Stem-Skilled Parents and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Offspring: A Case-Control Study

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopment disorder characterised by a range of deficits in two specific domains: social communication and social interaction and repetitive patterns of behaviour. Several studies have explored the link between ASD and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or other mathematics-grounded disciplines), but results are still uncertain. Objective of the study was to estimate the potential role of systemising abilities in parents as a risk factor for ASD in the offspring, using the achievement of a degree in STEM disciplines as a proxy characteristic of the exposure. There were 1,316 participants overall. There were 658 incident consecutive cases of definite ASD, diagnosed in a Reference Centre for ASD in Italy, from 2001 to 2020. The main exposure variable was parental education level. The risk of ASD in the offspring associated with the main exposure variable and the exposure covariates (e.g. use of neurotropic drugs during the first trimester of the mother’s pregnancy, perinatal outcomes of participants and/or preterm birth) was studied by using conditional logistic regression analysis. In addition, we carried out a mediation analysis to investigate whether and the extent to which covariates significantly associated with ASD risk mediate the relationship between parental education level and ASD in offspring. A STEM degree in parents was significantly associated with risk of ASD in offspring (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.03-2.54). Familiarity was weakly associated with the risk of ASD (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.00-1.66) and is the stronger mediator (PME 28%). Sensitivity analysis did not show deviations related to gender or ASD level. Our study moves in the direction of confirming the risk of occurrence of ASD in the offspring of parents with elevated systemising abilities

Diagnostic assessment, therapeutic care and education pathways in persons with autism spectrum disorder in transition from childhood to adulthood: the Italian National Ev.A Longitudinal Project

Introduction. The transition from childhood to adulthood is one of the main critical points in the network of services for taking care of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Within the framework of the national research programs on autism, an exploratory longitudinal multicentre study was conducted. This research program, called “Ev.A Project (Developmental and Adult Age)”, was proposed by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS) and the aim was the development and testing of a diagnostic, therapeutic, assistance and educational pathway (PDTAE) for autism. Aim. The present study aimed to evaluate two impact outcomes of the care protocol: the response obtained by the ASD person, and the perception of the change in the family context. Methods. Participants underwent an initial clinical evaluation and then after one year. Over the course of the year, participants undertook a program of intervention. The measures of adaptive functioning, need for support, psychiatric symptomatology and family quality of life were used for the outcome assessment. Linear mixed models were constructed for each measure to estimate the explanatory/predictive behavior of the intensity of the interventions, adjusted for the participant’s level of symptom severity. Results. The results estimate a main effect of Intervention Group (b=-27.22, p<0.001) and severity level (b=-41.87, p<0.001) on the adaptive functioning of the ASD person, but no effect on performance on the dimension of Family Quality of Life (b=0.523, p=0.455). Conclusions. The most significant predictor of the impact on the ASD person is the activation of the service network, which must take into account the level of severity of the presented symptoms

Psychopathological factors and personality dimensions on dysfunctional eating behaviors in a sample of individuals with obesity

IntroductionObesity and eating disorders are considered to be part of a broad spectrum of disorders associated with weight issues and maladaptive eating styles. Several studies show that psychopathological and personality characteristics contribute to the development and maintenance of obesity and dysfunctional eating behaviors, showing a bidirectional relationship. The purpose of this study was to understand the role of psychopathological factors and personality dimensions on dysfunctional eating behaviors in a sample of individuals with obesity.MethodsThe study was conducted with 96 individuals with obesity (31 males and 65 females) who underwent psychological assessment. The instruments administered included the Cognitive Behavioral Assessment 2.0 - Primary Scales, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, and the Eating Disorder Inventory. Relationships between dysfunctional eating behaviors and personality and psychopathological factors were explored through mediation analysis.Results and discussionOur results showed that difficulties related to impulse control and behavior, along with negative and dysphoric emotions, may be associated with difficulties in eating behavior. Mediation analysis showed that the combination of depressive and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology may exacerbate or contribute to the occurrence of eating disorders. These psychopathological aspects should be taken into account during the assessment of patients who decide to undergo bariatric surgery and should be targets of specific psychological interventions

Evaluation of aesthetic pleasure in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, using the eye-tracking methodology

Aesthetic perception plays a significant role in social behavior. The ability to recognize and perceive beauty is important for social situations in that it can create different expectations about human behav- ior. It has been hypothesized that the aesthetic experience is characterized by emotional and hedonic responses to the stimuli. People with schizophrenia are characterized by the presence of negative symp- toms, such as anhedonia, which affect daily social functioning. We explored the idea that the presence of anhedonia and an impairment in the subjective experience of pleasure in people with schizophrenia could play a key role, affecting their ability to experience and perceive aesthetic pleasure and, conse- quently, negatively affecting their social behavior. We evaluated the ability to perceive aesthetics aes- thetic perception ability in people with schizophrenia (schizophrenia group, SG) compared to a control group (CG), using the golden beauty behavioral task, which requires subjects to judge the proportions and aesthetics of masterpieces of classical art. Gazing behavior was also recorded while performing the task using eye-tracker methodology. Our results showed that the SG did not present different behaviors between stimuli types, while the CG evaluated canonical sculptures as more pleasant and fixed them longer. The SG\u2019s subjective aesthetic experience of canonical stimuli seems to be affected by their awareness of cognitive issues, evaluated by the Subjective Scale to Investigate Cognition in Schizophrenia (SSTICS), and thus these dimensions could be important aspects of their altered aesthetic experience