….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 has a decrease in cell-to-cell communication in mult…

Are you the grandparent, cousin, aunt, uncle, sibling, or half-sibling of someone with autism and wondered “what is the likelihood of autism in families, and the likelihood of comorbid conditions if I have a family member with autism?” Researchers at the AJ Drexel Autism Research Institute and Aarhus University in Denmark collaborated to calculate …

Despite many years fighting it, families with autism still experience societal stigma. The experiences depend on many factors, summarized in the October 21st podcast. This week, Mia Kotikovski explores cultural factors involved in stigma. As examples, she explores the literature from Asia, the Middle East and the United Kingdom, how they are differ…

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 and disorders, and produced evidence-based…

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, their needs for autism families, and what they percei…

Understanding factors that make each person with autism different has been a challenge, affecting diagnosis, interventions and the way we think about autism in general. Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rovereto, Italy, used computers to see how language, intellectual ability, motor and adaptive functioning grouped individuals into di…

A few years after the start of the pandemic, and a couple of years into “recovery”, scientists are still disentangeling the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns and exposure. For example, is there an uptick in autism screen positives when pregnant mothers fell ill? Were there diagnostic disparities based on co-morbid conditions? Did autistic people feel b…

In part 2 of the GI series in ASD, a new paper in the Journal of Nutrition and Gastroenterology describing the www.candidgi.com meeting is described. While sometimes doctors may be know-it-alls, sometimes they do not know-it-all and need experts to advise them, especially when they encounter individuals who may be hard to diagnose and treat. Those …

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. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8638778/ https://www.frontiers…

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 environmental factors may delay this process leading to long …

This week, special correspondent Mia Kotikovski discusses challenges in getting emergency care for those with autism, what doctors and hospitals can do to ease the stressors associated with places like the ER. This is a huge issue for families as many “simple” ER visits for their autistic family members can cause such stress it provokes … Continue …

Instead of grouping together people with autism based on traditional severity scores, what if groupings were done based on functional outcome? Would this help better understand the broad spectrum of autism and why some people with autism are so different than others? Researchers at the University of Minnesota led by Kyle Sterrett, together with UCL…

During sleep, your brain is still active. It is turning all those things you learned during the day into long term memories through connections between the thalamus, hippocampus and frontal cortex. What happens in Profound Autism? How does the brain work during sleep and how will this knowledge lead to better sleep in people? Are … Continue reading…

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 …

What is the probability of having a future child with autism if you already have one or more? Families want to know. It helps preparation, planning, will hopefully improve early screening and supports. The Baby Siblings Research Consortium analyzed a bigger group of siblings compared to their 2011 numbers and found the recurrence pretty stable … Co…

In case you missed it, listen to Alison Singer with Gina Kavali on her podcast @LifeWiththeSpectrum. Alison talks about the importance of autism research and science in general, and how families can get involved.Di Autism Science Foundation

On this week’s podcast, Mia Kotivkoski, founder of her own 5013c and recent graduate of Stony Brook University, reviews why understanding cultural and contextual factors influence not just an autism diagnosis but general health and outcomes of a broad group of people. They include immigrants, racial and ethnic differences, and socio-economic factor…

This week, more on genetics as an influence to an autism diagnosis with a twist: can genetics lead to a specific treatment for core symptoms – across the board? How do you measure such broad symptoms? Our Rett Syndrome family friends and colleagues developed a novel outcome measure to capture what was most important to … Continue reading "Breakthro…

Very rarely are scientists able to look at single genes within the brains of people across neuropsychiatric disorders and understand how the genes in each of these cells influence expression of proteins and interactions of different cells with each other. Recently, a collaboration called PsychENCODE released a series of papers that investigated wha…

In recognition of Father’s Day on the 16th, today’s podcast includes the latest research on fathers. Fathers may often be the “secondary caregiver” but should hardly be dismissed as inconsequential. Father’s sensitivity and insightfulness plays an important part in development, psychiatric diagnoses (including autism) change the the chance of havin…

General psychiatrists are trained deal with a range of psychiatric issues in a variety of areas, but very few have experience helping families of children and adults with autism. This is training that is desperately needed, as, like other professions, there are not enough psychiatrists to help families and waitlists are staggering. Dr. Arthur Westo…

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 readi…

While NDBIs are generally considered beneficial, they still face controversies – do they actually work and does that translate to an improved quality of life for the family? This week’s #ASF podcast interviews Molly Reilly and Jinwei Song of @UConn to dive into these issues, as well as the role of the caregiver in the … Continue reading "Are Natura…

A legend in the autism community passed away on Friday. Today’s podcast focuses on the many talents of Dr. James (Jim) Simons, one of the founders of the Simons Foundation that has spent more than $500 million on autism research. We explain how he made his fortune, how he spent it, the importance of the … Continue reading "Rest in Power Jim Simons"…

As health care and outcomes for very premature infants has improved, scientists are able to track their longer term behavioral development, and that includes risk of developmental disorders like autism. On this week’s #ASFpodcast, Dr. Jessica Bradshaw discusses her recent research examining biological predictors like body temperature and heart rate…

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 different. Males have a higher … Continue reading "Rese…

Thank you to Dennis Wall from Stanford University for explaining what Machine Learning is, how it’s related to Artificial Intelligence (today’s four buzz words) and how these new technologies are helping families get a diagnosis. He talks about the overall goals of these techniques, highlighting Cognoa’s CanvasDx to provide remote diagnoses to pote…

Autistic individuals are turning to self-diagnosis to explain their autism features, sometimes based on better awareness, sometimes based on what they see on social media. But how accurate are these autism diagnostic tools? They range anywhere from tik-tok videos all the way to a tool called the RAADS-R which has been described as a valid … Continu…

Did you miss the ASF 2024 Day of Learning and can’t wait for the videos to be posted? This is a 17 minute brief summary of what was discussed, but unfortunately, with no visuals. Don’t just listen to the podcast, watch the videos when they are posted. Also included in this podcast is a shoutout … Continue reading "The 2024 Day Of Learning Quickie"…

This podcast has not covered transition from adolescence to adulthood in the past, probably because there has not been a lot of research in this area. Luckily, recently there has been a surge of investigations and scientifically – supported interventions and recommendations for individuals who are transitioning to adulthood. This podcast reviews th…

This week’s podcast will be an interview with Matt Cicoria from the podcast Behavioral Observations. We discuss the meaning of the words “Profound Autism” and why a blanket term of “autism spectrum disorder” may not be helping anyone on the spectrum. If you are in the Boston area on April 5th, please attend the Profound … Continue reading "“What is…

Last week in North Carolina, the Meeting on Language in Autism was held, with 3 days of amazing presentations and lots of productive discussions about how language and speech develops and how people with autism communicate. This podcast describes the origins of language development and how intervention during toddlerhood can promote lifelong langua…

This podcast provides updates on studies that help with prediction of an autism diagnosis – which is important for preparing for the future and for intervening early. First, a study that uses environmental factors to create an equation for the probability of a diagnosis following a combination of of non-genetic factors only which does a … Continue …

On this week’s podcast we interview Dr. Susan Daniels who is the National Autism Coordinator for the Department of Health and Human Services. This position is created by the Autism CARES Act (which is under reauthorization) and represents one of the only disorders that provides coordinating functioning across funding agencies. We talk about what he…

In the last version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the different subtypes of autism were folded into one label: autism spectrum disorder. A similar revision is being made around the International Classification of Diseases, the system the WHO uses across the world to describe autism and provide appropriate reimbursements for services and…

Are you the parent of an infant? Are you wondering how you can get assessments on your child without having to struggle with your pediatrician’s time at a well- baby checkup? Are you interested in how your baby is thinking or communicating but your doctor says “it’s too early to tell?” A new study based … Continue reading "Learn about your infant’s…

Irritability and aggression are dangerous behaviors that can lead to harm and injury and are overlooked in research. Unfortunately there are only two FDA medications approved to treat them in autism. The drugs have many side effects, and there are efforts to improve these treatments and minimize side effects by lowering the dose with adjunct … Cont…

Those who are minimally verbal or non speaking represent about 25% of those with an autism diagnosis, yet there is really a lack of effective interventions for this group of autistic individuals. It used to be that everyone who was non-speaking was thought to have minimal ability to understand language, since understanding and speaking are … Contin…

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 be able to be prevented. It turns out aggression … Co…

Just three days before 2024, ASF provides a summary of the the highlights of scientific discoveries and how they have translated into tools families can use. They include ways to speed up diagnosis and reduce waitlists, study of the brains in females and clinical recommendations for helping autistic females at birth, evidence of better practices … …

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 minocycline, with inconclusive results. This week, a multisite s…

A recent publication in the Lancet was dedicated to clinical recommendations to support autistic females at birth. Because more males than females are diagnosed with autism, their needs are often misunderstood, misinterpreted, or just ignored. Researchers, clinicians, scientists, parents and self-advocates from around the world joined together to i…

Everyone who has looked for support for autism spectrum disorder is familiar with waitlists. Waitlists for evaluation, diagnosis, intervention, consultations and referrals. These waitlists prevent important opportunities for services and many groups developing technologies, policies, and approaches to reduce the waitlists or work around them. On th…

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 at genetic causes in those with catatonia and neurodev…

The words “syndromic autism” have been used to describe individuals with autism who also have a rare genetic mutation. Is it time to change those words to something else? Scientists and clinicians Drs. Jacob Vorstman and Steve Scherer from the University of Toronto share recent data in understanding autism, the role of genetic testing in … Continue…

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 remarkable. His lab uses assembloids, which are many many … C…

Everyone knows that every person with autism has their own unique strengths and challenges. Autism is heritable, and there are over 100 genes associated with autism. There are also an unknown number of environmental factors influencing outcome, so the heterogeneity is not necessarily surprising. But why would two people with the same genetic mutati…

In recognition of September 26th, this podcast explores one of the more dangerous issues in autism: wandering. But it’s really not wandering in the traditional sense. Wandering in autism mostly means running off, bolting, deliberately with intent and without permission. Obviously this leads to some very dangerous situations for people on the spectr…

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 used to shorten the wait times to … Continue reading "…

Everyone needed support during the pandemic, but families affected by autismneeded special support. This included siblings. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital tried out an intervention around stress and anxiety reduction in siblings in 2020. Not only was it liked, it worked. It didn’t completely eliminate stress and anxiety, nothing woul…