Children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) exhibit impaired ability to process and understand emotions in others. We measured structural connectivity in children and adolescents with 22q11.2DS (n = 28) and healthy controls (n = 29). Compared to controls, those with 22q11.2DS had poorer social skills and more difficulty…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous condition associated with differences in functional neural connectivity relative to neurotypical (NT) peers. Language-based functional connectivity represents an ideal context in which to characterize connectivity because language is heterogeneous and linked to core features in ASD, and NT language…

Thirteen autistic teens, who were predominantly Latinx, completed the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), a 16-week social skills intervention. Time-frequency decomposition was calculated using advanced electroencephalographic techniques to measure oscillatory brain activity during reward anticipation and…

School-going individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face challenges in educational settings, including reduced academic performance, motor- and social skills. Embodied cognition (EC), which emphasises the significant role of the body in human cognition, encompasses aspects such as motor control, non-verbal communication, and memory.…

This triple-arm, double-blind, randomized clinical trial investigated the effect of multisession prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on social functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 105 individuals (age 14-21 years) diagnosed with ASD were randomized into the active-tDCS, sham-tDCS, and…

Autism spectrum disorders and Williams syndrome exhibit quite opposite features in the social domain, but also share some common underlying behavioral and cognitive deficits. It is not clear, however, which genes account for the attested differences (and similarities) in the socio-cognitive domain. In this article, we adopted a comparative…

Empathy and executive functions (EFs) are multimodal constructs that enable individuals to cope with their environment. Both abilities develop throughout childhood and are known to contribute to social behavior and academic performance in young adolescents. Notably, mentalizing and EF activate shared frontotemporal brain areas, which in previous…

Interest in the applications of mindfulness practice in education is growing in the scientific community. Recent research has shown that mindfulness practice in schools may be beneficial for executive functions (EFs) which are abilities crucial for healthy development. The study of the effects of mindfulness practices on children's neural…

A common example of social differences in autism spectrum disorder is poor modulation of reciprocal gaze, including reduced duration of eye contact and difficulty detecting the aim of another's gaze. It remains unclear, however, whether such differences are specific to the social domain, or are instead indicative of broader alterations in…

Purpose: Investigations into the nature of communication disorders in autistic individuals increasingly evaluate neural responses to speech stimuli. This integrative review aimed to consolidate the available data related to speech and language processing across levels of stimulus complexity (from single speech sounds to sentences) and to relate it…

The issues experienced by general teachers (GT) in instruction in an inclusive classroom in primary school are the difficulty of designing effective instructional strategies that can meet all students' needs with various uniqueness. This research investigates GTs' experiences of the brain's natural learning systems-based instructional approach in…

School communities in both urban and rural settings need trauma-informed (TI) supports; however, the adversities experienced and access to student supports may be unique to rural school communities. In addition, the contextual challenges experienced by rural schools and communities, as well as the strengths that can be drawn from them, will…