Connectome-wide mega-analysis reveals robust patterns of atypical functional connectivity in autism

Neuroimaging studies on functional connectivity (FC) in autism have been hampered by small sample sizes and inconsistent findings with regard to whether connectivity is increased or decreased in individuals with autism, whether these alterations affect focal systems or reflect a brain-wide dysfunction, and whether these are age- and/or sex-dependent. The study included resting-state fMRI and clinical data from the LEAP and the ABIDE I and II initiatives, of 1824 (796 with autism) participants with age range 5-58 years. Between-group differences in FC were assessed, and associations between FC and clinical symptom ratings were investigated through canonical correlation analysis. Autism was associated with a brain-wide pattern of hypo- and hyperconnectivity. Hypoconnectivity predominantly affected sensory and higher-order attentional networks and correlated with social impairments, restrictive and repetitive behavior (RRB), and sensory processing. Hyperconnectivity was observed primarily between the default mode network and the rest of the brain, and between cortical and subcortical systems. This pattern was strongly associated with social impairments and sensory processing. Interactions between diagnosis and age or sex were not statistically significant. The FC alterations observed in this study, which primarily involve hypoconnectivity of primary sensory and attention networks and hyperconnectivity of the DMN and subcortex with the rest of the brain, do not appear to be age or sex-dependent and correlate with clinical dimensions of social difficulties, RRBs, and alterations in sensory processing. These findings suggest that the observed connectivity alterations are stable, trait-like features of autism that are related to the three main symptom domains.

Políticas sociales de protección a las familias en dificultad en tiempos de pandemia

Families generate social capital for society, playing an essential economic, social and political role for social cohesion and sustainability. The emergence of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has profoundly altered family realities and care strategies. The pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses of social protection policies in general and those aimed at families in particular. The article analyzes the changes in family structure and behavior, the social exclusion of households and the protection policies and programs aimed at families with greater social difficulties that are developed by the different public administrations in Spain. The research methodology is based on the systematization and analysis of statistical sources, updated studies and research, and the content analysis of the policies, plans and measures that are developed from the different levels of public administration, especially in the social services system. The research results confirm that social policies for the protection and support of families are scarce, insufficient in coverage and amount, fragmented and unequal in the territories. It is necessary to increase the extension of coverage and the quality of services and social benefits to improve the quality and living conditions of families, especially in times of pandemic peñando un papel económico, social y político imprescindible para la cohesión y sostenibilidad social. La irrupción del coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 ha alterado profundamente las realidades familiares y las estrategias de cuidado. La pandemia ha evidenciado las debilidades de las políticas de protección social en general y las destinadas a las familias en particular. El artículo analiza los cambios en la estructura y comportamientos familiares, la exclusión social de los hogares y las políticas y programas de protección destinadas a las familias con mayores dificultades sociales que se desarrollan desde las diferentes administraciones públicas en España. La metodología de investigación se basa en la sistematización y análisis de fuentes estadísticas, estudios e investigaciones actualizadas y el análisis de contenido de las políticas, planes y medidas que se desarrollan desde los distintos niveles de administración pública, especialmente en el sistema de servicios sociales. Los resultados de la investigación constatan que las políticas sociales de protección y apoyo a las familias son escasas, insuficientes en cobertura y cuantía, fragmentadas y desiguales en los territorios. Es necesario incrementar la extensión de cobertura y la calidad de servicios y prestaciones sociales para mejorar la calidad y condiciones de vida de las familias, especialmente en tiempos de pandemia.

The Processes Underlying Positive Illusory Bias in ADHD: The Role of Executive Functions and Pragmatic Language Skills

Objective: Children with ADHD often show a positive illusory bias (PIB), reporting an extremely positive idea of their own competence, despite their difficulties. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still poorly understood. In the present study, we examined social PIB and investigated the role of executive functions (EFs) and pragmatic language (PL). Method: Forty-one children with ADHD and 42 typically-developing children matched on age, IQ, and receptive language were administered measures of social competence, EFs and PL. The parents were also asked to estimate their child’s social competence. Results: There was evidence of social difficulties and PIB in children with ADHD. Only PL, not EFs, seemed to mediate the association between ADHD and PIB. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that PL abilities should be considered in efforts to improve self-perception in children with ADHD.

More than the sum of its parts: Merging network psychometrics and network neuroscience with application in autism

Network approaches that investigate the interaction between symptoms or behaviours have opened new ways of understanding psychological phenomena in health and disorder. In parallel, network approaches that characterise the interaction between brain regions have become the dominant approach in neuroimaging research. Combining these parallel approaches would enable new insights into the interaction between behaviours and their brain-level correlates. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for combining network psychometrics and network neuroscience. This approach utilises the information from the psychometric network to obtain neural correlates for each node in the psychometric network (network-based regression). We illustrate the approach by highlighting the interaction between autistic traits and their resting-state functional associations. To this end, we utilise data from 172 male autistic participants (10–21 years) from the autism brain data exchange (ABIDE, ABIDE-II). Our results indicate that the network-based regression approach can uncover both unique and shared neural correlates of behavioural measures. In addition, the methodology enables us to isolate mechanisms at the brain-level that are unique to particular behavioural variables. For instance, our example analysis indicates that the overlap between communication and social difficulties is not reflected in the overlap between their functional correlates.

The Emergency Rooms and Emergency Medicine should not be the answer to the weakness of the Italian National Health System

Dear Editors, The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted several and wellknown limits of the Italian national health system, including the weakness of the territorial medical services and the absence of dedicated structures for patients affected by chronic or end-stage diseases in need of long hospitalization, or with social difficulties. [...]

Effects of an Autism Educational Presentation on High School Students’ Perceptions of Autistic Adults

Background Social communication difficulties are a clinical characteristic of autism, but social interactions are reciprocal in nature and autistic individuals’ social abilities may not be the only factor influencing their social success. Non-autistic individuals’ social perceptions and behavior also contribute to autistic individuals’ social difficulties, and previous research has identified that non-autistic individuals’ perception of autistic individuals is influenced by autism knowledge and the quantity and quality of exposure to autistic people. We explored whether high school students’ perceptions of autistic adults can be improved by an autism education presentation and whether these perceptions were associated with their self-reported social competence. Methods151 senior high school students completed the First Impression Scale on video-recordings of 20 autistic and 20 non-autistic adults in social situations either before or after viewing a 50 minute autism educational presentation detailing the everyday experiences of autistic people and participating in a question-and-answer session. The students’ prior experiences with autistic people was assessed using the Quantity and Quality of Contact Scale, and their own self-perceived social competence was measured using the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale. ResultsStudents who provided their judgements after viewing the educational presentation rated autistic adults as more attractive (β = -.05, p = .042) and likeable (β = -.06, p = .029), and reported greater interest in hanging out with (β = -.06, p = .028) and being near the autistic adults (β = -.06, p = .026), relative to peers who completed their judgments before watching the presentation. Consistent with a Double Empathy framework, students who reported being more socially competent endorsed more negative judgments of autistic adults (r = .211, p = .011), whereas students reporting higher quality interactions with autistic individuals expressed more positive judgments (r = -.278, p = .010). Conclusion Improving non-autistic individuals’ understanding of autistic social behaviors, whether through educational presentations or quality interactions, may revise their expectations of social behavior and improve perceptions of autistic differences. Changing non-autistic individuals’ social expectations may provide an avenue for improving interactions for autistic individuals without putting the onus on autistic individuals to change or mask their behavior and identity.

Loneliness in online students with disabilities: qualitative investigation for experience, understanding and solutions

Online learning has given access to education for diverse populations including students with disabilities. In our university, the ratio of students with disabilities is substantially higher in the online programmes than face-to-face. Online learning provides high accessibility though it can result in a lonely experience. Accordingly, this study aimed to appraise the first-hand experience and understanding of loneliness in online students with disabilities (OSWD), and to discuss possible solutions. Thematic analysis on semi-structured interviews attended by nine OSWD identified: ‘Self-paced study can reduce stigma but cause loneliness (Theme 1)’, ‘Loneliness and social difficulties relate to misunderstanding of disability (Theme 2)’, and ‘Activities, events and staff for informal socialisation are needed (Theme 3)’. As the demand for online learning is further expanded due to the current global pandemic, our findings will be helpful for online learning institutions worldwide to establish effective strategies to reduce loneliness in OSWD.

Prosodic entrainment in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Entrainment is the tendency of people to behave similarly during an interaction. It occurs on different levels of behaviour, including speech, and has been associated with pro-social behaviour and increased rapport. This review paper outlines the current understanding of linguistic entrainment, particularly at the speech level, in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a disorder that is associated with social difficulties and unusual prosody. Aberrant entrainment patterns in individuals with ASD could thus contribute to both their perceived unusual prosody and their social difficulties. Studying the relationship between speech entrainment and ASD holds great potential for applied benefits in utilizing this knowledge for pre-screening or diagnosis, monitoring progress longitudinally, and intervention practices. Our findings suggest that research on entrainment in ASD is sparse and exploratory, and the ecological validity of experimental paradigms varies. Moreover, there is little consistency in methodology and results vary between studies, which highlights the need for standardized methods in entrainment research. A promising way to standardize methods, facilitate their use, and extend them to everyday clinical practice, is by implementing automatic methods for speech analysis and adhering to open-science principles.

Social attention in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder: Role of social motivation

Research suggests a relationship between anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder. The aim of the current study was to examine social attention in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder compared with age- and sex-matched typically developing groups, and to examine whether lowered social motivation could explain reductions in social attention across the two disorders. Participants’ eye movements were tracked while watching a dynamic social scene. The proportion of fixation duration to faces, bodies and non-social areas of interest were compared across groups. Participants with autism spectrum disorder looked at faces significantly less often than controls, however, there were no differences between anorexia nervosa and controls in attention to faces. Typically developing -normed z-scores indicated that attention to faces showed the greatest deviation from normative data compared with body or non-social areas of interest in both autism spectrum disorder and anorexia nervosa, however, differences were larger in autism spectrum disorder than in anorexia nervosa. Social motivation scores did not predict attention to faces in either autism spectrum disorder or anorexia nervosa. Our results do not support the hypothesis that differences in social motivation underlie reduced social attention in both anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract Research suggests a relationship between autism and anorexia nervosa. For example, rigid and inflexible behaviour, a preference for routine and social difficulties are seen in both conditions. In this study, we examined whether people with anorexia and people with autism show similarities in social attention (where they look while engaging in social interactions or watching a scene with people interacting). This could help us understand why people with anorexia and autism experience difficulties in social situations. Participants with either anorexia or autism, as well as participants with no mental health problems watched a video of a social scene while we recorded which parts of the scene they looked at with an eye-tracker. Participants also completed questionnaires to assess characteristics of autism. We found that autistic participants looked at faces less than typically developing participants. However, participants with anorexia did not show a similar reduction in attention to faces, contrary to our predictions. Autistic features were not related to attention in either group. The results suggest that autistic people may miss important social cues (like facial expressions), potentially contributing to social difficulties. However, this mechanism does not appear explain social difficulties in people with anorexia.

Case series: Psychosocial challenges of female youth within the Irish Travelling community

Background: The Irish Travelling community are an ethnic minority group known for their distinct identity, traditions and language. Although this group has its roots in Ireland, they are marginalised and discriminated against by every part of Irish society. Irish Travellers are a group who are vulnerable to exclusion and experience health, economic and educational inequalities. Young female Irish Travellers in Ireland are highly susceptible to mental illnesses which makes the engagement of this ethnic group by healthcare services important. Aims: To review the cases of three female adolescents from the Irish Travelling community living in Ireland with a focus on their psycho-social difficulties. Complete a literature review, to complement and inform the three cases reviewed, on the socio-cultural and mental health challenges which effect adolescent females in the Irish Travelling community. Methods: Case series with literature search and review of relevant published articles using a keyword search of databases PubMed, PsycINFO and HSE protocols and reports. Hand searching of relevant references utilised. Informed signed consent obtained from each patient attending child and adolescent services in Ireland. Signed parental consent also obtained. Written consent obtained due to the use of patient history and assessments in the case series. Results: Adolescent females within the Irish Travelling community encounter particular difficulties within the moral constraints and expectations of this community. They encounter specific issues including mental illness, sexual stigma, domestic violence and limitations to the role of women. The three cases outlined give representative examples of the challenges faced by adolescent females within the Travelling community. Conclusions: Psychiatric services need to be aware of this vulnerable group and focus on the recognition of their needs within the context of their community.