Social clumsiness

2021 ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Mark Selikowitz

To acquire age-appropriate social skills, certain parts of the brain need to develop normally. Children with ADHD may experience social difficulties and experience what is called a social cognition deficit. This chapter outlines social clumsiness in ADHD. It discusses social cognition as a function of the brain, specific social competence deficits (social blindness, egocentricity, lack of appropriate inhibition, insatiability, insensitivity to style and convention, lack of responsiveness, over-talkativeness, difficulties reading facial expression, aggressive tendencies, lack of judgment, poor understanding of group dynamics, misinterpretation of feedback, poor social prediction, poor social memory, lack of awareness of image, poor behaviour-modification strategies), management of social clumsiness, and autism spectrum disorder.

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-46
Author(s):  
Mark Selikowitz

Specific deficits in information processing in the brain are the commonest causes of academic difficulties in children with ADHD. For many children with ADHD, academic difficulty is not confined to a particular subject but occurs across several areas of study. This chapter explores learning difficulties in ADHD, including common areas of difficulty, including written expression, oral expression, and others. The chapter also discusses when problems become apparent, the causes of learning difficulty in ADHD (poor concentration, impulsivity, working memory impairment, defiance, low self-esteem, social difficulties, poor incentival motivation, auditory processing impairment, difficulties in spelling, handwriting, and organizing), as well as dyslexia and ADHD, and the gifted child with ADHD.


Author(s):  
Lasana T. Harris

The third chapter introduces prediction as a Bayesian process that ensures survival. It then focuses on social prediction—predicting other people’s behavior—exploring consistently low correlations between traits (a form of social cognition) and behavior. It then describes the brain correlates of prediction violation, social reward, and social punishment, before arguing that social cognition may not be necessary to predict other people’s behavior; instead people may rely on other heuristics such as social norms. Therefore, it discounts the importance of social cognition for this aspect of human survival.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Galli ◽  
F. Gitti ◽  
M. Lanaro ◽  
A. Rizzi ◽  
M.A. Pavlova ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-174
Author(s):  
Koichi Kawada ◽  
Nobuyuki Kuramoto ◽  
Seisuke Mimori

: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disease, and the number of patients has increased rapidly in recent years. The causes of ASD involve both genetic and environmental factors, but the details of causation have not yet been fully elucidated. Many reports have investigated genetic factors related to synapse formation, and alcohol and tobacco have been reported as environmental factors. This review focuses on endoplasmic reticulum stress and amino acid cycle abnormalities (particularly glutamine and glutamate) induced by many environmental factors. In the ASD model, since endoplasmic reticulum stress is high in the brain from before birth, it is clear that endoplasmic reticulum stress is involved in the development of ASD. On the other hand, one report states that excessive excitation of neurons is caused by the onset of ASD. The glutamine-glutamate cycle is performed between neurons and glial cells and controls the concentration of glutamate and GABA in the brain. These neurotransmitters are also known to control synapse formation and are important in constructing neural circuits. Theanine is a derivative of glutamine and a natural component of green tea. Theanine inhibits glutamine uptake in the glutamine-glutamate cycle via slc38a1 without affecting glutamate; therefore, we believe that theanine may prevent the onset of ASD by changing the balance of glutamine and glutamate in the brain.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Richard Pender ◽  
Pasco Fearon ◽  
Beate St Pourcain ◽  
Jon Heron ◽  
Will Mandy

Abstract Background Autistic people show diverse trajectories of autistic traits over time, a phenomenon labelled ‘chronogeneity’. For example, some show a decrease in symptoms, whilst others experience an intensification of difficulties. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a dimensional condition, representing one end of a trait continuum that extends throughout the population. To date, no studies have investigated chronogeneity across the full range of autistic traits. We investigated the nature and clinical significance of autism trait chronogeneity in a large, general population sample. Methods Autistic social/communication traits (ASTs) were measured in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children using the Social and Communication Disorders Checklist (SCDC) at ages 7, 10, 13 and 16 (N = 9744). We used Growth Mixture Modelling (GMM) to identify groups defined by their AST trajectories. Measures of ASD diagnosis, sex, IQ and mental health (internalising and externalising) were used to investigate external validity of the derived trajectory groups. Results The selected GMM model identified four AST trajectory groups: (i) Persistent High (2.3% of sample), (ii) Persistent Low (83.5%), (iii) Increasing (7.3%) and (iv) Decreasing (6.9%) trajectories. The Increasing group, in which females were a slight majority (53.2%), showed dramatic increases in SCDC scores during adolescence, accompanied by escalating internalising and externalising difficulties. Two-thirds (63.6%) of the Decreasing group were male. Conclusions Clinicians should note that for some young people autism-trait-like social difficulties first emerge during adolescence accompanied by problems with mood, anxiety, conduct and attention. A converse, majority-male group shows decreasing social difficulties during adolescence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reymundo Lozano ◽  
Catherine Gbekie ◽  
Paige M. Siper ◽  
Shubhika Srivastava ◽  
Jeffrey M. Saland ◽  
...  

AbstractFOXP1 syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations or deletions that disrupt the forkhead box protein 1 (FOXP1) gene, which encodes a transcription factor important for the early development of many organ systems, including the brain. Numerous clinical studies have elucidated the role of FOXP1 in neurodevelopment and have characterized a phenotype. FOXP1 syndrome is associated with intellectual disability, language deficits, autism spectrum disorder, hypotonia, and congenital anomalies, including mild dysmorphic features, and brain, cardiac, and urogenital abnormalities. Here, we present a review of human studies summarizing the clinical features of individuals with FOXP1 syndrome and enlist a multidisciplinary group of clinicians (pediatrics, genetics, psychiatry, neurology, cardiology, endocrinology, nephrology, and psychology) to provide recommendations for the assessment of FOXP1 syndrome.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A11-A12
Author(s):  
Carolyn Jones ◽  
Randall Olson ◽  
Alex Chau ◽  
Peyton Wickham ◽  
Ryan Leriche ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Glutamate concentrations in the cortex fluctuate with the sleep wake cycle in both rodents and humans. Altered glutamatergic signaling, as well as the early life onset of sleep disturbances have been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder. In order to study how sleep modulates glutamate activity in brain regions relevant to social behavior and development, we disrupted sleep in the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) rodent species and quantified markers of glutamate neurotransmission within the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain responsible for advanced cognition and complex social behaviors. Methods Male and female prairie voles were sleep disrupted using an orbital shaker to deliver automated gentle cage agitation at continuous intervals. Sleep was measured using EEG/EMG signals and paired with real time glutamate concentrations in the prefrontal cortex using an amperometric glutamate biosensor. This same method of sleep disruption was applied early in development (postnatal days 14–21) and the long term effects on brain development were quantified by examining glutamatergic synapses in adulthood. Results Consistent with previous research in rats, glutamate concentration in the prefrontal cortex increased during periods of wake in the prairie vole. Sleep disruption using the orbital shaker method resulted in brief cortical arousals and reduced time in REM sleep. When applied during development, early life sleep disruption resulted in long-term changes in both pre- and post-synaptic components of glutamatergic synapses in the prairie vole prefrontal cortex including increased density of immature spines. Conclusion In the prairie vole rodent model, sleep disruption on an orbital shaker produces a sleep, behavioral, and neurological phenotype that mirrors aspects of autism spectrum disorder including altered features of excitatory neurotransmission within the prefrontal cortex. Studies using this method of sleep disruption combined with real time biosensors for excitatory neurotransmitters will enhance our understanding of modifiable risk factors, such as sleep, that contribute to the altered development of glutamatergic synapses in the brain and their relationship to social behavior. Support (if any) NSF #1926818, VA CDA #IK2 BX002712, Portland VA Research Foundation, NIH NHLBI 5T32HL083808-10, VA Merit Review #I01BX001643


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. eaba1187
Author(s):  
Rina Baba ◽  
Satoru Matsuda ◽  
Yuuichi Arakawa ◽  
Ryuji Yamada ◽  
Noriko Suzuki ◽  
...  

Persistent epigenetic dysregulation may underlie the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we show that the inhibition of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) enzyme activity normalizes aberrant epigenetic control of gene expression in neurodevelopmental disorders. Maternal exposure to valproate or poly I:C caused sustained dysregulation of gene expression in the brain and ASD-like social and cognitive deficits after birth in rodents. Unexpectedly, a specific inhibitor of LSD1 enzyme activity, 5-((1R,2R)-2-((cyclopropylmethyl)amino)cyclopropyl)-N-(tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4-yl)thiophene-3-carboxamide hydrochloride (TAK-418), almost completely normalized the dysregulated gene expression in the brain and ameliorated some ASD-like behaviors in these models. The genes modulated by TAK-418 were almost completely different across the models and their ages. These results suggest that LSD1 enzyme activity may stabilize the aberrant epigenetic machinery in neurodevelopmental disorders, and the inhibition of LSD1 enzyme activity may be the master key to recover gene expression homeostasis. TAK-418 may benefit patients with neurodevelopmental disorders.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 566
Author(s):  
Jae-Geun Lee ◽  
Hyun-Ju Cho ◽  
Yun-Mi Jeong ◽  
Jeong-Soo Lee

The microbiota–gut–brain axis (MGBA) is a bidirectional signaling pathway mediating the interaction of the microbiota, the intestine, and the central nervous system. While the MGBA plays a pivotal role in normal development and physiology of the nervous and gastrointestinal system of the host, its dysfunction has been strongly implicated in neurological disorders, where intestinal dysbiosis and derived metabolites cause barrier permeability defects and elicit local inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, concomitant with increased pro-inflammatory cytokines, mobilization and infiltration of immune cells into the brain, and the dysregulated activation of the vagus nerve, culminating in neuroinflammation and neuronal dysfunction of the brain and behavioral abnormalities. In this topical review, we summarize recent findings in human and animal models regarding the roles of the MGBA in physiological and neuropathological conditions, and discuss the molecular, genetic, and neurobehavioral characteristics of zebrafish as an animal model to study the MGBA. The exploitation of zebrafish as an amenable genetic model combined with in vivo imaging capabilities and gnotobiotic approaches at the whole organism level may reveal novel mechanistic insights into microbiota–gut–brain interactions, especially in the context of neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.


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