Intersubjectivity, affective neuroscience, and the neurobiology of autistic spectrum disorders: a systematic review

Parent-Infant Interaction during the First Year of Life in Infants at High Risk for Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Introduction

Perinatal adverse events put neonates at high risk for short and long-term disabilities, including cerebral palsy (CP). The most recent guidelines about early intervention in infants with brain damage have emphasized the importance of family involvement from the very first phases of development. Early parent-infant interactions are pivotal in promoting infant cognitive and social developmental trajectories. However, little is known about the extent to which severe adverse perinatal events can affect the quality of early parent-infant interactions.

Patients and Methods

We systematically searched five databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library) for the publications assessing parent-infant interactions in infants at high neurological risk within 1 year of age. Articles were selected if they involved direct comparison between high-risk populations and healthy controls or low-risk populations, and if quantitative or semiquantitative tools were used to assess the parent-infant interaction. Measures of parent-infant interaction included infant interactive behaviors, parental interactive behaviors, and dyadic interactive patterns.

Results

The search yielded 18 publications that met the inclusion criteria. The articles represent a high level of heterogeneity in terms of infant neurological risk, infant age, and tools assessing interactive behaviors. Both infant and maternal behaviors within the investigated interactive exchanges were reported to be compromised, leading to subsequent overall impairment of the dyadic patterns.

Conclusion

While the studies reviewed here provide general and important information, the review did not yield a clear picture of early dyadic interactions in high-risk infant populations. Further observational studies are warranted in order to provide a more accurate knowledge of the early dyadic exchanges between infants at high neurological risk and their parents, as they might provide a critical opportunity for early family centered habilitative interventions.

"If it looks like a duck…" - why humans need to focus on different approaches than insects if we are to become efficiently and effectively ultrasocial

The parallels between the agricultural successes of ultrasocial insects and those of humans are interesting and potentially important. There are a number of important caveats, however, including the relative complexities of insect reproduction, their more rigidly determined altricial patterns of social behaviour, the roles of post-reproductive group members, and differences in the known factors involved in ultrasocietal collapse.

Acute dietary tryptophan manipulation differentially alters social behavior, brain serotonin and plasma corticosterone in three inbred mouse strains

Clinical evidence indicates brain serotonin (5-HT) stores and neurotransmission may be inadequate in subpopulations of individuals with autism, and this may contribute to characteristically impaired social behaviors. Findings that depletion of the 5-HT precursor tryptophan (TRP) worsens autism symptoms support this hypothesis. Yet dietetic studies show and parents report that many children with autism consume less TRP than peers. To measure the impact of dietary TRP content on social behavior, we administered either diets devoid of TRP, with standard TRP (0.2 g%), or with 1% added TRP (1.2 g%) overnight to three mouse strains. Of these, BTBRT(+)Itpr3(tf)/J and 129S1/SvImJ consistently exhibit low preference for social interaction relative to C57BL/6. We found that TRP depletion reduced C57BL/6 and 129S social interaction preference, while TRP enhancement improved BTBR sociability (p < 0.05; N = 8-10). Subsequent marble burying did not differ among diets or strains. After behavior tests, brain TRP levels and plasma corticosterone were higher in TRP enhanced C57BL/6 and BTBR, while 5-HT levels were reduced in all strains by TRP depletion (p < 0.05; N = 4-10). Relative hyperactivity of BTBR and hypoactivity of 129S, evident in self-grooming and chamber entries during sociability tests, were uninfluenced by dietary TRP. Our findings demonstrate mouse sociability and brain 5-HT turnover are reduced by acute TRP depletion, and can be enhanced by TRP supplementation. This outcome warrants further basic and clinical studies employing biomarker combinations such as TRP metabolism and 5-HT regulated hormones to characterize conditions wherein TRP supplementation may best ameliorate sociability deficits.

The sound of one hand clapping: overdetermination and the pansensory nature of communication

Two substantive issues are relevant to discussions of the evolution of acoustic communication and merit further consideration here. The first is the importance of communicative ontogeny and the impact of the proximal social environment on the early development of communication and language. The second is the emerging evidence for a number of non-linguistic roles of FOXP2 and its orthologs.

It ain't what you do (it's the way that you do it)

Knowledge of the complexity of human communication comes from three main sources – (i) studies of the linguistics and neuropsychology of dysfunction after brain injury; (ii) studies of the development of social communication in infancy, and its dysfunction in developmental psychopathologies; and (iii) the evolutionary history of human communicative interaction. Together, these suggest the need for a broad, integrated theory of communication of which language forms a small but critical component.

GABAergic activity in autism spectrum disorders: an investigation of cortical inhibition via transcranial magnetic stimulation

Mounting evidence suggests a possible role for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the neuropathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the extent of this impairment is unclear. A non-invasive, in vivo measure of GABA involves transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the primary motor cortex to probe cortical inhibition. Individuals diagnosed with ASD (high-functioning autism or Asperger's disorder) (n = 36 [28 male]; mean age: 26.00 years) and a group of healthy individuals (n = 34 [23 male]; mean age: 26.21 years) (matched for age, gender, and cognitive function) were administered motor cortical TMS paradigms putatively measuring activity at GABAA and GABAB receptors (i.e., short and long interval paired pulse TMS, cortical silent period). All cortical inhibition paradigms yielded no difference between ASD and control groups. There was, however, evidence for short interval cortical inhibition (SICI) deficits among those ASD participants who had experienced early language delay, suggesting that GABA may be implicated in an ASD subtype. The current findings do not support a broad role for GABA in the neuropathophysiology of ASD, but provide further indication that GABAA could be involved in ASD where there is a delay in language acquisition. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'Neurodevelopmental Disorders'.

The imprinted brain: how genes set the balance between autism and psychosis

The imprinted brain theory proposes that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a paternal bias in the expression of imprinted genes. This is reflected in a preference for mechanistic cognition and in the corresponding mentalistic deficits symptomatic of ASD. Psychotic spectrum disorder (PSD) would correspondingly result from an imbalance in favor of maternal and/or X-chromosome gene expression. If differences in gene expression were reflected locally in the human brain as mouse models and other evidence suggests they are, ASD would represent not so much an 'extreme male brain' as an extreme paternal one, with PSD correspondingly representing an extreme maternal brain. To the extent that copy number variation resembles imprinting and aneuploidy in nullifying or multiplying the expression of particular genes, it has been found to conform to the diametric model of mental illness peculiar to the imprinted brain theory. The fact that nongenetic factors such as nutrition in pregnancy can mimic and/or interact with imprinted gene expression suggests that the theory might even be able to explain the notable effect of maternal starvation on the risk of PSD - not to mention the 'autism epidemic' of modern affluent societies. Finally, the theory suggests that normality represents balanced cognition, and that genius is an extraordinary extension of cognitive configuration in both mentalistic and mechanistic directions. Were it to be proven correct, the imprinted brain theory would represent one of the biggest single advances in our understanding of the mind and of mental illness that has ever taken place, and would revolutionize psychiatric diagnosis, prevention and treatment - not to mention our understanding of epigenomics.

Pleasure, Throwing Breaches, and Embodied Metaphors: Tracing Transformations-in-Participation for a Child with Autism to a Sensory Integration—Based Therapy Session

In occupational therapy practice, the rich interweaving of procedural and narrative reasoning results in healing transformations. However, a lack of research focus on transformational processes perpetuates a focus on observable and measurable behaviors. In line with the movement toward evidence-based implementation research, this article focuses on a case study drawn from an ethnography of therapist—child—family interactions in a sensory integration—based clinic to provide a thick description of the moments leading up to and following changes in bodily and social engagement for a child with autism. Using theoretical resources on acted narratives and aesthetics, this article provides a developing method and language to show how an occupational therapist and a child with autism throw breaches to jointly create embodied metaphors of what matters to the child in his or her everyday life. A microanalysis of therapist—child bodily and sensing interactions also reveals how narrative and procedural reasoning converge in moments of pleasure that ultimately lead to outcomes in participation outside the clinic and confound characterizations of autistic aloneness. Implications for research on sensory integration approaches in general and social interventions for children with autism are discussed.

Glutamate signaling through the kainate receptor enhances human immunoglobulin production

CD23 is implicated as a regulator of IgE synthesis. A soluble form of CD23 (sCD23) is released following cleavage by ADAM10 and enhanced sCD23 is correlated with increased IgE. In the CNS, signaling through the kainate receptor (KAR) increases ADAM10. In B cells, activation of KARs produced a significant increase in ADAM10 and sCD23 release as well as an increase in B cell proliferation and immunoglobulin production. In addition, ADAM10 inhibitors reduce IgE synthesis from in vitro cultures of human B cells. Thus, we report for the first time the unique presence of the kainate receptor in B cells and that activation of KARs could serve as a novel mechanism for enhancing B cell activation.

Atypical neuroleptic risperidone modulates glial functions in C6 astroglial cells

Risperidone has demonstrated therapeutic advantages over conventional neuroleptics and offers a valuable emerging option for the treatment of social behavior associated with autistic disorder. Considering the putative involvement of astroglial cells in neuropsychiatric disorders, we investigated the effect of risperidone on parameters of astrocyte activity - glutamate uptake, glutamine synthetase (GS) activity and glutathione (GSH) levels. Risperidone was able to induce a significantly increase on glutamate uptake (32%); GS activity (15%); GSH levels (58%). These findings imply the perspectives for further investigations directed on astrocytes from different brain areas. Our present results suggest that risperidone might exert its neuroprotective effects against brain illness at least partially via modulation of astrocyte functions.

Mirror neuron system based therapy for emotional disorders

Mirror neuron system (MNS) represents one of the most important discoveries in the area of neuropsychology of past decades. More than 500 papers have been published in this area (PubMed), and the major functions of MNS include action understanding, imitation, empathy, all of which are critical for an individual to be social. Recent studies suggested that MNS can modulate emotion states possibly through the empathy mechanism. Here we propose that MNS-based therapies provide a non-invasive approach in treatments to emotional disorders that were observed in autism patients, post-stroke patients with depression as well as other mood dysregulation conditions.