Autism Group

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 16 days ago
Related Articles Autism and pitch processing splinter skills: a Group and subgroup analysis. Autism. 2008 Mar;12(2):203-19 Authors: Heaton P, Williams K, Cummins O, Happé F Autism is characterized by an uneven profile of cognitive abilities and population studies show that approximately 10 percent of diagnosed individuals possess a skill that is significantly better than would be predicted by global IQ. Recent evidence suggests that individuals with Autism who possess special skills may represent a distinct genetic Group within the Autism spectrum. Intellectually high- and low-functioning children and adolescents with Autism, together with age- and intelligence-matched comparison participants, completed two experiments that tested pitch discrimination and pitch memory within a visuo-spatial format. The analysis of the data from the studies showed that a subgroup of individuals with Autism achieved performance scores that were between four and five standard deviations above the mean for the groups. Unlike comparison participants, their performance appeared to be independent of intelligence, musical training and experience. The findings were interpreted within the context of neuroconstructivist models of typical development and delayed language acquisition characteristic of Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. PMID: 18308768 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ...

Source: www.newsday.com --- 26 days ago
Mike Savage's controversial comments could cost him some serious advertising money. ...

Source: www.orlandosentinel.com --- 38 days ago
Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to increasing awareness of Autism and raising money for research, has awarded the University of Central Florida's Center for Autism and Related Disabilities a grant of nearly $20,000 to support its Real Experience in Autism Classrooms Helps program. ...

Source: oswegocountytoday.com --- 32 days ago
The Autism Connections Group will be holding its August meeting on Aug. 5, at Fair Haven State Park. ...

Source: www.guampdn.com --- 4 days ago
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Source: therepublic.com --- 19 days ago
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Source: ginnymiller.wordpress.com --- 42 days ago
I have a friend whose son has Autism. I still don’t know much about it but I am learning. I’m also planning to work with a couple of other DJ writers for a series of stories about this neurological disorder, which seems to be everywhere these days. I thought you’d also like to know about a [...] ...

Source: eventnow.ca --- 15 days ago
Autism Support Group in Whitby: a free service of Autism Ontario - Durham Regionmeets at 7:30 p.m. on the 3rd Wednesday of every monthNEXT MEETING:  7:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1450 Hopkins Street , Unit 105, Whitby at BCTS Inc.For more information, call toll free 1-866-495-4680 or e-mail durham@autismontario.com Anyone who has an interest in Autism is welcome to attend. This is one of three free monthly Autism support groups in the region hosted by parent volunteers of Autism Ontario - Durham Region. The above Group has been established in this specific area in order to better serve our community members living in central Durham Region. For times and locations of all 3 of our Autism support groups, click here. Al Maggi ...

Source: news.google.com --- 24 days ago
Autism activists call for ouster of Michael Savage San Francisco Chronicle - 1 hour ago A Group of angry parents, activists and autistic children on Sunday called for the firing of talk show host Michael Savage. Savage recently said on his nationally-syndicated radio show that autistic children are "brats" who haven't "been told to cut ... Parents see opening in reviled remarks on Autism San Jose Mercury News Doug Flutie’s Autism foundation rips Michael Savage Boston Herald Small Gov Times  - Hartford Courant  - American Thinker all 28 news articles ...

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 18 days ago
Deviant Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Patterns of Brain Activity to Speech in 2-3-Year-Old Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Jul 29; Authors: Redcay E, Courchesne E BACKGROUND: A failure to develop normal language is one of the most common first signs that a toddler might be at risk for Autism. Currently the neural bases underlying this failure to develop language are unknown. METHODS: In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to identify the brain regions involved in speech perception in 12 2-3-year-old children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during natural sleep. We also recorded fMRI data from two typically developing control groups: a mental age-matched (MA) (n = 11) and a chronological age-matched (CA) (n = 12) Group. During fMRI data acquisition, forward and backward speech stimuli were presented with intervening periods of no sound presentation. RESULTS: Direct statistical comparison between groups revealed significant differences in regions recruited to process speech. In comparison with their MA-matched control subjects, the ASD Group showed reduced activity in an extended network of brain regions, which are recruited in typical early language acquisition. In comparison with their CA-matched control subjects, ASD participants showed greater activation primarily within right and medial frontal regions. Laterality analyses revealed a trend toward greater recruitm ...

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 12 days ago
Related Articles Distinct patterns of grey matter abnormality in high-functioning Autism and Asperger's syndrome. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2008 Jul 29; Authors: McAlonan GM, Suckling J, Wong N, Cheung V, Lienenkaemper N, Cheung C, Chua SE Background: Autism exists across a wide spectrum and there is considerable debate as to whether children with Asperger's syndrome, who have normal language milestones, should be considered to comprise a subgroup distinct other from high-functioning children with Autism (HFA), who have a history of delayed language development. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of Autism are in disagreement. One possible reason is that the diagnosis of Autism takes precedence over Asperger's syndrome and a distinction in language acquisition is rarely made. We therefore planned to examine a whole brain hypothesis that the patterns of grey matter differences in Asperger's syndrome and HFA can be distinguished. Methods: We used voxel-based computational morphometry to map grey matter volume differences in 33 children with either Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning Autism compared to 55 typical developing control children balanced for age, IQ, gender, maternal language and ethnicity. Results: Children with HFA had significantly smaller grey matter volumes in subcortical, posterior cingulate and precuneus regions than the Asperger's Group. Compared to controls, children with HFA had smaller grey matter volume ...

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 16 days ago
Related Articles How central is central coherence? Preliminary evidence on the link between conceptual and perceptual processing in children with Autism. Autism. 2008 Mar;12(2):159-71 Authors: López B, Leekam SR, Arts GR This study aimed to test the assumption drawn from weak central coherence theory that a central cognitive mechanism is responsible for integrating information at both conceptual and perceptual levels. A visual semantic memory task and a face recognition task measuring use of holistic information were administered to 15 children with Autism and 16 typically developing children. If there is a central integration mechanism, performance on the two tasks should be positively associated. No relationship was found, however, between the two abilities in the comparison Group and, unexpectedly, a strong significant inverse correlation was found in the Autism Group. Classification data further confirmed this finding and indicated the possibility of the presence of subgroups in Autism. The results add to emerging evidence suggesting that central coherence is not a unitary construct. PMID: 18308765 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ...

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 6 days ago
Related Articles Gray and white matter imbalance--typical structural abnormality underlying classic Autism? Brain Dev. 2008 Jun;30(6):396-401 Authors: Bonilha L, Cendes F, Rorden C, Eckert M, Dalgalarrondo P, Li LM, Steiner CE Recent evidence supports increased cortical activity and impaired brain connectivity in Autism, but the structural correlates of these abnormalities are not yet defined. We performed a voxel based morphometry analysis of brain MRI from patients with Autism selected from a Group of 103 subjects with pervasive developmental disorders. Twelve male patients with mean age of 12.4 +/- 4 years were compared with 16 matched controls. Patients with Autism exhibited increase in gray matter in medial and dorsolateral frontal areas, in the lateral and medial parts of the temporal lobes, in the parietal lobes, cerebellum and claustrum. Patients also showed decrease in frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital white matter. The combination of enlarged cortex and reduced white matter is possibly the structural basis of some symptoms of classic Autism. PMID: 18362056 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ...

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 6 days ago
Related Articles Impaired recognition of facial emotions from low-spatial frequencies in Asperger syndrome. Neuropsychologia. 2008;46(7):1888-97 Authors: Kätsyri J, Saalasti S, Tiippana K, von Wendt L, Sams M The theory of 'weak central coherence' [Happe, F., & Frith, U. (2006). The weak coherence account: Detail-focused cognitive style in Autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 5-25] implies that persons with Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have a perceptual bias for local but not for global stimulus features. The recognition of emotional facial expressions representing various different levels of detail has not been studied previously in ASDs. We analyzed the recognition of four basic emotional facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear and happiness) from low-spatial frequencies (overall global shapes without local features) in adults with an ASD. A Group of 20 participants with Asperger syndrome (AS) was compared to a Group of non-autistic age- and sex-matched controls. Emotion recognition was tested from static and dynamic facial expressions whose spatial frequency contents had been manipulated by low-pass filtering at two levels. The two groups recognized emotions similarly from non-filtered faces and from dynamic vs. static facial expressions. In contrast, the participants with AS were less accurate than controls in recognizing facial emotions from very low-spatial frequencies. The result ...

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov --- 6 days ago
Related Articles Research note: exceptional absolute pitch perception for spoken words in an able adult with Autism. Neuropsychologia. 2008;46(7):2095-8 Authors: Heaton P, Davis RE, Happé FG Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterised by deficits in socialisation and communication, with repetitive and stereotyped behaviours [American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: APA]. Whilst intellectual and language impairment is observed in a significant proportion of diagnosed individuals [Gillberg, C., & Coleman, M. (2000). The biology of the autistic syndromes (3rd ed.). London: Mac Keith Press; Klinger, L., Dawson, G., & Renner, P. (2002). Autistic disorder. In E. Masn, & R. Barkley (Eds.), Child pyschopathology (2nd ed., pp. 409-454). New York: Guildford Press], the disorder is also strongly associated with the presence of highly developed, idiosyncratic, or savant skills [Heaton, P., & Wallace, G. (2004) Annotation: The savant syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45 (5), 899-911]. We tested identification of fundamental pitch frequencies in complex tones, sine tones and words in AC, an intellectually able man with Autism and absolute pitch (AP) and a Group of healthy controls with self-reported AP. The analysis showed that AC's naming of speech pitch was highly superior in comparison to controls. The results suggest that explicit ac ...

Source: ilp-www.mit.edu --- 13 hours ago
09/03/08: Richard Paylor, Ph.D. Department of Molecular & Human Genetics/Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine Hosted by the Brain Disorders Initiative at MIT Supported by the Simons Foundation and the Anne and Paul Marcus Family Foundation Fragile X syndrome (FXS) results from the loss of expression of the Fragile X mental retardation (FMR1) gene. Individuals affected by FXS experience many behavioral problems, including cognitive impairment, hyperactivity, social anxiety and autistic-like behaviors. Although the exact numbers are dependent on the assessment tool, an estimated 20-60% of individuals with FXS meet the criterion for Autism or Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and approximately 3-5% of individuals with ASD have mutations in the FMR1 gene. Over the past several years we have examined the behavioral responses of Fmr1 KO mice and have shown that the mutant mice display abnormal behavioral responses on several assays including exploratory activity, repetitive marble-burying behavior, direct social interactions, and ultrasonic vocalizations. We are utilizing Fmr1 KO mice to evaluate the therapeutic potential of Group 1 mGluR antagonist on several behavioral domains including those relevant to the autistic-related traits associated with FXS. Additional studies characterizing multiple autistic-like traits in a novel transgenic mouse model will also be presented. <br. ...

Source: blogs.orlandosentinel.com --- 6 days ago
House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, may be about to go -- he's term-limited this year -- but he doesn't want to be forgotten. So he's reving up his 100Ideas.org Group, which is sponsoring a "Statewide Autism & Developmental Disabilities... ...

Source: autism.freedomblogging.com --- 6 days ago
I wrapped the micro-lending posts into a story for the Register today: “Everybody’s watching to see if this works,” said Lisa Ackerman, the founder of the local Group Talk About Curing Autism, which favors biomedical treatments. “We want it to be successful because it’s such a good idea. Money should not be a barrier to good [...] ...