Autistic youth display difficulties in emotion recognition, yet little research has examined behavioral and neural indices of vocal emotion recognition (VER). The current study examines behavioral and event-related potential (N100, P200, Late Positive Potential [LPP]) indices of VER in autistic and non-autistic youth. Participants (N = 164)…

Purpose: We investigate the extent to which automated audiovisual metrics extracted during an affect production task show statistically significant differences between a cohort of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing controls. Method: Forty children with ASD and 21 neurotypical controls interacted with a…

In this study we aimed to assess the influence of school-based neurofeedback training on the attention of students with autism and intellectual disabilities. We assessed 24 students of a special education center who attended neurofeedback training sessions during the schoolyear; we also assessed 25 controls from the same center. We used two…

Purpose: Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with facial emotion recognition (FER), which may exacerbate social difficulties in ASD. Few studies have examined whether FER can be experimentally manipulated and improved for autistic people. This study utilized a randomized controlled trial design to examine…

Emotion dysregulation is common among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the relationship between emotion dysregulation and resting heart rate variability (HRV), a marker of the autonomic nervous system, in ASD adolescents. Resting HRV data were collected from ASD (n = 23) and typically developing (TD) adolescents…

Objective: The study involved 17 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), 21 with ADHD, 30 with both (ASD + ADHD), and 28 typically developing children (TD). Methods: The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) was measured as a regional brain function index. Intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) was also analyzed using the region of…

Purpose: Dyadic synchrony is positively associated with social competence. Although children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and children diagnosed with Down Syndrome (DS) both have trouble with dyadic synchrony, the origin of their difficulties is fundamentally different. In this mixed method study, we investigated differences in…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behaviors or interests. Besides behavioral, psychopharmacological and biomedical interventions there is increasing evidence of non-invasive treatments like neurofeedback (NFB) that can improve brain…

Purpose: Major depressive disorder (MDD) disproportionately affects those living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is associated with significant impairment and treatment recidivism. Methods: We studied the use of accelerated theta burst stimulation (ATBS) for the treatment of refractory MDD in ASD (3 treatments daily x 10 days). This…

Recent findings from social attention research suggest direct engagement with others is a necessary condition for the social cognitive development of both autistic children and their typically developing peers. These findings come from studies that have used eye-tracking technology and paradigms for measuring social attention in naturalistic,…

Despite strong evidence in favor of physical activity (PA), adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not meeting established PA guidelines to engage in at least 150 min of moderate to vigorous PA per week. Barriers to daily PA engagement include limited access to health services, transportation, and reduced self-determined motivation.…

Despite the increasing number of studies investigating eye gaze patterns in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during passive viewing of stimuli, few studies have focused on gaze behaviour of people with ASD during active task engagement. Active engagement may cue these individuals to allocate gaze to task-related information and…

Objective: Theory suggests that impaired executive functioning (EF) might explain several symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children. However, only a few studies have examined the efficacy of EF training for the children using randomized control trial designs, and only two of them found significant benefits of the training. Method: We…

Research on attention allocation to social and non-social stimuli in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has produced mixed results, with some studies suggesting that attention allocation is atypical in ASD (e.g., Klin, Jones, Schultz, Vokmar, & Cohen, 2002) and others finding no significant differences in attention allocation patterns when…

Understanding neurocognitive mechanisms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an essential goal of autism research. Studying young children with ASD or other neurodevelopmental conditions in demanding experimental settings, however, can pose many practical and ethical challenges. In this article, we present practical strategies that…