BACKGROUND A growing number of European studies, particularly from Nordic countries, suggest an increased frequency of autism in children of immigrant parents. In contrast, North American studies tend to conclude that neither maternal ethnicity nor immigrant status are related to the rate of autism-spectrum disorders. AIMS To examine the hypotheses that maternal ethnicity and/or immigration a...

Autism spectrum disorder is an entity that reflects a scientific consensus that several previously separated disorders are actually a single spectrum disorder with different levels of symptom severity in two core domains - deficits in social communication and interaction, and restricted repetitive behaviors. Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups an...

relationship between anxiety and repetitive behaviours in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 2404–2409. doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1531-y Schiller, D., Levy, I., Niv, Y., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2008). From fear to safety and back: Reversal of fear in the human brain. The Journal of Neuroscience, 28, 11517–11525. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2265-08 .2008 ...

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impairments in three domains: social interactions, verbal and non-verbal communication, and preference for a repetitive interest or behavior. 1 There are three types of disorders classified under the Autism Spectrum Disorders according to the DSM-IV-TR: Autistic disorder, Asperger’s disor...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have reported increased prevalence for autism spectrum disorders in a number of geographical locations. Our objective was to determine the incidence and 1-year cohort prevalence for autism spectrum disorders in children less than 15 years of age and living in the Avalon Peninsula at the time of diagnosis. METHODS Retrospective and prospective data were obtained from ...

Limited use of contextual information has been suggested as a way of understanding cognition in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it has also been argued that individuals with ASD may have difficulties inferring others' mental states. Here, we examined how individuals with different levels of autistic traits respond to contextual deviations by measuring event-related potentia...

OBJECTIVE Autistic spectrum disorders are childhood neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by social and communicative impairment and repetitive and stereotypical behavior. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is an upstream regulator of innate immunity that promotes monocyte/macrophage-activation responses by increasing the expression of Toll-like receptors and inhibiting activatio...

INTRODUCTION The drug treatment of autism spectrum disorders is often poorly tolerated and has traditionally targeted associated conditions (such as inattention or irritability) that frequently coexist, with limited benefit for the core social deficits. Here, I describe the novel use of a low dose of the anti-epileptic phenytoin to enhance social functioning in a patient with an autism spectrum...

Aims: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder. Deficit in sensory functions is one of the characteristics of people with autism, and usually these people show abnormality in processing and correct interpretation of auditory information. Also people with Autism show problems in communicating with others. This review article deals with the accurate understanding of Auditory processing skills...

The high-functioning Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) is a 27-item checklist for completion by lay informants when assessing symptoms characteristic of Asperger syndrome and other high-functioning autism spectrum disorders in children and adolescents with normal intelligence or mild mental retardation. Data for parent and teacher ratings in a clinical sample are presented along wi...