Loose links: Associations between various early-life factors and later-life diagnoses of autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder appear to be weakening, according to a new study. Children diagnosed with either condition differ from children without these conditions on such factors as birth weight and household income. But an analysis of records from a Danish registry revealed that these differences diminished over the decade studied: 2012 to 2022. The findings suggest that the increase in autism and ADHD prevalence reflect changes in diagnostic practices and specialized health services.
Autism research spotted this week:
“Long-read proteogenomic atlas of human neuronal differentiation reveals isoform diversity informing neurodevelopmental risk mechanisms” Nature Communications
“De novo structural variants in autism spectrum disorder disrupt distal regulatory interactions of neuronal genes” Genome Research
“Autism-risk gene mutations convergently disrupt sexually dimorphic oxytocin circuits to lower social engagement” bioRxiv
“Clinical deep sequencing to diagnose pathogenic mosaic variants in malformations of cortical development and epilepsy” medRxiv
See also: “Patchwork mutations present a new frontier for autism research”