Sensory diversity: Autistic people can be grouped into one of five distinct sensory profiles, and those groupings correlate with functional connectivity measures, a new paper reports. Researchers used machine learning to identify patterns in participants’ Short Sensory Profile scores along with resting-state functional MRI data from across brain areas to construct a functional connectivity matrix. […]
A wave of intense shame pours over me as a familiar thought enters my head: What in the name of God am I doing with my life? And how did I end up here? Let me set the scene for you: I’m sitting at home, wearing a headset, taking calls for a psychic helpline. Yes, […]
The balance of common and rare genetic variation linked to autism is different in people of African descent than in those of European descent, according to the first analysis of a large cohort of autistic African Americans and their families. Polygenic scores for autism that are derived largely from people of European ancestry have limited […]
Cognitive aging: Several new papers address interactions between autism and dementia, including comorbidity and influential factors. A large study of Medicare and Medicaid records found that more autistic adults develop senile dementia than their non-autistic peers, whereas fewer receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. A similarly sized study of electronic health records reported that “high-functioning” […]
Every January, the world sharpens its pencils and declares: Be more consistent.Follow through.Set firmer boundaries.Stick to the plan. But if you are raising a child with ADHD, as I am, you hear these phrases all year long. They come from friends, family members, teachers, neighbors, and strangers who see our children on their hardest days […]
Some mornings, I can tell before he even speaks. The air feels charged, as if the world inside his head has woken early. My son moves fast, talks faster, and forgets things just as quickly. I whisper, “Slow down,” even though I know that phrase has never worked for either of us. He is my […]
Did you know that you can timebox and even postpone your worry? I don’t need to tell you that anxiety has a way of hijacking the ADHD brain’s attention and focus. That it shows up unannounced, derailing our plans and schedules. But what if you could turn the tables and put anxiety itself on a […]
Autism research made U.S. national headlines multiple times this year. The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has raised questions about autism’s prevalence and resurfaced debunked claims about the condition’s links to vaccines and Tylenol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the expanded use of leucovorin […]
Autism in Kenya, organoid research: In this week’s roundup, check out several papers on autism-linked genes, including PTEN, MECP2 and SYNGAP1. The list also includes a new paper documenting the prevalence of neurodevelopmental conditions in Kenya, co-authored by Amina Abubakar, who was featured in a Transmitter profile earlier this year. More autism research we spotted:
Shame — that deep sense of inadequacy and unworthiness — has the unique ability to travel across time, informing our present and our future. While the work of rebuilding self-worth happens in the now, it also often requires a trip to the past. If shame weighs on you, loosen its grip by incorporating these two […]
A biobank of more than 300 genetically diverse human stem cells has helped reveal the biological mechanisms underlying four neurodevelopmental conditions. Entries include the donors’ clinical details and data from brain imaging, histology, whole-exome sequencing and single-cell transcriptomics, highlighting both overlap and divergence in the phenotypes of genetically diverse conditions. The resource is “second to […]
A biobank of more than 300 genetically diverse human stem cells has helped reveal the biological mechanisms underlying four neurodevelopmental conditions. Entries include the donors’ clinical details and data from brain imaging, histology, whole-exome sequencing and single-cell transcriptomics, highlighting both overlap and divergence in the phenotypes of genetically diverse conditions. The resource is “second to […]
