Neurodevelopmental

Study finds ADHD is associated with dementia

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Multi­gen­er­a­tional Study Finds Links Between ADHD, Demen­tia Risk (Health Day):

Atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) appears to be some­how linked to risk of demen­tia and Alzheimer’s dis­ease, a new multi­gen­er­a­tional study has found.

Par­ents and grand­par­ents of peo­ple with ADHD have a high­er risk of Alzheimer’s and demen­tia than peo­ple with no ADHD in their fam­i­ly, Swedish researchers said.

Specif­i­cal­ly, par­ents of an ADHD child have a 34% high­er risk of demen­tia and 55% high­er risk of Alzheimer’s, the results showed. Grand­par­ents have about an 11% increased risk of either con­di­tion. [Read more…] about Study finds ADHD is asso­ci­at­ed with dementia

Systematic review calls for early targeted interventions to help babies and toddlers with cerebral palsy harness time window with maximum brain plasticity

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Ear­ly tar­get­ed inter­ven­tion ‘crit­i­cal’ for improv­ing out­comes in cere­bral pal­sy (Healio):

Ear­ly inter­ven­tion for chil­dren with or at high risk for cere­bral pal­sy should begin “as soon as pos­si­ble” in order to build on “a crit­i­cal devel­op­men­tal time,” accord­ing to results of a sys­tem­at­ic review pub­lished in JAMA Pedi­atrics. [Read more…] about Sys­tem­at­ic review calls for ear­ly tar­get­ed inter­ven­tions to help babies and tod­dlers with cere­bral pal­sy har­ness time win­dow with max­i­mum brain plasticity

Epigenetics research opens potential door to prevent neurodevelopmental disorders

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Sai Ma, for­mer Vir­ginia Tech bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing Ph.D. stu­dent, and Chang Lu, the Fred W. Bull pro­fes­sor of Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing at Vir­ginia Tech. Cred­it: Vir­ginia Tech

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Epi­ge­net­ic Changes Guide Devel­op­ment of Dif­fer­ent Brain Regions (Dana Foundation):

“It’s one of the great­est stand­ing mys­ter­ies in neu­ro­science: Giv­en that each cell in the human body con­tains the same DNA, how, exact­ly, does the brain devel­op into dis­tinct func­tion­al regions, sup­port­ed by dif­fer­ent cell types? And how might that devel­op­men­tal pro­gram go awry, result­ing in neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­ders like schiz­o­phre­nia or autism? The answers may be the epigenome [Read more…] about Epi­ge­net­ics research opens poten­tial door to pre­vent neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal disorders

Photobiomodulation: A new and promising way to enhance brain function

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As is increas­ing­ly evi­dent, there are mul­ti­ple meth­ods aimed at enhanc­ing brain function.

Brain train­ing and mind­ful­ness prac­tices are com­mon­ly used. Sub­stance-based meth­ods are pop­u­lar too, includ­ing hal­lu­cino­gens in the form of plant extracts, and drugs. Same as tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) and tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion (TMS): All of these are promis­ing but have been chal­lenged — for exam­ple, the repro­ducibil­i­ty of elec­tri­cal-based stim­u­la­tion results is increas­ing­ly ques­tioned. [Read more…] about Pho­to­bio­mod­u­la­tion: A new and promis­ing way to enhance brain function

Study combines neuroimaging with machine learning to predict, with 96% accuracy, whether high-risk 6‑month-old babies will develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by age 2

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Researchers use brain imag­ing and machine learn­ing to pre­dict which high-risk infants will devel­op autism. Cred­it: Car­oli­na Insti­tute for Devel­op­men­tal Disabilities.

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A Sin­gle Brain Scan Has Been Used to Accu­rate­ly Pre­dict Autism at Just 6 Months Old (Sci­ence alert)

“Researchers have used brain scans and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to spot dif­fer­ences in how key areas of infant brains syn­chro­nise, allow­ing them to accu­rate­ly pre­dict which babies would devel­op autism spec­trum dis­or­der (ASD) as a toddler…The research, led by sci­en­tists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at  Chapel Hill and Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, comes hot on the heels of an ear­li­er study that used two scans tak­en at 6 and 12 months to make a sim­i­lar prediction.

Not only has this new method reduced the num­ber of scans required to make the [Read more…] about Study com­bines neu­roimag­ing with machine learn­ing to pre­dict, with 96% accu­ra­cy, whether high-risk 6‑month-old babies will devel­op autism spec­trum dis­or­der (ASD) by age 2

Study finds large gaps between research and practice in ADHD diagnosis and treatment

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doctor-office-illustration—

Most chil­dren with ADHD receive their care from com­mu­ni­ty-based pedi­a­tri­cians. Giv­en the large num­ber of school-age chil­dren who require eval­u­a­tion and treat­ment ser­vices for ADHD, and the adverse impact that poor qual­i­ty care can have on chil­dren’s devel­op­ment, it is impor­tant for chil­dren to rou­tine­ly receive care in the com­mu­ni­ty that is con­sis­tent with best-prac­tice guidelines.

The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics has clear­ly rec­og­nized this and pub­lished guide­lines for [Read more…] about Study finds large gaps between research and prac­tice in ADHD diag­no­sis and treatment