Episodes
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Owning up to the potential of organoids
Organoids are miniaturized 3D tissue structures that have mimic the structure of a human organ, such as the brain. But can an organoid mimic not just the structure, but the function of a brain, and can it grow past beyond the small structure? How much can an organoid develop into something that…
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Autism and disorders of aging
We have talked already about the link between autism and dementia, however a lesser known association is the one between autism and another disorder of aging: Parkinson’s Disease. A recent presentation at INSAR revealed what is known about the relationship, why they are related, what causes the...
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The Mitochondria in a Minute
The word “mitochondrial deficits” gets thrown around a lot as a cause of autism, but what does this really mean? This week we interview Dr. Carisa Sirois from the University of Wisconsin, who recently published a review of how the mitochondria are involved in neurodevelopmental disorders. The…
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Genetic pathways leading to autism
A landmark study that uses brain organoids from different people with different genes associated with autism showed that the different genes act as roads that go on different journeys to the same destination. This will be an enormously important discovery for identifying targets to treat…
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Have you heard the good news?
The National Institutes of Health just awarded $50million to 13 different research sites to better understand genetic and environmental contributions to an autism diagnosis, or increase in prevalence in autism, as well as environmental factors which improve the quality of life for children and...
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Happy Birthday Simons Searchlight!
In an effort to better understand the causes of autism in those with a known genetic variant associated with ASD or other developmental disorders, in 2010, the Simons Foundation launched Simons VIP, now known as Simons Searchlight – an online international research program studying nearly 200…
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Autism and diseases of the aging brain
As the autistic brain ages, is it more vulnerable to other brain disorders? Recent scientific discoveries in Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease show that there may be an underlying mechanism between these diseases and autism. However diagnosing someone with autism with an additional…
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What labels should be used to describe autism?
This week’s podcast includes summaries from two new scientific studies (with comments from one of the studies’ authors @SimonsFoundation and @princetonPPH) about that tackle grouping and labeling the differences across the spectrum into meaningful subtypes. Both provide scientific evidence,...
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Do Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Direct Current Stimulation help people with autism? The latest science here.
Two therapies that are meant to alter brainwave activity, called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation are receiving a lot of attention for potential efficacy in treating autism. They are non-invasive, which means treatment is provided on the scalp. While...
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We missed one for the 2024 year end summary: Proof of the importance of genetic testing in autism
It happens every year – this one belonged in the 2024 year end highlights but was published late in the year. Researchers at UCSD, UCLA and CHLA followed families with autism whose genetic test revealed a rare variant. Did it make a difference in care? Understanding? Referrals? If you are in need...
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The 2024 Autism Science Year in Review
New Technologies, New Data, New Solutions This year’s progress in autism research includes promising findings, clarifications, explanations, and the uncovering of new avenues of inquiry. The focus is now on personalized medicine: finding the right treatment for the right person at the right time...
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Synaptic Density and Autism, explained
….or at a podcast with at least an attempt at an explanation of what synaptic density is and how it is affected in brains of people with autism. This week we review three convergent lines of evidence – whole brain, brain cell then genes within those brain cells – that show that the autistic brain…
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Where is autism stigma the worst in the world?
This week, part 1 in cultural stigma around autism with Mia Kotikovski provides an overview of stigma, where it can come from across cultures and provides some examples of stigma in different countries. Different areas of the world are in different places in terms of their perceptions of autism,...
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Mysteries of the Microbiome
In the first of a two-part series on digestive health in ASD, Mia Kotikovski summarizes scientific information about what the complicated microbiome is, how it influences physical and psychiatric health, if it is altered in autism, and what causes it to be different in ASD.
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More about the environmental influences in autism
New research points to a previously understudied but fascinating mechanism by which environmental factors may lead to autism: it’s called the “GABA/glutamate switch” which is a critical period in development when certain cells turn from turning on cell activity to turning them off. These...
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Research for the end of Autism Action Month
In honor of the last week of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month, we review two new scientific findings that call for more awareness and action, and less acceptance of the status quo. First: sex differences in autism are not well understood, and as it turns out, the influences on a diagnosis are...
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How to predict severe and dangerous behavior
On the first podcast of 2024, we describe a new paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA which uses physiological measurements like heart rate and skin conductance to predict severe and dangerous behaviors, specifically aggression. If aggression can be predicted, it might…
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What’s the latest on minocycline for autism?
This week’s podcast re-explores a question about a potential therapy for autism – minocycline. Minocycline is an antibiotic used to treat a number of different infections and some anecdotal reports have linked it to an improvement of autism. This has led to some experimental trials on…
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Nobody ever talks about catatonia
Nobody ever talks about catatonia in autism. This podcast explores the symptoms of catatonia, how to measure it, what parents should know about tracking the symptoms, what the treatments are, and what the causes are. Dr. Martine Lamy from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital explains her work looking…
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Little Brains Answer Big Questions
This week we talk to Sergiu Pasca from Stanford University. He has revolutionized the field of understanding the field of brain development in neurodevelopmental disorders and just published a new study which examined the genetic influence of brain assembly. The way he does this is quite...
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Now you know the reason for decades of eye tracking research
Can biomarkers that measure things like visual social attention be a good proxy for an in person behavioral diagnosis? Why would this be important? This week’s podcast explores two new studies the the Journal of the American Medical Association that show a simple device called EarliPoint can be...
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Top reasons to study the autistic brain
There are dozens of good reasons why scientists need to study the brains of people with autism. One is to understand what happens in the brain as people with autism get older and see how the brain changes over time. Another is to identify mechanisms of autism to help all neuroscientists figure…
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The full semantic toolbox referring to autism
Last week a publication (see below) was published as a commentary in the journal Autism Research. It states that researchers, parents, clinicians, educators and the overall community should not be limited in their use of language to describe the broad condition of autism. Some people experience...
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The molecular signature of the autism brain
Is there a specific “signature’ that make the autism brain unique? Can there be a common set of findings that certain gene expression goes up and another go down and where? And is it linked to behavior? This week, Dr. Michael Gandal at University of Pennsylvania (formerly UCLA) explains his…
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Environmental factors as both causes and interventions?
Environmental exposures, including toxic chemicals, can contribute to the causes of ASD. But how do other environmental factors, like behavioral supports, work in the brain to improve behaviors associated with ASD? For this, you need a broad interpretation of the term “environmental” and an…
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Don’t say “….all autistic adults”
While there are commonalities across autistic adults on many things, they differ. It might be time to stop saying “…..all autistic adults” when describing those on the spectrum. For example, for the most part, most autistic adults prefer email or text over other methods except when talking to...
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What the h**l is an induced pluripotent stem cell?
The words “induced pluripotent stem cell” refer to a group of cells that are gathered from a person with a disorder, like autism, then changed or “induced” from a skin cell into an embryonic “stem” cell, and can be then made into baby brain cells, or baby heart cells or baby bone cells. This…
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The latest on marijuana and autism across the globe
Since the ASF policy statement on marijuana for the treatment of ASD was published this summer, there have been some new scientific studies that may be of interest to families. As it turns out CBD has opposite effects in the brains of people with autism compared to those without autism, meaning...
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Praise for genetic testing in ASD
Genetic testing for autism spectrum disorders is not just about finding the gene. So many genes have been found that genetic testing allows families who have a rare genetic disorder to find each other, support one another, raise money for research and train physicians to better help their...
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Autism: Difference or Dysfunction?
The question of whether or not autism is a difference or a true dysfunction in brain development has been debated for years. A new study from Canada demonstrates that within an autism diagnosis, there is less of a difference in symptoms in the last 5 years than there was 30 years ago. This raises…
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The Department of Defense and Autism Research
Did you know that in addition to the DoD’s support of the military, they all have funded $65 million in autism research? This podcast discusses some of their programs and how they support military families and benefit the autism community. Want to read more about what they fund? There’s a list...
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Do the rules apply in school?
This week is focused on what happens in schools, including classification, service receipt and new interventions. How an educational classification translates to a clinical diagnosis, how and what factors are important in receiving services, what teachers think about repetitive behaviors and...
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Autism spectrum disorders underneath a bigger umbrella: more data from the brain
There is demonstrated genetic overlap between many neurodevelopment disorders including ASD, ADHD, and schizophrenia, and now there is data showing similarities in the structure and size of the brains in people with autism and those with ADHD. These differences depend on how severe social...
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Can IGF-1 treat autism symptoms? A clinical trial aims to find out
A full transcript of this podcast episode can be read on the ASF blog here. Researchers at Mount Sinai led by Alex Kolevzon are running a clinical trial of the compound insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) for children with idiopathic autism. Dr. Kolevzon’s team previously demonstrated the safety...
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What are PCOS and DDT, and what do they have to do with autism?
Two new studies came out this week that implicates the role of the endocrine system in autism. The endocrine system which regulates hormones in your body, also has a key role in brain development early on in fetal and child development. PCOS is a metabolic condition and DDT is a toxic chemical...
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PMS: it’s not what you think
Last weekend, the Phelan McDermid Research Foundation held their biannual family conference in Dallas Texas. People with Phelan McDermid Syndrome, or PMS, suffer from seizures and intellectual disability, and about 70% have an ASD diagnosis, Over 150 families from across the world came together…
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Reusing and recycling autism data from brain tissue
In a new study in animal models, researchers demonstrate how genetic variability in key risk genes leads to different brain development patterns. Studying the brains of people with autism is challenging, since there are fewer resources to study. However, scientists get creative and collaborative...
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Here’s to understanding why people with autism have anxiety in adolescence
Using resources from the Autism BrainNet, researchers from UC Davis show specific brain changes in an area called the amygdala in autism. The amygdala is associated with fear, emotion and anxiety in people with autism. But because they can look at the brain directly, the actual number of neurons…
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Commonly used drugs that may help autism
Sometimes treatment targets come from the places you wouldn’t expect. This week, three new studies on the biological and sometimes, behavioral, effects of three commonly used compounds used to treat high cholesterol, edema, and angina were studied in people with autism. Instead of focusing on…
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Chromosome 15-apallooza
One of areas of genetic interest of autism is a region of chromosome 15. Only about 3% of people with autism have the mutation, but 80% of those with the mutation have autism. It is so important that people with duplications of this area have formed their own advocacy group called the Dup15...
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Post zygotic mutations in autism: what you need to know
Yes, another type of mutation in autism was revealed this week. Those that are evident after the sperm and egg meet to form the zygote but still very early, during embryonic development. Because it occurs after the original zygote is formed, the mutation is not found in every cell or every region...
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A different type of autism?
Last week, investigators with the Autism Treatment Network published a long awaited study on the differences between the DSM IV and DSM5. Other studies had relied on information on old pieces of paper to judge whether or not someone who met criteria under DSM IV would be now diagnosed with DSM5...
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The Young and the Deaf: the relevance to language development in autism
This week two important studies which examine early influences of language development are explored. First, we are lucky that Dr. Aaron Shield from Miami University joined to explain why studying children who are deaf and have autism, as well as parents of deaf children, are important for...
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A 4th of July quickie on new data for treatment of autism symptoms
Happy 4th of July weekend. This week’s podcast is devoted to the studies in the past few months focusing on autism treatments that didn’t make it into the regular weekly roundup. They include data that shows promising results (peer networks and iPads) as well as those that didn’t do as well as...
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Brain tissue: what has it done for autism lately?
In order to ensure that researchers have enough brain tissue to understand autism spectrum disorders, the education and outreach campaign is being expanded past families to doctors and professionals that have access to tissue. One of these groups is neuropathologists. At their annual meeting this...
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Memorial Day Memoriam: Isabelle Rapin
This week, autism lost a pioneer and advocate for autism research: Isabelle Rapin, MD, a neurologist from New York’s Albert Einstein University. The first part of the podcast is a brief summary of her accomplishments. The second part is an study called “how to keep your child out of the…
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Internet addiction is a real thing and it is worse in kids with autism
Two studies of importance came out this week. The first looked at the interactive effects of genetic mutations called copy number variations and air pollution. Previously, ozone was not listed in the factors in air pollution that increased risk for autism. But combine it with copy number…
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What is the focus this week? The unsung heroes of grandparents and clinicians
Scientists have studied males compared to females with autism, but rarely has there been studies about what clinicians see as differences in these two groups. Given that they provide insight on diagnosis, needs and access to services, it is kind of important to talk to them, and a study out this...
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Who could have thought the genetics of autism was so complicated?
On Monday, the much anticipated MSSNG study which analyzed the entire DNA sequence of over 5000 people with autism was published. The press release can be found here. In it, the researchers found even more genes of interest to autism. Also, those with more of a specific type of mutation, copy...
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The infant brain on early behavioral intervention
The brain is developing even after birth. So interventions that are given very early have the best chance of remolding and rewiring a brain with autism to prevent autism related disabilities. This week, a group from the University of London, Duke University and University of Washington measured...