Frontier mental health research: psychedelics & drug studies

The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R): A Scale to Assist the Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adults: An International Validation Study

Riva Ariella Ritvo, Edward Ritvo, Donald Guthrie, Max J. Ritvo, Demetra Hufnagel, William McMahon, et al.

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders • Summary & key facts • 2010 • 321 citations

Researchers tested the 80-question Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R) in 779 adults at nine centers on three continents. The tool showed large score differences between 201 people with confirmed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and 578 comparison participants, and the authors concluded it is a useful tool to help clinicians…

Eye tracking in early autism research

Terje Falck‐Ytter, Sven Bölte, Gustaf Gredebäck

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders • Summary & key facts • 2013 • 286 citations

This review looked at eye-tracking studies of infants, toddlers, and young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or at risk for ASD. Eye tracking is a non-invasive way to record where children look, and studies show early differences: reduced looking at people and faces and trouble shifting attention can appear…

Socially-induced brain ‘fertilization’: play promotes brain derived neurotrophic factor transcription in the amygdala and dorsolateral frontal cortex in juvenile rats

Nakia S. Gordon, Sharon Burke, Huda Akil, Stanley J. Watson, Jaak Panksepp

Neuroscience Letters • Summary & key facts • 2003 • 108 citations

Researchers studied 32-day-old juvenile rats that were allowed 30 minutes of rough-and-tumble play. Right after play, the rats showed higher levels of BDNF messenger RNA in the amygdala and dorsolateral frontal cortex, measured with in situ hybridization. The authors suggested this could mean play helps shape brain areas tied to…

Identifying features of ‘pathological demand avoidance’ using the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (DISCO)

Elizabeth O’Nions, Judith Gould, Phil Christie, Christopher Gillberg, Essi Viding, Francesca Happé

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry • Summary & key facts • 2015 • 40 citations

The diagnosis of ASD with MRI: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Sjir J. C. Schielen, Jesper Pilmeyer, Albert P. Aldenkamp, Svitlana Zinger

Translational Psychiatry • Summary & key facts • 2024 • 15 citations

This review combined 134 studies (159 experiments) that tried to tell apart people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from healthy controls using resting-state MRI. Across studies the pooled accuracy was moderate: about 76% sensitivity, 75.7% specificity, and an AUC of 0.823. However, the authors say there is a lot of…