PURDUE UNIVERSITY WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Our brains make our lives easier by predicting what will happen next based on previous experiences. But what happens when those predictive powers don’t work like they should? Autism spectrum disorder and other neurological disorders involve problems with brain prediction. For example, the brain usually remembers situations that can...
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Bumetanide – a prescription drug for oedema (the build-up of fluid in the body) – improves some of the symptoms in young children with autism spectrum disorders and has no significant side effects, according to a new study from researchers in China and the UK. Published today in Translational Psychiatry, the study demonstrates for the first time that the drug improves the symptoms by decreasing the ratio...
Exposure to acetaminophen in the womb may increase a child’s risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism spectrum disorder, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from the Boston Birth Cohort, a 20-year study of early life factors influencing pregnancy and child development. They found that children whose cord blood samples contained the...
Single ALLO injection during pregnancy was enough to avert both the cerebellar abnormalities and the aberrant social behaviors in experimental models CHILDREN’S NATIONAL HOSPITAL CHICAGO-A study in experimental models suggests that allopregnanolone, one of many hormones produced by the placenta during pregnancy, is so essential to normal fetal brain development that when provision of that...
by Baylor College of Medicine Autism is a developmental disorder that affects 1 in 59 children in the U.S. Mutations in specific genes, such as PTEN, can explain many autism cases. While children with mutations in PTEN exhibit autism, macrocephaly (an abnormally large skull), intellectual disability and epilepsy, there are currently no effective treatment options...
by Delthia Ricks , Medical Xpress Autism spectrum disorder has neither a distinct pathogenesis nor pharmaceutical treatment, yet evidence continues to mount demonstrating immune dysfunction and inflammation in specific brain regions of children diagnosed with the neurodevelopmental condition. A collaborative group of researchers in Boston and Italy has discovered that pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines apparently...
Many neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism have been linked to disruption of the key neurotransmitter GABA, but the underlying causes of the disruptions have been difficult to pinpoint. In two new papers published Oct. 15 in Science Signaling, researchers from Yale, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom have zeroed in on a...
A large health system–used tool to screen almost all children for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) only identifies less than half with the condition. Just 39 percent of children who went on to get a diagnosis of ASD screened positive on their earlier pediatrician visit. The study authors looked at electronic health records of almost 26,000 children who had...
Posted Today Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say they are getting closer to identifying the mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and biomarkers that can aid in early diagnosis and predictions of symptom severity. A team of scientists analyzed blood gene expression data from 302 one- to four-year-old boys with...
Interventions based on games that require the use of technology have proved to facilitate motivation and learning processes in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA – BARCELONA Narcís Parés, a member of the Cognitive Media Technologies research group of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF, is working on...
