Social determinants of sleep disturbance in safety-net primary care: unmet needs, classist discrimination, and anxiety.

BACKGROUND: The 3P model proposes that predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors all play a role in sleep disturbance. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current study is to investigate social determinants of sleep disturbance by applying the 3P model to a safety-net primary care setting, specifically by evaluating the role of classism and unmet needs as precipitating factors for sleep disturbance, and anxiety as a perpetuating factor for sleep disturbance. METHODS: Participants (N = 210) were a convenience sample of racially/ethnically diverse adults over the age of 18 (age M = 44.7 years) recruited from a safety-net primary care clinic in an urban area. The study employed a cross-sectional design. Participants completed a survey assessing sleep disturbances, anxiety, unmet needs, classism, social support, and a researcher-generated demographic form. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The unmet need for affordable long-term housing and greater experiences of classism were associated with more sleep disturbance, suggesting that both acted as precipitating factors. In a structural equation model with adequate fit indices, anxiety mediated the relationships with sleep disturbance for both the unmet need for affordable long-term housing and classism, suggesting that it serves as a perpetuating factor. Medical providers are recommended to explore these potential needs in safety-net primary care when patients present with sleep disturbance or anxiety. Assisting with connections to long-term housing and helping patients counteract and cope with classist discrimination may be effective in improving sleep in safety-net primary care.

Moderating influence of enculturation on the relations between minority stressors and physical health via anxiety in Latinx immigrants.

OBJECTIVES: The Latinx population in the United States has grown rapidly, now standing at over 56 million people. Discrimination and acculturative stress have been found to affect the mental and physical health of Latinx immigrants, yet enculturation has been identified as an important cultural strength for this population. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among minority stressors, anxiety, and physical health in a sample of Latinx immigrants living in the United States. A secondary aim was to examine whether the direct and indirect effects among these variables were moderated by enculturation (i.e., moderated mediation). METHOD: A community sample of 202 Latinx immigrants completed questionnaires measuring these constructs. RESULTS: Both acculturative stress (b = -1.68, p < .001) and discrimination (b = -1.69, p < .001) yielded direct effects on physical health, as well as indirect effects (b = -.10, 95% confidence interval [-.23, -.01]; b = -.21, 95% confidence interval [-.40, -.08], respectively) through anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Psychologists and allied health care providers are recommended to assess for the impact of minority stressors on anxiety and physical health when providing care to Latinx immigrants. Future intervention research targeting Latinx mental and physical health can consider ways to include innate cultural strengths like enculturation and partner with Latinx cultural centers, churches, and local communities to make enculturation more salient. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

WIDE RANGE ACHIEVEMENT TEST IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: TEST-RETEST STABILITY.

The principal goal of this descriptive study was to establish the test-retest stability of the Reading, Spelling, and Arithmetic subtest scores of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT-3) across two administrations in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Participants (N = 31) were males ages 6-22 years (M = 15.2, SD = 4.0) who were part of a larger ongoing longitudinal study of brain development in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (N = 185). Test-retest stability for all three subtests remained consistent across administration periods (M = 31.8 mo., SD = 4.1). Age at time of administration, time between administrations, and test form did not significantly influence test-retest stability. Results indicated that for research involving individuals with autism spectrum disorder with a full scale intelligence quotient above 75, the WRAT-3 Spelling and Arithmetic subtests have acceptable test-retest stability over time and the Reading subtest has moderate test-retest stability over time.

Multi-site, multi-country randomized clinical trial of an acute traumatic brain injury caregiver transition assistance program in Latin America.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Latin America experience high levels of disability and extremely poor functional outcomes, and their informal caregivers play a key role in their rehabilitation and care. OBJECTIVE: To improve TBI rehabilitation through stronger informal caregiving, this study developed and evaluated an evidence-based and culturally appropriate Transition Assistance Program (TAP) for informal caregivers of individuals with TBI in Latin America, specifically targeting the time period before and after the transition from hospital to home. METHODS: A sample of 89 people with a new TBI and their primary informal caregiver (n = 178) was recruited from two hospitals in Mexico City, Mexico, and in Cali, Colombia. Caregivers were randomly assigned to either the TAP group or to a control group receiving the standard care provided by the hospital. Caregivers completed measures of depression and burden, and individuals with TBI completed measures of depression and self-perceived burden on caregivers before hospital discharge and at 2- and 4-month follow ups. RESULTS: Caregivers in the TAP group reported significantly lower burden than those in the control group and marginally lower depression. Individuals with TBI whose caregivers had been in the TAP group reported significantly lower depression than those whose caregivers had been in the control group, and a non-significant but lower self-perceived burden on their caregivers. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the TAP has strong potential to benefit both TBI caregivers and individuals with TBI during the transition from acute TBI hospitalization to home in Latin America, generally showing small-or medium-sized effects on key outcomes.

Functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging classification of autism.

Group differences in resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity between individuals with autism and typically developing controls have been widely replicated for a small number of discrete brain regions, yet the whole-brain distribution of connectivity abnormalities in autism is not well characterized. It is also unclear whether functional connectivity is sufficiently robust to be used as a diagnostic or prognostic metric in individual patients with autism. We obtained pairwise functional connectivity measurements from a lattice of 7266 regions of interest covering the entire grey matter (26.4 million connections) in a well-characterized set of 40 male adolescents and young adults with autism and 40 age-, sex- and IQ-matched typically developing subjects. A single resting state blood oxygen level-dependent scan of 8 min was used for the classification in each subject. A leave-one-out classifier successfully distinguished autism from control subjects with 83% sensitivity and 75% specificity for a total accuracy of 79% (P = 1.1 × 10(-7)). In subjects <20 years of age, the classifier performed at 89% accuracy (P = 5.4 × 10(-7)). In a replication dataset consisting of 21 individuals from six families with both affected and unaffected siblings, the classifier performed at 71% accuracy (91% accuracy for subjects <20 years of age). Classification scores in subjects with autism were significantly correlated with the Social Responsiveness Scale (P = 0.05), verbal IQ (P = 0.02) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic's combined social and communication subscores (P = 0.05). An analysis of informative connections demonstrated that region of interest pairs with strongest correlation values were most abnormal in autism. Negatively correlated region of interest pairs showed higher correlation in autism (less anticorrelation), possibly representing weaker inhibitory connections, particularly for long connections (Euclidean distance >10 cm). Brain regions showing greatest differences included regions of the default mode network, superior parietal lobule, fusiform gyrus and anterior insula. Overall, classification accuracy was better for younger subjects, with differences between autism and control subjects diminishing after 19 years of age. Classification scores of unaffected siblings of individuals with autism were more similar to those of the control subjects than to those of the subjects with autism. These findings indicate feasibility of a functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging diagnostic assay for autism.

Decreased interhemispheric functional connectivity in autism.

The cortical underconnectivity theory asserts that reduced long-range functional connectivity might contribute to a neural mechanism for autism. We examined resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent interhemispheric correlation in 53 males with high-functioning autism and 39 typically developing males from late childhood through early adulthood. By constructing spatial maps of correlation between homologous voxels in each hemisphere, we found significantly reduced interhemispheric correlation specific to regions with functional relevance to autism: sensorimotor cortex, anterior insula, fusiform gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and superior parietal lobule. Observed interhemispheric connectivity differences were better explained by diagnosis of autism than by potentially confounding neuropsychological metrics of language, IQ, or handedness. Although both corpus callosal volume and gray matter interhemispheric connectivity were significantly reduced in autism, no direct relationship was observed between them, suggesting that structural and functional metrics measure different aspects of interhemispheric connectivity. In the control but not the autism sample, there was decreasing interhemispheric correlation with subject age. Greater differences in interhemispheric correlation were seen for more lateral regions in the brain. These findings suggest that long-range connectivity abnormalities in autism are spatially heterogeneous and that transcallosal connectivity is decreased most in regions with functions associated with behavioral abnormalities in autism. Autism subjects continue to show developmental differences in interhemispheric connectivity into early adulthood.

Moderating Influence of Social Support on the Relations between Discrimination and Health via Depression in Latinx Immigrants.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among discrimination, depression, and health among a sample of diverse Latinx immigrants. A secondary aim was to examine whether direct and indirect effects among these variables were moderated by social support. A sample of 204 Latinx immigrants completed questionnaires in community centers, health clinics, and retail establishments. Depression was found to mediate the effect of discrimination on physical health. Social support was found to moderate this indirect effect, wherein higher levels of social support weakened the effect. Results from this study indicate that through depression, health can be impacted by minority stressors, and these relationships can be buffered by links to cultural strengths including social support.

El propósito de este estudio fue examinar las relaciones entre la discriminación, la depresión y la salud entre una muestra de diversos inmigrantes Latinxs. Un segundo objetivo fue examinar si los efectos directos e indirectos entre estas variables fueron moderados por el apoyo social. Una muestra de 204 inmigrantes Latinxs completaron cuestionarios en centros comunitarios, clínicas de salud y establecimientos minoristas. Se descubrió que la depresión media la relación entre la discriminación y la salud física. Se encontró que el apoyo social moderó esta relación indirecta y que los niveles más altos de apoyo social la debilitaron. Los resultados de este estudio indican que, a través de la depresión, la salud puede verse afectada por factores estresantes de las minorías, y estas relaciones se pueden amortiguar a través de fortalezas culturales, incluyendo el apoyo social.

Is Helping Really Helping? Health-Related Quality of Life after TBI Predicting Caregiver Depression Symptom Trajectories in Latin America.

Previous research connecting health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and caregiver mental health has primarily been conducted cross-sectionally in the U.S. and Western Europe. This study, therefore, examined how HRQoL in individuals immediately after their TBI predicts longitudinal caregiver depression symptom trajectories in Latin America. A sample of 109 patients with an acute TBI and 109 caregivers (total n = 218) was recruited from three hospitals in Mexico City, Mexico, and in Cali and Neiva, Colombia. TBI patients reported their HRQoL while they were still in hospital, and caregivers reported their depression symptoms at the same time and at 2 and 4 months later. Hierarchal linear models (HLM) found that caregiver depression symptom scores decreased over time, and lower patient mental health and pain-related quality of life at baseline (higher pain) predicted higher overall caregiver depression symptom trajectories across the three time points. These findings suggest that in Latin America, there is an identifiable relationship between psychological and pain-related symptoms after TBI and caregiver depression symptom outcomes. The results highlight the importance of early detection of caregiver mental health needs based in part upon patient HRQoL and a culturally informed approach to rehabilitation services for Latin American TBI caregivers.

Parkinson's Symptoms and Caregiver Affiliate Stigma: A Multinational Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Research has documented the stigma that individuals with degenerative neurological diseases experience, but caregivers also experience stigma by association (i.e., affiliate stigma). In order to shed light on the stigma of caregivers of people with degenerative neurological diseases, the current study aimed to explore cross-cultural differences in the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) caregiver affiliate stigma, as well as the relationship between PD symptoms and caregiver affiliate stigma. Applications for Alzheimer's disease are discussed. METHODS: Survey data were collected in PD clinics at public, academic medical centers. Informal caregivers of an individual with PD from the US (n = 105) and from Mexico (n = 148) participated in the study. Caregivers completed a questionnaire that included the MDS Unified PD Rating Scale to describe the symptoms of the individual with PD, as well as the Affiliate Stigma Scale and demographic information. RESULTS: A series of multiple regressions was run to examine whether PD symptoms were associated with affiliate stigma and if these differed by country. These regressions suggested that different patterns of PD symptoms predicted affiliate stigma in each country. Stigma was higher in the US compared to Mexico, and the relationship between bowel/bladder symptoms and affiliate stigma was significantly stronger in the US. CONCLUSION: Symptoms of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases are related to affiliate stigma experienced by caregivers, and these relationships may differ cross-culturally. Negative public attitudes concerning bowl and bladder issues and the physical symptoms that accompany PD remain a source of stigma for caregivers and families, particularly in the US. Interventions for caregivers of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases should include strategies for coping with stigma concerning bladder and bowel problems, as well as other physical and mental health issues.

Mediational models of pain, mental health, and functioning in individuals with burn injury.

Purpose/Objective: Despite the increasingly high number of individuals who survive burns and the documented impairments in functioning across psychological, work, sexual, and interpersonal domains, there has been a dearth of research investigating connections between pain and functioning in these domains after burn injury. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationships among pain, mental health, and functioning of individuals with burn injury. It was hypothesized that pain after burn would yield direct effects on functioning (work, sexual, and interpersonal), as well as indirect effects on functioning through depression and anxiety. Research Method/Design: Eighty-seven individuals with burn injury completed a questionnaire assessing study constructs in an outpatient burn center setting. Results: Pain was positively related to depression and anxiety and inversely related to all three forms of functioning. In a series of mediational models, depression and anxiety simultaneously and partially mediated the relationship between pain and work functioning. Depression fully mediated the relationship between pain and sexual functioning, as well as partially mediated the relationship between pain and interpersonal functioning. The models explained 39.2% of the variance in work functioning, 28.4% in sexual functioning, and 35.6% in interpersonal functioning. Conclusions/Implications: Although the cross-sectional findings are unable to conclude causality, individuals with burn injury experiencing pain may benefit from a biopsychosocial treatment approach while also addressing symptoms of depression and anxiety. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Influence of resilience on the relations among acculturative stress, somatization, and anxiety in latinx immigrants.

OBJECTIVE: In cultures where psychological distress is stigmatized, the presentation of emotional distress as somatic complaints is a frequent occurrence. Understanding factors that contribute to the presentation of somatization in Latinx immigrants is crucial due to its tie to poor quality of life. The purpose of this study was to explore relations among acculturative stress, anxiety, somatization, and resilience in a sample of Latinx immigrants living in the United States. METHODS: Data were collected from 204 Latinx immigrants across diverse community settings. RESULTS: Acculturative stress was positively related to both anxiety and somatization, and the relation between acculturative stress and somatization occurred through anxiety. Resilience moderated the relations between acculturative stress and somatization, and between anxiety and somatization. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that Latinx immigrants presenting with somatic symptoms may benefit from the examination of a possible comorbid presentation of anxiety or acculturative stressors. An integrated behavioral healthcare approach is recommended when working with Latinx immigrants evaluating the impact of minority stressors on health. Clinicians are encouraged to incorporate cultural protective factors that reinforce the development and sustenance of resilience.

A Multi-Site Study of Traumatic Brain Injury in Mexico and Colombia: Longitudinal Mediational and Cross-Lagged Models of Family Dynamics, Coping, and Health-Related Quality of Life.

Latin America has high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet reduced mental and physical health outcomes due to limited rehabilitation services. To understand the psychosocial adjustment process in TBI patients in Latin America, the incorporation of cultural values including family-based variables is imperative. The current study examined relations among healthy family dynamics, coping, and mental and physical health related quality of life (HRQL) among a sample of TBI patients across three sites and two countries over the first 4 months post-injury. A sample of 109 acute TBI patients from Mexico and Colombia were recruited, and a series of longitudinal mediation and cross-lag panel analyses were run. Mental and physical HRQL were positively associated with each other, as well as healthy family dynamics and coping. Coping partially mediated the effects of healthy family dynamics on both mental and physical HRQL. Family dynamics showed the strongest cross-lag relationships with coping going from 2 months to 4 months. Similarly, coping showed the strongest cross-lag relationships with both mental and physical HRQL going from baseline to 2 months. Results provide empirical support for the importance of a rehabilitation workforce that has been trained in and can effectively implement family-based interventions for individuals with TBI in Latin America.

Relationship Satisfaction and Depression After Traumatic Brain Injury: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model of Patients and Caregivers in Mexico and Colombia.

OBJECTIVE: Traumatic brain injury represents a major public health concern, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like in Latin America. Family members are often caregivers for individuals with traumatic brain injury, which can result in significant stress. Research is needed to examine depression and quality of the caregiving relationship in these dyads. This study examined relationship quality and depression longitudinally after traumatic brain injury within the caregiving relationship. DESIGN: Dyads (N = 109) composed of individuals with traumatic brain injury and their caregivers were recruited from three hospitals in Mexico and Colombia. They self-reported depression and relationship satisfaction during hospitalization and at 2 and 4 mos after hospitalization. RESULTS: A 2-lag Actor Partner Interdependence Model demonstrated that patients and caregivers reporting high relationship satisfaction at baseline experienced lower depression 2 mos later, which then predicted higher caregiver relationship satisfaction at 4 mos. Moreover, patients with high relationship satisfaction at baseline had caregivers with lower depression at 2 mos, which was then associated with patients' higher satisfaction at 4 mos. CONCLUSIONS: Within individuals with traumatic brain injury and caregivers, depression and relationship satisfaction seem to be inversely related. Furthermore, patients' and caregivers' depression and relationship satisfaction impact each other over time, demonstrating interdependence within the caregiving relationship.

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Longitudinal Trajectories of Community Integration After Burn Injury.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine potential racial/ethnic disparities in community integration for the 2 yrs after burn injury. DESIGN: A sample of 1773 adults with burn injury from the Burn Model Systems database was used with data on community integration collected at discharge (preinjury recall), 6, 12, and 24 mos after discharge. METHODS: Four sets of hierarchal linear models determined the most appropriate model for understanding racial/ethnic differences in Community Integration Questionnaire trajectories over time. RESULTS: Data indicated a decrease in community integration between discharge and 6 mos, a slight increase between 6 mos and 1 yr, and then a plateau between 1 and 2 yrs. White individuals had higher community integration score trajectories over time than black (b = 0.53, P < 0.001) and Hispanic (b = 0.58, P < 0.001) individuals, and community integration scores were similar between black and Hispanic individuals (b = -0.05, P = 0.788). These racial/ethnic disparities remained after accounting for age, sex, total burned surface area, number of days in rehabilitation, and active range of motion deficits. CONCLUSIONS: Additional rehabilitation resources should be targeted to helping black and Hispanic individuals integrate back into their communities after burn injury.

Parkinson's family needs and caregiver mental health: A cross-cultural comparison between Mexico and the United States.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Given the growing population of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) worldwide and the growing need for family members to take on a caregiving role, it is critical that cross-cultural differences be examined in order to better meet the needs of PD caregivers. The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between the unmet needs and mental health of PD caregivers differentially in Mexico and the United States. METHODS: In Parkinson's clinics at public, academic medical centers, PD caregivers from Mexico (n = 148) and the United States (n = 105) completed measures of unmet family needs and mental health. RESULTS: Caregivers in the United States had higher unmet needs for emotional support and for a community support network than caregivers in Mexico, although caregivers at the two sites had comparable levels of anxiety and depression. Unmet family needs explained 29.5% of the variance in caregiver anxiety in the United States (p < 0.001) but only 5.7% in Mexico (p = 0.209). Unmet family needs explained 30.4% of the variance in caregiver depression in the United States (p < 0.001) and 14.0% in Mexico (p = 0.001). In the United States, unmet needs for emotional support and for instrumental support uniquely predicted caregiver anxiety and depression, and in Mexico only the unmet need for instrumental support was a unique predictor. CONCLUSIONS: PD caregivers in the United States are at increased risk for poor emotional and community support, and these unmet needs channel directly into caregiver anxiety and depression. In Mexico, where caregivers have stronger emotional and community support, caregivers' unmet need for instrumental support generates anxiety and depression. Important targets for PD caregiver interventions may differ between Mexico and the United States.

Beery VMI performance in autism spectrum disorder.

Few studies have examined the visuomotor integration (VMI) abilities of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An all-male sample consisting of 56 ASD participants (ages 3-23 years) and 36 typically developing (TD) participants (ages 4-26 years) completed the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI) as part of a larger neuropsychological battery. Participants were also administered standardized measures of intellectual functioning and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), which assesses autism and autism-like traits. The ASD group performed significantly lower on the Beery VMI and on all IQ measures compared to the TD group. VMI performance was significantly correlated with full scale IQ (FSIQ), performance IQ (PIQ), and verbal IQ (VIQ) in the TD group only. However, when FSIQ was taken into account, no significant Beery VMI differences between groups were observed. Only one TD participant scored 1.5 standard deviations (SDs) below the Beery VMI normative sample mean, in comparison to 21% of the ASD sample. As expected, the ASD group was rated as having significantly higher levels of social impairment on the SRS compared to the TD group across all major domains. However, level of functioning on the SRS was not associated with Berry VMI performance. These findings demonstrate that a substantial number of individuals with ASD experience difficulties compared to TD in performing VMI-related tasks, and that VMI is likely affected by general cognitive ability. The fact that lowered Beery VMI performance occurred only within a subset of individuals with ASD and did not correlate with SRS would indicate that visuomotor deficits are not a core feature of ASD, even though they present at a higher rate of impairment than observed in TD participants.

Longitudinal volumetric brain changes in autism spectrum disorder ages 6-35 years.

Since the impairments associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to persist or worsen from childhood into adulthood, it is of critical importance to examine how the brain develops over this growth epoch. We report initial findings on whole and regional longitudinal brain development in 100 male participants with ASD (226 high-quality magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] scans; mean inter-scan interval 2.7 years) compared to 56 typically developing controls (TDCs) (117 high-quality scans; mean inter-scan interval 2.6 years) from childhood into adulthood, for a total of 156 participants scanned over an 8-year period. This initial analysis includes between one and three high-quality scans per participant that have been processed and segmented to date, with 21% having one scan, 27% with two scans, and 52% with three scans in the ASD sample; corresponding percentages for the TDC sample are 30%, 30%, and 40%. The proportion of participants with multiple scans (79% of ASDs and 68% of TDCs) was high in comparison to that of large longitudinal neuroimaging studies of typical development. We provide volumetric growth curves for the entire brain, total gray matter (GM), frontal GM, temporal GM, parietal GM, occipital GM, total cortical white matter (WM), corpus callosum, caudate, thalamus, total cerebellum, and total ventricles. Mean volume of cortical WM was reduced significantly. Mean ventricular volume was increased in the ASD sample relative to the TDCs across the broad age range studied. Decreases in regional mean volumes in the ASD sample most often were due to decreases during late adolescence and adulthood. The growth curve of whole brain volume over time showed increased volumes in young children with autism, and subsequently decreased during adolescence to meet the TDC curve between 10 and 15 years of age. The volume of many structures continued to decline atypically into adulthood in the ASD sample. The data suggest that ASD is a dynamic disorder with complex changes in whole and regional brain volumes that change over time from childhood into adulthood.

Corpus Callosum Area in Children and Adults with Autism.

Despite repeated findings of abnormal corpus callosum structure in autism, the developmental trajectories of corpus callosum growth in the disorder have not yet been reported. In this study, we examined corpus callosum size from a developmental perspective across a 30-year age range in a large cross-sectional sample of individuals with autism compared to a typically developing sample. Midsagittal corpus callosum area and the 7 Witelson subregions were examined in 68 males with autism (mean age 14.1 years; range 3-36 years) and 47 males with typical development (mean age 15.3 years; range 4-29 years). Controlling for total brain volume, increased variability in total corpus callosum area was found in autism. In autism, increased midsagittal areas were associated with reduced severity of autism behaviors, higher intelligence, and faster speed of processing (p=0.003, p=0.011, p=0.013, respectively). A trend toward group differences in isthmus development was found (p=0.029, uncorrected). These results suggest that individuals with autism benefit functionally from increased corpus callosum area. Our cross-sectional examination also shows potential maturational abnormalities in autism, a finding that should be examined further with longitudinal datasets.

Neuropsychological investigation of motor impairments in autism.

It is unclear how standardized neuropsychological measures of motor function relate to brain volumes of motor regions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An all-male sample composed of 59 ASD and 30 controls (ages 5-33 years) completed three measures of motor function: strength of grip (SOG), finger tapping test (FTT), and grooved pegboard test (GPT). Likewise, all participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging with region of interest (ROI) volumes obtained to include the following regions: motor cortex (precentral gyrus), somatosensory cortex (postcentral gyrus), thalamus, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and caudal middle frontal gyrus. These traditional neuropsychological measures of motor function are assumed to differ in motor complexity, with GPT requiring the most followed by FTT and SOG. Performance by ASD participants on the GPT and FTT differed significantly from that of controls, with the largest effect size differences observed on the more complex GPT task. Differences on the SOG task between the two groups were nonsignificant. Since more complex motor tasks tap more complex networks, poorer GPT performance by those with ASD may reflect less efficient motor networks. There was no gross pathology observed in classic motor areas of the brain in ASD, as ROI volumes did not differ, but FTT was negatively related to motor cortex volume in ASD. The results suggest a hierarchical motor disruption in ASD, with difficulties evident only in more complex tasks as well as a potential anomalous size-function relation in motor cortex in ASD.

Fusiform correlates of facial memory in autism.

Prior studies have shown that performance on standardized measures of memory in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is substantially reduced in comparison to matched typically developing controls (TDC). Given reported deficits in face processing in autism, the current study compared performance on an immediate and delayed facial memory task for individuals with ASD and TDC. In addition, we examined volumetric differences in classic facial memory regions of interest (ROI) between the two groups, including the fusiform, amygdala, and hippocampus. We then explored the relationship between ROI volume and facial memory performance. We found larger volumes in the autism group in the left amygdala and left hippocampus compared to TDC. In contrast, TDC had larger left fusiform gyrus volumes when compared with ASD. Interestingly, we also found significant negative correlations between delayed facial memory performance and volume of the left and right fusiform and the left hippocampus for the ASD group but not for TDC. The possibility of larger fusiform volume as a marker of abnormal connectivity and decreased facial memory is discussed.