than in girls. There are likely genetic factors, but some theories suggest a prenatal infection may be to blame. While people with Asperger syndrome are frequently socially inept, many have above-average intelligence, and they may excel in fields like computer programming and science. There is no delay in cognitive development, in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, or in curiosity about the environment. Generally, there is no language development delay."

Highlighted Articles

A Prospective Study of Response to Name in Infants at Risk for Autism (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2007)

"Conclusions Failure to respond to name by age 12 months is highly suggestive of developmental abnormality but does not identify all children at risk for developmental problems. Lack of responding to name is not universal among infants later diagnosed with ASD and/or other developmental delays. Poor response to name may be a trait of the broader autism phenotype in infancy."

Structure of the Autism Symptom Phenotype: A Proposed Multidimensional Model. (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2007)

"Conclusions: The pervasive developmental disorder symptom phenotype is composed of three domains or factors: social-communication, inflexible language and behavior, and repetitive sensory and motor behavior. Each child with pervasive developmental disorder can be characterized by these dimensions, which give an informative picture of the clinical presentation and a quantitative estimate of the severity of the disability."

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Autism and Asperger

Diagnosis, Imaging, and Screening

NEWS:

Autistic Children Have More Gray Matter in Brains "The excess gray matter in the parietal region may make it harder for autistic children to learn how to function socially by watching other people's behaviors, the researchers suggest. In contrast, increased gray matter among healthy children correlated with higher IQ, the researchers said."

Doctors Look for Early Autism Signs "The authors say warning signs include failure to: -focus on sights and sounds by 2 months. -initiate joyful behavior with parents by 4 months. -exchange smiles and sounds with parents by 8 to 9 months. -take a parent's hand to find a toy and point to objects by 12 to 16 months. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that pediatricians routinely evaluate children for developmental problems such as autism starting in infancy, and begin testing at age 9 months. "

Not responding to name may be sign of autism "A child's failure to respond to his or her name at one year of age may be an early warning sign of autism or other developmental problems, researchers reported on Monday. The finding is significant because "earlier identification of autism offers the possibility of early intervention, which holds promise for improving outcomes," said the report from the University of California Davis in Sacramento."

ARTICLES:

Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) "The Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) is a screening instrument which identifies children aged 18 months who are at risk for social-communication disorders."

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

A developmental study of the structural integrity of white matter in autism. (Neuroreport. 2007) "The findings suggest that reductions in the structural integrity of white matter in autism persist into adulthood. These reductions may underlie the behavioral pattern observed in autism, as well as findings of reduced functional connectivity in functional magnetic resonance imaging signal between activating cortical areas."

A Prospective Study of Response to Name in Infants at Risk for Autism (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2007) "Conclusions Failure to respond to name by age 12 months is highly suggestive of developmental abnormality but does not identify all children at risk for developmental problems. Lack of responding to name is not universal among infants later diagnosed with ASD and/or other developmental delays. Poor response to name may be a trait of the broader autism phenotype in infancy."

Accelerated maturation of white matter in young children with autism: A high b value DWI study. (Neuroimage. 2007)

Anterior cingulate volume in pediatric bipolar disorder and autism. (J Affect Disord. 2007)

Brief Report: Abnormal Association Between the Thalamus and Brain Size in Asperger's Disorder. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Caudate Nucleus Is Enlarged in High-Functioning Medication-Naive Subjects with Autism. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007)

Correlates of head circumference growth in infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. (J Child Neurol. 2007) "These findings support previous findings of accelerated brain growth during the first year of life in autism spectrum disorder and question whether growth factors might contribute to both accelerated brain growth and overall body growth."

Cortical folding abnormalities in autism revealed by surface-based morphometry. (J Neurosci. 2007) "These findings are consistent with evidence of an altered trajectory of early brain development in autism, and they identify several regions that may have abnormal patterns of connectivity in individuals with autism."

Defining the Behavioral Phenotype of Asperger Syndrome. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Diagnostic Stability in Very Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Diagnostic trends in autistic spectrum disorders in the South Wales valleys. (Autism. 2007)

[Differential diagnosis between pervasive developmental disorder and schizophrenia] (Nippon Rinsho. 2007) "Differential diagnosis between schizophrenia and pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) including Asperger's syndrome, needs evaluation of apparently similar symptoms among the two disorders and careful collection of information about developmental history of each patient. Some conditions that have been traditionally regarded as schizophrenia, seem to have overlapping parts with those of PDD."

Differentiating Autism and Asperger Syndrome on the Basis of Language Delay or Impairment. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Diffusion tensor imaging of white matter in the superior temporal gyrus and temporal stem in autism. (Neurosci Lett. 2007) " These results suggest that white matter microstructure in autism is abnormal in these temporal lobe regions, which is consistent with theories of aberrant brain connectivity in autism."

Early detection of autism spectrum disorders: Screening between 12 and 24 months of age. (J Am Acad Nurse Pract. 2007) "Conclusions: Children with ASD exhibit impaired social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication deficits, and repetitive, restricted, and stereotyped patterns of behavior or interests. Studies show that these children benefit from beginning intensive EI as soon as possible. Implications for practice: Early detection enables children with suspected ASD to be evaluated by specialists and entered into treatment programs at the earliest possible opportunity. Because of the importance of early diagnosis of ASD, it is critical that NPs use established screening instruments to maximize time and increase the reliability of the assessment."

Elevation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in cerebrospinal fluid of autistic children. (Pediatr Neurol. 2007)

Evidence for Cortical Dysfunction in Autism: A Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging Study (Biological Psychiatry 2007) "These results suggest widespread reductions in gray matter neuronal integrity and dysfunction of cortical and cerebellar glutamatergic neurons in patients with autism."

Gross Motor Development, Movement Abnormalities, and Early Identification of Autism. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Head Circumference as an Early Predictor of Autism Symptoms in Younger Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Identification and Evaluation of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders (AAP 2007)

[Importance of early detection in autism septrum disorder] (Gac Med Mex. 2007)

Increased motor cortex white matter volume predicts motor impairment in autism. (Brain. 2007)

Minor physical anomalies in children with autism spectrum disorder. (Early Hum Dev. 2007) "RESULTS: We found that children with ASD presenting MPAs (n=23; 96%) had significantly higher rates of MPAs in four body areas (head, ears, mouth, hands); interestingly three of 41 MPAs best discriminated ASD groups from comparison subjects: abnormal head circumference, abnormal cephalic index, abnormal palate. Moreover, our results suggest that most MPAs occur predominantly after the first trimester of pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: These results support a prenatal neurodevelopmental model of the autism spectrum disorder."

MRI Neuroanatomy in Young Girls With Autism: A Preliminary Study. (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2007)

Quantitative temporal lobe differences: Autism distinguished from controls using classification and regression tree analysis. (Brain Dev. 2007)

Rate of Head Circumference Growth as a Function of Autism Diagnosis and History of Autistic Regression. (J Child Neurol. 2007) "Findings from this study suggest that the aberrant growth is present in the first year of life and precedes the onset and diagnosis in children with autism spectrum disorder with and without a history of autistic regression."

Regional cerebral blood flow in childhood autism: a SPET study with SPM evaluation. (Nucl Med Commun. 2008)

Shape Mapping of the Hippocampus in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Journal of Neuroradiology 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Children with ASD exhibited an alteration of hippocampal shape consistent with inward deformation of the subiculum. This pattern of hippocampal-shape deformations in the children with ASD was accentuated in the more severely affected subgroup of children with AD and was associated with deficits on neuropsychologic tests of MTL but not prefrontal function. Hippocampal-shape deformation in the children with ASD was observed to be similar to a pattern of hippocampal shape deformation previously reported in adults with MTL epilepsy. …"

Social and Communication Development in Toddlers With Early and Later Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007) "Results Social, communication, and play behavior in the early-diagnosis group differed from that in all other groups by 14 months of age."

Structure of the Autism Symptom Phenotype: A Proposed Multidimensional Model. (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2007) "Conclusions: The pervasive developmental disorder symptom phenotype is composed of three domains or factors: social-communication, inflexible language and behavior, and repetitive sensory and motor behavior. Each child with pervasive developmental disorder can be characterized by these dimensions, which give an informative picture of the clinical presentation and a quantitative estimate of the severity of the disability."

The intrinsic functional organization of the brain is altered in autism. (Neuroimage. 2007)

The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers: A Follow-up Study Investigating the Early Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorders. (J Autism Dev Disord. 2007)

Thought disorder in Asperger syndrome and schizophrenia: Issues in the differential diagnosis. A series of case reports. (World J Biol Psychiatry. 2007)

Towards a neuroanatomy of autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging studies (European Psychiatry 2007)

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