Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research最新文献

Sensorimotor impairments are well documented in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about how these difficulties present in middle-aged and older autistic adults or how they relate to demographic factors and autistic traits. In this study, 52 autistic and 56 age- and sex-matched non-autistic adults (aged 30-73 years) completed a visually guided precision grip task designed to assess temporal (reaction time, duration), spatial (force accuracy, variability), and dynamic (rate of force change) features of grip control under two conditions: varying motor output demands (target force test) and visual feedback (visual gain test). Autistic adults showed prolonged duration, delayed reaction time, and greater target overshooting at lower force levels during the rise phase. During the sustained phase, they exhibited increased grip force variability across both tasks. In contrast, autistic adults demonstrated shorter reaction times during the relaxation phase. Subgroup analyses revealed that the middle-aged autistic subgroup displayed elevated grip force variability, whereas the older autistic subgroup showed broader impairments affecting both spatial and temporal aspects of precision gripping. Within the autistic group, temporal grip force variables under the low target force condition were significantly associated with age and repetitive behaviors. These findings demonstrate that manual motor impairments persist into adulthood in ASD, and suggest shared neurobiological networks that underlie both motor dysfunction and core autistic traits.

Autistic adults face higher rates of loneliness and depression than non-autistic adults. Self-compassion may offer a protective buffer against mental health difficulties, but its measurement validity and interaction with loneliness have not been studied in autistic populations. This two-part study examined (1) the dimensional structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) in a global sample of autistic (n = 377) and non-autistic (n = 196) adults, and (2) whether self-compassion moderates the relationship between loneliness and depression in both groups. Confirmatory factor analyses tested multiple models of the SCS, and multigroup regression models tested moderation effects using loneliness and depression scores. The SCS was best represented by two factors-compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding-in both autistic and non-autistic groups. Measurement invariance was supported. In moderation analyses, uncompassionate self-responding significantly moderated the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms among non-autistic adults, but not autistic adults. Uncompassionate self-responding was significantly associated with greater depression symptoms in both groups. These findings support using a two-factor structure of the SCS in autistic samples and suggest that reducing uncompassionate self-responding may benefit mental health broadly. However, self-compassion did not buffer the loneliness-depression link for autistic adults, highlighting the need for alternative protective factors tailored to this population.

Prominent theories of autism suggest autism-associated differences in visual-motor integration (VMI) may disrupt learning of motor and social skills typically acquired by observation and imitation. Supporting these theories, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show robust differences in motor tasks reliant on dynamic VMI (e.g., ball-catching and motor imitation) and anomalous visual-motor connectivity between higher-order visual (HOV) and sensory-motor cortices. Use of functional MRI (fMRI) to examine HOV functional connectivity (FC) has been particularly revealing with other conditions. For instance, research with congenitally blind adults reveals a particular pattern of altered HOV connectivity, showing reduced HOV connectivity with primary sensory-motor (SM1) and primary auditory (A1) cortices yet "compensatory" increased connectivity between HOV and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Informed by these findings, we used fMRI to examine HOV FC in children with ASD, hypothesizing they would show a distinct pattern of HOV connectivity relative to typically developing (TD) children, with decreased HOV-SM1 connectivity and increased "compensatory" HOV-PFC connectivity. We further hypothesized that this altered pattern of HOV connectivity would correlate with autism-associated difficulties with performing skilled actions ("praxis"), often learned through visual imitation. Our findings suggest ASD children show an altered pattern of HOV connectivity that is characterized by reduced HOV connectivity with SM1 yet increased connectivity with PFC. Further, this HOV connectivity correlated with impaired praxis in children with ASD, suggesting that altered patterns of HOV connectivity may contribute to difficulty acquiring a range of skilled behaviors observed in autism.

Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRB) are associated with sensory processing (SP) differences for autistic people, and are thought to be a coping strategy to help manage the sensory environment. Previous work shows that, for autistic people, alexithymia, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and anxiety mediate the relationship between SP differences and RRB. However, these studies use anxiety measures developed for the general population, and more recent evidence suggests that autistic people may have a different anxiety experience. This study aims to extend previous findings by unpacking the anxiety experience for autistic adults in the relationship between SP differences and RRB, using an autism-specific anxiety measure. Data were available from 426 autistic adults. Serial mediation models tested the relationship between SP differences and RRB, with alexithymia, IU, anxious arousal, and social anxiety as mediators. We identified significant direct effects from SP differences to both repetitive motor behaviors (RMB) and insistence on sameness behaviors (ISB). For RMB, we found indirect effects through anxious arousal, alexithymia-anxious arousal, IU-anxious arousal, and alexithymia-IU-anxious arousal. For ISB, we found indirect effects through IU and alexithymia-IU. Thus, different mechanisms may underpin RMB and ISB. Understanding the anxiety experience of autistic people, alongside the role of SP and RRB, is key to providing tailored support, adjustments, and psychological interventions to autistic people. Future research could benefit from directly investigating the impact of strategies to support SP and anxiety.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition characterized by upper airway obstruction during sleep. Bruxism has been recently described as being associated with OSA. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of OSA risk and bruxism in pediatric ASD patients compared to age and sex-matched healthy controls using the validated screening tool Sleep-Related Breathing Disorder scale of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (SRBD-PSQ). Fifty-eight consecutive pediatric ASD patients were screened for OSA and bruxism at the Dentistry Unit of A. Gemelli Policlinic and compared to 58 healthy patients using chi-square tests. Comparison between the two groups was repeated by controlling for body mass index (BMI) and behavioral symptoms with ANCOVA and logistic regression analyses. Of 58 ASD patients (10.3 ± 3.3 y/o, 74.5% males), 60.3% presented with an increased OSA risk, compared to 13.8% in the controls (p < 0.001, OR = 3.682, 95% CI: 1.933, 7.012). After controlling for BMI (which was significantly higher among ASD patients), those with ASD had significantly higher odds of OSA risk compared to controls (OR = 9.6, 95% CI: 3.56, 26.21). After controlling for the SRBD-PSQ behavioral component, the association between ASD and OSA risk lost its significant difference (p < 0.862). No significant difference was found between ASD patients and controls in awake (3.6% vs. 6.9%, p = 0.680) and sleep (25.5% vs. 32.8%, p = 0.393) bruxism. Pediatric patients with ASD present at higher risk of OSA, most likely explained by the behavioral symptoms; self-reported bruxism did not significantly differ compared to healthy controls.

This study examined whether disruptions in connectivity involving regions critical for learning, planning, and executing movements are relevant to core autism symptoms. Spatially constrained ICA was performed using resting-state fMRI from 419 children (autism spectrum disorder (ASD) = 105; typically developing (TD) = 314) to identify functional motor subdivisions. Comparing the spatial organization of each subdivision between groups, we found voxels that contributed significantly less to the right posterior cerebellar component in children with ASD versus TD (P <0.001). Next, we examined the effect of diagnosis on right posterior cerebellar connectivity with all other motor subdivisions. The model was significant (P = 0.014) revealing that right posterior cerebellar connectivity with bilateral dorsomedial primary motor cortex was, on average, stronger in children with ASD, while right posterior cerebellar connectivity with left-inferior parietal lobule (IPL), bilateral dorsolateral premotor cortex, and supplementary motor area was stronger in TD children (all P ≤0.02). We observed a diagnosis-by-connectivity interaction such that for children with ASD, elevated social-communicative and excessive repetitive-behavior symptom severity were both associated with right posterior cerebellar-left-IPL hypoconnectivity (P ≤0.001). Right posterior cerebellar and left-IPL are strongly implicated in visuomotor processing with dysfunction in this circuit possibly leading to anomalous development of skills, such as motor imitation, that are crucial for effective social-communication. LAY SUMMARY: This study examines whether communication between various brain regions involved in the control of movement are disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We show communication between the right posterior cerebellum and left IPL, a circuit important for efficient visual-motor integration, is disrupted in children with ASD and associated with the severity of ASD symptoms. These results may explain observations of visual-motor integration impairments in children with ASD that are associated with ASD symptom severity.