[Human interaction, social cognition, and the superior temporal sulcus].

Human beings are social animals. This ability to live together is ensured by cognitive functions, the neuroanatomical bases of which are starting to be unraveled by MRI-based studies. The regions and network engaged in this process are known as the "social brain ".

Towards a new functional assessment of autistic dysfunction in children with developmental disorders: the Behaviour Function Inventory.

In order to assess particular disorders of psychological development and functioning in children with developmental disorders, we have developed a new tool, the Behaviour Function Inventory (BFI), based on 11 neurophysiological functions, disorders of which are considered to contribute to the core autistic syndrome. This article reports the reliability and validity study of this new scale. Factorial analysis computed on the 55 initial items identified six main dimensions which we characterized and labelled: interaction dysfunction, praxis dysfunction, auditory dysfunction, attention dysfunction, islet of ability and emotional dysfunction.

[Further clinical evaluations elicited by functional biological investigations in childhood autism].

As childhood autism is usually considered as a developmental disorder, complete assessment of each patient requires non only clinical examination but various biological investigations: EEG and evoked potentials recordings, biochemical dosages and sometimes, cerebral blood flow measures, molecular biologic explorations...

[Latent imitation of human movements presented on a videoscopic screen, disclosed by electroencephalographic mapping in the spectator].

Trend to imitate human movement is studied here by EEG mapping. The effects of three kinds of situations are compared: a movement on a TV screen is presented to the subject; a movement is realized by the experimenter in front of the subject; the subject is asked to perform a movement. These three situations elicited important modifications in alpha 1 rhythms over the centroparietal area of the scalp.

Validation of the Revised Behavior Summarized Evaluation Scale.

The Behavioral Summarized Evaluation scale (BSE), previously published and validated, was developed for the evaluation for the autistic behavior in developmentally disorder children. A revised version of this scale, the Revised Behavior Summarized Evaluation Scale (BSE-R) completed the 20-item BSE scale with the most relevant items extracted from a similar evaluation carried out with very young children. Thus 9 items were added to the original scale concerning nonverbal communication, emotional, and perception areas.

Temporal prominence of auditory evoked potentials (N1 wave) in 4-8-year-old children.

Cortical auditory evoked potentials (N1 wave) were studied in 24 adults (12 men, 12 women) and 20 children (12 boys, 8 girls; age: 4-8 years). In adults, this wave was recorded with maximal amplitude at frontocentral sites, peaking at about 100 ms poststimulation, whereas in children the auditory response displayed maximal amplitude at the midtemporal sites, with a positive wave at about 100 ms and a large negative wave at approximately 170 ms. Moreover, the modulatory effects of intensity on N1 amplitude were prominent at frontocentral sites in adults and at temporal sites in children.

Serotonin and autism: biochemical and molecular biology features.

Whole blood and urinary levels of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) and the derivative urinary 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) were measured in normal and autistic subjects. An association was tested between autism and a marker coding for the 5-HT2A serotonergic receptor gene. Significant group (high urinary 5-HT and low whole blood 5-HT in autism) and age effects (urinary 5-HT decrease with age) were found.

X chromosome and infantile autism.

Family studies and epidemiologic data in autism show the involvement of genetic factors in the etiology of this syndrome. The frequent association of X chromosome with mental retardation and behavior disturbances raises the question of its implication in the etiology of autism. Several markers of X chromosome were tested in autistic and control populations by association study.

Neuropathological study of a case of autistic syndrome with severe mental retardation.

Infantile autism is a syndrome of unknown aetiology and unknown neuro-anatomic substrate. The authors report a histological study of the brain of a well-documented 16-year-old female with autistic syndrome and severe mental retardation, using direct microscopic examination of the whole brain. The major findings are low brain weight, a thin corpus callosum and ventricular dilatation.

Quantified multidimensional assessment of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Application for bioclinical research.

A large number of investigation techniques are used to establish the relationships between the clinical and biological data which are necessary for physiopathological analysis in the field of developmental disorders. It therefore seemed necessary to develop a quantified grouping system, based on developmental assessments, which could allow closer matching between clinical evaluations and biological numerical data. Two hundred and two subjects presenting developmental disorders (autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified and mental retardation) were examined.

Association study with two markers of a human homeogene in infantile autism.

Epidemiological data and family studies in autism show that there is a genetic susceptibility factor in the aetiology of this syndrome. We carried out an association study in infantile autism. Two markers of the homeogene EN2 involved in cerebellar development were tested in a population of 100 autistic children and in a population of 100 control children.

Delayed maturation of the frontal cortex in childhood autism.

Objective: The authors investigated the metabolic maturation of the frontal cortex in pre-school autistic children.

Method: Regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in five children with primary autism diagnosed according to the DSM-III-R criteria was studied longitudinally. Regional CBF in each of the autistic children was measured with single photon emission computed tomography twice during their development: at the age of 3-4 years and 3 years later.

Catecholaminergic metabolism and autism.

The authors determined levels of dopamine (DA) and its derivatives homovanillic acid (HVA), 3-4 dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), 3 methoxytyramine and norepinephrine + epinephrine (NE + E) in the urine, and DA, E and NE in the whole blood of 50 autistic children aged between 1 year 11 months and 16 years. An association was tested for between markers coding for the enzymes and D3 dopaminergic receptor genes implicated in the monoaminergic pathway and autism, using restriction fragment-length polymorphism. There were significant modifications of catecholamine metabolites, but no difference for allele frequencies of the genes coding for tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine beta hydroxylase and DRD3 in this population compared with a healthy school population matched for chronological age.

Cognitive and social dysfunction in childhood autism: a neuropsychological and physiological approach.

A neurophysiological approach to developmental studies of childhood autism has revealed major cognitive and sensori-motor disturbances which are associated with impairment in social relationships. This new approach suggests the existence of underlying cerebral dysfunction, signs of which are revealed by functional exploration and cerebral imaging.

[Childhood autism: a relating deficiency due to a developmental disorder of the central nervous system].

Childhood autism with its difficulties in relating to others has been for a long time imputed to conscious or unconscious educative errors of the mother. Clinical and biological data can be opposed to this conception. Familial movies analysis exhibits early disorders in attention, perception, intention, limitation and muscular tone.

Investigation of whole blood and urine monoamines in autism.

Levels of serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA), norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (E) were determined in the whole blood and urine of 23 children with autism and compared to those of normal children. Very significant group effects (low whole blood 5-HT, high urinary 5-HT and high NE+E in autism) and age effects (urinary 5-HT and DA decrease with age) were found. Moreover, the urinary DA and the whole blood E levels were correlated with clinical findings.

[Scales and questionnaires for the evaluation of behavior disorders in children].

The need for quantitative clinical evaluation tools for use in child psychiatry is obvious. Behavior rating scales are useful for comparing clinical and laboratory data, monitoring the effects of treatments, and enhancing communication between clinicians and investigators. The methodological principles used to construct and validate such tools are described.

Possible association of c-Harvey-Ras-1 (HRAS-1) marker with autism.

We tested for an association between autism and genes coding for enzymes involved in monoaminergic metabolism and for a linked marker, c-Harvey-Ras-1 (HRAS 1), using restriction fragment length polymorphisms. We did not find evidence of an association between autism and genes coding for tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH), and tryptophan hydroxylase. However, we report a positive association between autism and the locus containing the gene for HRAS-1.

Auditory stimulus intensity responses and frontal midline theta rhythm.

The influence of stimulus intensity on the N1 component of auditory evoked potentials recorded at fronto-central sites was investigated in respect to the spectral components of the EEG recorded at Cz, Fz and Oz. The study was performed on 14 healthy adult subjects. The only EEG frequency bandwidth that was strongly correlated with the N1 amplitude-intensity slope was the theta rhythm, particularly the 5-7 Hz frequencies recorded at Cz and Fz.

Theoretical aspects of the study of benzodiazepine receptors in infantile autism.

This paper is part of a special section on 'psychopharmacotherapy in children' and focuses on benzodiazepine receptors in autism. Infantile autism in an early and pervasive developmental disorder described by Kanner in 1943. Anatomical, pathological and magnetic resonance imaging studies have indicated changes in the cerebellum and hippocampus of autistic subjects.

The complexity of dopamine receptors and psychopharmacotherapy in children.

The efficacy of dopaminergic antagonists, which are neuroleptics, has been shown in children in varied clinical situations. Five dopaminergic receptors (D1, D2, D3, D4, D5) have thus far been cloned: their existence has thus been confirmed, but their functional significance remains to be determined. This publication reviews their main characteristics.

Blood flow response to auditory stimulations in normal, mentally retarded, and autistic children: a preliminary transcranial Doppler ultrasonographic study of the middle cerebral arteries.

Using the noninvasive transcranial ultrasonic Doppler method, flow dynamics of the middle cerebral arteries were investigated in relation to auditory stimulations in 12 children with autistic behavior compared with 12 normal controls and 10 mentally retarded children. In normal children, auditory stimulation evoked lateralized modifications: blood flow increased and resistance index decreased on the left side; such modifications were not recorded on the right side. This pattern should indicate vasodilatation mechanisms induced by changes in the metabolism of the brain areas supplied by the left middle cerebral arteries (MCA).

Regional cerebral blood flow in childhood autism: a SPECT study.

Objective: The authors investigated a possible cortical brain dysfunction associated with infantile autism.

Method: They measured regional cerebral blood flow with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and xenon-133 in 21 children with primary autism (according to DSM-III-R criteria). Five cortical brain areas including frontal, temporal, and sensory association cortices were examined in order to test the recent hypothesis of cerebral dysfunction in primary autism.