Does Camouflaging Cause Reduced Quality of Life? A Co-Twin Control Study.

Camouflaging has been proposed to have a detrimental effect on quality of life, yet previous research has not accounted sufficiently for potential confounding by genetic and shared environmental factors. The current study utilized a co-twin control design providing stringent control for a range of confounders to investigate the hypothesis that camouflaging autistic traits has a negative impact on quality of life. The sample included 140 individual twins from 42 monozygotic (MZ) and 28 dizygotic (DZ) twin-pairs, enriched for participants with neurodevelopmental conditions including 22 autistic participants.

Genetic and environmental architecture of synaesthesia and its association with the autism spectrum-a twin study.

Synaesthesia is a sensory phenomenon where external stimuli, such as sounds or letters, trigger additional sensations (e.g. colours).

Reduced brain connectivity along the autism spectrum controlled for familial confounding by co-twin design.

Previous studies on brain connectivity correlates of autism have often focused on selective connections and yielded inconsistent results. By applying global fiber tracking and utilizing a within-twin pair design, we aimed to contribute to a more unbiased picture of white matter connectivity in association with clinical autism and autistic traits. Eighty-seven twin pairs (n = 174; 55% monozygotic; 24 with clinical autism) underwent diffusion tensor imaging.

In search of environmental risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder: study protocol for the OCDTWIN project.

Background: The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unknown. Gene-searching efforts are well underway, but the identification of environmental risk factors is at least as important and should be a priority because some of them may be amenable to prevention or early intervention strategies. Genetically informative studies, particularly those employing the discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design, are ideally suited to study environmental risk factors.

In search of environmental risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder: Study protocol for the OCDTWIN project.

The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unknown. Gene-searching efforts are well underway, but the identification of environmental risk factors is at least as important and should be a priority because some of them may be amenable to prevention or early intervention strategies. Genetically informative studies, particularly those employing the discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design, are ideally suited to study environmental risk factors.

Associations between Elemental Metabolic Dynamics and Default Mode Network Functional Connectivity Are Altered in Autism.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition associated with atypical social communication, cognitive, and sensory faculties. Recent advances in exposure biology suggest that biomarkers of elemental uptake and metabolism measured in hair samples can yield an effective signal predictive of autism diagnosis. Here, we investigated if elemental biomarkers in hair were associated with functional connectivity in regions of the default mode network (DMN) previously linked to autism.

Sex and gender in neurodevelopmental conditions.

Health-related conditions often differ qualitatively or quantitatively between individuals of different birth-assigned sexes and gender identities, and/or with different gendered experiences, requiring tailored care. Studying the moderating and mediating effects of sex-related and gender-related factors on impairment, disability, wellbeing and health is of paramount importance especially for neurodivergent individuals, who are diagnosed with neurodevelopmental conditions with uneven sex/gender distributions. Researchers have become aware of the myriad influences that sex-related and gender-related variables have on the manifestations of neurodevelopmental conditions, and contemporary work has begun to investigate the mechanisms through which these effects are mediated.

Emotion dysregulation in ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions: a co-twin control study.

Background: Emotion dysregulation (ED) is common in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and often results in adverse outcomes. However, ED has been suggested as a transdiagnostic construct, why the specific association between ADHD and ED when adjusting for other mental health conditions needs further investigation. It is also important to determine the aetiological basis of the association between ADHD and ED to inform the theoretical conceptualization of ADHD.

synr: An R package for handling synesthesia consistency test data.

Synesthesia is a phenomenon where sensory stimuli or cognitive concepts elicit additional perceptual experiences. For instance, in a commonly studied type of synesthesia, stimuli such as words written in black font elicit experiences of other colors, e.g.

Altered Periodic Dynamics in the Default Mode Network in Autism and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Background: Altered resting-state functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) is characteristic of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Standard analytical pipelines for resting-state functional connectivity focus on linear correlations in activation time courses between neural networks or regions of interest. These features may be insensitive to temporally lagged or nonlinear relationships.

Autistic Children Quickly Orient Away from Both Eyes and Mouths During Face Observation.

Studies have supported two different hypotheses of reduced eye gaze in people with ASD; gaze avoidance and gaze indifference, while less is known about the role of anxiety. We tested these hypotheses using an eye-tracking paradigm that cued the eyes or mouth of emotional faces. Autistic children (n = 12, mean age 7 years) looked faster away from both eyes and mouths than controls (n = 22).

Subtly altered topological asymmetry of brain structural covariance networks in autism spectrum disorder across 43 datasets from the ENIGMA consortium.

Small average differences in the left-right asymmetry of cerebral cortical thickness have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing controls, affecting widespread cortical regions. The possible impacts of these regional alterations in terms of structural network effects have not previously been characterized. Inter-regional morphological covariance analysis can capture network connectivity between different cortical areas at the macroscale level.

Brain structural correlates of autistic traits across the diagnostic divide: A grey matter and white matter microstructure study.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a set of neurodevelopmental conditions characterised by difficulties in social interaction and communication as well as stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest. Autistic traits exist in a continuum across the general population, whilst the extreme end of this distribution is diagnosed as clinical ASD. While many studies have investigated brain structure in autism using a case-control design, few have used a dimensional approach.

Perceptual processing links autism and synesthesia: A co-twin control study.

Synesthesia occurs more commonly in individuals fulfilling criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis than in the general population. It is associated with autistic traits and autism-related perceptual processing characteristics, including a more detail-focused attentional style and altered sensory sensitivity. In addition, these characteristics correlate with the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia (consistency of grapheme-color associations) in non-synesthetes.

The impact of atypical sensory processing on adaptive functioning within and beyond autism: The role of familial factors.

Individuals diagnosed with autism tend to process sensory information differently than individuals without autism, resulting for instance in increased sensitivity to sounds or smells. This leads to challenges in everyday life and may restrict the individual's daily functioning. How direct this link is, however, is currently unclear.

Eating Problems in Autistic Females and Males: A Co-twin Control Study.

This study investigated the association between autism and self-reported eating problems and the influence of gender on the association, in a sample of adolescent and adult twins (N = 192). Autistic traits and autism diagnosis were associated with both total and specific eating problems, including selective eating and sensory sensitivity during mealtimes. Interaction effects indicated a stronger association between autistic traits and total eating problems in females, as well as more difficulties with eating in social contexts among autistic females.

Behavioral and biological divergence in monozygotic twin pairs discordant for autism phenotypes: A systematic review.

Background: Non-shared environment (NSE) effects account for around one-third of the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the knowledge of mechanisms and phenotypic profiles associated with NSE in ASD is scarce.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted using Embase, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO for studies published in English between 1990 and August 2020 using co-twin control design to compare behavioral and biological phenotypes among monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs concordant/discordant for ASD, clinical autism symptoms, or autistic traits.

What's the Link Between Theory of Mind and Other Cognitive Abilities - A Co-twin Control Design of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, is a core element of social cognition (SC). Even though its importance for social functioning in general, and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), in particular, is well established, the links between ToM and other cognitive functions are not. Especially the familial underpinnings of such links remain unclear.

Cerebrospinal fluid and serum protein markers in autism: A co-twin study.

No robust biomarkers have yet been identified for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autistic traits. Familial factors likely influence biomarkers such as protein concentrations. Comparing twins with ASD or high autistic traits to the less affected co-twin allows estimating the impact of familial confounding.

A co-twin-control study of altered sensory processing in autism.

Individuals diagnosed with autism often describe that they process sensory information differently from others, and many experience sensory issues as problematic. For instance, an increased sensitivity to smells or sounds can make participating in social settings challenging. While sensory issues are now part of the diagnostic criteria for autism, they also co-occur with other psychiatric diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorders.

Presynaptic dysfunction in CASK-related neurodevelopmental disorders.

CASK-related disorders are genetically defined neurodevelopmental syndromes. There is limited information about the effects of CASK mutations in human neurons. Therefore, we sought to delineate CASK-mutation consequences and neuronal effects using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from two mutation carriers.

Synaesthesia and autism: Different developmental outcomes from overlapping mechanisms?

Synaesthesia, a mixing of the senses, is more common in individuals with autism. Here, we review the evidence for the association between synaesthesia and autism with regard to their genetic background, brain connectivity, perception, cognitive mechanisms and their contribution to exceptional talents. Currently, the overlap between synaesthesia and autism is established most convincingly at the level of alterations in sensory sensitivity and perception, with synaesthetes showing autism-like profiles of sensory sensitivity and a bias towards details in perception.

A case of co-occuring synesthesia, autism, prodigious talent and strong structural brain connectivity.

Background: Synesthesia is a sensory phenomenon where certain domain-specific stimuli trigger additional sensations of e.g. color or texture.

The social brain in female autism: a structural imaging study of twins.

A female advantage in social cognition (SoC) might contribute to women's underrepresentation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The latter could be underpinned by sex differences in social brain structure. This study investigated the relationship between structural social brain networks and SoC in females and males in relation to ASD and autistic traits in twins.