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02 May 2019: first day
Susan Bookheimer
Joaquin Fuster Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California at Los Angeles
Promising predictions: "Today, Mark Shen, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, reported on the latest findings from the study on brain imaging in infants. Researchers have taken an important step in predicting autism from structural brain images of the infant. They combined four different MRI measures and used an automatic learning approach to predict which high-risk children would get an autism diagnosis with an accuracy greater than 86%. Among low-risk children, researchers were able to successfully predict a typical development more than 90% of the time. They also found a strong correlation between the four brain measurements and the characteristics of autism. It is interesting to note that the analysis tools have been or are being made public. We can therefore expect a structural MRI test for infants, to predict which ones will be diagnosed with autism, which will allow early intervention. "
The gene advances: "Both in the keynote speech by the statistician Kathryn Roeder and in a morning debate on genetics, we found today that the field is no longer beyond the identification of risk genes in the regions. of the genome encoding the proteins. As Roeder explained, the discovery of new technologies facilitates the search for rare and spontaneous mutations. As a result, an increasing percentage of autism cases can now be attributed to these de novo mutations.
"The Genetics Panel focused on the link between genetic variation and neurobiology. Here, the focus was not on individual genes, but on groups of genes acting together. Michael Gandal, an assistant professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, presented findings suggesting that the non-coding part of genes that regulate transcription plays an important role in autism. One of these transcription networks is highly enriched in genes affecting neuroinflammation. Other networks operate at the synapse. At the same meeting, Daniel Geschwind, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, presented a work on the expression of genes in post-mortem brain tissue. His team sorted the cells into subtypes and examined their differences in the brains of autism. He showed that the transcriptome profiles of cells show differences in the genes expressed at the beginning of development, especially in the areas of the cortex that are most important for cortical connectivity. These studies show that the results of genetics and brain imaging align well, allowing us to better understand the basic neurobiological mechanisms leading to autism. "
Storml Chamberlain
Associate Professor of genetics and genome sciences, University of Connecticut
Remarkable crops: "Mustafa Sahin, a professor at Boston Children's Hospital, today led a stem cell working group that covers the diversity of stem cell research applied to autism and its conditions. It should be noted the lack of data from organo brain cultures (or others), despite the fact that organoids are a particularly hot topic in stem cell research. Insightful questions from the audience prompted panelists to think about how they could relate the cellular characteristics of human fetal neurons to the autism-related behaviors observed in mouse models and in humans with Alzheimer's disease. of the disease. "
Connie Kasari
Professor of human development and psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
Genetic primer: "Kathryn Roeder's keynote address this morning was a great conference for a listener like me who does not work in genetics. I've been impressed by his description of sophisticated statistical approaches to understand how genetics shapes autism. What struck me was that rare spontaneous mutations are a small but interesting contribution to autism that can be better understood through statistical models. "
Judy Van de Water
Professor of internal medicine, University of California, Davis
Mouse models: "Jason Lerch, a professor at the University of Oxford, has presented a very interesting finding that there are differences in brain volume between male and female mice, despite the fact that mice have the same behavioral characteristics. They also saw different cerebellar changes in male and female mice. These findings further emphasize that it is essential to include both sexes in all studies on neurodevelopmental conditions.
"Interestingly, in the offspring of our maternal autoantibodies mouse model, we found that behaviors associated with increased volume in several brain regions differed for male and female mice."
Rosa Hoekstra
Lecturer in psychology, Kings College London
Concurrent conditions: "I chaired the oral sessions on medical and psychiatric comorbidity this afternoon. The room was packed, demonstrating interest in this subject. Paul Lipkin, director of the Interactive Interactive Network for Autism at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, presented findings suggesting that 41% of autistic children had signs of suicide, planned suicide, or attempted to commit suicide. suicide. These results highlight the importance of studying this topic.
"The conference has ended on a positive note: Laura Anthony, associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver, and her colleagues have developed an online training for parents so to support their autistic children in their executive functions and self-regulation. Anthony's preliminary findings suggest that online training works as well as face-to-face training. This offers excellent opportunities to support families who may have difficulty attending sessions due to geographical, social or economic barriers. "
Dan Kennedy
Associate Professor Psychological and cerebral sciences, Indiana Bloomington University
Treatment technologies: "There was a fantastic panel called" Innovative Uses of Technology for Screening, Results Monitoring and Autism Treatment ", which featured portable sensor technology for" digital phenotyping "of autism behaviors. . The four speakers emphasized the many benefits of these automated methodologies – objectivity, measurement granularity, scalability – and their potential uses for both quantifying behavioral traits and understanding behavior. For some specific tasks, these digital phenotyping measures have even exceeded human judgment. While panellists cautioned against using this technology to replace clinician-based diagnoses, panel presenter Zachary Warren, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University, rebuffed this idea by asking provocatively: "Why not?"
"Although we are still in the early stages of developing, validating, and ultimately disseminating this technology, it is very clear that such automated methods will have a powerful impact on the future of the field."
Peter Tsai
Assistant Master of neurology, University of Southwest Texas
Different development: "Jason Lerch presented fascinating data suggesting that features of certain regions of the brain – including some clinically involved cerebellar regions – predicted social behaviors in murine models of autism. He also presented some very interesting results showing parallels in the volume of the brain between the mouse and the man – many of them seem to be found in the cerebellar regions. The data also suggest that the development profiles of men and women differ, highlighting the need for brain imaging studies to account for changes occurring during development. "
Lauren Kenworthy
Professor of neurology, pediatrics and psychiatry, Philadelphia Children's Hospital
Iterative interventions: "In his comments on the panel" School Intervention for Children with ASD: Harnessing the Power of Parents and Teachers ",Facilitator Lauren Brookman-Frazee emphasized the importance of starting any intervention with a complete exploration of what participants want and need, and then making the intervention as simple as possible. She called for a process of "iterative simplification", which means that at every revision of the intervention, we should also seek to simplify the intervention. We can do this by removing, for example, lessons or activities that are superfluous or that are not essential to the effectiveness of the intervention. Too often, we ask too much of the people who must perform the intervention: it takes too much time, is too complex or requires too much preparation. For those of us who are researching the effectiveness of interventions in complex environments such as schools, these words are essential.
Cautious conclusions: "Katherine Gotham, assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, demonstrated that by analyzing a group of autistic participants into two groups – those with low or high depression characteristics – she cleared what appeared to be obvious differences in pupillometry data between developing participants and autistic participants. . It was a powerful reminder of the complex heterogeneity that defines autism and the importance of thoroughly examining our data before drawing any conclusions. "
Stelios Georgiades
Assistant Master psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, McMaster University
Human factor: "I had a standing ovation to Catherine Lord, winner of the INSAR 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award. In this time of real and perceived" tension "in the autism community, Lord points out that importance of the human factor as a key to progress and development. We do not all agree on the language we should use to describe autism. We do not all agree on the methods and tools we should use to study autism. But if we can put the human factor at the center of everything we do, it will serve as a solid compass throughout our journey. "
Els Blijd-Hoogewys
Principal Investigator, INTER-PSY
Various discussions: "INSAR is the perfect place to get in touch with researchers, clinicians and advocates of autism and to share ideas about the latest discoveries. Especially on the posters, you can get in touch with like-minded people, but also with opposite opinions. It's only the first day and I already have so many new research ideas and new contacts. I am curious to see what tomorrow will bring. "
Sensory sensitivity: "Sensory problems – such as hyperreactivity, hyporeactivity, and sensory research behaviors – are common in autism. But the frequency depends on how these problems are measured. Teresa Tavassoli, lecturer at the University of Reading, explained how to reliably measure auditory and tactile over-reactivity in children with autism. Sensory hypersensitivity is considered the most common and most altered sensory processing difficulty of autism. His advice was not to rely solely on sensory questionnaires or standardized direct observations, but to combine the two, as there was only a moderate overlap between these two types of measures. "
Sara Jane Webb
Associate Professor of psychiatry and behaviorsocial science, University of Washington
Treatment issues: "Two presentations dealing with the face caught my attention. The first, written by Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, professor at the University Medical Center Mannheim, focused on data from the EU-AIMS longitudinal European project on autism. Using several behavioral measures of facial recognition in a large sample and in a broad age range, the researchers found two clusters within each group of diagnoses, representing people with better or worse performance. These groups were related to autism traits, coping skills and amygdala activation.
"The second lecture was given by Kathryn Hauschild of Stony Brook University's Lerner Lab. She presented data from a large sample of autistic adolescents. The researchers found that autistic teenagers, similar to non-autistic teenagers, had better control over emotions when they saw faces of people their age than when they saw adult faces. In individuals with severe traits of autism, intelligence was related to emotion recognition scores; However, in individuals with less severe traits, age moderated this relationship significantly. Understanding the nuances of emotion recognition could help researchers develop more targeted facial treatment interventions. "
Matthew Lerner
Associate Professor of clinical psychology, Stony Brook University
Human climax: "The speech of the day was the unforgettable speech of Catherine Lord, who had accepted the award of excellence for all of her achievements. Inimitably, Lord avoided an empirical summary of his incredible scientific achievements and instead focused on his journey and the people who had affected him along the way. These included his mentors and collaborators as well as his students. She emphasized the importance of recalling the human aspect of autism research, namely that the people we work with should be appreciated not as data but as people who seek and value the need for connection. in the world. More importantly, she exemplified and embodied the values that defined her career, namely that we should not trade the family for science and that it is imperative that we develop a sense of self-esteem. ;membership. "
Mikle South
Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscienceBrigham Young University
Valuate variabilité: "The most notable theme I've seen in today's sessions is that understanding the variability of autism is just as important as comparing people with autism to control groups or other groups. . For example, Katherine Gotham reported that depression symptoms accounted for the emotional excitement – measured by pupil size – better than the traits of autism. She concluded that everything we observe in autism does not necessarily come from autism, noting that problems such as anxiety and depression affect thinking and feelings regardless of the diagnosis. Indeed, looking at averages can obscure our understanding of individual differences. This is the case when averaging data from one group to another (for example, autistic or non-autistic samples), or even when averaging an individual's data over long periods. I am excited to put the emphasis on better, more accurate ways to understand the individual experience. "
April 30, 2019: On the way to Montreal
The Autism Research Community is meeting in Montreal, Canada this week for the meeting of the International Society for Research on Autism (INSAR). Now in his 18th This year, the three-day scientific conference continues to be the largest international meeting of autism researchers in the world.
On Wednesday, about 2,200 scientists, clinicians and members of the autism community are expected to gather at the Montreal Convention Center conference center in downtown Montreal. This year, attendees can choose from over 1,800 posters, oral presentations and group discussions covering a variety of topics in autism research.
Kathryn Roeder, keynote speaker, discusses the genetics of autism in brain development of autism; and Jason Lerch, who studies brain differences between the murine models of autism. Vikram Patel needs to share his perspective on global disparities in autism treatment. Elizabeth Berry-Kravis plans to describe new approaches for the development of drugs for Fragile X syndrome.
The program also includes presentations on the cerebellum, results in the adult and genetic discovery. Members of the local autism community are organizing an autism festival featuring art, local training initiatives and community-based research during the meeting.
the Spectrum The team will also be at INSAR and report on the most outstanding discoveries. You can stay informed about our coverage here and follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Check back regularly as new stories are released throughout the day. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a daily summary of the day's news.
You can also join us for two specials Spectrum events during the conference: a storytelling event and our traditional Twitter chat.
Spectrum is thrilled to partner with The Story Collider, a science story production company, for a special live broadcast on Thursday, May 2nd at the Phi Center in Montreal. In this program, scientists, spectrum people and their family members share their experiences in autism research – among themselves.
You can buy tickets here. The doors open at 6:30 pm The show starts at 7:00 pm Please arrive quickly because the seats are as follows: first come, first served.
Participate in our live Twitter chat about autism research presented at INSAR 2019. At 12:30 pm. On Friday, May 3rd, you can join us online or in person in the press room of the Palais des congrès de Montréal. We will tweet questions and moderate the cat using the handle @Spectrum and the hashtag #INSARChat.
For more reports from the 2019 International Annual Meeting of the Society for Autism Research, click here please.
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