Autism Science Foundation Weekly Science Report Autism Science Foundation

What is the probability of having a future child with autism if you already have one or more? Families want to know. It helps preparation, planning, will hopefully improve early screening and supports. The Baby Siblings Research Consortium analyzed a bigger group of siblings compared to their 2011 numbers and found the recurrence pretty stable – 1 in 5 siblings will have an autism diagnosis compared to 1 in 36 in the general population. However, this number depends on a lot of things: Sex of infant, sex of sibling with an existing ASD diagnosis, number of autistic children in the family, race and socioeconomic status. Listen this week to hear all the numbers.







https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/doi/10.1542/peds.2023-065297/197777/Familial-Recurrence-of-Autism-Updates-From-the?autologincheck=redirected







https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38973707

In case you missed it, listen to Alison Singer with Gina Kavali on her podcast @LifeWiththeSpectrum. Alison talks about the importance of autism research and science in general, and how families can get involved.

On this week’s podcast, Mia Kotivkoski, founder of her own 5013c and recent graduate of Stony Brook University, reviews why understanding cultural and contextual factors influence not just an autism diagnosis but general health and outcomes of a broad group of people. They include immigrants, racial and ethnic differences, and socio-economic factors. What can be done? Listen to this week’s podcast to learn more.







https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/Docs/resource_centers/cultural_diversity/competency_curriculum%20_cap_training/cases_supporting_materials/clinics/Bernier-psychopathology_families_and_culture-autism.pdf







https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750946718300758?via%3Dihub







https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258193289_The_Impact_of_Culture_on_Autism_Diagnosis_and_Treatment_Considerations_for_Counselors_and_Other_Professionals







https://www.maactearly.org/uploads/9/2/2/3/9223642/considering_culture_facilitatorguide_final_102116.pdf







https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7614360







https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-there-so-few-autism-specialists

This week, more on genetics as an influence to an autism diagnosis with a twist: can genetics lead to a specific treatment for core symptoms – across the board? How do you measure such broad symptoms? Our Rett Syndrome family friends and colleagues developed a novel outcome measure to capture what was most important to them, and the FDA approved it for use in a clinical trial. Years later, a new drug was approved that led to a reduction in behaviors associated with Rett Syndrome. Autism can take a lesson from this. In addition, can the genetics of autism be explained by parents with similar phenotypes? This is called assortative mating. The answer is complex.







https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10450502/pdf/fped-11-1229553.pdf







https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02398-1







https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/38877467

Very rarely are scientists able to look at single genes within the brains of people across neuropsychiatric disorders and understand how the genes in each of these cells influence expression of proteins and interactions of different cells with each other. Recently, a collaboration called PsychENCODE released a series of papers that investigated what genes are expressed in what cells in autism in different situations, how cells that communicate interact with more support or glial cells, and what mechanisms are in place to identify ways in which the broad environment (chemicals, contextual factors, illness) may influence gene expression leading to disorders like autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This podcast summarizes these papers as they are related to autism – ore at least tries to.







https://www.psychencode.org/phase-ii

In recognition of Father’s Day on the 16th, today’s podcast includes the latest research on fathers. Fathers may often be the “secondary caregiver” but should hardly be dismissed as inconsequential. Father’s sensitivity and insightfulness plays an important part in development, psychiatric diagnoses (including autism) change the the chance of having a child with autism, and more understanding is being done on the heritable factors associated with chemical exposures in the father.







https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616734.2024.2326416







https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11059471/pdf/main.pdf