Autism: Superior visual thinking key to independence for ASD high schoolers

Researchers at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and UNC's School of Education report that teaching independence to adolescents with autism can provide a crucial boost to their chances for success after high school.

"We explored many factors that contribute to the poor outcomes people with autism often experience," said Kara Hume, co-principal investigator of FPG's Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (CSESA).

"It's clear that teaching independence to students with autism should be a central focus of their activities in high school."

Kara Hume

According to Hume, independence is the biggest indicator of which students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are likely to live on their own, have a job, and participate in their communities after high school.

"However, adolescents with ASD have trouble observing their peers and picking up on skills important for developing independence," she said.

Hume also said students with ASD experience difficulties with communication that inhibit their ability to ask questions and express preferences, and many have trouble dealing with new situations.

This resistance to change can create problems when teachers and caregivers try to reduce their roles.

"When an adolescent with ASD has a pen that runs out of ink, that student may be more likely to wait for prompting from the teacher before asking for a new pen or just finding a new one," she said.

Hume added that it isn't easy to change this default setting from reliance on others to independent action.

Although adolescence is usually a time of increasing autonomy, research shows that the independence of young adults with ASD begins to plateau and then decline.

According to Hume, though, other scientists have demonstrated that many high schoolers with ASD also possess unique skills that teachers and caregivers can emphasize in order to teach independence.

"Brain imaging studies and research on visual tasks show that many people with autism have enhanced mental imagery and superior visual thinking, compared to typically developing people," Hume said.

She added that people with ASD also describe their own reasoning as a series of images.

"For high schoolers with autism, the old adage really is true," she said. "A picture really is worth a thousand words."

Last month, an FPG team released a new report and Fact Sheet for the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders (NPDC), which screened 29,000 articles to determine the most reliable evidence-based interventions for children and youth with ASD.

Hume served on that team, helping to determine 12 evidence-based practices for high-school-aged students, and some of these interventions have a strong visual emphasis.

"Visual schedules, for instance, allow students with ASD to act independently, because they don't involve verbal prompting from teachers," Hume said.

"Visual information that explains what to do also can be useful in home, school, and employment settings, because it eliminates the need for continual monitoring and support."

Hume also said that video modeling, which the NPDC's report showed to be effective with other age groups, might also prove useful for high school students with ASD.

Prompting from teachers can be edited out over time as students become accustomed to behaving independently.

The new issue of Remedial and Special Education published recommendations from Hume and colleagues for promoting independence in adolescents with autism.

She and her co-authors also noted that new technology has the potential to capitalize on the visual strengths of people with ASD.

"IPads and iPhones are everywhere for typically developing teens," Hume said.

"The social acceptability of cell phone or tablet interventions for students with autism could lessen the stigma they face—and contribute to transformative outcomes after high school."

More information: Remedial and Special Education journal rse.sagepub.com/content/35/2/102.full.pdf+html

Levels of key brain chemicals predict children's reading ability

Reading-impaired young children have higher levels of the metabolites glutamate and choline in their brains, and these higher levels continue to be indicative of difficulties in developing typical reading and language skills, a Yale study has found. 

The study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Although anatomical and functional brain networks involved in reading disabilities have been well characterised, the underlying chemical bases of these differences in reading development have been poorly understood.

This study is believed to be the first to examine neurochemistry in a longitudinal study of children during the critical period when they are considered "emergent readers," the age at which neurocircuits that support skilled reading and speaking are still developing.

The Yale team measured levels of glutamate, choline, and other metabolites in 75 children, aged 6 to 10, whose reading abilities ranged from what is considered impaired to superior.

The researchers conducted behavioral testing to characterize the children's reading, language, and general cognitive skills, and used MR spectroscopy to assess metabolite levels.

They found that children with higher glutamate and choline levels in their brains tended to have lower composite scores for reading and language.

In follow-up testing two years later, the same correlation still existed for initial glutamate levels.

Kenneth Pugh

"Reading disabilities affect significant numbers of children," said first author Kenneth Pugh, associate professor of linguistics and president and director of research in the Haskins Laboratories at Yale.

"Our findings suggest new pathways for research into the connection between genes, brain development, and behavioural outcomes in children who struggle with reading."

The researchers also note that higher glutamate and choline levels have been implicated in hyperexcitability in children, another possible factor in cognitive impairment.

Robert Fulbright

"Further research may show whether there is a chemical basis that contributes to learning deficits among the reading-disabled children," said senior author Robert Fulbright, also of the Haskins Laboratories, and associate professor of diagnostic radiology at Yale School of Medicine.

More Information: 'Glutamate and choline levels predict individual differences in reading ability in emergent readers' Journal of Neuroscience Mar 2014 - K.Pugh, R.Fullbright, et al.

Depression: Is This Peptide a Key to Happiness?

What makes us happy? Family? Money? Love? How about a peptide? The neurochemical changes underlying human emotions and social behaviour are largely unknown. 

Now though, for the first time in humans, UCLA scientists have measured the release of a specific peptide, a neurotransmitter called hypocretin (Orexin), that greatly increased when subjects were happy but decreased when they were sad. 

Credit: © lassedesignen / Fotolia

The finding suggests that boosting hypocretin could elevate both mood and alertness in humans, thus laying the foundation for possible future treatments of psychiatric disorders like depression by targeting measureable abnormalities in brain chemistry.

In addition, the study measured for the first time the release of another peptide, this one called melanin concentrating hormone, or MCH.

Researchers found that its release was minimal in waking but greatly increased during sleep, suggesting a key role for this peptide in making humans sleepy.

The study is published in the March 5 online edition of the journal Nature Communications.

"The current findings explain the sleepiness of narcolepsy, as well as the depression that frequently accompanies this disorder," said senior author Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Sleep Research at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

"The findings also suggest that hypocretin deficiency may underlie depression from other causes."

In 2000, Siegel's team published findings showing that people suffering from narcolepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by uncontrollable periods of deep sleep, had 95 percent fewer hypocretin nerve cells in their brains than those without the illness.

The study was the first to show a possible biological cause of the disorder.

Since depression is strongly associated with narcolepsy, Siegel's lab began to explore hypocretin and its possible link to depression.

Depression is the leading cause of psychiatric disability in the U.S, Siegel noted. More than 6 percent of the population is affected each year, with lifetime prevalence exceeding 15 percent.

Yet the use of antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), has not been based on evidence of a deficiency, or excess, of any neurotransmitter. Several recent studies have questioned whether SSRIs, as well as other depression-fighting drugs, are any more effective than placebos.

In the current study, the researchers obtained their data on both hypocretin and MCH directly from the brains of eight patients who were being treated for intractable epilepsy.

The patients had been implanted with intra-cranial depth electrodes by Dr. Itzhak Fried, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and psychiatry and a co-author of the study, to identify seizure foci for potential surgical treatment. The location of electrodes was based solely on clinical criteria.

The researchers, with the patients' consent, used these same electrodes to "piggyback" their research. A membrane similar to that used for kidney dialysis and a very sensitive radio-immunoassay procedure were used to measure the release of hypocretin and MCH.

The patients were recorded while they watched television; engaged in social interactions such as talking to physicians, nursing staff or family; ate; underwent various clinical manipulations; and experienced sleep-wake transitions.

Notes of activities were made throughout the study every 15 minutes in synchrony with a 15-minute microdialysis sample collection by a researcher in the patients' rooms.

The subjects rated their moods and attitudes on a questionnaire, which was administered every hour during waking.

The researchers found that hypocretin levels were not linked to arousal in general but were maximized during positive emotions, anger, social interactions and awakening.

In contrast, MCH levels were maximal during sleep onset and minimal during social interactions.

"These results suggest a previously unappreciated emotional specificity in the activation of arousal and sleep in humans," Siegel said.

"The findings suggest that abnormalities in the pattern of activation of these systems may contribute to a number of psychiatric disorders."

Siegel noted that hypocretin antagonists are now being developed by several drug companies for use as sleeping pills. The current work suggests that these drugs will alter mood as well sleep tendency.

The Siegel lab has also previously reported that hypocretin is required for the "pursuit of pleasure" in rodents but plays no role in avoidance behavior.

"These results, in conjunction with the current findings, suggest that hypocretin administration will elevate both mood and alertness in humans," Siegel said.