Autonomic and attentional pathways in the emergence of autism: bridging mechanisms and real-world contexts in infancy.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) unfolds over the first two years of life through complex interactions among developmental systems. Attention and autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulation represent foundational processes critical for adaptive engagement with the environment. Disruptions in these systems during early infancy may initiate developmental cascades that contribute to core ASD features, including social-communication challenges and restricted and repetitive behaviors, as well as the vast heterogeneity found within ASD.

Feeling left out in the Lunchroom: Neural mechanisms of ostracism vary across adolescence.

Ostracism (i.e., being ignored/excluded) can cause intense emotional reactions that detrimentally impact mental and physical health.

Development of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia in Young Infants With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Preterm Birth, and Typical Development.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a key index of parasympathetic function and environmental adaptability. Lower resting RSA has been linked to preterm (PT) birth in infancy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in childhood, yet RSA across the first 2 years in young infants born PT or later diagnosed with ASD remains unknown. This study examined resting RSA and mean interbeat interval (IBI) development from 1 to 24 months in infants at varying ASD likelihoods, including infant siblings of children with ASD and those born PT.

Regulation of Subcellular Protein Synthesis for Restoring Neural Connectivity.

Neuronal proteins synthesized locally in axons and dendrites contribute to growth, plasticity, survival, and retrograde signaling underlying these cellular processes. Advances in molecular tools to profile localized mRNAs, along with single-molecule detection approaches for RNAs and proteins, have significantly expanded our understanding of the diverse proteins produced in subcellular compartments. These investigations have also uncovered key molecular mechanisms that regulate mRNA transport, storage, stability, and translation within neurons.

Facial Emotion Recognition Trainings for Children and Adolescents: A Transdiagnostic Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Facial emotion recognition is a crucial aspect of social interaction and follows a typical developmental trajectory. However, youth with neurodevelopmental and psychological disorders often exhibit difficulties in this domain, making it a potential transdiagnostic intervention target. Extending a meta-analysis focused on autistic samples, this study systematically reviewed and compared the efficacy of facial emotion recognition training programmes for autistic and nonautistic children and adolescents between 4 and 18 years old.

Benchmarking machine learning models in lesion-symptom mapping for predicting language outcomes in stroke survivors.

Several decades of research have investigated the neural connections between stroke-induced brain damage and language difficulties. Typically, lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) studies that address this connection have relied on mass univariate statistics, which do not account for multidimensional relationships between variables. Machine learning (ML) techniques, which can capture these intricate connections, offer a promising complement to LSM methods.

Characteristics of cerebrospinal fluid in autism spectrum disorder - A systematic review.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a range of neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by impaired social interaction, learning, and restricted or repetitive behaviors. The underlying causes of ASD are still debated, but researchers have found many physiological traits like gut problems and impaired immune system to help understand the etiology of ASD. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) plays a critical role in maintaining the homeostasis of the neuronal environment and has, therefore, been analyzed in multiple conditions impacting the central nervous system.

Eye-movement artifact correction in infant EEG: A systematic comparison between ICA and Artifact Blocking.

Background: Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a well-established approach to clean EEG and remove the impact of signals of non-neural origin, such as those from muscular activity and eye movements. However, evidence suggests that ICA removes artifacts less effectively in infants than in adults. This study systematically compares ICA and Artifact Blocking (AB), an alternative approach proposed to improve eye-movement artifact correction in infant EEG.

DSM-5 based algorithms for the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised for children ages 4-17 years.

Background: The Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised (ADI-R) is a caregiver interview that is widely used as part of the diagnostic assessment for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Few large-scale studies have reported the sensitivity and specificity of the ADI-R algorithms, which are based on DSM-IV Autistic Disorder criteria. Kim and Lord (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2012, 42, 82) developed revised DSM-5-based toddler algorithms, which are only applicable to children under 4 years.

Reduced Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia in Infants with the Premutation.

The fragile X premutation (FXpm) is caused by a CGG repeat expansion on the gene. In adults, FXpm is linked with autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction and impairment is associated with CGG repeat length. Given scant infancy research, we examined ANS functioning, via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and interbeat interval (IBI), in 82 FXpm and neurotypical infants and their associations with CGG repeats.

Characterization of early skill profiles for infants across varying genetic likelihoods for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Several infant behaviors spanning multiple developmental domains have been identified as promising markers of early neurodivergence, such as ADHD or ASD. Some of these early markers include social-communication differences, atypical attention, and motor deficits. Research involving early predictors of ADHD features in infants is scarcer than research involving early predictors of ASD.

Disruption of G3BP1 granules promotes mammalian CNS and PNS axon regeneration.

Depletion or inhibition of core stress granule proteins, G3BP1 in mammals and TIAR-2 in , increases the growth of spontaneously regenerating axons. Inhibition of G3BP1 by expression of its acidic or "B-domain" accelerates axon regeneration after nerve injury, bringing a potential therapeutic strategy for peripheral nerve repair. Here, we asked whether G3BP1 inhibition is a viable strategy to promote regeneration in injured mammalian central nervous system (CNS) where axons do not regenerate spontaneously.

Utility of the Modified Anxiety Dimensional Observation Scale in Autistic Preschoolers with Varying Intellectual Functioning.

Objective: Co-occurring anxiety affects 40-80% of autistic individuals; however, little is understood about how anxiety manifests in young autistic children, especially those with intellectual disability (ID), partly due to the paucity of measures designed to assess anxiety symptoms in this population. The present study examined the utility of the Modified Anxiety Dimensional Observation Scale (M-Anx-DOS), an observational measure of anxiety-related behaviors, in preschool-aged autistic children with and without ID.

Method: This study included 48 autistic children (Mean age = 43.

Characterizing executive functioning and associated behaviors in individuals with dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A () syndrome.

Introduction: , a protein kinase located on human chromosome 21, plays a role in postembryonic neuronal development and degeneration. Alterations to have been consistently associated with cognitive functioning and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g.

Coupling Up: A Dynamic Investigation of Romantic Partners' Neurobiological States During Nonverbal Connection.

Nonverbal connection is an important aspect of everyday communication. For romantic partners, nonverbal connection is essential for establishing and maintaining feelings of closeness. EEG hyperscanning offers a unique opportunity to examine the link between nonverbal connection and neural synchrony among romantic partners.

The Dynamics of Looking and Smiling Differ for Young Infants at Elevated Likelihood for ASD.

Social smiling is the earliest gained social communication skill, emerging around 2 months of age. From 2 to 6-months, infants primarily smile in response to caregivers. After 6 months, infants coordinate social smiles with other social cues to initiate interactions with the caregiver.

The development and structure of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study EEG protocol.

The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, a multi-site prospective longitudinal cohort study, will examine human brain, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional development beginning prenatally and planned through early childhood. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of two brain imaging modalities central to the HBCD Study. EEG records electrical signals from the scalp that reflect electrical brain activity.

Frontal alpha asymmetry predicts subsequent social decision-making: A dynamic multilevel, neural, and developmental perspective.

Social motivation, the human desire to engage with others, is likely to underlie higher levels of social cognition and the formation of interpersonal relationships. Yet, this topic has been understudied in adolescents despite the critical developmental and maturational changes that occur during this period and the relevance of social motivation to clinical and neurodevelopmental disorders. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and an implicit-association paradigm (Choose-A-Movie Task; Dubey et al.

Familial Recurrence of Autism: Updates From the Baby Siblings Research Consortium.

Objectives: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is estimated to be ∼10 times higher in children with versus without an autistic sibling in population-based studies. Prospective studies of infant siblings have revealed even higher familial recurrence rates. In the current prospective longitudinal study, we provide updated estimates of familial ASD recurrence using a multinational database of infants with older autistic siblings.

Geographic Disparities in Availability of General and Specialized Pediatricians in the United States and Prevalence of Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

General pediatricians and those specialized in developmental-behavioral and neurodevelopmental disabilities support children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We identified substantial geographic disparities in pediatrician availability (eg, urban > rural areas), as well as regions with low pediatrician access but high ASD/ADHD prevalence estimates (eg, the US Southeast).

SETBP1 haploinsufficiency and related disorders clinical and neurobehavioral phenotype study.

To comprehensively investigate the neurodevelopmental profile and clinical characteristics associated with SETBP1 haploinsufficiency disorder (SETBP1-HD) and SETBP1-related disorders (SETBP1-RD). We reported genetic results on 34 individuals, with behavior and clinical data from 22 with SETBP1-HD and 5 with SETBP1-RD, by assessing results from medical history interviews and standardized adaptive, clinical, and social measures provided from Simons Searchlight. All individuals with SETBP1-HD and SETBP1-RD exhibited neurological impairments including intellectual disability/developmental delay (IDD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and/or seizures, as well as speech and language delays.

ECHO Autism Washington: Autism Diagnostic Evaluations in Primary Care.

() is a telementoring learning model to increase community capacity for autism-related health care. Seventy-seven pediatric providers (mostly primary care, seeing exclusively Medicaid patient populations) enrolled in 1 year of . Analysis of self-report surveys showed a significant increase in autism diagnoses made by ECHO providers after 1 year, (1, 65) = 7.

Infant sustained attention differs by context and social content in the first 2 years of life.

Sustained attention (SA) is an endogenous form of attention that emerges in infancy and reflects cognitive engagement and processing. SA is critical for learning and has been measured using different methods during screen-based and interactive contexts involving social and nonsocial stimuli. How SA differs by measurement method, context, and stimuli across development in infancy is not fully understood.