Sensory Processing Disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are known to occur in patients with intellectual disability and at rates least proportional to the general population but often the developmental disabilities and lack of communication in these patients make it difficult to diagnose and assess the disorder and hence go undetected and untreated. Once diagnosed, treating OCD is another challenge faced by therapist in patients with intellectual disabilities. We report a case of intellectual disability with OCD highlighting the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges...

Exciting developments have taken place in the neuroscience research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and results from these studies indicate that brain in ASD is associated with aberrant neuroplasticity. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has rapidly evolved to become a widely used, safe, and non-invasive neuroscientific tool to investigate a variety of neurophysiological processes, including neuroplasticity. The diagnostic and therapeutic potential of TMS in ASD is beginning to be realized. In this article, we briefly reviewed evidence of aberrant neuroplasticity in ASD, suggested future directions in assessing neuroplasticity using repetitive TMS (rTMS), and discussed the potential of rTMS in rectifying aberrant neuroplasticity in ASD...

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) imitate less than typically developing (TD) children; however, the specific features and causes of this deficit are still unclear. The current study investigates the role of joint engagement, specifically children's visual attention to demonstrations, in an object-directed imitation task. This sample was recruited from an early ASD screening study, which allows for an examination of these behaviors prior to formal diagnosis and ASD-specific intervention. Children with ASD imitated less than TD children; children with other developmental delays showed no significant difference from the two other screen-positive groups...

Although there is an extensive literature on domains of social skill deficits in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), little research has examined the relation between specific social cognitive skills and complex social behaviors in daily functioning. This was the aim of the present study. Participants were 37 (26 male and 11 female) children and adolescents aged 6-18 years diagnosed with ASD. To determine the amount of variance in parent-rated complex social behavior accounted for by the linear combination of five directly-assessed social cognitive variables (i...

Implicit social biases are ubiquitous and are known to influence social behavior. A core diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is abnormal social behavior. We investigated the extent to which individuals with ASD might show a specific attenuation of implicit social biases, using Implicit Association Tests (IATs) involving social (gender, race) and nonsocial (nature, shoes) categories. High-functioning adults with ASD showed intact but reduced IAT effects relative to healthy control participants...

BACKGROUND: Earlier studies suggest that knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among healthcare workers in Nigeria is low. This present study assessed the knowledge of Nigerian final year medical students about symptoms of ASD and some other aspects of ASD. This is a cross sectional descriptive study that drew a total of seven hundred and fifty-seven (757) final year medical students from ten (10) randomly selected fully accredited medical schools out of a total of twenty-seven (27) fully accredited medical schools in Nigeria...

BACKGROUND: People with callous-unemotional traits and also those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display sociocognitive difficulties. However, the frequency and neurocognitive correlates of callous-unemotional traits within individuals with ASD are unknown. AIMS: To determine the prevalence of callous-unemotional traits in individuals with ASD and test their association with behavioural and cognitive measures. METHOD: Parents of 92 adolescents with ASD completed the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (APSD) for callous-unemotional traits...

This study examined sensory differences and mealtime behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n=34) and compared the results with those of similarly aged peers who were typically developing (TD; n=34). Results from parent-report and child-report questionnaires indicated that children with ASD scored significantly differently from TD peers on the measures of sensory differences and eating behaviors. Data also supported a correlation between sensory differences and eating difficulties in children with ASD...

Abnormalities in motor skills have been regarded as part of the symptomatology characterizing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been estimated that 80 % of subjects with autism display "motor dyspraxia" or clumsiness that are not readily identified in a routine neurological examination. In this study we used behavioral measures, event-related potentials (ERP), and lateralized readiness potential (LRP) to study cognitive and motor preparation deficits contributing to the dyspraxia of autism. A modified Posner cueing task was used to analyze motor preparation abnormalities in children with autism and in typically developing children (N = 30/per group)...

One's own emotional response toward a hypothetical action can influence judgments of its moral acceptability. Some individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit atypical emotional processing, and moral judgments. Research suggests, however, that emotional deficits in ASD are due to co-occurring alexithymia, meaning atypical moral judgments in ASD may be due to alexithymia also. Individuals with and without ASD (matched for alexithymia) judged the moral acceptability of emotion-evoking statements and identified the emotion evoked...

Previous research has shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may be able to perceive the intentions of another individual through tool use (e.g., Aldridge et al., 2000; Gonzalez et al., 2013). However, it is not well understood how individuals with ASD respond to an indirect connection between an extrapolated action and the required object. To address this question, we employed action phrases that indirectly provided the contextual information about which object to use. Individuals with ASD, and sex and age matched typically developing peers, were asked to pick which object would be needed to complete the task described in a sentence displayed on a computer screen...

Psychiatric disorders are more common in the mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or intellectual disability (ID) after the birth of their child. We aimed to assess the relationship between women's psychiatric contacts and subsequent offspring with ASD/ID. We linked three Western Australian registers to investigate pre-existing maternal outpatient psychiatric contacts and the odds of ASD/ID in a subsequent child. Women with a previous outpatient psychiatric contact were more than twice as likely to have a child with ASD [OR 2...

There is considerable interest in the potential therapeutic role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in altering attentional bias towards emotional social stimuli in psychiatric disorders. However, it is still unclear whether oxytocin primarily influences attention towards positive or negative valence social stimuli. Here in a double-blind, placebo controlled, between subject design experiment in 60 healthy male subjects we have used the highly sensitive dual-target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm to investigate whether intranasal oxytocin (40IU) treatment alters attentional bias for emotional faces...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The recent explosion of genetic findings in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research has improved knowledge of the disorder's underlying biology and etiologic architecture. This review introduces concepts and results from recent genetic studies and discusses the manner in which those findings can influence the trajectory of ASD research. RECENT FINDINGS: Large consortium studies have associated ASDs with many types of genetic risk factors, including common polygenic risk, de novo single nucleotide variants, copy number variants, and rare inherited variants...

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether subsequent births after short and long interpregnancy intervals (IPIs) are associated with risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHOD: We assessed the association between IPI and ASD risk in a cohort of 45 261 children born at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) between 2000 and 2009. Children with ASD were identified from International Classification of Diseases, Revision 9 diagnostic codes 299.0, 299.8, and 299...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are core features of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with similar symptoms and may receive a diagnosis of ADHD first. We investigated the relationship between the timing of ADHD diagnosis in children with ASD and the age at ASD diagnosis. METHODS: Data were drawn from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health, which asked parents to provide the age(s) at which their child received a diagnosis of ADHD and/or ASD...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a wide range of disabilities that cause life-long cognitive impairment and social, communication, and behavioral challenges. Early diagnosis and medical intervention are important for improving the life quality of autistic patients. However, in the current practice, diagnosis often has to be delayed until the behavioral symptoms become evident during childhood. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of using machine learning techniques for identifying high-risk ASD infants at as early as six months after birth...

The underlying factors affecting physical activity (PA) participation of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs) and their family members were investigated using a mixed method research design. Six families with children with HFASD aged 4 through 13 participated in the study. Findings revealed that levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in children with HFASD varied between 85 min and 405 min for seven days. Parents of children with HFASD in this study were inactive (levels of MVPA varied between 6 min and 53 min) during this period...

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders including autistic disorder, Asperger syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified as to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. All these categories are grouped together in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, classification under the category of Autism Spectrum Disorders.Behavioral disorders including irritability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and aggression are additional symptoms found in up to 20% of children and adolescents with ASD and require careful evaluation for appropriate treatment...

Implicit attitude research has expanded rapidly over the last decade and is seen as very promising as it counters biases present in much attitude research such as social desirability. However, most research in the area of intellectual disabilities has focused on explicit attitudes alone. This study examined implicit attitudes to this population and also examined their association with emotional reactions and contact, which have previously been found to have a significant influence on attitudes and stigma. A web based survey consisting of a single target Implicit Association Test, measures of explicit attitudes, social distance, and emotional reactions towards and contact with individuals with intellectual disabilities was completed by 326 adult UK residents...