Autism Research最新文献

Handwriting is an essential skill for school-aged children. Research indicates that autistic children often demonstrate poor handwriting fundamentals, which significantly affect their handwriting performance. These children also often exhibit weak central coherence (WCC), a cognitive visual processing characteristic that impairs their ability to integrate details into a cohesive whole in writing tasks. This challenge is particularly pronounced in logographic handwriting, where spatial relationships between radicals are essential for legibility, adding another layer of complexity. The modified geometric-based handwriting intervention program was designed to improve fundamental skills while addressing the spatial demands of logographic characters and the impact of WCC for autistic children. Twenty-two first- and second-grade autistic students were recruited and received a 12-h one-on-one handwriting intervention. Assessments of handwriting performance (legibility and speed), fundamental skills (visual perception, fine motor coordination, and visual-motor integration), and acceptability (motivation and satisfaction) were collected for data analysis. Results showed significant improvements in handwriting legibility, visual perception, and fine motor coordination, with high acceptance ratings from both participants and caregivers. This study provides evidence that the program effectively enhances handwriting legibility and foundational skills while maintaining high motivation levels in autistic children.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between gray matter (GM) changes and severity in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We examined 113 ASD children aged 2–8 years (17 mild cases, 56 moderate cases, and 40 severe cases), as well as 110 age and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to compare GM density (GMD) changes between ASD and HC groups. Additionally, structural covariance network analysis quantified the cross-regional synchronous changes in GM among ASD children, and causal analysis described the pattern of changes in the GM network related to symptom severity in ASD children. The results indicated that ASD children exhibiting mild symptoms have an enlarged parahippocampal gyrus, and as the severity of ASD increases, the range of GMD changes expands (p < 0.05, FDR correction). Granger causality (GC) analysis revealed that the parahippocampal gyrus may function as a central hub within ASD-related directional networks, exerting causal effects on other brain regions (p < 0.05). These findings were validated by external datasets. Our results provide preliminary insights into the role of the parahippocampal gyrus in ASD and promote the application of dimensional models.

Although insistence on sameness (IS) and compulsions occur across a wide range of neurodevelopmental (NDD) and neuropsychiatric (NPD) conditions, they are typically only examined within the confines of specific singular disorders. Indeed, while anxiety has been consistently linked to IS in autism and compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), no empirical study has examined these associations in a sample spanning a range of NDD and NPD. Therefore, this study utilized a large sample of children and adolescents spanning several NDD and NPD to examine whether anxiety shows different patterns of association with IS or compulsions within and across diagnostic groups. The transdiagnostic sample encompassed youth (mean age = 10.36 [3.40]; N = 1852) diagnosed with autism (N = 387), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; N = 931), internalizing disorders (N = 208), OCD/Tic disorder (N = 59) and oppositional defiant/conduct disorder (ODD/CD; N = 267). IS and compulsions were assessed using the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised, and anxiety using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders. Within-group comparisons revealed that, in the autism, ADHD, and OCD/Tic groups, anxiety showed a slightly stronger association with IS than compulsions although effect sizes indicated small to no effect (q < 0.24). Between-group comparisons showed that interrelationships between anxiety, IS, and compulsions did not differ across groups, except for the association between IS and compulsions, which was slightly weaker in the ADHD group compared to the autism (z = 4.20) and ODD/CD groups (z = 3.32). Findings affirm the transdiagnostic nature of IS and compulsions and suggest that anxiety plays a key role in these behaviors, irrespective of primary diagnosis.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have significant difficulties in social competence. This study provided empirical evaluation of the theoretical model by Kennedy and Adolphs (2012) positing that social competence relies on an interconnected network of four components: social brain, cognition, behavior, and functioning. Data from 243 youth (69 female, 174 male), age 10–17 years, were used to test the hypothesized mediation effect of social cognition (Theory of Mind) from social brain (event-related potential markers of face perception and memory) to social behavior (Contextual Assessment of Social Skills) and functioning (Child Behavior Checklist). An additional analysis evaluated whether the structure of the social competence model varied based on the biological sex of the autistic participants. The findings support the conceptual model of social competence where the social brain's contributions to social behavior and functioning are mediated by social cognition, with an additional direct path between the brain and behavior. The relationship among the four components of social competence is not significantly different for autistic males and females. Social competence is best represented as a network of direct and indirect connections among the neural, cognitive, and behavioral components. Thus, focusing on any single element is not sufficient for effective design of novel assessment and treatment approaches in autism. The findings also highlight the importance of self-initiated active engagement with social cues as a contributor to successful social behavior and functioning in autism.

In this cross-sectional study, participants were recruited through convenience sampling from the Children's Mental Health Research Center at The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and the Department of Ophthalmology at The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China, between December 2019 and October 2024. A total of 200 eyes were ultimately enrolled in this study, sourced from 53 individuals with ASD, aged between 7 and 13 years, and an equal number of age- and sex-matched neurotypical (NT) controls. The aim of this research is to explore the changes in retinal and choroidal vasculature in children with ASD, evaluated through optical coherence tomography and its angiography, and to further investigate the potential value of retinal vascular characteristics in the auxiliary screening and diagnosis of ASD. We analyzed intergroup differences in perfusion density (PD), vessel density, flux index (FI), fractal dimension (FD), and vessel diameter (Dm) in the peripapillary region, further stratified by subquadrants and vessel types. The results show that ASD children exhibited significant differences compared to neurotypical controls, including increased PD and Dm in the supero-nasal quadrant (p < 0.01), changes in capillary FI in the nasal quadrant (p = 0.008), increased venous FD (p = 0.009), and abnormal choroidal FI in the temporal quadrant (p = 0.008). A random forest classification model constructed based on these key features demonstrated promising performance (AUC = 0.7853) in distinguishing ASD from NT individuals, highlighting the potential of retinal vascular characteristics for auxiliary ASD screening. Moreover, retinal vascular parameters were significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with blood oxygen level-dependent signals from functional magnetic resonance imaging in several brain regions, such as the amygdala (p = 0.004–0.009) and temporal lobe (p = 0.000–0.009). Further stepwise regression analysis indicates that key retinal vascular characteristics could partially predict core clinical features of ASD, such as social functioning (adjusted R ²  = 0.091–0.104, quantified by total and subscale scores of Social Responsiveness Scale) and cognitive ability (adjusted R ²  = 0.2785, quantified by total intelligence quotient scores). This study underscores the potential of retinal vascular features as biomarkers for ASD and provides a basis for future research on non-invasive retinal imaging-based approaches for ASD screening and diagnosis, while offering new perspectives for understanding the pathological mechanisms and clinical applications of ASD.