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The Promise of Electroencephalography for Advancing Diagnosis and Treatment in Neurodevelopmental DisordersNeurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and intellectual disability (ID), commonly emerge during early development and impact functioning across cognitive, social-emotional, communication, and sensorimotor domains.
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Cannabis-induced attenuated psychotic symptoms: implications for prognosis in young people at ultra-high risk for psychosisThis study examined UHR transition risk as a function of cannabis use characteristics which vary largely between people, due to a variety of factors.
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Late-talking and risk for behavioral and emotional problems during childhood and adolescenceAlthough many toddlers with expressive vocabulary delay ("late talkers") present with age-appropriate language skills by the time they are of school age,...
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Adolescent peer aggression and its association with mental health and substance use in an Australian cohortProspective longitudinal birth cohort data was used to examine the association between peer aggression at 14yrs and mental health and substance use at 17yrs...
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Characterizing Transdiagnostic Processes Underlying the Drive to Socially Engage: A Multimeasurement Factor Analytic InvestigationAltered drive to socially engage is a transdiagnostic feature across multiple psychopathologies. Yet, lack of clarity regarding specific processes that constitute social drive, along with insufficient measurement methods, has hindered understanding in this area. This study ascertained the feasibility of approximating difficulties within specific fine-grained social drive processes as proposed by 2 theoretical frameworks: “orienting,” “wanting,” “pursuing,” “liking,” “learning,” and “reticence” within a reward processing framework and “orienting,” “seeking and maintaining,” and “liking” within a social motivation framework.
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Study sheds new light on the ‘autism epidemic’ mysteryResearchers have shown that the so called 'autism epidemic' is due to an increase in the diagnosis of children with less severe behavioural symptoms.
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Accuracy of a 2-minute eye-tracking assessment to differentiate young children with and without autismEye-tracking could expedite autism identification/diagnosis through standardisation and objectivity. We tested whether Gazefinder autism assessment, with Classification Algorithm derived from gaze fixation durations, would have good accuracy (area under the curve [AUC] ≥ 0.80) to differentiate 2-4-year-old autistic from non-autistic children.
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Evaluation of the Acceptability and Feasibility of the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R) Tool for Early Identification of Autism in Preterm InfantsPreterm birth is associated with a 3.3-fold increased likelihood of autism diagnosis, with lower gestational age conferring higher likelihood. In Australia, autism is typically diagnosed at around age four, potentially missing the optimal neuroplasticity window before age two. The Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R) tool identifies early autism signs in children aged 11-30 months, enabling pre-emptive intervention.
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Measuring cognitive and affective empathy across positive and negative emotions: psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Perth Empathy ScaleEmpathy, a complex and multidimensional construct essential for social functioning and mental health, has been extensively studied in both research and clinical settings. The Perth Empathy Scale (PES), a recently developed self-report measure, assesses cognitive and affective empathy across both positive and negative emotions and is based on the self-other model of empathy. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the PES in large Iranian sample.
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Absence of association between maternal adverse events and long-term gut microbiome outcomes in the Australian autism biobankMaternal immune activation and prenatal maternal stress are well-studied risk factors for psychiatric conditions such as autism and schizophrenia. Animal studies have proposed the gut microbiome as a mechanism underlying this association and have found that risk factor-related gut microbiome alterations persist in the adult offspring.