AUCD Network Press Releases
5/25/2023
Researchers Call for Systemic Changes to Improve Career Prospects of Young People with Disabilities
A deeper level and different kind of coordination, collaboration, and cooperation are needed to narrow the gap in employment opportunities between youth and young adults with and without disabilities. Experts present strategies to challenge the status quo that young people with disabilities face in the transition from school to employment in a special issue of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.
5/9/2023
Western Carolina University University Participant Program First Postsecondary Program for Students with Intellectual Disability to be Accredited by New Agency
The Institute for Community Inclusion's (ICI) Think College and the Inclusive Higher Education Accreditation Council (IHEAC), a new accrediting agency for postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disability (ID), jointly announced today that the Western Carolina University (WCU) University Participant (UP) Program is now fully accredited for the next seven years. The WCU UP program is the first program to be accredited by the council.
4/24/2023
Think College Launches Public Awareness Campaign to Expand College Access for Students with Intellectual Disability
Think College, a center at the University of Massachusetts Boston dedicated to expanding college options for students with intellectual disability, announced today the launch of its public awareness campaign, Think Higher. Think College. The campaign aims to expand college access for students with intellectual disability (ID) by ensuring students explore a variety of college options during transition planning, increasing the number of institutions of higher education offering programs for students with ID, and preparing students for college while in high school.
4/5/2023
ICI's Think College Launches Accreditation Agency for Inclusive Higher Education
Think College, a center within the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston, announced the launch of the Inclusive Higher Education Accreditation Council (IHEAC), a new accrediting agency for inclusive postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disability (ID).
3/20/2023
Imaging Tech Produces Real-time 3D Maps of Uterine Contractions During Labor
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed new imaging technology that can produce 3D maps showing the magnitude and distribution of uterine contractions in real time and across the entire surface of the uterus during labor. Building on imaging methods long used on the heart, this technology can image uterine contractions noninvasively and in much greater detail than currently available tools, which only indicate the presence or absence of a contraction.
3/6/2023
Autism Combined with High IQ Increases Risk of Suicidal Thoughts
Unexpected finding raises concern for twice exceptional (2e) youth
Twice exceptional youth-children who have a diagnosis of autism and who also have exceptional cognitive ability-are at increased the risk of suicidal thoughts, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Iowa Hawkeye Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center.
3/2/2023
Through the eye of the beholder
Researchers find people with autism process illusory shapes differently
A study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience, lead by researchers at the IDDRC at the University of Rochester, finds the process in our brain that allows us to see visual distinctions-like how the empty space between four Pac-Man shaped figures can make a square-may not be happening the same way in the brains of children with autism spectrum disorder. They may not see the square at all. It suggests that something is going awry in the feedback processing pathways in their brain.
2/15/2023
Michigan Developmental Disabilities Institute (MI UCEDD) Receives Grant to Support Aging Caregivers of Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
The Michigan Developmental Disabilities Institute (MI UCEDD) at Wayne State University has received a two-year, $400,000 grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The Hope for Aging Caregivers project will work to improve the lives of aging family caregivers of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).
2/9/2023
New Imaging Technique Reveals Circulation Patterns in Developing Brain
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, an AUCD IDDRC, created a new technique for tracking circulation patterns of fluid through the brain and discovered, in rodents, that it flows to areas critical for normal brain development and function. Further, the scientists found that circulation appears abnormal in young rats with hydrocephalus, a condition associated with cognitive deficits in children.
2/8/2023
Federally Funded Studies into Treatment for Chronic Conditions Overlook Efficacy in Adults with Autism, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) Research Finds
Physical health disparity conditions in autistic adults have not been the focus of any research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the last four decades, an analysis of a federal database found. Using the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) database to determine whether the NIH has funded any research related to physical health disparity conditions in autistic adults, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) researcher T.A. Meridian McDonald, Ph.D., used 30 separate searches to discover that "autism" is often used as a key term - not the target population. Results of the study are published today in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (JADD), a top autism research journal.
1/17/2023
Zebrafish Advance as a Model Organism for Fragile X Syndrome
Fragile X Syndrome is the most common inherited form of autism, caused by variants in the FMR1 gene. Scientists have developed animal models of the disorder to better understand the consequences of the genetic mutation and to see if they can intervene. In a recent study in The Journal of Neuroscience, Geoffrey Goodhill, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine, and his team describe the utility of zebrafish larvae in recapitulating features of Fragile X.
1/10/2023
Spontaneously arising variants in FRMD5 gene are associated with a novel neurological disorder
A study led by Dr. Hugo Bellen, investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) and distinguished service professor at the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), reports de novo variants in a gene involved in regulating cellular motility to be the underlying cause of a new neurological disorder characterized by intellectual disability, motor dysfunction, seizures, abnormal eye movements etc.
10/14/2022
Testing Inclusivity and Innovation Benefits All
Researchers at UW School of Medicine, one of AUCD's Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Centers, wanted to find a way to help students with I/DD and staff safely return to schools while maintaining the needed standard of care. Since masking and social distancing practices were difficult to enforce in this school setting, researchers believed that increased testing would help control the spread of COVID-19.
10/3/2022
The prose of Dr. Seuss shines a light on how the brain processes speech
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester, one of AUCD's Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Centers, have expanded the understanding of how the brain is engaged during complex audiovisual speech perception. The study now out in NeuroImage, describes how listening and watching a narrator tell a story activates an extensive network of brain regions involved in sensory processing, multisensory integration, and cognitive functions associated with the comprehension of the story content. Understanding the involvement of this larger network has the potential to give researchers new ways to investigate neurodevelopmental disorders.
9/16/2022
Mild traumatic brain injury increases risk of behavioral and emotional problems in kids
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, one of AUCD's Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Centers, found children with a mild TBI experienced a 15-percent increased risk of an emotional or behavioral problem. The risk was the highest in children around ten years old. This study used MRI and behavioral data from the Adolescence Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The University of Rochester is one of 21 sites collecting data for this study.
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8/2/2022
Equitable Health Care for LGBTQIA+ Individuals with Disabilities: A New Frontier for Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) and the Tennessee DD Network
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center leaders serve on the Executive Diversity Council for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). In Tennessee, the VUMC Program for LGBTQ Health is one of the only networks in the Southeast with health care providers who understand and welcome sexual and gender minorities. However, the Center does not have specific training in disability. We know we must forge a new frontier.
8/2/2022
Inclusive, Accessible Health Care the Focus of Free Continuing Medical Education Course
Primary care providers can receive three CME credit hours while learning how to provide better care to their patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
A new Continuing Medical Education (CME) course aimed at facilitating more equitable and accessible health care for patients with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD) is available through the University of Arizona Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities.
7/27/2022
The brains of children with autism may not always 'see' body language
Noticing and understanding what it means when a person leans into a conversation or takes a step back and crosses their arms is a vital part of human communication. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have found that children with autism spectrum disorder may not always process body movements effectively, especially if they are distracted by something else.
7/25/2022
Reduced levels of IGF-1 levels in the brain found to be an underlying cause for infantile spasms, hinting at a novel therapy
A breakthrough study from Baylor College of Medicine IDDRC-one of AUCD's Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Centers (IDDRCs)-has found an underlying cause & novel therapy for infantile spasms, a severe epilepsy in babies.
7/20/2022
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) ASD Study Explores Link Between Repetitive Motion, Depression
Research into depression risk and resilience factors for adults with ASD is also critical to guide proper screening and intervention efforts, said Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) member Jessica Schwartzman, Ph.D., author on a Frontiers in Psychiatry paper that examined the connection between repetitive behaviors and depression in autistic adults.
7/15/2022
Epo Does Not Help with Neurological Damage to Newborns
New research by UW School of Medicine, one of AUCD's Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Centers, finds that adding erythropoietin to cooling therapy for term newborns w/ birth asphyxia has no benefit over cooling therapy alone. The findings contrast with results from small trials in which erythropoietin appeared safe and effective, noted Dr. Sandra "Sunny" Juul, senior author of the study. The Alan Hodson Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine, Juul is also the UW Medicine chief of neonatology (newborn medical care) and practices at Seattle Children's.
6/27/2022
Walking Gives the Brain a 'Step-up' in Function for Some
It has long been thought that when walking is combined with a task - both suffer. Researchers at AUCD's Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester found that this is not always the case. Some young and healthy people improve performance on cognitive tasks while walking by changing the use of neural resources. However, this does not necessarily mean you should work on a big assignment while walking off that cake from the night before.
