The association between epilepsy and autism symptoms and maladaptive behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Epilepsy is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but little is known about how seizures impact the autism phenotype. The association between epilepsy and autism symptoms and associated maladaptive behaviors was examined in 2,645 children with ASD, of whom 139 had epilepsy, from the Simons Simplex Collection. Children with ASD and epilepsy had significantly more autism symptoms and maladaptive behaviors than children without epilepsy.

Social anxiety and difficulty disengaging threat: evidence from eye-tracking.

Theoretical models of social phobia propose that biased attention contributes to the maintenance of symptoms; however these theoretical models make opposing predictions. Specifically, whereas Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggested the biases are characterised by hypervigilance to threat cues and difficulty disengaging attention from threat, Clark and Wells (1995) suggested that threat cues are largely avoided. Previous research has been limited by the almost exclusive reliance on behavioural response times to experimental tasks to provide an index of attentional biases.

Children's 5-HTTLPR genotype moderates the link between maternal criticism and attentional biases specifically for facial displays of anger.

Theorists have proposed that negative experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of experience-specific information-processing biases, including attentional biases. There are also clear genetic influences on cognitive processes, with evidence that polymorphisms in specific candidate genes may moderate the impact of environmental stress on attentional biases (e.g.

Depressive implicit associations and adults' reports of childhood abuse.

Theory and research suggest that negative events in childhood (e.g., childhood abuse) may contribute to the development of a cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Reports of Childhood Physical Abuse, Genotype, and Women's Attentional Biases for Angry Faces.

The goal of this study was to examine environmental (childhood physical abuse) and genetic ( genotype) correlates of adult women's attentional biases for facial displays of emotion. Supporting a gene × environment model of risk, women's reports of childhood physical abuse were related to their attentional biases for angry faces among carriers of the short allele, but not among those homozygous for the long allele. Specifically, women reporting a history of moderate to severe physical abuse who also carried at least one copy of the short allele exhibited attentional avoidance of angry faces.