Asperger's Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asperger's Syndrome, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, medication. | ||||||
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Communication, interventions, and scientific advances in autism: A commentary.Llaneza DC, Deluke SV, Batista M, Crawley JN, Christodulu KV, Frye CA Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, United States. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect approximately 1 in 150 children across the U.S., and are characterized by abnormal social actions, language difficulties, repetitive or restrictive behaviors, and special interests. ASD include autism (autistic disorder), Asperger Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS or atypical autism). High-functioning individuals may communicate with moderate-to-high language skills, although difficulties in social skills may result in communication deficits. Low-functioning individuals may have severe deficiencies in language, resulting in poor communication between the individual and others. Behavioral intervention programs have been developed for ASD, and are frequently adjusted to accommodate specific individual needs. Many of these programs are school-based and aim to support the child in the development of their skills, for use outside the classroom with family and friends. Strides are being made in understanding the factors contributing to the development of ASD, particularly the genetic contributions that may underlie these disorders. Mutant mouse models provide powerful research tools to investigate the genetic factors associated with ASD and its co-morbid disorders. In support, the BTBR T+tf/J mouse strain incorporates ASD-like social and communication deficits and high levels of repetitive behaviors. This commentary briefly reviews the reciprocal relationship between observations made during evidence-based behavioral interventions of high- versus low-functioning children with ASD and the accumulating body of research in autism, including animal studies and basic research models. This reciprocity is one of the hallmarks of the scientific method, such that research may inform behavioral treatments, and observations made during treatment may inform subsequent research. Published 25 January 2010 in Physiol Behav. Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 22 January 2010: Carnosine inhibits ATP production in cells from malignant glioma. Neurol Res, 32(1): 101-5. OBJECTIVES: Recently, it was revealed that carnosine inhibits growth of cells isolated from human malignant glioma. In order to understand how this effect is mediated, experiments were performed that addressed a possible influence of carnosine on energy metabolism. METHODS: Cells from the glioma line T98G and primary cultured cells from human malignant glioma were cultivated in the presence of carnosine and inhibitors of cellular energy metabolism. As a specific inhibitor for anaerobic ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 21 January 2010: Brief Report: No Increase in Criminal Convictions in Hans Asperger's Original Cohort. J Autism Dev Disord. Hans Asperger originally used the term "autistic psychopathy" to describe his patients on the autism spectrum, leading to a possible confusion with psychopathic disorder and delinquent behaviour. We conducted a penal register search for 177 former patients of Asperger's clinic with a childhood diagnosis of "autistic psychopathy" or features of the disorder in Austria. The mean percentage of registered convictions was similar to that in the general male population of Austria ... [Abstract] [Full-text] 'Autistic' Local Processing Bias also Found in Children Gifted in Realistic Drawing. J Autism Dev Disord. We investigated whether typically-developing children with a gift for drawing realistically show the local processing bias seen in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty-seven 6-12 year-olds made an observational drawing (scored for level of realism) and completed three local processing tasks, and parents completed the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST). Drawing score predicted local processing performance on all tasks independently of verbal IQ, age, and years of art ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 20 January 2010: Categorical and Dimensional Structure of Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Nosologic Validity of Asperger Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord. There is an ongoing debate whether a differentiation of autistic subtypes, especially between Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high-functioning-autism (HFA) is possible and if so, whether it is a categorical or dimensional one. The aim of this study was to examine the possible clustering of responses in different symptom domains without making any assumption concerning diagnostic appreciation. About 140 children and adolescents, incorporating 52 with a diagnosis of AS, 44 with HFA, 8 with atypical ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 7 January 2010: Right Hemisphere Dysfunction and Metaphor Comprehension in Young Adults with Asperger Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord. This study examined whether the known difficulties in metaphor comprehension exhibited by persons with Asperger syndrome (AS) can be explained by a dysfunctional right hemisphere (RH). Using the divided visual field paradigm, 27 AS participants and 36 matched controls were presented with word pairs of four types (literal, conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, and unrelated word pairs), and were asked to perform a semantic judgment task. The main hypothesis was that whereas the control group ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 4 January 2010: The SMN interactome includes Myb-binding protein 1a. J Proteome Res, 9(1): 556-63. Understanding networks of interacting proteins is a major goal in cell biology. The survival of motor neurons protein (SMN) interacts, directly or indirectly, with a large number of other proteins and reduced levels of SMN cause the inherited disorder spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Some SMN interactions are stable and stoichiometric, such as those with gemins, while others are expected to be transient and substoichiometric, such as the functional interaction of SMN with coilin in Cajal bodies. ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 30 December 2009: This paper focuses on the investigation of different types of SPE sorbents for the preconcentration of eight veterinary pharmaceuticals from water samples. The pharmaceuticals studied were sulfamethazine, sulfadiazine, sulfaguanidine, trimethoprim, oxytetracycline, enrofloxacin, norfloxacin and penicillin G/procaine. Five different SPE materials (Strata-X, Strata-X-C, Strata SDB-L, Strata C8 and Strata C18) from Phenomenex were compared with Oasis HLB with a view to obtaining the best ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 17 December 2009: Obsessive-compulsive traits in children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 19(1): 17-24. The objective of this study is to examine the occurrence and characteristic features of obsessive-compulsive behaviours in children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome (AS), with respect to a matched obsessive compulsive disorder group (OCD) and a typically developing control group (CG). For this purpose, 60 subjects (20 OCD; 18 AS; 22 CG), aged 8-15 years, matched for age, gender and IQ were compared. AS and OCD patients were diagnosed according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria. The Autism ... [Abstract] [Full-text] © 2004-2010 Asperger's Syndrome Research Today. All Rights Reserved. |
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