{"title":"Adolescence, Stress and Cortisol in Autism Spectrum Disorders.","authors":"Blythe A Corbett, David Simon","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adolescence, the transition between childhood and adulthood, is a period of remarkable physiological, psychological and social change. A variety of physiological changes coincide with the dynamic transition, which is evident in the regulation and responsivity of the Limbic-Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (LHPA) axis. Specifically, elevations in diurnal basal cortisol levels have been reported, as well as higher cortisol in response to perceived stressors. While this enhanced responsivity may help prepare the individual to adapt to increased demands and new challenges, it may also mark a time of increased vulnerability in populations already prone to enhanced physiological arousal and poor adaption to change, such as autism. To date most studies investigating the integrity of the LHPA axis in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have shown more variable diurnal regulation and a pattern of enhanced responsivity to stress. There is also evidence of more marked reactivity over development suggesting that adolescence may be a time of increased risk for enhanced physiological arousal and social stress. The following review briefly summarizes the literature to date on autism, adolescence and salivary cortisol. The current summary suggests that enhanced study of the interplay between social functioning and stress during the adolescent period in ASD is warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":90028,"journal":{"name":"OA autism","volume":"1 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3961758/pdf/nihms559688.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"32205549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OA autismPub Date : 2013-06-19DOI: 10.13172/2052-7810-1-2-610
Janine M Lasalle
{"title":"Autism genes keep turning up chromatin.","authors":"Janine M Lasalle","doi":"10.13172/2052-7810-1-2-610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13172/2052-7810-1-2-610","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) are complex genetic disorders collectively characterized by impaired social interactions and language as well as repetitive and restrictive behaviors. Of the hundreds of genes implicated in ASD, those encoding proteins acting at neuronal synapses have been most characterized by candidate gene studies. However, recent unbiased genome-wide analyses have turned up a multitude of novel candidate genes encoding nuclear factors implicated in chromatin remodeling, histone demethylation, histone variants, and the recognition of DNA methylation. Furthermore, the chromatin landscape of the human genome has been shown to influence the location of de novo mutations observed in ASD as well as the landscape of DNA methylation underlying neurodevelopmental and synaptic processes. Understanding the interactions of nuclear chromatin proteins and DNA with signal transduction pathways and environmental influences in the developing brain will be critical to understanding the relevance of these ASD candidate genes and continued uncovering of the \"roots\" of autism etiology.</p>","PeriodicalId":90028,"journal":{"name":"OA autism","volume":"1 2","pages":"14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3882126/pdf/nihms535081.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"32012027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OA autismPub Date : 2013-03-01DOI: 10.13172/2052-7810-1-1-348
B. Corbett, David M. Simon
{"title":"Adolescence, Stress and Cortisol in Autism Spectrum Disorders.","authors":"B. Corbett, David M. Simon","doi":"10.13172/2052-7810-1-1-348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13172/2052-7810-1-1-348","url":null,"abstract":"Adolescence, the transition between childhood and adulthood, is a period of remarkable physiological, psychological and social change. A variety of physiological changes coincide with the dynamic transition, which is evident in the regulation and responsivity of the Limbic-Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (LHPA) axis. Specifically, elevations in diurnal basal cortisol levels have been reported, as well as higher cortisol in response to perceived stressors. While this enhanced responsivity may help prepare the individual to adapt to increased demands and new challenges, it may also mark a time of increased vulnerability in populations already prone to enhanced physiological arousal and poor adaption to change, such as autism. To date most studies investigating the integrity of the LHPA axis in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have shown more variable diurnal regulation and a pattern of enhanced responsivity to stress. There is also evidence of more marked reactivity over development suggesting that adolescence may be a time of increased risk for enhanced physiological arousal and social stress. The following review briefly summarizes the literature to date on autism, adolescence and salivary cortisol. The current summary suggests that enhanced study of the interplay between social functioning and stress during the adolescent period in ASD is warranted.","PeriodicalId":90028,"journal":{"name":"OA autism","volume":"1 1 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66278539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}