NASET News Alert

$4.37 Million in Grants Awarded for Training Highly Qualified Personnel in Special Education

Wednesday 02. of July 2008

The U.S. Department of Education today announced the award of $4.37 million in grants to universities in 14 states to help train doctoral, post-doctoral and other graduate students to work with children with disabilities. Under the Preparation of Leadership Program, the grants will help children with disabilities by training doctoral and post-doctoral students in early intervention, special education or related services. Some money will also be used to prepare master's degree students for special education administration and supervision. "We hope to build a corps of highly qualified personnel to help children with disabilities reach their academic potential," said U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. "Research has consistently suggested that there is a persistent need for additional special education and related services personnel who have been trained at the doctoral and post-doctoral levels. These experts can play a critical role in improving the quality of services for children with disabilities and their families." 

To read more, click here:
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/07/07012008b.html

Tune-Deaf People May Hear a Sour Note Unconsciously

Wednesday 11. of June 2008

Findings Could Help Scientists Study Consciousness

People with tune deafness aren’t able to tell when a musician accidentally strikes the wrong note in a song, but their brains know the difference. Researchers from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, have found that people with tune deafness, an auditory processing disorder in which a person with normal hearing has trouble distinguishing notes in a melody, are able to detect a wrong note unconsciously. The study is published in the June 11, 2008, issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.

Because tune deafness is a commonly occurring phenomenon that is largely inherited, the study of this disorder could enable scientists to use the tools of genetic research to better understand the differences between conscious and unconscious thought.

Neuroscientists have long been baffled by what separates the state of consciousness from unconsciousness. Other sensory disorders have been identified in which the brain perceives a stimulus outside of conscious awareness. However, because these disorders are typically caused by damage to the brain, there is an inconsistency in data from one patient to the next and researchers have difficulty finding a sufficient number of volunteer patients for clinical trials.

“The prevalence of tune deafness is surprisingly high—perhaps as much as 2 percent of the population is tune deaf—and it exists in an otherwise normal, uninjured brain,” said James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIDCD.

“These factors, combined with the fact that tune deafness is largely genetic in origin, now raises the possibility of using tune deafness as a new way to study consciousness.”

A person who is tune deaf is unable to perceive pitch, reproduce melodies, or identify deviations in a melody. According to geneticist Dennis Drayna, Ph.D., one of the study authors, not only is music not enjoyable for people with tune deafness, many of them don’t fully understand what music is. “For severely affected tune-deaf people, Yankee Doodle is no different than traffic noise in Manhattan. It’s fairly meaningless to them,” he said.

Dr. Drayna worked closely with neuroimaging scientist Allen Braun, M.D., and others in NIDCD’s Division of Intramural Research to randomly screen 1,218 individuals using an online version of the Distorted Tunes Test. The Distorted Tunes Test is a standardized survey that tests a person’s ability to identify whether or not a short melody is played correctly. (The online version, which was created by Dr. Drayna, can be found on the NIDCD Web site: www.nidcd.nih.gov/tunetest/.) The researchers then selected those volunteers who scored in the bottom 10 percent, screened them for hearing loss and other factors, and arrived at seven subjects with severe tune deafness who were otherwise medically normal and were willing to take part in the study. Ten healthy control subjects who performed normally on the Distorted Tunes Test also took part in the study.

Dr. Braun, Joseph McArdle, Ph.D., and others then used electroencephalography (EEG), a brain imaging technique that places electrodes around a person’s head and measures the electrical impulses of millions of neurons in the brain, to study these subjects further. The researchers measured the volunteers’ responses as they listened to an altered version of the Distorted Tunes Test in which the incorrect melodies had a single wrong note at the end. Volunteers listened to 102 familiar melodies, roughly half of which were correct, and half of which contained the errant last note. The researchers then sifted through the EEG data to isolate the brain’s response to a specific stimulus—in this case, the right or wrong note.

Of principal interest were two signals that brains normally generate when they are presented with a stimulus that doesn’t match what the brain expects to hear, such as the wrong note in a song. The first, the mismatch negativity (MMN), is a large negative signal that occurs roughly 200 milliseconds after the unexpected stimulus is heard; the second signal, the P300, is a large positive signal occurring roughly 300 milliseconds after the unexpected stimulus.

Because tune-deaf people consistently don’t recognize when a wrong note is played or sung, the researchers hypothesized that their brains would not generate the MMN or P300 signals, and as expected, this was true for the MMN signal. However, in the case of the P300 signal, tune-deaf volunteers were processing the wrong note in the same way as the normal participants, even though they weren’t consciously aware of the deviation. Other brain signals demonstrated that correct notes were being processed equally well for both tune-deaf and normal volunteers.

As for how a brain can register a wrong note without the person being aware of it, the researchers explain that the MMN and P300 signals are generated in different parts of the brain. The MMN is generated near the primary auditory cortex, in the brain’s temporal lobe, while the P300 is generated in the frontoparietal cortex, downstream from the auditory cortex. Normal brains process sounds in a series, with the frontal and parietal cortices receiving signals that have already been processed in the auditory cortex. In someone with tune deafness, however, the direct route for processing the wrong note may be disrupted, and signals are possibly being routed to the two regions through parallel pathways independent of each other. In this way, information about a wrong note may not be reaching the auditory cortex at all, while information reaching the frontoparietal cortex is not consciously perceived.

The researchers hope to conduct studies to better pinpoint the locations from which the MMN and P300 signals originate in the brain. In addition, the researchers will continue to pursue genetic studies on the causes of tune deafness which, if found, could help them and others grapple with the very puzzling notion of consciousness at the cellular and molecular level.

NIDCD supports and conducts research and research training on the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and language and provides health information, based upon scientific discovery, to the public. For more information about NIDCD programs, see the Web site at www.nidcd.nih.gov.

NIH REVEALS FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PREMATURE INFANT SURVIVAL, DISABILITY

Thursday 17. of April 2008

Based on observations of more than 4,000 infants, researchers in a National Institute of Health (NIH) newborn research network have identified several factors that influence an extremely low birth weight infant's chances for survival and disability. The findings offer new information to physicians and families considering the most appropriate treatment options for this category of infants.

Every day, physicians and new parents must struggle with the type of care to provide to extremely low birth weight infants, the smallest, most frail category of preterm infants. These infants are born in the 22nd through the 25th week of pregnancy -- far earlier than the 40 weeks of a full term pregnancy. Many die soon after birth, despite the best attempts to save them, including the most sophisticated newborn intensive care available. Some survive and reach adulthood, relatively unaffected. The rest will experience some degree of life long disability, ranging from minor hearing loss to blindness, to cerebral palsy, to profound intellectual disability.

The study authors referred to the issue of providing intensive care for extremely low birth weight infants. For example, physicians and family members may be reluctant to expose an infant to painful life support procedures if the infant is unlikely to survive. In such cases, they may opt for "comfort care," which provides for an infant's basic needs, but foregoes painful medical procedures. In deciding the kind of care to provide, specialists at intensive care facilities traditionally have relied heavily on an infant's gestational age -- the week of pregnancy a premature infant is born. Gestational age is known to play a large role in the infant's survival. For this reason, in many facilities, intensive care is likely to be routinely given to infants born in the 25th week of pregnancy, whereas infants born in the 22nd week may be more likely to receive comfort care.

The study authors noted, however, that it is often difficult to assess gestational age. Moreover, an estimate that is inaccurate by only a week could result in an infant receiving care that was not appropriate for his or her individual case. To identify other factors that influenced survival and disability risk, the study authors observed more than 4,000 extremely low birth weight infants in their network.

The researchers published their findings in the April 17 "New England Journal of Medicine". In addition to gestational age, factors influencing survival and risk of disability consisted of: whether the baby is male or female (sex); birthweight; whether the baby was a single baby, or one of two or more infants born; and whether the baby's mother was given medication during pregnancy to prompt the development of the baby's lungs. Known as antenatal steroids, these drugs are typically given to women in premature labor, or who are at known risk for giving birth prematurely.

Physicians and parents may access an online tool that generates statistics, based on the factors the researchers listed in their article, at <http://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/org/cdbpm/pp/prog_epbo/>. By specifying the baby's sex, weight, and information related to each of the variables listed above, physicians and family members can generate composite statistics on infant outcomes, based on the experiences of extremely low birthweight infants in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network study. The Web tool is not a substitute for a physician's careful assessment, but physicians and families may find the statistics it generates useful when considering the most appropriate care to provide an infant.

"Every individual is different, and no single tool can precisely predict a given baby's chances of survival or disability," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH Institute that supports the Neonatal Research Network. "However, the researchers' findings, and the tool they developed, provide important information that physicians and family members can consult to help them make the most informed treatment decisions possible."

Additional funding for the study was provided by NIH's National Center for Research Resources.

The study involved only infants born at level III neonatal intensive care facilities. For this reason, the study findings may not apply to infants born at level I and level II facilities.

Level III facilities are the most advanced of neonatal care facilities. They offer the highly specialized medical care that extremely low birth weight infants need to survive. Most extremely low birth weight infants are born in level III facilities, as it is routine practice to rush women likely to give birth prematurely to level III facilities. However, in some cases, a woman may give birth before she can be brought to a level III facility. These infants are typically cared for at level I and II facilities until they are stable enough to transport to a level III facility.

To conduct their analysis, researchers in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network observed 4,446 infants born at 22-25 weeks' gestational age at hospitals around the United States, explained the NICHD co-author of the study, Rosemary Higgins, M.D., the program scientist for the NICHD Neonatal Research Network. Dr. Higgins explained that extremely low birthweight infants (those weighing less than 1,000 grams, or 2.2 pounds) make up about 1 percent of babies born in the United States each year, or roughly 40,000 babies a year.

Using standardized measures of mental development, vision, and hearing, the researchers assessed the health status of surviving infants when the infants were from 18 to 22 months corrected age -- the age they would have been, had they been born full term. Dr. Higgins said that 49 percent of the infants in the study had died, 21 percent lived and did not have a disability, while the remainder experienced some degree of disability.

After conducting mathematical analyses of all the infants' cases, the researchers determined that infants were more likely to survive -- and more likely to survive without disability -- if they were of older gestational age, their mothers had been given corticosteroids, if they were female, were single born rather than part of a multiple birth, and been of a higher birthweight.

"Many neonatal intensive care units base treatment decisions mainly on gestational age," said Dr. Higgins. "We found that it's much more accurate if the assessment is based on the combination of 5 factors, rather than just on gestational age."

Dr. Higgins added that it is often difficult to accurately estimate gestational age, and a preterm infant may be as much as a week or two younger, or older, than believed.

She noted that the researchers found that race appeared to play no role in subsequent survival or chances of disability.

She stressed that the study data could not be used to predict with certainty the outcome of individual cases.

"A lot of medicine is a judgment call," Dr. Higgins said. "We provided our data in the hope that it would be helpful for making the best judgments for a particular situation."

A video interview with Dr. Higgins in which she provides additional information about the study and the online tool is available at <http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/resources/links/neonatal/>.

The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute's Web site at <http://www.nichd.nih.gov/>.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- is comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.

U.S. Government Concedes First Vaccine-Autism Case

Tuesday 04. of March 2008

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently conceded the first vaccine-autism case.

The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff's identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case.  It was one of the first three cases chosen that alleged Thimerosal in childhood vaccines significantly contributed to a child developing autism.
The claim, one of 4,900 autism cases currently pending in Federal "Vaccine Court," was conceded by US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and other Justice Department officials, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, the "defendant" in all Vaccine Court cases.

The child's claim against the government -- that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism -- was supposed to be one of three "test cases" for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration by a three-member panel of Special Masters, the presiding justices in Federal Claims Court.

To read more on this case, visit:
http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/health/vaccinations/news.php?q=1204240359

THIN BONES SEEN IN BOYS WITH AUTISM AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Tuesday 29. of January 2008

Results of an study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center suggest that dairy-free diets and unconventional food preferences could put boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at higher than normal risk for thinner, less dense bones when compared to a group of boys the same age who do not have autism. The study was published online in the "Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders".
 
The researchers believe that boys with autism and ASD are at risk for poor bone development for a number of reasons. These factors are lack of exercise, a reluctance to eat a varied diet, lack of vitamin D, digestive problems, and diets that exclude casein, a protein found in milk and milk products. Dairy products provide a significant source of calcium and vitamin D. Casein-free diets are a controversial treatment thought by some to lessen the symptoms of autism.
 
Funding for the study was provided by the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and National Center for Research Resources. The research team that conducted the study was led by Mary L. Hediger, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist in NICHD's Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research.
 
"Our results suggest that children with autism and autism spectrum disorder may be at risk for calcium and vitamin D deficiencies," Dr. Hediger said. "Parents of these children may wish to include a dietitian in their children's health care team, to ensure that they receive a balanced diet."
 
Dr. Hediger stressed that the current study results need to be confirmed by larger studies. Until definitive information is available, however, it would be prudent for parents of children with autism and ASD to include a dietitian in their care, particularly if the children's diets do not include dairy products or they are not otherwise eating a balanced diet, she said.
 
Because girls are much less likely to have autism or ASD than are boys, the researchers were unable to enroll a sufficient number of girls within the short time frame of the study to allow them to draw firm conclusions. Dr. Hediger added that if a girl with autism or ASD is not eating diary products or eating a balanced diet, it would be prudent for a dietitian to be included in her health care team.
 
Autism is a complex brain disorder involving communication and social difficulties as well as repetitive behavior or narrow interests. Autism is often grouped with similar disorders, which are often referred to collectively as autism spectrum disorders. The underlying causes of autism and ASD are unclear. There is no cure for the disorders and treatments are limited.
 
When the boys were enrolled in the study, the researchers asked the boys' parents if the boys were taking over-the-counter or prescription medications, were taking any vitamin or mineral supplements, or were on a restricted diet.
 
During the study, researchers X-rayed the hands of 75 boys between the ages of 4 and 8 years old who had been diagnosed with autism or ASD. The researchers then measured the thickness of the bone located between the knuckle of the index finger and the wrist and compared its development to a standardized reference based on a group of boys without autism.
 
Dr. Hediger said that the research team measured cortical bone thickness. She added that this procedure was done as a substitute for a conventional bone scan, which measures bone density. Bone density is an indication of bones' mineral content. Less dense bones may indicate a risk of bone fracture.
 
The researchers used the measure of bone thickness because many of the boys were unable to remain still long enough for the conventional scan, which requires individuals to lie immobile for an extended period of time. To successfully complete the bone scan, many of the boys would have required sedation -- a step the researchers were reluctant to take for an early study.
 
The hand X-ray, Dr. Hediger explained, offers an approximate indication of bone density. She added, however, that because the researchers were unable to use a conventional bone scan, the results of the current study should be confirmed by additional studies using conventional bone scans.
 
The investigators found that the bones of the boys with autism were growing longer but were not thickening at a normal rate. During normal bone development, material from inside the bone is transferred to the outside of the bone, increasing thickness, while at the same time, the bones are also growing longer.
 
At 5 or 6 years of age, the bones of the autistic boys were significantly thinner than the bones of boys without autism and the difference in bone thickness became even greater at ages 7 and 8.
 
The bone thinning was particularly notable because the boys with autism and ASD were heavier than average and would therefore be expected to have thicker bones.
 
The researchers do not know for certain why the boys had thinner than normal bones. A possible explanation is lack of calcium and vitamin D in their diets. Dr. Hediger explained that a deficiency of these important nutrients in the boys' diets could result from a variety of causes. Many children with autism, she said, have aversions to certain foods. Some will insist on eating the same foods nearly every day, to the exclusion of other foods. So while they may consume enough calories to meet their needs -- or even more calories than they need -- they may lack certain nutrients, like calcium and vitamin D.
 
Other children with autism may have digestive problems which interfere with the absorption of nutrients. Moreover, many children with autism remain indoors because they require supervision during outdoor activity. Lack of exercise hinders proper bone development, she said. Similarly, if children remain indoors and are not exposed to sunlight, they may not make enough vitamin D, which is needed to process calcium into bones.
 
The boys in the study who were on a casein-free diet had the thinnest bones. In fact, the 9 boys who were on a casein-free diet had bones that were 20 percent thinner than normal for children their age. Boys who were not on a casein-free diet showed a 10 percent decrease in bone thickness when compared to boys with normal bone development.
 
The study authors wrote that bone development of children on casein-free diets should be monitored very carefully. They noted that studies of casein-free diets had not proven the diets to be effective in treating the symptoms of autism or ASD.
 
Only 9 boys on casein-free diets were available to participate in the study, Dr. Hediger said. When conducting a scientific study, it's easier to obtain statistically valid results by studying a larger number of individuals than with a smaller number of individuals. However, the dramatic difference in the boys' bone thickness when they were either on a casein-free diet or an unrestricted diet and when compared to normally developing bones strongly suggest that the bone thinning the researchers observed was statistically valid.
 
The researchers recommended that larger studies be conducted to confirm their results.
 
Until those studies can be conducted, Dr. Hediger offered the following advice: "Our study shows that it couldn't hurt -- and would probably help -- if parents of children with autism or autism spectrum disorder consulted with a dietitian during their children's routine medical care to make sure that their diets are balanced."
 
General information about autism and ASD is available from the NICHD's Web site, at <http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/autism/overview/index.cfm>.

Scientists Can Predict Psychotic Illness in up to 80 Percent of High-Risk Youth

Monday 07. of January 2008

The National Institute of Mental Health reported today that youth who are going to develop psychosis can be identified before their illness becomes full-blown 35 percent of the time if they meet widely accepted criteria for risk, but that figure rises to 65 to 80 percent if they have certain combinations of risk factors, the largest study of its kind has shown. Knowing what these combinations are can help scientists predict who is likely to develop the illnesses within two to three years with the same accuracy that other kinds of risk factors can predict major medical diseases, such as diabetes.

Plans for studies to confirm the results, a necessary step before the findings can be considered for use with patients in health-care settings, are underway.
The research was conducted in youth with a median age of 16 and was funded primarily by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. Results were published in the January 7, 2008, issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry by lead researchers Tyrone D. Cannon, Ph.D., of the University of California Los Angeles, and Robert Heinssen, Ph.D., of NIMH, with colleagues from seven other research facilities.

The combinations of factors that predicted psychosis included:

"When teens have a dive in grades or drop out of the school band, and it happens against a backdrop of family history of schizophrenia and recent troubling changes in perception — like hearing nondistinct buzzing or crackling sounds, or seeing fleeting images that disappear with a second glance — more often than not it indicates that psychosis is fairly imminent," Cannon said.

If participants had an unrealistic belief that they were being followed, for example, but could be shown that their troubling thoughts were unfounded, the researchers considered them as having a risk factor, but not yet psychosis. But if the participants' sense of being followed became unshakable, despite evidence to the contrary, or became disabling, the researchers considered them as having crossed a threshold to psychosis.

Research shows that intervention during the early stages of psychosis improves outcomes, but it is not yet clear if even earlier intervention, before a psychotic illness develops, is effective.

"Having this more accurate ability to measure who's likely to develop psychosis will be a great asset. Identifying young people in need of intervention is crucial, but the results of this research can help us do more than that. It can eventually help us determine the most effective time to intervene," said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.

Researchers from the facilities that conducted the study used similar criteria and techniques to evaluate 291 high-risk youth, about three times as many as had been evaluated in any previous study of this kind. In addition to being smaller, earlier studies had used different criteria and measuring techniques from one another, which clouded the picture and resulted in only moderate accuracy in predicting psychotic illness.

In this study, a total of 35 percent of participants with at least one risk factor developed a psychotic illness within the 30-month study timeframe. However, when researchers broke the data down further, they found that the youth who had two or three additional risk factors developed psychosis at a rate of 68 to 80 percent, depending on which risk factors were combined.

A separate group of 134 healthy people with no known risk factors for psychosis served as a control group, for comparison. None of them developed a psychotic illness.

Researchers also found that the youth who progressed to a psychotic disorder tended to do so relatively quickly. Twenty-two percent developed psychosis within the first year of follow-up, an additional 11 percent by the end of the second year, and 3 percent more by two-and-a-half years (adding up to the total percentage of people — 35 percent — who developed psychosis in this study).

"The message here is that once we identify people as being high risk, we have a very good chance of knowing whether or not they're likely to develop a serious mental disorder like schizophrenia and that, if they do, it will happen fairly quickly. That's such a critical window of opportunity for getting them the help they need," said Heinssen.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) mission is to reduce the burden of mental and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain, and behavior. More information is available at the NIMH website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Reference:
Cannon TD, Cadenhead K, Cornblatt B, Woods SW, Addington J, Walker E, Seidman LJ, Perkins D, Tsuang M, McGlashan T, Heinssen R. Prediction of Psychosis in High Risk Youth: A Multi-Site Longitudinal Study in North America. Archives of General Psychiatry. January 7, 2008.

Latest Research on Assessment and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Now Available

Thursday 13. of December 2007

The National Dissemination Center for Students with Disabilities (NICHCY) has provided NASET its' latest Evidence for Education brief, Assessment and Accommodations.

Assessment and Accommodations examines what the research has to say about providing students with disabilities with accommodations that support learning as well as their ability to show what they know and can do. NICHCY has included multiple examples of accommodations, guidelines to help IEP teams decide what accommodations a student needs, connections to Federal guidance and requirements on this important topic, and links that will help you identify what accommodation policies your state has adopted to guide participation of children with disabilities in large-scale assessments.

Assessment and Accommodations is available online at:
http://research.nichcy.org/accommodations1.asp

or 

Download a PDF file:  CLICK HERE

Statement by USDOE on the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) Results

Thursday 29. of November 2007

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) today released the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). This assessment, focusing on students' reading comprehension and literacy, was administered to a random sampling of approximately 5,000 4th graders from across the United States. The results were then compared to students in more than 45 countries and subnational systems (e.g., Canadian provinces). The last PIRLS assessment was administered in 2001.

Following the release of the 2006 PIRLS results, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today made the following statement:

The results of this report indicate that our strong commitment to academic excellence is more important than ever.

Although our nation's 4th graders rank above the international average in reading performance on the PIRLS assessment, the U.S. score has not changed measurably from 2001. While we're seeing progress under No Child Left Behind, we can do better. If we want to sustain America's position as an economic power and innovative leader, our students must master the fundamentals.
PIRLS is just one piece of data we use to determine how our students compare with their international peers. U.S. educators and policymakers rely on other assessments, such as the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), to advise on student performance at multiple levels. In fact, I'm encouraged by recent NAEP results on 4th and 8th grade reading and math, particularly given the sample size tested in which approximately 700,000 students participated, as opposed to 5,000 U.S. students assessed under PIRLS.

Clearly, as the world becomes flatter, it's becoming more competitive. We need to do better than simply keep pace.

Brain Matures a Few Years Late in ADHD, But Follows Normal Pattern

Tuesday 13. of November 2007

In youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the brain matures in a normal pattern but is delayed three years in some regions, on average, compared to youth without the disorder, an imaging study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has revealed. The delay in ADHD was most prominent in regions at the front of the brain’s outer mantle (cortex), important for the ability to control thinking, attention and planning.  Otherwise, both groups showed a similar back-to-front wave of brain maturation with different areas peaking in thickness at different times (see movie).

“Finding a normal pattern of cortex maturation, albeit delayed, in children with ADHD should be reassuring to families and could help to explain why many youth eventually seem to grow out of the disorder,” explained Philip Shaw, M.D., NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch, who led research team.

Previous brain imaging studies failed to detect the developmental lag because they focused on the size of the relatively large lobes of the brain. The sharp differences emerged only after a new image analysis technique allowed the researchers to pinpoint the thickening and thinning of thousands of cortex sites in hundreds of children and teens, with and without the disorder.

“If you’re just looking at the lobes, you have only four measures instead of 40,000,” explained Shaw. “You don’t pick up the focal, regional changes where this delay is most marked.”

Among 223 youth with ADHD, half of 40,000 cortex sites attained peak thickness at an average age of 10.5, compared to age 7.5 in a matched group of youth without the disorder.

Shaw, Judith Rapoport, M.D., of the NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch, Alan Evans, M.D., of McGill University, and colleagues report on their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study during the week of November 12, 2007, in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers scanned most of the 446 participants – ranging from preschoolers to young adults – at least twice at about three-year intervals. They focused on the age when cortex thickening during childhood gives way to thinning following puberty, as unused neural connections are pruned for optimal efficiency during the teen years.

In both ADHD and control groups, sensory processing and motor control areas at the back and top of the brain peaked in thickness earlier in childhood, while the frontal cortex areas responsible for higher-order executive control functions peaked later, during the teen years. These frontal areas support the ability to suppress inappropriate actions and thoughts, focus attention, remember things from moment to moment, work for reward, and control movement – functions often disturbed in people with ADHD.

Circuitry in the frontal and temporal (at the side of the brain) areas that integrate information from the sensory areas with the higher-order functions showed the greatest maturational delay in youth with ADHD. For example, one of the last areas to mature, the middle of the prefrontal cortex, lagged five years in those with the disorder.

The motor cortex emerged as the only area that matured faster than normal in the youth with ADHD, in contrast to the late-maturing frontal cortex areas that direct it. This mismatch might account for the restlessness and fidgety symptoms common among those with the disorder, the researchers suggested.

They also noted that the delayed pattern of maturation observed in ADHD is the opposite of that seen in other developmental brain disorders like autism, in which the volume of brain structures peak at a much earlier-than-normal age.

The findings support the theory that ADHD results from a delay in cortex maturation. In future studies, the researchers hope to find genetic underpinnings of the delay and ways of boosting processes of recovery from the disorder.

“Brain imaging is still not ready for use as a diagnostic tool in ADHD,” noted Shaw.  “Although the delay in cortex development was marked, it could only be detected when a very large number of children with the disorder were included.  It is not yet possible to detect such delay from the brain scans of just one individual.  The diagnosis of ADHD remains clinical, based on taking a history from the child, the family and teachers.”

Also participating in the research were: Kristen Eskstrand, Wendy Sharp, Jonathan Blumenthal, Dede Greenstein, Liv Clasen, and Jay Giedd, M.D., NIMH.

Maturation of the brain, as reflected in the age at which a cortex area attains peak thickness, in ADHD (above) and normal development (below). Lighter areas are thinner, darker areas thicker. Light blue in the ADHD sequence corresponds to the same thickness as light purple in the normal development sequence. The darkest areas in the lower part of the brain, which are not associated with ADHD, had either already peaked in thickness by the start of the study, or, for statistical reasons, were not amenable to defining an age of peak cortex thickness. (see movie).

Pediatricians Urge Autism Screening

Tuesday 30. of October 2007

The country's leading pediatricians group is making its strongest push yet to have all children screened for autism twice by age 2, warning of symptoms such as babies who don't babble at 9 months and 1-year-olds who don't point to toys.

The advice is meant to help both parents and doctors spot autism sooner. There is no cure for the disorder, but experts say that early therapy can lessen its severity.

Symptoms to watch for and the call for early screening come in two new reports. They are being released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday at its annual meeting in San Francisco and will appear in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics and on the group's Web site: http://www.aap.org/.

To read the entire article, visit: http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/oct07autism.htm

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