Virtual playmates may help develop social skills in autistic children

Children with autism now have a new friend to play with. Researchers from the Northwestern University are currently developing a program using ‘virtual peers’ – animated children that simulate the behaviors and conversation of typically developing children – to help autistic children develop communication and social skills necessary in real-world interactions. According to Andrea Tartaro, one of the researchers involved in the program, the “overall goal is for the children with autism to generalize the skills they learn in practice sessions with virtual peers into meaningful interactions with real-world children.”

From the program’s initial reports, it was discovered that highly-functioning autistic children aged 7 to 11 interacted slightly better with virtual peers than with real-life children. Researchers therefore aim to use these virtual playmates as models for real life children to expose autistic children to different kinds of social interaction and elicit socially-skilled behavior. They hope that by exposing them to virtual peers, autistic children can “practice the rules behind joining a game, holding a conversation and maintaining social interaction” and overcome the communication and social challenges they often face.

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Autism linked to disruptions in gene responsible for brain connections

Scientists may have discovered another piece of the autism genetic puzzle. According to a study on autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), disruptions in the Contactin 4 gene, which is responsible for helping the brain make connections, may be linked to ASD. As the study’s lead researcher Dr. Eli Hatchwell of Stony Brook University Medical Center suggests, disruptions in the gene (where the child has either three copies or just one copy of the gene when two is normal) accounts for 2.5 percent of autism causes – a significant number considering autism is likely to have a multitude of genetic causes.

The study, which tested 92 patients from 81 families with ASD and 560 without autism, found 3 individuals with disruptions in their Contactin 4 gene. In comparing their DNA with their parents, researchers also discovered that the mutated genes were inherited from the subject’s fathers who had no history of autism, but might have had mild cases of Asperger's syndrome or similar conditions that went undiagnosed. Hatchwell notes, however, that "Autism is a syndrome”, such that “there will be many, many dozens if not hundreds” of different causes for autism.

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Scientists may be one step closer in unraveling the underlying causes of autism with recent studies indicating a link between autism and the mother’s immune system. According to an article in ScienceDaily.org, a research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center suggests that mothers of autistic children may have produced antibodies that crossed the placenta and reacted against the fetus’ brain proteins during pregnancy, causing changes that led to autism. The research was prompted by past evidence of unusual antibody levels in some autistic children, despite the absence of autoimmune diseases, which initiated researchers to hypothesize that the irregularities may be due to maternal antibodies, and not the child’s.

Researchers involved in the study, however, warn that the findings shouldn’t be a cause of alarm. While initial results suggest that maternal antibodies may cause or trigger autism among already predisposed children, its presence during pregnancy does not necessarily mean that the child will be autistic. Nonetheless, the study reveals valuable insights into the complex nature of the disorder and the role that maternal contributions play in early brain development.