Molecular and behavioural evidence points to an association between sex-steroid hormones and autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and/or autistic traits. Prenatal androgen levels are associated with autistic traits, and several genes involved in steroidogenesis are associated with autism, Asperger Syndrome and/or autistic traits. Furthermore, higher rates of androgen-related conditions (such as Pol...

BACKGROUND Differences in social communication are commonly reported in autism spectrum condition (ASC). A recent theory attributes this to a reduced motivation to engage with others, that is, deficits in social motivation. However, there are currently few simple, direct, behavioural ways to test this claim. This study uses a new behavioural measure of social motivation to test if preferences f...

Research suggests that offspring of mothers who experience high levels of stress during pregnancy are more likely to have problems in neurobehavioral development. There is preliminary evidence that prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) is a risk factor for both autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), however most studies do not control for confounding factors and no study has inve...

Researchers continue to pursue a better understanding of the symptoms, comorbidities, and causes of autism spectrum disorders. In this article we review more than 30 twin studies of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and autistic traits published in the last decade that have contributed to this endeavor. These twin studies have reported on the heritability of autism spectrum disorders and autisti...

We aimed to assess which comorbid problems (oppositional defiant behaviors, anxiety, autistic traits, motor coordination problems, and reading problems) were most associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); to determine whether these comorbid problems shared executive and motor problems on an endophenotype level with ADHD; and to determine whether executive functioning (EF)...

Substantial evidence indicates that parents of autistic individuals often display milder forms of autistic traits referred to as the broader autism phenotype (BAP). To determine if discrete endophenotypes of autism can be identified, we reviewed the literature to assess the evidence of behavioral, cognitive, and psychiatric profiles of the BAP. A systematic review was conducted using EMBASE, ME...

So far no standardized screening instrument for autism spectrum disorders for adults has been developed in Poland. The main aim of the study was to explore the properties of the Polish version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), especially its reliability and discriminating power. The second purpose was to establish whether the pattern of sex and area of study differences in the amount of aut...

Perceptual constancy strongly relies on adaptive gain control mechanisms, which shift perception as a function of recent sensory history. Here we examined the extent to which individual differences in magnitude of adaptation aftereffects for social and non-social directional cues are related to autistic traits and sensory sensitivity in healthy participants (Experiment 1); and also whether adap...

Two separate genome-wide association studies were conducted to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with social and nonsocial autistic-like traits. We predicted that we would find SNPs associated with social and non-social autistic-like traits and that different SNPs would be associated with social and nonsocial. In Stage 1, each study screened for allele frequency differe...