Background: Individuals on the autism spectrum commonly have differences from non-autistic people in expressing their emotions using communicative behaviors, such as facial expressions. However, it is not yet clear if this reduced expressivity stems from reduced physiological reactivity in emotional contexts or if individuals react internally, but do not show these reactions externally to others. We hypothesized that autism is characterized by a discordance between in-the-moment internal psychophysiological arousal and external communicative expressions of emotion.
Methods: Forty-one children on the autism spectrum and 39 non-autistic, typically developing (TD) children of two age groups (2-4 and 8-12 years) participated in a low-level stress task whilst wearing a wireless electrocardiogram. Children's negative emotional expressions (facial, vocal, bodily) were coded following standardized protocols. Alexithymia traits were assessed using the Children's Alexithymia Measure with school-aged children only. Data analyses involved ANOVAs, correlations, and sensitivity analyses.
Results: There were no group differences in physiological arousal (heart rate) or in communicative expressions of stress to the stress task. For TD preschoolers, physiological arousal during the stress task was associated with vocal expressions and for TD school-aged children, they were associated with facial and bodily expressions. By contrast, for children on the autism spectrum, physiological arousal during the stress tasks was not associated with communicative expressions across age groups.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children on the autism spectrum might experience emotional disconcordance, in that their physiological arousal does not align with their communicative expressions. Therefore, the internally experienced stress of children on the autism spectrum may be inadvertently missed by teachers and caregivers and, consequently, learning opportunities for teaching emotional communication and regulation may be also missed. Our results support the use of wearable biosensors to facilitate such interventions in children on the autism spectrum.
Background: Sharing and fairness are important prosocial behaviors that help us navigate the social world. However, little is known about how and whether individuals with Williams Syndrome (WS) engage in these behaviors. The unique phenotype of individuals with WS, consisting of high social motivation and limited social cognition, can also offer insight into the role of social motivation in sharing and fairness when compared to typically developing (TD) individuals. The current study used established experimental paradigms to examine sharing and fairness in individuals with WS and TD individuals.
Methods: We compared a sample of patients with WS to TD children (6-year-olds) matched by mental age (MA) on two experimental tasks: the Dictator Game (DG, Experiment 1, N = 17 WS, 20 TD) with adults modeling giving behaviors used to test sharing and the Inequity Game (IG, Experiment 2, N = 14 WS, 17 TD) used to test fairness.
Results: Results showed that the WS group behaved similarly to the TD group for baseline giving in the DG and in the IG, rejecting disadvantageous offers but accepting advantageous ones. However, after viewing an adult model giving behavior, the WS group gave more than their baseline, with many individuals giving more than half, while the TD group gave less. Combined these results suggest that social motivation is sufficient for sharing and, in particular, generous sharing, as well as the self-focused form of fairness. Further, individuals with WS appear capable of both learning to be more generous and preventing disadvantageous outcomes, a more complex profile than previously known.
Conclusions: In conclusion, the present study provides a snapshot into sharing and fairness-related behaviors in WS, contributing to our understanding of the intriguing social-behavioral phenotype associated with this developmental disorder.
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (OMIM 162200) affects ~ 1 in 3,000 individuals worldwide and is one of the most common monogenetic neurogenetic disorders that impacts brain function. The disorder affects various organ systems, including the central nervous system, resulting in a spectrum of clinical manifestations. Significant progress has been made in understanding the disorder's pathophysiology, yet gaps persist in understanding how the complex signaling and systemic interactions affect the disorder. Two features of the disorder are alterations in neuronal function and metabolism, and emerging evidence suggests a potential relationship between them. This review summarizes neurofibromatosis type 1 features and recent research findings on disease mechanisms, with an emphasis on neuronal and metabolic features.
Background: Accumulating evidences indicate regional grey matter (GM) morphology alterations in pediatric growth hormone deficiency (GHD); however, large-scale morphological brain networks (MBNs) undergo these patients remains unclear.
Objective: To investigate the topological organization of individual-level MBNs in pediatric GHD.
Methods: Sixty-one GHD and 42 typically developing controls (TDs) were enrolled. Inter-regional morphological similarity of GM was taken to construct individual-level MBNs. Between-group differences of topological parameters and network-based statistics analysis were compared. Finally, association relationship between network properties and clinical variables was analyzed.
Results: Compared to TDs, GHD indicated a disturbance in the normal small-world organization, reflected by increased Lp, γ, λ, σ and decreased Cp, Eglob (all PFDR < 0.017). Regarding nodal properties, GHD exhibited increased nodal profiles at cerebellum 4-5, central executive network-related left inferior frontal gyrus, limbic regions-related right posterior cingulate gyrus, left hippocampus, and bilateral pallidum, thalamus (all PFDR < 0.05). Meanwhile, GHD exhibited decreased nodal profiles at sensorimotor network -related bilateral paracentral lobule, default-mode network-related left superior frontal gyrus, visual network -related right lingual gyrus, auditory network-related right superior temporal gyrus and bilateral amygdala, right cerebellum 3, bilateral cerebellum 10, vermis 1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 (all PFDR < 0.05). Furthermore, serum markers and behavior scores in GHD group were correlated with altered nodal profiles (P ≤ 0.046, uncorrected).
Conclusion: GHD undergo an extensive reorganization in large-scale individual-level MBNs, probably due to abnormal cortico-striatal-thalamo-cerebellum loops, cortico-limbic-cerebellum, dorsal visual-sensorimotor-striatal, and auditory-cerebellum circuitry. This study highlights the crucial role of abnormal morphological connectivity underlying GHD, which might result in their relatively slower development in motor, cognitive, and linguistic functional within behavior problem performance.
Background: Emerging biomarker technologies (e.g., MRI, EEG, digital phenotyping, eye-tracking) have potential to move the identification of autism into the first year of life. We investigated the perspectives of parents about the anticipated utility and impact of predicting later autism diagnosis from a biomarker-based test in infancy.
Methods: Parents of infants were interviewed to ascertain receptiveness and perspectives on early (6-12 months) prediction of autism using emerging biomarker technologies. One group had experience parenting an older autistic child (n=30), and the other had no prior autism parenting experience (n=25). Parent responses were analyzed using inductive qualitative coding methods.
Results: Almost all parents in both groups were interested in predictive testing for autism, with some stating they would seek testing only if concerned about their infant's development. The primary anticipated advantage of testing was to enable access to earlier intervention. Parents also described the anticipated emotions they would feel in response to test results, actions they might take upon learning their infant was likely to develop autism, attitudes towards predicting a child's future support needs, and the potential impacts of inaccurate prediction.
Conclusion: In qualitative interviews, parents of infants with and without prior autism experience shared their anticipated motivations and concerns about predictive testing for autism in the first year of life. The primary reported motivators for testing-to have more time to prepare and intervene early-could be constrained by familial resources and service availability. Implications for ethical communication of results, equitable early intervention, and future research are discussed.
Background: SYNGAP1 variants are associated with varying degrees of intellectual disability (ID), developmental delay (DD), epilepsy, autism, and behavioural difficulties. These features may also be observed in other monogenic conditions. There is a need to systematically compare the characteristics of SYNGAP1 with other monogenic causes of ID and DD to identify features unique to the SYNAGP1 phenotype. We aimed to contrast the neurodevelopmental and behavioural phenotype of children with SYNGAP1-related ID (SYNGAP1-ID) to children with other monogenic conditions and a matched degree of ID.
Methods: Participants were identified from the IMAGINE-ID study, a UK-based, national cohort study of neuropsychiatric risk in children with ID of known genetic origin. Thirteen children with SYNGAP1 variants (age 4-16 years; 85% female) were matched (2:1) with 26 controls with other monogenic causes of ID for chronological and mental age, sex, socio-economic deprivation, adaptive behaviour, and physical health difficulties. Caregivers completed the Development and Wellbeing Assessment (DAWBA) and physical health questionnaires.
Results: Our results demonstrate that seizures affected children with SYNGAP1-ID (84.6%) more frequently than the ID-comparison group (7.6%; p = < 0.001). Fine-motor development was disproportionally impaired in SYNGAP1-ID, with 92.3% of children experiencing difficulties compared to 50% of ID-comparisons(p = 0.03). Gross motor and social development did not differ between the two groups. Children with SYNGAP1-ID were more likely to be non-verbal (61.5%) than ID-comparisons (23.1%; p = 0.01). Those children able to speak, spoke their first words at the same age as the ID-comparison group (mean = 3.25 years), yet achieved lower language competency (p = 0.04). Children with SYNGAP1-ID compared to the ID-comparison group were not more likely to meet criteria for autism (SYNGAP1-ID = 46.2%; ID-comparison = 30.7%; p = .35), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (15.4%;15.4%; p = 1), generalised anxiety (7.7%;15.4%; p = .49) or oppositional defiant disorder (7.7%;0%; p = .15).
Conclusion: For the first time, we demonstrate that SYNGAP1-ID is associated with fine motor and language difficulties beyond those experienced by children with other genetic causes of DD and ID. Targeted occupational and speech and language therapies should be incorporated early into SYNGAP1-ID management.
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