Dr Josephine Barbaro introduces a core research theme of the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, with an overview of projects based on early Identification and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Living in an area with high levels of air pollution may increase a woman’s chances of having a child with autism, according to the first national study to date that investigates the possible link.
“Women who were exposed to the highest levels of diesel or mercury in the air were twice as likely to have a child with autism than women who lived in the cleanest parts of the sample,” study author Andrea Roberts, a research associate with the Harvard School of Public Health, told The Huffington Post.
Earlier studies have established a potential connection between air pollution and autism risk, but have concentrated on a few individual states. The latest study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives on Tuesday, draws on a large sample of women across the whole country.
Researchers crossed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data on the level of air pollutants from year to year with data from the Nurses’ Health Study, one of the longest running investigations of women’s health in the U.S. They looked for associations between levels of pollutants in the time and place that a woman was pregnant and whether that woman went on to have a child with a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder.
The eyes of people with neurological conditions, including ADHD and Parkinson’s, have a distinctive motion that could form the basis of clinical diagnosis.
Eye-tracking has become the tech trend du jour. Advertisers use data on where you look and when to better capture your attention. Designers employ it to improve products. Game and phone developers utilize it to offer the latest in hands-free interaction.
But eye-tracking can do more than help sell products or give your finger a rest while playing Fruit Ninja. Years of research have found that our tiny, rapid eye movements called saccades serve as a window into the brain for psychologists just as for advertisers—but instead of giving clues about our preferred cookie brands (pdf), they elucidate our inner mental functioning. The question is, can capturing such movements help clinicians make diagnoses of mental and neurological disorders, such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Parkinson’s disease and more? For many researchers in this growing field, the outlook so far looks positive.
The bill, passed by both the New York state Senate and Assembly, demands insurers cover a key autism therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA.
After NBC 4 New York’s I-Team report in March revealing that health insurers were denying coverage to autistic children, New York lawmakers have approved a reform that would force insurance companies to pay up.
The bill, passed by both the New York state Senate and Assembly, demands insurers cover a key autism therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA.
Back in March, the I-Team revealed an administrative loophole that rendered Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s landmark autism insurance law much less generous than many parents expected. The rule allowed insurance firms to deny reimbursements if an ABA provider doesn’t hold a state license.
Shocking attack filmed in Florida classroom last summer
Teacher faces child cruelty charges and was fired from school
A surveillance video reveals the shocking moment a special needs teacher grabbed an autistic child by his hair before throwing him to the ground.
The Florida teacher, David Baier, lost his job at the school where the alleged abuse took place, and faces four counts of child cruelty.
‘I wanted what was best for my son, and I trusted these people,’ the 12-year-old boy’s mother, known only as Wendy, said.
The incident happened at a summer camp field trip organized by Davie Preparatory School, for children with emotional and behavioral problems, on July 27 last year.
Prosecutors claim Baier was captured forcibly throwing the autistic student to the floor, before pulling him by his hair and forcing him to stand.
‘I was going to say if you do that again I’m going to slam you,’ Baier can be heard saying on the security footage, shown by 7News.
The child was being disciplined after reportedly earlier stomping on Baier’s foot. He had been ordered to stand, but had crouched down by the chair.
Regions of the brain tailored to respond to human voices are poorly connected to reward-processing circuits in autistic persons, according to a new study led by Stanford University School of Medicine. These findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help to explain why children with autism struggle to grasp the social and emotional aspects of human speech.
“Weak brain connectivity may impede children with autism from experiencing speech as pleasurable,” said Vinod Menon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and a member of the Child Health Research Institute at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
“The human voice is a very important sound; it not only conveys meaning but also provides critical emotional information to a child,” said Daniel Abrams, a postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry and behavioral sciences. According to Abrams, insensitivity to the human voice is a hallmark of autism. Abrams added, “We are the first to show that this insensitivity may originate from impaired reward circuitry in the brain.”
Savants: Emmanuel, Josef et Damien
Des femmes exposées durant leur grossesse à des niveaux de pollution de l’air élevés aux États-Unis pourraient voir leur risque de donner naissance à un enfant autiste doubler par rapport à celles vivant dans des endroits mieux protégés, indique mardi une étude.
Il s’agit de la première étude nationale étendue qui examine le lien entre autisme et pollution atmosphérique sur l’ensemble du territoire américain, soulignent les chercheurs de la faculté de santé publique de l’Université de Harvard (HSPH), à Boston dans le Massachusetts (nord-est).
«Notre recherche est préoccupante, car elle montre que, selon le type de polluant, de 20 à 60% des femmes de l’étude vivaient dans des zones où le risque d’autisme était élevé», commente Andrea Roberts, chercheuse au HSPH.
Les particules de diesel, de plomb, de manganèse, de mercure, de chlorure de méthylène et d’autres polluants sont connues pour affecter les fonctions cérébrales et le développement de l’enfant.
La société associe étroitement les médecins, les psychiatres et les kinésithérapeutes aux chevaux afin d’exploiter les meilleurs moments de complicité entre les patients et leur monture. Des patients souffrant d’autisme ou d’un handicap physique.
El autismo es un síndrome que estadísticamente afecta a 4 de cada 1,000 niños; a la fecha las causas son desconocidas, aún y cuando desde hace muchos años se le reconoce como un trastorno del desarrollo.
Salvo contadas excepciones, el autismo es congénito (se tiene de nacimiento) y se manifiesta en los niños regularmente entre los 18 meses y 3 años de edad. Los primeros síntomas suelen ser: el niño pierde el habla, no ve a los ojos, pareciese que fuese sordo, tiene obsesión por los objetos o muestra total desinterés en las relaciones sociales con los demás. En algunas ocasiones puede llegar a confundirse con esquizofrenia infantil.
Existen múltiples estudios genéticos que relacionan los cromosomas 5 y 15 con el autismo así como otros que buscan vincularlo con cuestiones biológicas como vacunas e intoxicación de metales. A la fecha, ninguno de estos estudios ha logrado sustentar su teoría y por lo mismo, no se puede precisar el origen mismo del síndrome.
Una definición sencilla podría ser:
El autismo es un síndrome que afecta la comunicación y las relaciones sociales y afectivas del individuo.