Amygdala Volume Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder Are Related to Anxiety.

Recent studies suggest that longstanding findings of abnormal amygdala morphology in ASD may be related to symptoms of anxiety. To test this hypothesis, fifty-three children with ASD (mean age = 11.9) underwent structural MRI and were divided into subgroups to compare those with at least one anxiety disorder diagnosis (n = 29) to those without (n = 24) and to a typically developing control group (TDC; n = 37).

Viewing Complex, Dynamic Scenes "Through the Eyes" of Another Person: The Gaze-Replay Paradigm.

We present a novel "Gaze-Replay" paradigm that allows the experimenter to directly test how particular patterns of visual input-generated from people's actual gaze patterns-influence the interpretation of the visual scene. Although this paradigm can potentially be applied across domains, here we applied it specifically to social comprehension. Participants viewed complex, dynamic scenes through a small window displaying only the foveal gaze pattern of a gaze "donor.

The broad autism phenotype predicts child functioning in autism spectrum disorders.

Background: Broad autism phenotype (BAP) is a milder expression of the social and communication impairments seen in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). While prior studies characterized the BAP in unaffected family members of probands with ASD, the relationship between parental BAP traits and proband symptomatology remains poorly understood. This study utilizes the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) in parents and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) in children to examine this connection.