Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and communication, by an extremely limited range of activities and interests, and often by the presence of repetitive, stereotyped behaviors.
New study explores the relationship between preterm birth and autism spectrum disorder. – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC), in collaboration with other medical centers, have found that children born more than three months premature, are at three times the risk for screening positive on the modified checklist for autism in toddlers (M-CHAT).
County-level autism prevalence rates and counts among school-aged children were positively associated with a county’s mean annual precipitation. – Children living in counties with higher levels of annual precipitation appear more likely to have higher prevalence rates of autism, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The results raise the possibility that an environmental trigger for autism may be associated with precipitation and may affect genetically vulnerable children.
Genetic variation can be used to predict an individual’s pair-bonding behavior; Gene associated with pair-bonding in animals has similar effects in human males. – Variation in the gene for one of the receptors for the hormone vasopressin appears to be associated with how human males bond with their partners, according to an international team of researchers.
Schizophrenia may be partly caused by the effects of unusual structural changes in genes. – People with schizophrenia (mental illness variously affecting behavior, thinking, and emotion) have an increased number of unusual chromosomal changes, particularly structural changes that have the potential to alter the function of the genes.
Autism gives special insight into the inner workings of the animal mind. – When Temple Grandin argued that animals and autistic savants share cognitive similarities in her best-selling book Animals in Translation (2005), the idea gained steam outside the community of cognitive neuroscientists.
Infants? bodies expel the thimerosal mercury much faster than once thought ? thereby leaving little chance for a progressive building up of the toxic metal. – February’s issue of Pediatrics offers another reason to rethink blaming the spike in autism diagnoses on thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative routinely used in several childhood vaccines until the late ?90s.
ABC plans to run an episode of ?Eli Stone? in which the title character successfully argues in court that a vaccine caused a child?s autism. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization of 60,000 pediatricians, is alarmed that this program could lead to a tragic decline in immunization rates. The AAP calls on ABC to cancel the episode. – The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is demanding ABC cancel the opening episode of “Eli Stone” scheduled for Thursday, January 31. As reported in The New York Times, the episode features a lawyer who argues in court that a vaccine caused a child’s autism.
Chromosomal abnormalities play substantial role in autism, revealed in a study. Noting this change would help early diagnosis for autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – a kind of developmental disorder. – Genome-wide scans of families affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have revealed new evidence that previously unknown chromosomal abnormalities have a substantial role in the prevalent developmental disorder, according to a report published online Jan. 17th in the American Journal of Human Genetics, a publication of Cell Press.
Dr. Kimberly Huber investigated how Fragile X syndrome affects communication between cells in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is involved in learning and memory. Fragile X syndrome is the most common cause of inherited mental retardation and the most common genetic cause of autism. – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are uncovering how brain cells are affected in Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited mental retardation and the most common genetic cause of autism.
US researchers say they have successfully corrected key symptoms of a type of autism and mental retardation in mice, a development which could offer sufferers a potential treatment. – Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have corrected key symptoms of mental retardation and autism in mice. The work, which will be reported in the Dec. 20 issue of Neuron, indicates that a certain class of drugs could have the same effect in humans. These drugs are not yet approved by the FDA, but will soon be entering into clinical trials.
