Autism research and progress

waltky · Oct 20, 2015

Using Google Glass to help autistic kids...

Stanford researchers using Google Glass to help autistic kids
Oct. 19, 2015 -- Stanford University on Monday begins the second phase of trials in an experiment to help kids with autism use Google Glass to better interpret social cues.

As children with autism can struggle to recognize facial emotions, Stanford researchers are combining wearable glasses and artificial intelligence that can read facial expressions and help the child determine what emotion is being presented. For example, the child would see images of a woman smiling and learn that means she is feeling happy.

Google Glass is being used by researchers at Stanford University to help kids with autism engage in emotional learning. Shown here is a 3D rendering of a Google Glass device.

A successful pilot study involved 40 people. The second phase will consist of at-home tests with 80 autistic children and 20 typically developing children ages 6 to 16. The progression of their behavioral recognition will be monitored over a four-month period. The study will require the children to wear a Google Glass device three times a day for 20 minutes each time. Results from the sessions will help researchers better understand the role visual engagement plays in the emotional learning process.

Stanford faculty from fields such as pediatrics, computer science and psychiatry are collaborating on the project, which is funded by the David Lucile & Packard Foundation, Google and Stanford Medicine. The first phase initially had only one Google Glass set to use, but Google later donated 35 devices. The Packard Foundation also donated $379,408 in June. The search engine giant's Glass project, sales of which were halted in 2015, is due for an upgrade aimed at enterprise users that will feature an enhanced display, Intel Atom CPU and an option for an external battery pack.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015...elp-autistic-kids/2991445260524/?spt=slh&or=6
Click to expand...

waltky · Oct 28, 2015

Oxytocin may benefit autistic children with behavioral issues...

Young children with autism may benefit from oxytocin treatment
Oct. 27, 2015 - Oxytocin may be the first drug treatment to effectively improve behavioral issues in autistic children.

Young children with autism in a small study who were treated with the synthetic hormone oxytocin showed improvement in social, emotional and behavioral issues. It is thought to be the first effective drug treatment for social impairments associated with autism.

The potential of oxytocin drug treatments to help children with autism could make other therapy-based treatments more effective, researchers said.

Behavioral therapy has been shown to help children with autism, however it can be time-consuming and costly. "The potential to use such simple treatments to enhance the longer-term benefits of other behavioural, educational and technology-based therapies is very exciting," said Adam Guastella, an autism researcher at the University of Sydney, in a press release.

Researchers worked with 31 children with autism, giving them either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray twice a day for five weeks. Compared to the placebo, researchers said more parents reported improvements in behavioral issues with children who were given oxytocin. "We used some of the most widely used assessments of social responsiveness for children with autism," Guastella said. "We found that following oxytocin treatment, parents reported their child to be more socially responsive at home." The study is published in Molecular Psychiatry.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015...xytocin-treatment/4131445972991/?spt=slh&or=1
Click to expand...

waltky · Dec 15, 2015

87% increased risk of autism from antidepressants used during pregnancy...

Study: Antidepressants During Pregnancy Increase Autism Risk
December 14, 2015 - Taking antidepressants during pregnancy increases the chance that the baby will have autism by 87 percent, a new study shows.

Researchers from the University of Montreal reviewed data from over 145,000 pregnancies and concluded the medicines greatly increase the risk of autism. The variety of causes of autism remain unclear, but studies have shown that both genetics and environment can play a role, said Anick Bérard. Our study has established that taking antidepressants during the second or third trimester of pregnancy almost doubles the risk that the child will be diagnosed with autism by age 7, especially if the mother takes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, often known by its acronym SSRIs.

A new study links the use of antidepressants while pregnant with autism.

SSRIs are a family of widely prescribed drugs that are believed to work by inhibiting serotonin uptake in the brain. They can help relieve depression. The findings, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, could have profound ramifications as between six and ten percent of pregnant women are being treated with antidepressants. The researchers were able to control for other causes of autism such as genetic predisposition, socio-economic levels and the age of the mother.

In the study, the researchers found that 1,054, or .72 percent of the children were diagnosed with autism by the average age of 4.5. They also found a large increase in the prevalence of the disease, with 4 in 10,000 having autism in 1966 compared to 100 per 10,000 today. We defined exposure to antidepressants as the mother having had one or more prescriptions for antidepressants filled during the second or third trimester of the pregnancy, said Bérard. This period was chosen as the infant's critical brain development occurs during this time.

MORE
Click to expand...

DennisTate · Jan 19, 2016

Google the term glyconutrients and you will eventually run into some promising information.

waltky · Mar 18, 2016

People with autism 'die younger'...

People with autism 'die younger', warns charity
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 - People with autism are dying earlier than the general population, often through epilepsy or suicide, a charity warns.

Citing recent research carried out in Sweden, the charity Autistica described the problem as an "enormous hidden crisis". The study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, suggested autistic people die on average 16 years early. The charity now wants to raise £10m for more research into the condition. In the UK it is estimated 1% of the population - or 700,000 people - have autism and it causes difficulties in how they communicate and relate to others.

Epilepsy and suicide

The Swedish study looked at the health records of 27,000 autistic adults and used 2.7 million people as a control sample for the general population. The research, carried out by the Karolinska Institute, found that those with autism and an associated learning disability, died more than 30 years early - with the average age of death being 39. In this group of people, a leading cause of death was epilepsy.

Scientists still cannot exactly explain the link between autism and epilepsy, which is partly why the charity wants to raise the money over the next five years to enable more research. The Swedish study also suggested that people with autism, who were not held back by any intellectual disability, died on average 12 years younger - at 58 years old rather than 70. After heart disease, suicide was the most common cause of death for this group of people.

Past research has suggested that autistic women are more at risk of suicide than men and only half of autistic people who have considered suicide were categorised as depressed - although this latter point may be down to problems with communication in diagnosis. The research, which was published online in November 2015, was carried out by Dr Tatja Hirvikoski, who described her findings as "shocking and disheartening" and she said there was an "urgent need for increased knowledge".

'Shameful'
Click to expand...

beth115 · Mar 19, 2016

Best goggle whether your insurance will reimburse the cost of using these new treatments. Likely they will deny payment as "experimemental". Their new way of getting out of paying!

waltky · Jun 18, 2016

Missing Gut Bacterium May Cause Autistic Behaviors...

Lack of Gut Bacterium May Cause Autistic Behaviors
June 17, 2016 - Some autistic behaviors may have their roots in the gut or, more specifically, what is missing from the gut.

Autism is a potentially disabling communication disorder that has long perplexed neuroscientists. While some children are only mildly affected, others are almost completely withdrawn, displaying severe anxiety, repetitive behaviors and angry outbursts. Researchers suspected that the anti-social behaviors might be tied to the diet of the child and the childs birth mother, according to Mauro Costa-Mattioli, a professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine.

Researchers created a mouse model of pups born with autistic, anti-social behaviors, and then succeeded in reversing that behavior through diet.

He and his colleagues succeeded in creating a mouse model of pups born with autistic, anti-social behaviors such as spending less time in contact with their peers and not initiating interactions by overfeeding their pregnant mothers. Costa-Mattioli notes that autism, usually diagnosed in very young children, is more common in the offspring of overweight mothers. When the pups were born, they were separated from their mothers after three weeks and placed with non-autistic mouse pups. "And you look at the behavior when the animals [become] adults, Costa-Mattioli said, and we surprisingly found that the behavior of, let's call it, autistic mice is completely reversed."

Dietary additive

Costa-Mattioli said the reason for the transformation is that the affected animals ate the feces as mice do of the normal mice, which contain a full complement of gut flora or microbes. The researchers found the mice that displayed autistic behaviors were missing a bacterium called Lactobacillus reuteri, which was restored when they ingested the intestinal flora of the normal mice. Next, investigators took mice that had been bred to be germ-free. They, too, displayed anti-social behaviors until researchers performed what Costa-Mattioli called a "poop transplant," putting the missing bacteria from normal mice feces in the animals' water for about a month. "The social behavior is completely restored, he said. When we look at the other behaviors, like the repetitive behavior or the anxiety-like behavior, we found the bacterium is unable to change those behaviors. So, in the jargon of the lab, we call it a social bacteria."

The findings were published in the journal Cell. Costa-Mattioli said Lactobacillus reuteri is tied to production of a feel-good hormone called oxytocin, which makes animals more social. Low levels of oxytocin-producing brain cells were seen in the anti-social mouse pups, but were restored when the mice were given the missing lactobacillus. "We can think about what would be the effect in humans, and this is very early," he warned, "but we are fascinated with the idea of being able to correct or improve brain function by affecting the gut." Costa-Mattioli called it "fantastic" if the lives of children with autism could be significantly improved with something as simple as transplanting a gut microbe.

http://www.voanews.com/content/lack-gut-bacterium-autistic-behavior/3381286.html
Click to expand...

waltky · Apr 1, 2017

Kaspar the robot Helps Autistic Children With Social Skills...

British Robot Helps Autistic Children With Social Skills
March 31, 2017 — "This is nice, it tickles me," Kaspar the social robot tells four-year-old Finn as they play together at an autism school north of London.

Kaspar, developed by the University of Hertfordshire, also sings songs, imitates eating, plays the tambourine and combs his hair during their sessions, aimed at helping Finn with his social interaction and communication. If Finn gets too rough, the similarly sized Kaspar cries: "Ouch, that hurt me." A therapist is on hand to encourage the child to rectify his behavior by tickling the robot's feet. Finn is one of around 170 autistic children that Kaspar has helped in a handful of schools and hospitals over the last 10 years.

But with approximately 700,000 people in Britain on the autism spectrum, according to the National Autistic Society who will mark World Autism Day on Sunday, the university want Kaspar to help more people. "Our vision is that every child in a school or a home or in a hospital could get a Kaspar if they wanted to," Kerstin Dautenhahn, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Hertfordshire, told Reuters. Achieving that goal will largely depend on the results of a two-year clinical trial with the Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, which, if successful, could see Kaspar working in hospitals nationwide.

Kaspar, a child-sized humanoid robot developed at the University of Hertfordshire to interact and help improve the lives of children with autism, is seen at the University of Hertfordshire, in Stevenage, Britain

TRACKS, an independent charity and specialist early-years center for children with autism in Stevenage, have seen positive results from working with Kaspar, who sports a blue cap and plaid shirt for play sessions. "We were trying to teach a little boy how to eat with his peers. He usually struggled with it because of his anxiety issues," said deputy principal Alice Lynch. "We started doing it with Kaspar and he really, really enjoyed feeding Kaspar, making him eat when he was hungry, things like that. Now he's started to integrate into the classroom and eat alongside his peers. So, things like that are just a massive progression." Many children with autism find it hard to decipher basic human communication and emotion so Kaspar's designers avoided making him too lifelike and instead opted for simplified, easy-to-process features.

Autism support groups have been impressed. "Many autistic people are drawn to technology, particularly the predictability it provides, which means it can be a very useful means of engaging children, and adults too," Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society's Centre for Autism, told Reuters. "This robot is one of a number of emerging technologies which have the potential to make a huge difference to people on the autism spectrum."

http://www.voanews.com/a/british-robot-helps-autistic-children-social-skills/3791533.html
Click to expand...

DennisTate · Jul 30, 2019

An online buddy of mine sent me a link to a nutritional product last week that may offer
some hope for this type of thing based on the testimony after the twenty four minute mark....

Log in or Sign up

Autism research and progress

waltky Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

waltky Well-Known Member

beth115 New Member Past Donor

waltky Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Autism research and progress

waltky Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

waltky Well-Known Member

beth115 New Member Past Donor

waltky Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

Share This Page

Useful Searches