Biology subjects

Dinstein, I.

Publications and source records attributed to Dinstein, I..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Sleep problems are associated with hypersensitivity to touch in children with autism

BackgroundSensory abnormalities and sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in children with autism, but the potential relationship between these two domains has rarely been explored. Understanding such relationships is important for identifying children with autism who exhibit more homogeneous symptoms.\n\nMethodsHere we examined this relationship using the Caregiver Sensory Profile and the childrens sleep habit questionnaires, which were completed by parents of 69 children with autism and 62 frequency age-matched controls.\n\nResultsIn line with previous studies, children with autism exhibited more severe sensory abnormalities and sleep disturbances than age-matched controls. The sleep disturbance scores were strongly associated with touch and oral sensitivities in the autism group and with touch and vestibular sensitivities in the control group. Hyper sensitivity towards touch, in particular, exhibited the strongest relationship with sleep disturbances in the autism group and single-handedly explained 24% of the variance in sleep disturbance scores. In contrast, sensitivity in other sensory domains such as vision and audition was not associated with sleep quality in either group.\n\nConclusionsWhile it is often assumed that sensitivities in all sensory domains are similarly associated with sleep problems, our results suggest that hyper sensitivity towards touch exhibits the strongest relationship to sleep disturbances when examining children autism. We speculate that hyper sensitivity towards touch interferes with sleep onset and maintenance in a considerable number of children with autism who exhibit severe sleep disturbances. Studies that examine the effects of tactile sensory therapies/aids on sleep quality and behavioral improvement in these children are, therefore, highly warranted.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

The Negev hospital-university-based (HUB) autism database

Elucidating the heterogeneous etiologies of autism will require investment in comprehensive longitudinal data acquisition from large community based cohorts. With this in mind, we have established a hospital-university-based (HUB) database of autism which incorporates prospective and retrospective data from a large and ethnically diverse population. Here we present initial findings from 188 children who were diagnosed with autism during the first eighteen months of the study. The unique characteristics of this cohort included: significant differences between Bedouin and Jewish children in different risk factors and clinical characteristics; complete birth records for >90% of the children; and a high frequency of consanguineous marriages. Thus, the Negev HUB autism database comprises a remarkably unique resource to study different aspects of autism.

epidemiology↗

bioRxiv2017

No evidence of early head circumference enlargements in children later diagnosed with autism in Israel

BackgroundLarge controversy exists regarding the potential existence and clinical significance of larger brain volumes in toddlers who later develop autism. Assessing this relationship is important for determining the clinical utility of early head circumference (HC) measures and for assessing the validity of the early overgrowth hypothesis of autism, which suggests that early accelerated brain development may be a hallmark of the disorder\n\nMethodWe performed a retrospective comparison of HC, height, and weight measurements between 66 toddlers who were later diagnosed with autism and 66 matched controls. These toddlers represent an unbiased regional sample from a single health service provider in the southern district of Israel. Using 4-12 measurements between birth and the age of two, we were able to characterize individual HC, height, and weight development with high precision and fit a negative exponential growth model to the data of each toddler with exceptional accuracy\n\nResultsThe analyses revealed that HC sizes and growth rates were not significantly larger in toddlers with autism even when stratifying the autism group based on verbal capabilities at the time of diagnosis. In addition, there were no significant correlations between ADOS scores at the time of diagnosis and HC at any time-point during the first two years of life\n\nConclusionsThese negative results add to accumulating evidence, which suggest that brain volume is not necessarily larger in toddlers who develop autism. While early brain overgrowth may characterize specific individuals with autism, it is not likely to represent a common etiology of the entire autism population

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Toddlers later diagnosed with autism exhibit multiple structural abnormalities in temporal corpus callosum fibers

Interhemispheric functional connectivity abnormalities are often reported in autism and it is thus not surprising that structural defects of the corpus callosum (CC) are consistently found using both traditional MRI and DTI techniques. Past DTI studies however, have subdivided the CC into 2 or 3 segments without regard for where fibers may project to within the cortex, thus placing limitations on our ability to understand the nature, timing and neurobehavioral impact of early CC abnormalities in autism. Leveraging a unique cohort of 97 toddlers (68 autism; 29 typical) we utilized a novel technique that identified seven CC tracts according to their cortical projections. Results revealed that younger (<2.5 years old), but not older toddlers with autism exhibited abnormally low mean, radial, and axial diffusivity values in the CC tracts connecting the occipital lobes and the temporal lobes. Fractional anisotropy and the cross sectional area of the temporal CC tract were significantly larger in young toddlers with autism. These findings indicate that water diffusion is more restricted and unidirectional in the temporal CC tract of young toddlers who develop autism. Such results may be explained by a potential overabundance of small caliber axons generated by excessive prenatal neural proliferation as proposed by previous genetic, animal model, and postmortem studies of autism. Furthermore, early diffusion measures in the temporal CC tract of the young toddlers were correlated with outcome measures of autism severity at later ages. These findings regarding the potential nature, timing, and location of early CC abnormalities in autism add to accumulating evidence, which suggests that altered inter-hemispheric connectivity, particularly across the temporal lobes, is a hallmark of the disorder.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Individual movement variability magnitudes are predicted by cortical neural variability

Humans exhibit considerable motor variability even across trivial reaching movements. This variability can be separated into specific kinematic components such as extent and direction, which are thought to be governed by distinct neural processes. Here, we report that individual subjects exhibit different magnitudes of kinematic variability, which are consistent (within individual) across movements to different targets and regardless of which arm (right or left) was used to perform the movements. Simultaneous fMRI recordings revealed that the same subjects also exhibited different magnitudes of fMRI variability across movements in a variety of motor system areas. These fMRI variability magnitudes were also consistent across movements to different targets when performed with either arm. Cortical fMRI variability in the posterior-parietal cortex of individual subjects predicted their movement-extent variability. This relationship was apparent only in posterior-parietal cortex and not in other motor system areas, thereby suggesting that individuals with more variable movement preparation exhibit larger kinematic variability. We, therefore, propose that neural and kinematic variability are reliable and interrelated individual characteristics that may predispose individual subjects to exhibit distinct motor capabilities.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2016

Trial-by-trial neural variability is a stable individual trait of adult humans

Numerous studies have shown that neural activity in sensory cortices is remarkably variable over time and across trials even when subjects are presented with an identical repeating stimulus or task. This trial-by-trial neural variability is relatively large in the pre-stimulus period and considerably smaller (quenched) following stimulus presentation. Previous studies have suggested that the magnitude of neural variability affects behavior such that perceptual performance is better on trials and in individuals where variability quenching is larger. To what degree are neural variability magnitudes of individual subjects flexible or static? Here, we used EEG recordings from adult humans to demonstrate that neural variability magnitudes in visual cortex are remarkably consistent across different tasks and recording sessions. While magnitudes of neural variability differed dramatically across individual subjects, they were surprisingly stable across four tasks with different stimuli, temporal structures, and attentional/cognitive demands as well as across experimental sessions separated by one year. These experiments reveal that, in adults, neural variability magnitudes are mostly solidified individual characteristics that change little with task or time, and are likely to predispose individual subjects to exhibit distinct behavioral capabilities.\n\nSignificance statementBrain activity varies dramatically from one moment to the next. Recent research has revealed that humans exhibit different magnitudes of trial-by-trial neural variability, which explain differences in their perceptual performance. How stable are neural variability magnitudes over time and across tasks? Here, subjects performed four different experiments in two experimental sessions separated by one year. The results revealed that neural variability magnitudes were remarkably consistent over time and across tasks, suggesting that the magnitude of neural variability is a solidified neural characteristic that may predispose individual subjects to exhibit different behavioral capabilities.

neuroscience↗