The field of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is expanding at an exponential rate. New topics for study are forming and journals are emerging rapidly to handle the ever-increasing volume of publications. This study was undertaken to provide an overview of past and current research trends. Representative studies were evaluated for type of content…

Loss of previously established behaviors in early childhood constitutes a markedly atypical developmental trajectory. It is found almost uniquely in autism and its cause is currently unknown (Baird et al., 2008). We present an artificial neural network model of developmental regression, exploring the hypothesis that regression is caused by…

Minicolumnar changes that generalize throughout a significant portion of the cortex have macroscopic structural correlates that may be visualized with modern structural neuroimaging techniques. In magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of fourteen autistic patients and 28 controls, the present study found macroscopic morphological correlates to recent…

This paper reports on the contribution of prenatal stress to the pathogenesis of autism as a neurobiological developmental disorder in a dizygotic study. The aim was to explore whether the neurobiological impact of stress prior to week 28 of gestation might be related to the pathogenesis of autism. The following data-generating strategies were…

Few studies have examined whether familiarity of partner affects social responses in children with autism. This study investigated heart rate regulation (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]: The myelinated vagus nerve's regulation of heart rate) and temporal-parietal electroencephalogram (EEG) activity while nineteen 8- to 12-year-old children with…

Purpose: To determine the extent to which behavioral and physiological responses during child-directed speech (CDS) correlate concurrently and predictively with communication skills in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Method: Twenty-two boys with ASD (initial mean age: 35 months) participated in a longitudinal study. At entry,…

Theoretical considerations, and findings from computational modeling, comparative neuroanatomy and developmental neuroscience, motivate the hypothesis that a deviant brain growth trajectory will lead to deviant patterns of change in cortico-cortical connectivity. Differences in brain size during development will alter the relative cost and…

Fragile X syndrome (FraX) remains the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and provides a valuable model for studying gene-brain-behavior relationships. Over the past 15 years, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have emerged with the goal of better understanding the neural pathways contributing to the…

The importance of eye gaze as a means of communication is indisputable. However, there is debate about whether there is a dedicated neural module, which functions as an eye gaze detector and when infants are able to use eye gaze cues in a referential way. The application of neuroscience methodologies to developmental psychology has provided new…

Through clinical vignettes taken from the analytic treatment of an autistic child, the paper explores Bion's notion of "selected fact" in relation to the post-Jungian theoretical speculation on the "emergent mind". The issue of the subjectivity of the analyst is considered and explored in this light. A review of some neuroscience research…

It has been suggested that spindle neurons, an evolutionarily unique type of neuron, might be involved in higher-order social, emotional, and cognitive functions. As such, it was hypothesized that these neurons may be particularly important to the pathophysiology of autism, a disease characterized in part by disruption of higher-order social and…

Difficulties with pragmatic aspects of communication are universal across individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here we focused on an aspect of pragmatic language comprehension that is relevant to social interaction in daily life: the integration of speaker characteristics inferred from the voice with the content of a message. Using…

In an early description of the mu rhythm, Gastaut and Bert [Gastaut, H. J., & Bert, J. (1954). EEG changes during cinematographic presentation. "Clinical Neurophysiology", 6, 433-444] noted that it was blocked when an individual identified himself with an active person on the screen, suggesting that it may be modulated by the degree to which the…

This study reviews recent research related to the neurobiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) an provides an empirical analysis of current assessment practices. Data were collected through a survey of 117 school psychologists. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS), and Gilliam Asperger's Disorder Scale…

A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed on a 4-year-old girl with autism. While sedated, she listened to three utterances (numbers, hello, her own first name) played through headphones. Based on analyses of the fMRI data, the amount of total brain activation varied with the content of the utterance. The greatest volume…