Mitochondrial dysfunction has been linked to many psychiatric disorders. Ketogenic diets have been shown to reduce mitochondrial dysfunction and thus may be helpful to patients who suffer from these disorders. In this article, we review the effects of a ketogenic diet in patients with psychiatric disorders such as autism, depression, anxiety, and…

English language readers rarely get glimpses of the state of autism research in China. Given the seriousness of autism, the population of China, and the potential for theoretically interesting cross-cultural insights, we provide a broad survey of research carried out in China on childhood autism. Four themes are considered: etiology, diagnosis,…

Purpose: This study examined use of a speaker's direction of gaze during word learning by boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), boys with nonsyndromic autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and typically developing (TD) boys. Method: A fast-mapping task with follow-in and discrepant labeling conditions was administered. We expected that the use of speaker…

Autism is widely believed to be a heterogeneous disorder; diagnosis is currently based solely on clinical criteria, although genetic, as well as environmental, influences are thought to be prominent factors in the etiology of most forms of autism. Our goal is to determine whether a predictive model based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)…

Childhood obesity has become a problem of epidemic proportions in the United States, but much of the research has focused on prevention and intervention programs, which target the general population of school children. Overlooked in the literature are children with special needs (including autism, genetic disorders, Down syndrome, and Prader-Willi…

The goal of this study is to understand the effective learning of the iPad and the use of the system to assist elementary-age students with learning. The research literature promotes different types of assistive technology used for learning and suggests a few applications to use for the iPad. Four students with autism learned to use an iPad tablet…

This paper reviews the evidence for various biological mechanisms in autism and discusses implications of these mechanisms for treatment. A brief introductory discussion examines the history of research on autism. Then the literature is reviewed and treatment implications are drawn for the following biological mechanisms: genetic disorders;…