Category: Recent & Relevant

Explaining autism

Autism, Recent & Relevant 02/19/201602/18/2016 admin 0 Comments

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are a group of highly inheritable behavioural disorders that pose major personal and public health concerns. Patients with ASDs have mild to severe communication difficulties, repetitive behaviour and social challenges. Such disorders significantly challenge an individual’s ability to conduct daily activities and function normally in society. Currently there are very few medication options that effectively treat ASDs. Recognising a need to better understand the biology that produces ASD symptoms, scientists at […]

Trouble sleeping associated with behavioral problems in children with autism

Recent & Relevant 02/17/2016 admin 0 Comments

New research from the University of Missouri has found associations between trouble sleeping and behavioral problems in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). “Past research has found that children with ASD often have trouble sleeping at night. Many children with ASD also struggle with regulating their behavior during the day,” said Micah Mazurek, assistant professor of health psychology in the MU School of Health Professions and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and […]

Necessity, the mother of participation

Recent & Relevant 02/17/2016 admin 0 Comments

Mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often experience stress and suffer from sleep deprivation. Sacrifices almost always follow as they abandon professional careers and personal ambitions, believing that care for their children “comes first.” But is maternal abandonment of aspirations and interests really beneficial for the ASD child? A new Tel Aviv University study finds that a mother’s positive attitude to involvement in everyday activities and a sense of competency in the performance […]

Embrace the Complexity

Recent & Relevant 02/16/201602/16/2016 admin 0 Comments

The US Preventive Services Task Force  Recommendation on Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorder BY Michael Silverstein, MD, MPH1; Jenny Radesky, MD In this issue of JAMA, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) presents final recommendations for screening children aged 18 to 30 months for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).1 Autism spectrum disorder can be responsible for significant, long-term impairment in social interaction, communication, and functional capacity. Emerging evidence suggests that early intensive behavioral therapy has the potential to improve […]

Mind-controlled prosthetic arm moves individual ‘fingers’

Epilepsy, Recent & Relevant 02/16/2016 admin 0 Comments

Physicians and biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins report what they believe is the first successful effort to wiggle fingers individually and independently of each other using a mind-controlled artificial “arm” to control the movement. The proof-of-concept feat, described online in the Journal of Neural Engineering, represents a potential advance in technologies to restore refined hand function to those who have lost arms to injury or disease, the researchers say. The young man on whom the […]