social behavior – ASF Weekly Science Podcasts

Everyone knows cognitive ability is critical for understanding autism, however, how does it affect developmental trajectories of autism traits, and can it be accurately measured in those with severe intellectual disabilities? We discuss. Plus, more evidence that tylenol doees not cause autism. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41207796 https://www.aaidd.org/docs/default-source/prepressarticles/which...

Animal models of autism, including cell based models, have received criticism because autism is a uniquely human condition so there is no value in studying it in a model like a mouse or a cell. On the other hand, model systems have been used for decades to develop therapies for a myraid of other conditions … Continue reading "The Importance of Model Systems"

In part 1 of a 3 part series on Profound Autism, ASF interviews Emily Ferguson, PhD from @Stanford shares what she learned by asking parents and caregivers of Profound Autism “what do you need?” The short answer was: “There is No Help“. The responses were overwhelmingly focused on inclusion in any program or service, since … Continue reading "What do Profound Autism C...

Scientists have spent a lot of time trying to understand the biology of autism, unfortunately in the past, scientific studies had everyone with autism lumped together in one group and there are so many differences between people with a diagnosis that any features of the diagnosis itself were hard to detect. In the past, researchers … Continue reading "Biology of profound and non-profound aut...

Many of the existing tools to identify autism cost money or are not specific for ASD, and they are hidden behind paywalls and are hard to obtain. A group of scientists led by Tom Frazer at John Caroll University put together a 39 questionnaire called the Autism Symptoms Dimensions Questionnaire to be filled out by … Continue reading "The true title should be: “A new open source screeni...

More and more, psychiatrists are looking to psychedelic medication to help individuals who are resistant to other types of therapies. These include seizures, PTSD and depression. But can they help individuals with autism or ease autism-related problems or improve cognition? Two new studies on cannabis and one on ketamine are summarized in this week’s ASFpodcast. … Continue reading "Psy...

Girls and boys with autism generally show the same symptoms of ASD overall, but what about different aspects of features? What would happen if you studied girls and boys separately and examined detailed assessments of things like motor skills, repetitive behavior, communication or social interaction? These are where subtle signs of differences between genders is … Continue reading "Gender di...

Oxytocin treatment for social communication in ASD has been recntlyused by doctors, but mostly used by people using it on their own through a nasal spray. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a huge, if any, effect in randomized clinical trials. This week’s podcast investigates current research in both the oxytocin and vasopressin system in ASD, when … Continue reading "More ASD links...

A study conducted by researchers at Yale this week revealed that while people with autism have disabilities in reading individual emotions, they have an unexpected amazing ability to understand and apply social rules to groups of people.  They understand social phenomena much better than those without. So how can this be?  Also, a new groundbreaking … Continue reading "Where superior ability...

This week, a new systematic review published by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute looked at the existing evidence around caregiver (parent) mediated interventions and not child outcome, but family relationships and dynamics. While it isn’t the focus on the intervention, what effect does allowing parents to be involved and empowered on their child’s support on … Contin...