Epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders in adults in the community in England. The bidirectional association between sleep problems and autism spectrum disorder: a population-based cohort study A Virtual Week study of prospective memory function in autism spectrum disorders. Predictors of schizophrenia spectrum disorders in early-onset first episodes of psychosis: a support vector machine model
CONTEXT To our knowledge , there is no published information on the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders ( ASDs ) in adults . If the prevalence of autism is increasing , rates in older adults would be expected to be lower than rates among younger adults . OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence and characteristics of adults with ASD living in the community in Engl and . DESIGN A stratified , multiphase r and om sample was used in the third national survey of psychiatric morbidity in adults in Engl and in 2007 . Survey data were weighted to take account of study design and nonresponse so that the results were representative of the household population . SETTING General community ( ie , private households ) in Engl and . PARTICIPANTS Adults ( people 16 years or older ) . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule , Module 4 in phase 2 vali date d against the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders in phase 3 . A 20-item subset of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient self-completion question naire was used in phase 1 to select respondents for phase 2 . Respondents also provided information on sociodemographics and their use of mental health services . RESULTS Of 7461 adult participants who provided a complete phase 1 interview , 618 completed phase 2 diagnostic assessment s. The weighted prevalence of ASD in adults was estimated to be 9.8 per 1000 ( 95 % confidence interval , 3.0 - 16.5 ) . Prevalence was not related to the respondent 's age . Rates were higher in men , those without educational qualifications , and those living in rented social ( government-financed ) housing . There was no evidence of increased use of services for mental health problems . CONCLUSIONS Conducting epidemiologic research on ASD in adults is feasible . The prevalence of ASD in this population is similar to that found in children . The lack of an association with age is consistent with there having been no increase in prevalence and with its causes being temporally constant . Adults with ASD living in the community are socially disadvantaged and tend to be unrecognized Background Sleep difficulties are prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) . The temporal nature of the association between sleep problems and ASD is unclear because longitudinal studies are lacking . Our aim is to clarify whether sleep problems precede and worsen autistic traits and ASD or occur as a consequence of the disorder . Methods Repeated sleep measures were available at 1.5 , 3 , 6 , and 9 years of age in 5151 children participating in the Generation R Study , a large prospect i ve birth cohort in the Netherl and s. Autistic traits were determined with the Pervasive Developmental Problems score ( PDP ) of the Child Behavior Checklist ( CBCL ) at 1.5 and 3 years and the Social Responsiveness Scale ( SRS ) at 6 years . This cohort included 81 children diagnosed with ASD . Results Sleep problems in early childhood were prospect ively associated with a higher SRS score , but not when correcting for baseline PDP score . By contrast , a higher SRS score and an ASD diagnosis were associated with more sleep problems at later ages , even when adjusting for baseline sleep problems . Likewise , a trajectory of increasing sleep problems was associated with ASD . Conclusions Sleep problems and ASD are not bidirectionally associated . Sleep problems do not precede and worsen autistic behavior but rather co-occur with autistic traits in early childhood . Over time , children with ASD have an increase in sleep problems , whereas typically developing children have a decrease in sleep problems . Our findings suggest that sleep problems are part of the construct ASD Prospect i ve memory ( PM ) refers to the implementation of delayed intentions , a cognitive ability that plays a critical role in daily life because of its involvement in goal -directed behavior and consequently the development and maintenance of independence . Emerging evidence indicates that PM may be disrupted in autism spectrum disorders ( ASDs ) , potentially contributing to the functional difficulties that characterize this group . However , the degree , nature , and specificity of ASD-related impairment remains poorly understood . In the current study , children between 8 and 12 years of age who were diagnosed with ASDs ( n=30 ) were compared with typically developing children ( n=30 ) on a child-appropriate version of the Virtual Week board game . This measure provides an opportunity to investigate the different sorts of PM failures that occur . The ASD group showed significant PM impairment on measures of time-based ( but not event-based ) prospect i ve remembering . However , only a subtle difference emerged between regular and irregular PM tasks , and group differences were consistent across these tasks . Because regular and irregular tasks differentially load retrospective memory , these data imply that the PM difficulties seen in ASDs may primarily reflect a monitoring deficit and not an encoding and memory storage deficit . PM performance was poorer under conditions of high ongoing task absorption , but the magnitude of this effect did not vary as a function of group . In both groups , time-based ( but not event-based ) PM difficulties were associated with functional outcomes in daily life , but only an inconsistent association with executive control emerged Identifying early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders ( SSD ) at a very early stage remains challenging . To assess the diagnostic predictive value of multiple types of data at the emergence of early-onset first-episode psychosis ( FEP ) , various support vector machine ( SVM ) classifiers were developed . The data were from a 2-year , prospect i ve , longitudinal study of 81 patients ( age 9–17 years ) with early-onset FEP and a stable diagnosis during follow-up and 42 age- and sex-matched healthy controls ( HC ) . The input was different combinations of baseline clinical , neuropsychological , magnetic resonance imaging brain volumetric and biochemical data , and the output was the diagnosis at follow-up ( SSD vs. non-SSD , SSD vs. HC , and non-SSD vs. HC ) . Enhanced recursive feature elimination was performed for the SSD vs. non-SSD classifier to select and rank the input variables with the highest predictive value for a diagnostic outcome of SSD . After validation with a test set and considering all baseline variables together , the SSD vs. non-SSD , SSD vs. HC and non-SSD vs. HC classifiers achieved an accuracy of 0.81 , 0.99 and 0.99 , respectively . Regarding the SSD vs. non-SSD classifier , a combination of baseline clinical variables ( severity of negative , disorganized symptoms and hallucinations or poor insight ) and neuropsychological variables ( impaired attention , motor coordination , and global cognition ) showed the highest predictive value for a diagnostic outcome of SSD . Neuroimaging and biochemical variables at baseline did not add to the predictive value . Thus , comprehensive clinical /cognitive assessment remains the most reliable approach for differential diagnosis during early-onset FEP . SVMs may constitute promising multivariate tools in the search for predictors of diagnostic outcome in FEP
By further separating studies into unisensory and multisensory ( bimodal : audiovisual ) ones , subgroup analysis indicated heterogeneous and unstable effects for unisensory temporal binding in the ASD group , but a more consistent and severe impairment in multisensory temporal integration represented by an enlarged temporal binding window in both clinical groups .
Such multisensory dysfunction is associated with symptoms like hallucinations and impaired social communications .
HighlightsMultisensory temporal dysfunction represented by an extended temporal binding window is a common feature of ASD and SSD.Unisensory temporal acuity is impaired in schizophrenia but may be spared in ASD.Multisensory dysfunction is associated with incoherent perception and communicative deficit that characterize SSD and ASD . &
NA ; Multisensory temporal integration could be compromised in both autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders ( SSD ) and may play an important role in perceptual and cognitive impairment in these two disorders .
This review aim ed to quantitatively compare the sensory temporal acuity between healthy controls and the two clinical groups ( ASD and SSD ) .