View clinical trials related to Autistic Disorder.
Filter by:There is increasing awareness in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) research field about the deficit of knowledge with regard to the neurobiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes that occur in adults with ASD across the later portion of the lifespan. Decline in motor skills and cognitive function in typical aging can have devastating impacts on an individual's ability to organize and maintain activities of daily living. While there is an overall lack of research on how these processes unfold across aging specifically in ASD, previous research findings of motor and cognitive deficits in young adults with ASD, localization of these functions to the anterior cerebral cortices, and trajectories of decline in typical aging indicate that motor skills and executive function are particularly at risk in the disorder in later life. In vivo myeloarchitectonic mapping based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides a unique view of gray matter structure and has the potential to elucidate abnormalities of local cortical connectivity. It has shown promise for the identification of biomarkers of disease pathogenesis in clinical studies, and it provides unique information beyond the cortical thickness measurements that have been employed in previous studies of ASD and typical aging. Myelin mapping may also be a more reliable index of neurobiological aging, given some questions about the accuracy of cortical thickness measurements. Given these properties, it may be a particularly informative measure in the context of potential accelerated decline in ASD. Intracortical myelin development and remodeling are protracted across the typical lifespan, with evidence of abnormal cortical myelination in other neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as in age-related mild cognitive impairment and dementia. In young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) myelin content is reduced in white matter and presumably in cortical gray matter as well. However, patterns of intracortical myelination have not yet been examined in ASD at any age leaving an important gap in the current knowledge base. With the added risk of demyelination associated with aging, older adults with ASD may be the most important population to examine as they may be doubly at risk of deficits in cortical myelination. Importantly, this could have knock-on effects on cognitive and motor functions in light of myelin's role in synaptic plasticity and maintenance of intracortical circuits. The proposed fellowship project aims to bridge this gap in knowledge by investigating the age-related trajectory of intracortical myelin in middle aged to older adults with ASD and clarifying the spatial distribution of any abnormalities. Known heterogeneity in the clinical presentation and neurobiological phenotype across the autism spectrum poses a significant challenge in this research field. The proposed project includes innovative statistical approaches to help parse this heterogeneity. Intracortical myelin will be analyzed cross-sectionally using both group-wise and subject-specific approaches and with any findings confirmed with follow-up longitudinal data. This multifaceted approach will allow for a comprehensive characterization of myeloarchitectonics in adults with ASD, and also holds the potential to elucidate important links between brain structure and behavior in the disorder. Specific Aims Aim 1: Determine if intracortical myelin content and rates of age-related change differ between individuals with ASD and age-matched control participants aged 40-65 years. Hypothesis 1: Group-wise analysis will reveal decreased intracortical myelin content in ASD in association cortices of the frontal and parietal lobes. Hypothesis 2: Subject-specific analyses may reveal spatial variability across individuals in the precise brain regions demonstrating abnormalities of intracortical myelination, but with frontal and parietal regions more frequently or more heavily affected. Hypothesis 3: Both cross-sectional approaches will reveal a pattern of accelerated cortical demyelination with greater age in ASD. Aim 2: Relate local myelin content measures to cognitive and behavioral abilities that are at-risk of decline during aging, including motor skills and executive functions. Hypothesis 4: Age-related decline in domain-specific behavioral abilities will correlate with atypical patterns of intracortical myelination from Aim 1.
Williams Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a multiple malformations/intellectual disability (ID) syndrome caused by 7q11.23 microdeletion and clinically characterized by a typical neurocognitive profile including excessive talkativeness and social disinhibition, often defined as "overfriendliness" and "hypersociability". WBS is generally considered as the polar opposite phenotype to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Surprisingly, the prevalence of ASD has been reported to be significantly higher in WBS (12%) than in general population (1%). This study aims to investigate the molecular basis of the peculiar association of ASD and WBS. The investigator performed chromosomal microarray analysis and whole exome sequencing in six patients presenting with WBS and ASD, in order to evaluate the possible presence of chromosomal or gene variants considered as pathogenic.
The purpose of this Phase II study is to determine the efficacy of human umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hCT-MSC) for improving social communication abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Approximately 15,000 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in military families currently receive applied behavior analysis (ABA) interventions through TRICARE insurance. This includes early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), which involves 20 or more hours per week of individualized instruction based on ABA and is often considered the standard of care for toddlers and preschoolers with ASD. More recently, research has found that less intensive, time limited ABA interventions can effectively target specific core and associated features of ASD. With these latest data, the investigators assert that an individualized approach to adapting and combining targeted interventions could be at least as effective as EIBI, yet substantially reduce expenditures of time and resources. The investigators call this approach adaptive, modular ABA (MABA), and propose to compare EIBI as usual, provided for approximately 20 hours per week, and MABA, provided for up to 10 hours per week, in a 24-week RCT of 132 children with ASD, under age 5 years, in military families. The investigators hypothesize that, at the end of intervention, MABA will be no less effective than EIBI as usual, or only slightly so, on the primary outcome measure (a standardized measure of adaptive skills). The primary investigators also hypothesize that, at follow-ups conducted 24 weeks after intervention and 90 weeks and/or when children are 5 years old, MABA will be superior to EIBI on primary and secondary child outcomes (tests of cognitive and language function, parent- and provider-rated ASD symptoms and adaptive skills) and on parent outcomes (parent stress and sense of competence).
This project aims: - to study behavioral and cerebral activity specificity (latency and amplitude of evoked potentials, time frequency maps and cerebral connectivity) in predictive process (top-down regulation) during visual recognition of static and dynamic stimuli in adults participants with autism spectrum conditions compared to typically developed participants. - to study the relation between predictive process and autonomous response (heart activity and electrodermal activity) - to explore potential sex differences between autistic males and females
Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs), an evidence-based early autism spectrum disorder (ASD) intervention approach, target key behaviors that help language development. While efforts to use NDBIs are increasing worldwide, important gaps in our knowledge remain on whether the behaviors targeted by NDBIs are cross-culturally valid. This study in South Africa, a multi-cultural setting, will provide critical information on NDBI treatment targets and a novel digital outcome measure of treatment response. COVID-19 adaptations: We aim to develop and implement telehealth NDBI coaching and utilize a mixed methods approach to gather implementation and preliminary effectiveness data on the telehealth intervention.
This study assesses the effect of the low fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAP) diet on gastrointestinal (GI) and behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The objectives of this study are: -To determine whether the low FODMAP diet causes a decrease in gastrointestinal problems related to ASD -To determine whether the low FODMAP diet causes a decrease in behavioral problems -To assess the effect of decreased gastrointestinal problems on reduction of behavioral problems
The purpose of the study is to determine if Minocycline shows initial evidence of efficacy, safety, and tolerability in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder ages 12 to 22 years.
This study evaluates the KONTAKT social skills group training in Australian children on the autism spectrum compared to an active control group which is a group Art class
The clinical study evaluates in an open-label, crossover design the comparative efficacy and safety of intranasal oxytocin and autologous umbilical cord blood for improving the functioning of children with autistic spectrum disorder