BACKGROUND Brain function, as indexed by brain electrical activity, is heritable in humans, and it may be impaired in autism. Autism also has strong genetic determinants, and like all major psychiatric disorders, its complex clinical phenotype renders genetic studies difficult. Innovative strategies focused on alternative biological phenotypes are needed. METHODS The early brain auditory-evok...

The phenotype of autism involves heterogeneous adaptive traits (strengths vs. disabilities), different domains of alterations (social vs. non-social), and various associated genetic conditions (syndromic vs. nonsyndromic autism). Three observations suggest that alterations in experience-dependent plasticity are an etiological factor in autism: (1) the main cognitive domains enhanced in autism a...

The duplication of the short arm of chromosome 7 as de novo is extremely rare. The phenotype spectrum varies depending on the region of duplication. We report a case of de novo duplication of chromosomal region 7p21.1p22.2 in a three-year-old male child with autism who presented to the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Muscat, Oman, in January 2012. The patient was diagnosed with craniofacia...

background: despite many efforts, the etiology of autism remains unknown. food allergy has been suggested as a pathogenic factor in autism spectrum disorder (asd). our aim in this study was to determine whether food allergy could be considered as a risk factor for autistic children. methods: thirty-nine autistic children were examined by the skin prick test (spt), and total serum ige was evalua...

conclusions our findings highlighted the importance of ei and its aspects in asds in the university students recruited in the present study. therefore, improvement in ei and its dimensions can decrease autism symptoms and signs in individuals with asds. overall, the result of this study emphasizes the key role of ei as a plausible health predictor. background autism spectrum traits may present ...

Early intervention for autism spectrum disorders necessitates early detection. This need has led to widespread agreement across disciplines that screening is critical in very young children. Two screening issues are highlighted in this review. Level of screening refers to the type of sample: Level I is defined as an unselected sample, and Level II consists of selected children already identifie...

We compared the cognitive and language development at 4, 14, 24, 36, 54 months, and 7 years of siblings of children with autism (SIBS-A) to that of siblings of children with typical development (SIBS-TD) using growth curve analyses. At 7 years, 40% of the SIBS-A, compared to 16% of SIBS-TD, were identified with cognitive, language and/or academic difficulties, identified using direct tests and/...