Innovation in AutismNews

Brainstem morphometric differences in children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental coordination disorder, and those typically developing reports on work-in-progress with collaborators at the University of Pisa and University of Southern California on analysis of brainstem shape (morphology) in children with autism and a closely related neurodevelopmental disorder, developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia). Shape difference can point to functional differences. This study is a part of a lineage of studies helping to identify the role of brainstem growth differences in autism.

Yu Wei Chua’s poster which she has created from her research she has been carrying out was presented at this year’s INSAR Annual Meeting. Behavioral dynamics of emotional self-regulation during the still-face paradigm: Differences at 9 months due to prematurity and effect on 2-year autistic traits is the title of Yu Wei Chua’s poster explaining her research. It reports an analysis of data from Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort, University of Edinburgh, looking at differences in early development of emotional self-regulation in preterm infants and how this might influence later autism traits.

Dr Szu-Ching Lu’s poster which she has created from her research she has been carrying out was presented at this year’s INSAR Annual Meeting A prospective perception-action strategy in children with autism during smart-tablet gameplay is the title of Szu Ching Lu’s poster explaining her research. It reports on how General Tau Theory has been used to describe goal-oriented perception-action strategies (Lee 2009), which proposes an intrinsic action guide generated by the nervous system coupled to the motor command to guide the physical movement. The coupling constant between the two is assumed to be set by the brain to coordinate the kinematic profile of the goal-oriented action. Here, an exploration to surface a potential difference in the tau-coupling during smart-tablet gameplay in children with ASD is presented.

Read Professor Jonathan Delafield-Butt and Pum Dunbar talking about their collaborative research into the nature of autism & how Pum uses her creative work to co-opt her processing preference for repetitive, solitary and detailed focussed activity.

A new paper from lab director Prof Jonathan Delafield-Butt published in the journal Psychopathology explains the role of movement in non-verbal communication in autism.