Brief Report: Convergence and Discrepancy Between Self- and Informant-Reported Depressive Symptoms in Young Autistic Adults.

PURPOSE: Autistic individuals exhibit elevated rates of depression; however, assessment is complicated by clinical presentations and limited validation in this population. Recent work has demonstrated the utility of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in screening for depression in ASD. The current study extends this work by examining the convergence and divergence of self- and informant-reported depression in autistic (n = 258) and non-autistic (n = 255) young adults. METHODS: Participants completed the BDI-II as a self-report measure of depression; informants completed the Achenbach Adult Behavior Checklist. Analyses probed for between-group differences in rates of depression symptoms, convergence between self- and informant-reported depression, and discrepancy between self- and informant-reported depression. RESULTS: Results indicated significantly higher rates of depressive symptoms in the autistic group. Convergence was significant in both groups, with significantly greater agreement in the autistic group. There was differential divergence, with the autistic group reporting significantly lower scores relative to informants, and the non-autistic group reporting significantly higher scores relative to informants. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with prior reports, results suggest that depression rates are elevated in autism. Additionally, while the BDI-II may be adequate for screening depressive symptoms in speaking autistic young adults, eliciting information from a close adult informant provides valuable diagnostic information, due to clinically critical concerns about underreporting in this population. Although controlled in analyses, between-group differences in gender, age, race, and informant identity, and a predominantly White and non-Latinx sample, limit the generalizability of these results.

The effects of age bias on neural correlates of successful and unsuccessful response inhibition in younger and older adults.

Facilitating communication between generations has become increasingly important. However, individuals often demonstrate a preference for their own age group, which can impact social interactions, and such bias in young adults even extends to inhibitory control. To assess whether older adults also experience this phenomenon, a group of younger and older adults completed a Go/NoGo task incorporating young and old faces, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Within the networks subserving successful and unsuccessful response inhibition, patterns of activity demonstrated distinct neural age bias effects in each age group. During successful inhibition, the older adult group demonstrated significantly increased activity to other-age faces, whereas unsuccessful inhibition in the younger group produced significantly enhanced activity to other-age faces. Consequently, the findings of the study confirm that neural responses to successful and unsuccessful inhibition can be contingent on the stimulus-specific attribute of age in both younger and older adults. These findings have important implications in regard to minimizing the emergence of negative consequences, such as ageism, as a result of related implicit biases.

Anatomical and biophysical basis for graft incompatibility within the Solanaceae.

Interspecies grafting is an economically relevant technique that allows beneficial shoot and root combinations from separate species to be combined. One hypothesis for the basis of graft compatibility revolves around taxonomic relatedness. To test how phylogenetic distance affects interspecific graft compatibility within the economically important Solanaceae subfamily, Solanoideae, we characterized the anatomical and biophysical integrity of graft junctions between four species: tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), eggplant (Solanum melongena), pepper (Capsicum annuum), and groundcherry (Physalis pubescens). We analyzed the survival, growth, integrity, and cellular composition of the graft junctions. Utilizing various techniques, we were able to quantitatively assess compatibility among the interspecific grafts. Even though most of our graft combinations could survive, we show that only intrageneric combinations between tomato and eggplant are compatible. Unlike incompatible grafts, the formation of substantial vascular reconnections between tomato and eggplant in the intrageneric heterografts likely contributed to biophysically stable grafts. Furthermore, we identified 10 graft combinations that show delayed incompatibility, providing a useful system to pursue deeper work into graft compatibility. This work provides new evidence that graft compatibility may be limited to intrageneric combinations within the Solanoideae subfamily. Further research amongst additional Solanaceous species can be used to test the extent to which our hypothesis applies to this family.

Structural language impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder versus Loss of Autism Diagnosis: Behavioral and neural characteristics.

This study probed for structural language impairment using behavioral and functional neuroimaging methods in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and those diagnosed with ASD in childhood who no longer meet criteria for ASD, referred to as Loss of Autism Diagnosis (LAD1). Participants were drawn from Fein et al. (2013): ASD (n = 35), LAD (n = 31), and Neurotypical (NT; n = 34). Criteria for structural language impairment were: Scores ≤ 82 on Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 (CELF) Core Language, an omnibus measure of language; and scores ≤ 7 on CELF Recalling Sentences, a clinical marker of structural language impairment. Task-based fMRI examined lateralization of significantly activated language-related brain regions in groups with structural language impairment (LI2) versus normal-range language (LN3), collapsed across ASD, LAD1, and NT status. Results showed no ASD versus LAD group differences in the proportion of participants with structural language impairment according to either metric (Recalling Sentences or Core Language). Functional MRI results indicated greater left hemisphere lateralization within significantly activated regions in the LI2 group. Structural language abilities were not meaningfully associated with either social abilities or lifetime ADHD symptoms in LI2 subgroups, further suggesting the presence of structural language impairment. Findings indicate the presence of persistent structural language difficulty even in the absence of ASD symptoms in some individuals within the LAD1 group and unique patterns of language-related neural specialization for language function in LI2 relative to LN3.

The effects of age-bias on neural correlates of successful and unsuccessful response inhibition.

Response inhibition is important for adherence to social norms, especially when norms conflict with biases based on one's social identity. While previous studies have shown that in-group bias generally modulates neural activity related to stimulus appraisal, it is unclear whether and how an in-group bias based on age affects neural information processing during response inhibition. To assess this potential influence, young adults completed a Go/NoGo task incorporating younger face (in-group) and older face (out-group) stimuli while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Our results replicated previous findings by demonstrating higher accuracy in successful Go compared to NoGo trials, as well as the engagement of nodes of the response inhibition network during successful response inhibition, and brain regions comprising the salience network during unsuccessful response inhibition. Importantly, despite a lack of behavioural differences, our results showed that younger and older face stimuli modulated activity in the response inhibition and salience networks during successful and unsuccessful inhibition, respectively. Interestingly, these effects were not uniform across networks. During successful response inhibition, in-group stimuli increased activity in medial prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction, whereas out-group stimuli more strongly engaged pre-supplemental motor area. During unsuccessful response inhibition, in-group stimuli increased activity in posterior insula, whereas out-group stimuli more strongly engaged angular gyrus and intraparietal sulcus. Consequently, the results infer the presence of an age-bias effect in the context of inhibitory control, which has substantial implications for future experimental design and may also provide the means of investigating the neural correlates of implicit beliefs that contribute to ageism.

Atypical Mediofrontal Theta Oscillations Underlying Cognitive Control in Kindergarteners With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit deficits in cognitive control. Neuroimaging approaches have implicated disruptions to mediofrontal cortex structure and function. However, previous work is limited in testing whether young children with ASD exhibit disruptions to task-related theta oscillations thought to arise from the mediofrontal cortex. METHODS: Children with ASD (n = 43) and age- and sex-matched typically developing peers (n = 24) at kindergarten entry performed a child-friendly Go/NoGo task while 64-channel electroencephalography was recorded. Time-frequency approaches were employed to assess the magnitude of mediofrontal theta oscillations immediately after error (vs. correct) responses (early theta) as well as later emerging theta oscillations (late theta). We tested whether error-related mediofrontal theta oscillations differed as a function of diagnosis (ASD/typical) and timing (early/late theta). In addition, links to social and academic outcomes were tested. RESULTS: Overall, children showed increased theta power after error versus correct responses. Compared with typically developing children, children with ASD exhibited a selective reduction in error-related mediofrontal theta power during the late time window. There were no significant group differences for early theta power. Moreover, reduced error-related theta power during the late, but not early, time window significantly predicted poorer academic and social skills. CONCLUSIONS: Kindergarteners with ASD demonstrated a selective reduction in error-related mediofrontal theta power during a relatively late time window, which is consistent with impairments in specific cognitive processes that recruit top-down control. Targeting these particular cognitive control processes via intervention prior to school entry may promote more successful functional outcomes for children with ASD.

Spontaneous Expressive Language Profiles in a Clinically Ascertained Sample of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have varying degrees of language impairment across multiple domains, which may include deficits in syntactic, pragmatic, and/or semantic skills. The heterogeneity of language profiles within ASD, coupled with the limited scope of existing standardized language measures, makes a comprehensive assessment of language impairments in ASD challenging. The Observation of Spontaneous Expressive Language (OSEL) is a new measure developed to capture children's spontaneous use of language in a naturalistic setting. The current study used the OSEL to examine the patterns of spontaneous expressive language abilities of 87 clinically ascertained children with ASD from 2 to 12 years. As expected, children with ASD were significantly more impaired in their spontaneous use of language compared to typically developing peers. Syntax and narrative skills continued to increase with age from toddler to elementary school years in cross-sectional comparisons. Pragmatic skills improved form toddler to preschool years but remained stable from preschool to elementary school years. Preliminary data also demonstrated significant improvements in OSEL syntax scores over time for a subset of children followed longitudinally (n = 8). Children with ASD consistently showed more impairments in spontaneous expressive language captured on the OSEL compared to language skills measured by other more structured standardized assessments, despite moderate convergent validity among those measures. Results suggest that impairments in the spontaneous and functional use of expressive language persist into middle childhood for many children with ASD, and a comprehensive assessment approach can lead to more precisely targeted treatment addressing specific language profiles. LAY SUMMARY: This study aimed to examine the variable language profiles in children with ASD. Children with ASD were shown to have impairments in the structure, meaning, and social use of language. These challenges were captured best by a measure that was created to assess the spontaneous use of language in a naturalistic environment. The results of this study emphasize the importance of a comprehensive assessment of language in ASD to inform treatment. Autism Res 2021, 14: 720-732. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.

TBtools: An Integrative Toolkit Developed for Interactive Analyses of Big Biological Data.

The rapid development of high-throughput sequencing techniques has led biology into the big-data era. Data analyses using various bioinformatics tools rely on programming and command-line environments, which are challenging and time-consuming for most wet-lab biologists. Here, we present TBtools (a Toolkit for Biologists integrating various biological data-handling tools), a stand-alone software with a user-friendly interface. The toolkit incorporates over 130 functions, which are designed to meet the increasing demand for big-data analyses, ranging from bulk sequence processing to interactive data visualization. A wide variety of graphs can be prepared in TBtools using a new plotting engine ("JIGplot") developed to maximize their interactive ability; this engine allows quick point-and-click modification of almost every graphic feature. TBtools is platform-independent software that can be run under all operating systems with Java Runtime Environment 1.6 or newer. It is freely available to non-commercial users at https://github.com/CJ-Chen/TBtools/releases.

Neural dynamics of executive function in cognitively able kindergarteners with autism spectrum disorders as predictors of concurrent academic achievement.

Although electrophysiological (electroencephalography) measures of executive functions (e.g. error monitoring) have been used to predict academic achievement in typically developing children, work investigating a link between error monitoring and academic skills in children with autism spectrum disorder is limited. In this study, we employed traditional electrophysiological and advanced time-frequency methods, combined with principal component analyses, to extract neural activity related to error monitoring and tested their relations to academic achievement in cognitively able kindergarteners with autism spectrum disorder. In total, 35 cognitively able kindergarteners with autism spectrum disorder completed academic assessments and the child-friendly "Zoo Game" Go/No-go task at school entry. The Go/No-go task successfully elicited an error-related negativity and error positivity in children with autism spectrum disorder as young as 5 years at fronto-central and posterior electrode sites, respectively. We also observed increased response-related theta power during errors relative to correct trials at fronto-central sites. Both larger error positivity and theta power significantly predicted concurrent academic achievement after controlling for behavioral performance on the Zoo Game and intelligence quotient. These results suggest that the use of time-frequency electroencephalography analyses, combined with traditional event-related potential measures, may provide new opportunities to investigate neurobiological mechanisms of executive function and academic achievement in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Exploring diagnostic validity of the autism diagnostic observation schedule-2 in South Korean toddlers and preschoolers.

This study aims to provide the initial validity of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) Toddler Module and Module 1-2 for South Korean toddlers and preschoolers. Based on 143 children, the ASD group (n = 68) showed significantly higher ADOS-2 item and algorithm total scores as well as social affect and repetitive and restricted behaviors domain scores compared with children with nonspectrum (NS; n = 42) disorders and typically developing (TD; n = 33) children. Using lower algorithm cutoffs, sensitivities were excellent for the ASD versus NS/TD comparisons, ranging from 94% to 100% across different Modules. Specificities varied more, ranging from 82% to 100%. Internal consistency was strong with high item-total correlations (r of 0.6-0.9) and Cronbach's Alphas (all above 0.7). Results demonstrated promising, initial evidence for the validity of the ADOS-2 for South Korean toddlers and preschoolers from 1 to 4 years of age. The ADOS-2 could be implemented, with minimal adaptations, in research and clinical settings in South Korea. This study is one of the first steps toward validating the ADOS-2 in other Eastern countries that are in great need for a valid instrument for the detection of ASD. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1356-1366. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Results of this study demonstrated promising, initial evidence for the validity of a gold standard measure for the diagnosis of autism, the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2), for South Korean toddlers and preschoolers. The ADOS-2 could be implemented, with minimal adaptations, in research and clinical settings in South Korea. This study is one of the first steps toward validating the ADOS-2 in other Eastern countries that are in great need of a valid instrument for the detection of ASD.

Connecting the pieces: uncovering the molecular basis for long-distance communication through plant grafting.

Vascular plants are wired with a remarkable long-distance communication system. This network can span from as little as a few centimeters (or less) in species like Arabidopsis, up to 100 m in the tallest giant sequoia, linking distant organ systems into a unified, multicellular organism. Grafting is a fundamental technique that allows researchers to physically break apart and reassemble the long-distance transport system, enabling the discovery of molecular signals that underlie intraorganismal communication. In this review, we highlight how plant grafting has facilitated the discovery of new long-distance signaling molecules that function in coordinating developmental transitions, abiotic and biotic responses, and cross-species interactions. This rapidly expanding area of research offers sustainable approaches for improving plant performance in the laboratory, the field, the orchard, and beyond.

Vision in water.

The purpose of this study is to determine visual performance in water, including the influence of pupil size. The water environment was simulated by placing goggles filled with saline in front of the eyes with apertures placed at the front of the goggles. Correction factors were determined for the different magnification under this condition in order to estimate vision in water. Experiments were conducted on letter visual acuity (seven participants), grating resolution (eight participants), and grating contrast sensitivity (one participant). For letter acuity, mean loss of vision in water, compared to corrected vision in air, varied between 1.1 log min of arc resolution (logMAR) for a 1 mm aperture to 2.2 logMAR for a 7 mm aperture. The vision in min of arc was described well by a linear relationship with pupil size. For grating acuity, mean loss varied between 1.1 logMAR for a 2 mm aperture to 1.2 logMAR for a 6 mm aperture. Contrast sensitivity for a 2 mm aperture deteriorated as spatial frequency increased with a 2 log unit loss by 3 c/°. Superimposed on this deterioration were depressions (notches) in sensitivity with the first three notches occurring at 0.45, 0.8, and 1.3 c/° with estimates for water of 0.39, 0.70, and 1.13 c/°. In conclusion, vision in water is poor. It becomes worse as pupil size increases, but the effects are much more marked for letter targets than for grating targets.