Autism, adult

BACKGROUND: Atypical anticipation of social reward has been indicated to lie at the core of the social challenges faced by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, past research has yielded inconsistent results, often overlooking crucial characteristics of stimuli. Here, we investigated ASD reward processing using social and non-social tangible stimuli, carefully matched on several key dimensions. METHODS: We examined the anticipation and consumption of social (interpersonal touch) and non-social (flavored milk) rewards in 25 high-functioning ASD and 25 neurotypical adult individuals...

PURPOSE: Professional supports play an important role in aiding autistic children's learning, participation, and overall wellbeing. Yet, limited research exists on stakeholders' perspectives and preferences regarding targeted outcomes for children undergoing support facilitated by professionals. This study investigated stakeholder views on the priority and appropriateness of outcomes intentionally targeted during the provision of supports to autistic children. METHOD: A survey of 181 participants (including 72 autistic adults, 85 parents, and 69 professionals) from Australia and New Zealand was conducted...

Most autistic people experience difficulties in sensory processing, including interoceptive processing. For example, they often report subjective difficulties in the interoceptive processing of interoceptive input, such as difficulty in interpreting bodily signals, including hunger, thirst, and fatigue. However, whether these subjective interoceptive difficulties are from underlying problems in interoceptive accuracy remains unclear. This study investigated the relationship between subjective interoceptive difficulty and behavioral interoceptive accuracy in autistic adults and a control group...

BACKGROUND: Cultural-based literature focusing on Asian autistic immigrants living in Western countries is very limited. AIMS: The present study is a quality improvement exercise aiming to fill the gap by investigating the employment needs of and barriers for Chinese autistic youth and young adults in Ontario, Canada. METHODS & PROCEDURES: 71 individuals diagnosed with autism and 24 diagnosed with other mental illnesses, aged 12-29, participated in an online survey regarding their work readiness, work skills, interests, health and cultural concerns...

INTRODUCTION: Neuropsychological deficits in areas of Executive Functioning (EF), theory of mind, and central coherence have been well-documented among children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, there remains a significant gap in knowledge with regards to neuropsychological profile in adults with ASD. This study aims to investigate the intellectual functioning and neuropsychological profiles of a clinical population of adults with ASD. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 40 available autistic individuals referred to an adult developmental disorders clinic at a hospital between 2021 and 2022...

This study applied the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate frontal activity in autism when performing verbal fluency test and emotion recall task. We recruited 32 autistic adults without intellectual disability and 30 typically-developing controls (TDC). Prefrontal hemodynamic changes were evaluated by fNIRS when the participants performed the verbal fluency test and emotion recall task. fNIRS signals in the prefrontal cortex were compared between autism and TDC. Compared to TDC, autistic adults showed comparable performance on the verbal fluency test but exhibited lower frontal activity on the vegetable category...

The post-secondary transition for autistic youth is a complex process, with hopes and expectations serving as malleable mediators often overlooked in research and practice. Career awareness, exploration, and counseling services play a critical role in facilitating vocational transition, but the vocational hopes and expectations of autistic youth and their parents are often disregarded. This study aims to explore these aspirations and their impact on the vocational transition process, seeking to harmonize elements to better align with the needs of autistic youth and their families...

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present atypical sensory processing in the perception of moving stimuli and biological motion. The present study aims to explore the performance of young adults with ASD in a time to contact (TTC) estimation task involving social and non-social stimuli. TTC estimation involves extrapolating the trajectory of a moving target concealed by an occluder, based on the visible portion of its path, to predict the target's arrival time at a specific position. Sixteen participants with a diagnosis of level-1 ASD (M = 19...

It is crucial to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the types of daily activities autistic adults typically engage in. However, previous research has almost exclusively focused on vocational or education activities. Further, it remains unclear how and whether specific daily activities participation rates change proportionally over time, vary by gender, or compare to nationally representative data. Utilizing eight annual data waves from the Netherlands Autism Register (NAR) this study aims to bridge this gap...

This study aimed to explore the impact of Autistic identity (i.e. feeling like you belong to the Autistic community), sensory profiles (e.g. being over or under responsive to sensations) and camouflaging behaviours (i.e. masking) on eating disorder symptoms in Autistic adults. 180 Autistic people were recruited from the community and NHS. The Autistic people completed online questionnaires measuring Autistic identity, sensory profiles, camouflaging behaviours, autistic traits and eating disorder symptoms. The analysis showed that higher levels of camouflaging behaviour predicted higher levels of eating disorder symptoms...

INTRODUCTION: Around 16% of world's population lives with visible and invisible disabilities. People with disabilities' participation may be limited because of the environmental obstacles. Moreover, historic heritage places were built before the development of accessibility standards and the rights of people living with disabilities and the majority were not designed to be accessible. Access to historic heritage places is important for carrying out the activities in place but also to create and reinforce identity...

PURPOSE: To compare (1) motor proficiency of persons diagnosed in adulthood with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with normative values of motor proficiency, and (2) motor proficiency between persons with ADHD and those with ASD diagnosed in adulthood. METHODS: A total of 153 adults (median age 32 years, 36% women) participated in this cross-sectional study. Fifty-three persons with predominately inattentive presentation (ADHD-I), 67 persons with combined presentation (ADHD-C), and 33 persons with ASD performed the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2)...

High-penetrance mutations affecting mental health can involve genes ubiquitously expressed in the brain. Whether the specific patterns of dysfunctions result from ubiquitous circuit deficits or might reflect selective vulnerabilities of targetable subnetworks has remained unclear. Here, we determine how loss of ubiquitously expressed fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), the cause of fragile X syndrome, affects brain networks in Fmr1y/- mice. We find that in wild-type mice, area-specific knockout of FMRP in the adult mimics behavioral consequences of area-specific silencing...

In this study we have asked a group of autistic young adults to describe what is important for their quality of life. The 14 participants (aged 21-29 years) were recruited from a 10-year follow-up study of autistic people. During interviews, our participants described the importance of having relationships with family, friends and pets. Having meaningful activities and being able to immerse themselves in particular interests was also reported to be important for a good quality of life. Interests had also guided their choice of what to study and what to do for work...

Rare disruptions of the transcription factor FoxP1 are implicated in a human neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by autism and/or intellectual disability with prominent problems in speech and language abilities. Avian orthologues of this transcription factor are evolutionarily conserved and highly expressed in specific regions of songbird brains, including areas associated with vocal production learning and auditory perception. Here, we investigated possible contributions of FoxP1 to song discrimination and auditory perception in juvenile and adult female zebra finches...

The interviewing of victims, witnesses and suspects is important in helping resolve criminal investigations. In Japan, developments have recently occurred in the training of the police and their public prosecutors in these key tasks. Whilst literature exists on autism in Japan, studies examining police/public prosecutor interviews with autistic adults conducted in that country (and indeed, any other) remain scant. As elsewhere in the world, identification of those who manifest characteristics prevalent on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) scale, has been found to be problematical to criminal justice professionals...

4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4-MBC) and micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) are common in personal care and cosmetic products (PCCPs) and consumer goods; however, they have become pervasive environmental contaminants. MNPs serve as carriers of 4-MBC in both PCCPs and the environment. Our previous study demonstrated that 4-MBC induces estrogenic effects in zebrafish larvae. However, knowledge gaps remain regarding the sex- and tissue-specific accumulation and potential toxicities of chronic coexposure to 4-MBC and MNPs...

Competing theories have been proposed to explain the considerable overlap in social-cognitive features and risk factors across schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions (ASCs). Six previous factor analyses have been reported in the literature, yet all have major limitations; evidence for the clear superiority of any of the competing theories is insufficient and warrants further investigation. The primary aim of the present research was to identify dimensions that cut across schizotypy and ASCs while addressing limitations of past research...

BACKGROUND: Research into befriending for people with intellectual disabilities is limited. This study aimed to explore the impact, mechanisms of change, and limitations of a befriending scheme for adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. METHODS: Participants were recruited using convenience sampling. Thirteen individuals with intellectual disabilities and/or autism were interviewed and data thematically analysed. RESULTS: Four themes were generated: 'Something fun for me'; 'A good connection'; 'Increasing independence'; and 'A life less quiet'...

Layla is a 6.7-year-old girl diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-predominantly hyperactive/impulsive type-delayed adaptive skills, enuresis, unspecified malnutrition, and feeding difficulties. She presented to developmental-behavioral pediatrics (DBP) in January 2022 due to caregiver concerns for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Layla lives in a polyamorous family with her biological mother and father, mother's partner whom Layla refers to as her uncle, and her 2 half-siblings. There is a maternal history of special education services, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and ADHD...