| 1. |
- Loisel, J., et al.
(författare)
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Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nature Climate Change. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1758-678X .- 1758-6798. ; 11:1, s. 70-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Peatlands are impacted by climate and land-use changes, with feedback to warming by acting as either sources or sinks of carbon. Expert elicitation combined with literature review reveals key drivers of change that alter peatland carbon dynamics, with implications for improving models. The carbon balance of peatlands is predicted to shift from a sink to a source this century. However, peatland ecosystems are still omitted from the main Earth system models that are used for future climate change projections, and they are not considered in integrated assessment models that are used in impact and mitigation studies. By using evidence synthesized from the literature and an expert elicitation, we define and quantify the leading drivers of change that have impacted peatland carbon stocks during the Holocene and predict their effect during this century and in the far future. We also identify uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the scientific community and provide insight towards better integration of peatlands into modelling frameworks. Given the importance of the contribution by peatlands to the global carbon cycle, this study shows that peatland science is a critical research area and that we still have a long way to go to fully understand the peatland-carbon-climate nexus.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Micai, M, et al.
(författare)
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Autistic Adult Health and Professional Perceptions of It: Evidence From the ASDEU Project
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in psychiatry. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-0640. ; 12, s. 614102-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Autism Spectrum Disorders in the European Union (ASDEU) survey investigated the knowledge and health service experiences of users and providers to generate new hypotheses and scientific investigations that would contribute to improvement in health care for autistic adults. An online survey designed for autistic adults, carers of autistic adults, and professionals in adult services was translated into 11 languages and distributed electronically by organizations and in-country adult service facilities in 2017; 522 autistic adults, 442 carers, and 113 professionals provided answers to the health questions. Professionals, the majority in non-medical services, appeared to be poorly informed about whether certain co-occurring conditions were more frequent in autistic adults than typical adults—especially some medical conditions, suicide attempts, accidents, and pain. A minority of autistic adults reported preventive health behaviors such as routine health check-ups. The majority of users and providers expressed the desire to make health care services more user-friendly for autistic adults. Among the three groups, <20% of responders knew an organization or clinician which has developed a way to monitor health, and prevent poor health, that works well for adults on the autism spectrum. The results point to means for better management of co-occurring conditions associated with autism in adulthood in order to reduce hospital admissions and potential areas of improvement in health and social services for autistic adults. Specifically, efforts should be focused on (1) professionals' education on risks for co-occurring conditions in autistic adults; (2) promoting preventive health behaviors; (3) making services user-friendly for autistic adults and their families; and (4) encouraging knowledge of good local services.
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| 4. |
- Scattoni, ML, et al.
(författare)
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Real-World Experiences in Autistic Adult Diagnostic Services and Post-diagnostic Support and Alignment with Services Guidelines: Results from the ASDEU Study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of autism and developmental disorders. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-3432 .- 0162-3257. ; 51:1211, s. 4129-4146
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research providing an evidence-base for autistic adult services is sparse. The Autism Spectrum Disorders in the European Union (ASDEU) network implemented an on-line survey to determine gaps in autistic adult diagnostic evaluation and post-diagnostic support services. More than 55% in all groups experienced most of the recommended features for diagnostic evaluation for autistic adults. In contrast, < 2% of adults or carers, and < 21% of professionals experienced each of the recommended features for post-diagnostic support. In contrast to 61% of professionals, only about 30% of autistic adults and carers had knowledge of good local services models for autism diagnosis in adulthood. There are major differences between good practice guidelines for diagnostic and post-diagnostic care for autistic adults, and what is actually experienced by services users and professionals.
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| 5. |
- Moessnang, C, et al.
(författare)
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Social brain activation during mentalizing in a large autism cohort: the Longitudinal European Autism Project
- 2020
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Ingår i: Molecular autism. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2040-2392. ; 11:1, s. 17-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with key deficits in social functioning. It is widely assumed that the biological underpinnings of social impairment are neurofunctional alterations in the “social brain,” a neural circuitry involved in inferring the mental state of a social partner. However, previous evidence comes from small-scale studies and findings have been mixed. We therefore carried out the to-date largest study on neural correlates of mentalizing in ASD.MethodsAs part of the Longitudinal European Autism Project, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging at six European sites in a large, well-powered, and deeply phenotyped sample of individuals with ASD (N= 205) and typically developing (TD) individuals (N= 189) aged 6 to 30 years. We presented an animated shapes task to assess and comprehensively characterize social brain activation during mentalizing. We tested for effects of age, diagnosis, and their association with symptom measures, including a continuous measure of autistic traits.ResultsWe observed robust effects of task. Within the ASD sample, autistic traits were moderately associated with functional activation in one of the key regions of the social brain, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. However, there were no significant effects of diagnosis on task performance and no effects of age and diagnosis on social brain responses. Besides a lack of mean group differences, our data provide no evidence for meaningful differences in the distribution of brain response measures. Extensive control analyses suggest that the lack of case-control differences was not due to a variety of potential confounders.ConclusionsContrary to prior reports, this large-scale study does not support the assumption that altered social brain activation during mentalizing forms a common neural marker of ASD, at least with the paradigm we employed. Yet, autistic individuals show socio-behavioral deficits. Our work therefore highlights the need to interrogate social brain function with other brain measures, such as connectivity and network-based approaches, using other paradigms, or applying complementary analysis approaches to assess individual differences in this heterogeneous condition.
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| 6. |
- Bertelsen, N, et al.
(författare)
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Imbalanced social-communicative and restricted repetitive behavior subtypes of autism spectrum disorder exhibit different neural circuitry
- 2021
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Ingår i: Communications biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 4:1, s. 574-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social-communication (SC) and restricted repetitive behaviors (RRB) are autism diagnostic symptom domains. SC and RRB severity can markedly differ within and between individuals and may be underpinned by different neural circuitry and genetic mechanisms. Modeling SC-RRB balance could help identify how neural circuitry and genetic mechanisms map onto such phenotypic heterogeneity. Here, we developed a phenotypic stratification model that makes highly accurate (97–99%) out-of-sample SC = RRB, SC > RRB, and RRB > SC subtype predictions. Applying this model to resting state fMRI data from the EU-AIMS LEAP dataset (n = 509), we find that while the phenotypic subtypes share many commonalities in terms of intrinsic functional connectivity, they also show replicable differences within some networks compared to a typically-developing group (TD). Specifically, the somatomotor network is hypoconnected with perisylvian circuitry in SC > RRB and visual association circuitry in SC = RRB. The SC = RRB subtype show hyperconnectivity between medial motor and anterior salience circuitry. Genes that are highly expressed within these networks show a differential enrichment pattern with known autism-associated genes, indicating that such circuits are affected by differing autism-associated genomic mechanisms. These results suggest that SC-RRB imbalance subtypes share many commonalities, but also express subtle differences in functional neural circuitry and the genomic underpinnings behind such circuitry.
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| 7. |
- Mason, L., et al.
(författare)
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Preference for biological motion is reduced in ASD : implications for clinical trials and the search for biomarkers
- 2021
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Ingår i: Molecular Autism. - : Springer Nature. - 2040-2392. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear. Progress has been largely hampered by small sample sizes, variable age ranges and resulting inconsistent findings. There is a pressing need for large definitive studies to delineate the nature and extent of key case/control differences to direct research towards fruitful areas for future investigation. Here we focus on perception of biological motion, a promising index of social brain function which may be altered in ASD. In a large sample ranging from childhood to adulthood, we assess whether biological motion preference differs in ASD compared to neurotypical participants (NT), how differences are modulated by age and sex and whether they are associated with dimensional variation in concurrent or later symptomatology.Methods: Eye-tracking data were collected from 486 6-to-30-year-old autistic (N = 282) and non-autistic control (N = 204) participants whilst they viewed 28 trials pairing biological (BM) and control (non-biological, CTRL) motion. Preference for the biological motion stimulus was calculated as (1) proportion looking time difference (BM-CTRL) and (2) peak look duration difference (BM-CTRL).Results: The ASD group showed a present but weaker preference for biological motion than the NT group. The nature of the control stimulus modulated preference for biological motion in both groups. Biological motion preference did not vary with age, gender, or concurrent or prospective social communicative skill within the ASD group, although a lack of clear preference for either stimulus was associated with higher social-communicative symptoms at baseline.Limitations: The paired visual preference we used may underestimate preference for a stimulus in younger and lower IQ individuals. Our ASD group had a lower average IQ by approximately seven points. 18% of our sample was not analysed for various technical and behavioural reasons.Conclusions: Biological motion preference elicits small-to-medium-sized case–control effects, but individual differences do not strongly relate to core social autism associated symptomatology. We interpret this as an autistic difference (as opposed to a deficit) likely manifest in social brain regions. The extent to which this is an innate difference present from birth and central to the autistic phenotype, or the consequence of a life lived with ASD, is unclear.
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| 8. |
- Pijl, M. K. J., et al.
(författare)
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Parent-child interaction during the first year of life in infants at elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder
- 2021
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Ingår i: Infant Behavior and Development. - : Elsevier. - 0163-6383 .- 1879-0453 .- 1934-8800. ; 62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) likely emerges from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the environment. The interaction with parents forms a key aspect of an infant’s social environment, but few prospective studies of infants at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (who have an older sibling with ASD) have examined parent-child interactions in the first year of life. As part of a European multisite network, parent-child dyads of free play were observed at 5 months (62 EL infants, 47 infants at typical likelihood (TL)) and 10 months (101 EL siblings, 77 TL siblings). The newly-developed Parent-Infant/Toddler Coding of Interaction (PInTCI) scheme was used, focusing on global characteristics of infant and parent behaviors. Coders were blind to participant information. Linear mixed model analyses showed no significant group differences in infant or parent behaviors at 5 or 10 months of age (all ps≥0.09, d≤0.36), controlling for infant’s sex and age, and parental educational level. However, without adjustments, EL infants showed fewer and less clear initiations at 10 months than TL infants (p = 0.02, d = 0.44), but statistical significance was lost after controlling for parental education (p = 0.09, d = 0.36), which tended to be lower in the EL group. Consistent with previous literature focusing on parent-infant dyads, our findings suggest that differences between EL and TL dyads may only be subtle during the first year of life. We discuss possible explanations and implications for future developmental studies.
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| 9. |
- Jones, E. J. H., et al.
(författare)
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Infant EEG theta modulation predicts childhood intelligence
- 2020
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Intellectual functioning is a critical determinant of economic and personal productivity. Identifying early neural predictors of cognitive function in infancy will allow us to map the neurodevelopmental pathways that underpin individual differences in intellect. Here, in three different cohorts we investigate the association between a putative neurophysiological indicator of information encoding (change in frontal theta during a novel video) in infancy and later general cognitive outcome. In a discovery cohort of 12-month-old typically developing infants, we recorded EEG during presentation of dynamic movies of people and objects. Frontal theta power (3-6 Hz) significantly increased during the course of viewing each video. Critically, increase in frontal theta during viewing of a video was associated with a differential response to repetition of that specific video, confirming relation to learning. Further, individual differences in the magnitude of change in frontal theta power were related to concurrent nonverbal cognitive level. We then sought to extend this association in two independent samples enriched for variation in cognitive outcome due to the inclusion of infants at familial risk for autism. We observed similar patterns of theta EEG change at 12 months, and found a predictive relation to verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills measured at 2, 3 and 7 years of age. For the subset of high-risk infants later diagnosed with autism, infant theta EEG explained over 80% of the variance in nonverbal skills at age 3 years. We suggest that EEG theta change in infancy is an excellent candidate predictive biomarker that could yield substantial insight into the mechanisms that underlie individual differences in childhood intelligence, particularly in high risk populations.
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