International Meeting for Autism Research

Last updated
International Meeting for Autism Research
Genrescientific conference
FrequencyAnnually each spring
InauguratedNovember 2001
Most recentMay 2019
Website http://autism-insar.org/imfar-annual-meeting/imfar

The International Meeting for Autism Research, or IMFAR for short, is an annual meeting held each spring by the International Society for Autism Research. The 2019 meeting was held in Montreal. [1] [2] The 2015 meeting was in Salt Lake City. [3] The 2014 meeting was held in Atlanta from May 14 to 17. In 2013, IMFAR was held in San Sebastian, Spain.

It describes its goals as "to promote exchange and dissemination of the latest scientific findings and to stimulate research progress in understanding the nature, causes, and treatments for ASD." [4] Presenters have included Laura Hewitson of the Johnson Center for Child Health and Development, [5] as well as Irva Hertz-Picciotto, who was the session chair for a session about environmental exposures and autism. [6] The keynote speakers have included Christopher Gillberg, [7] Geraldine Dawson [8] and Paul Ashwood of the MIND Institute. [9] Another paper presented there focused on the prevalence of autoantibodies to folate receptors in autistic children, and found that about 75% of children with autism had such antibodies. [10] This paper, coauthored by Richard E. Frye and Dan Rossignol, among others, would later be published in Molecular Psychiatry . [11]

Related Research Articles

Diagnoses of autism have become more frequent since the 1980s, which has led to various controversies about both the cause of autism and the nature of the diagnoses themselves. Whether autism has mainly a genetic or developmental cause, and the degree of coincidence between autism and intellectual disability, are all matters of current scientific controversy as well as inquiry. There is also more sociopolitical debate as to whether autism should be considered a disability on its own.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are developmental disorders that begin in early childhood, persist throughout adulthood, and affect three crucial areas of development: communication, social interaction and restricted patterns of behavior. There are many conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders such as fragile X syndrome and epilepsy.

Simon Baron-Cohen British psychologist and author

Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university's Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1985, Baron-Cohen formulated the mind-blindness theory of autism, the evidence for which he collated and published in 1995. In 1997, he formulated the fetal sex steroid theory of autism, the key test of which was published in 2015.

Lars Christopher Gillberg, who has sometimes published as Gillberg and Gillberg with his wife Carina Gillberg, is a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Gothenburg University in Gothenburg, Sweden, and an honorary professor at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), University College London. He has also been a visiting professor at the universities of Bergen, New York, Odense, St George's, San Francisco, and Glasgow and Strathclyde.

Glutamate receptor Cell-surface proteins that bind glutamate and trigger changes which influence the behavior of cells

Glutamate receptors are synaptic and non synaptic receptors located primarily on the membranes of neuronal and glial cells. Glutamate is abundant in the human body, but particularly in the nervous system and especially prominent in the human brain where it is the body's most prominent neurotransmitter, the brain's main excitatory neurotransmitter, and also the precursor for GABA, the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter. Glutamate receptors are responsible for the glutamate-mediated postsynaptic excitation of neural cells, and are important for neural communication, memory formation, learning, and regulation.

Richard Deth

Richard Carlton Deth, Ph.D., is a neuropharmacologist, a former professor of pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and is on the scientific advisory board of the National Autism Association. Deth has published scientific studies on the role of D4 dopamine receptors in psychiatric disorders, as well as the book, Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection. He has also become a prominent voice in the controversies in autism and thiomersal and vaccines, due to his hypothesis that certain children are more at risk than others because they lack the normal ability to excrete neurotoxic metals.

Causes of autism

Many causes of autism have been proposed, but understanding of the theory of causation of autism and the other autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is incomplete. Attempts have been made to incorporate the known genetic and environmental causes into a comprehensive causative framework. ASD is a complex developmental condition marked by persistent challenges to social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors and its phenotypes vary significantly.

Folate deficiency Abnormally low level of folate (vitamin B9) in the body

Folate deficiency, also known as vitamin B9 deficiency, is a low level of folate and derivatives in the body. Signs of folate deficiency are often subtle. A low number of red blood cells (anemia) is a late finding in folate deficiency and folate deficiency anemia is the term given for this medical condition. It is characterized by the appearance of large-sized, abnormal red blood cells (megaloblasts), which form when there are inadequate stores of folic acid within the body.

Manuel Casanova

Manuel F. Casanova is the SmartState Endowed Chair in Childhood Neurotherapeutics and a professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. He is a former Gottfried and Gisela Kolb Endowed Chair in Outpatient Psychiatry and a Professor of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology at the University of Louisville.

Folate receptor 1

Folate receptor 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FOLR1 gene.

Autism spectrum Range of neurodevelopmental disorders

The autism spectrum is a range of neurodevelopmental conditions primarily characterized by significant difficulties in social interactions, differences in communication, and presentations of rigid and repetitive behavior. Unusual responses to sensory input, including high or low sensitivity, sensory discrimination, and sensory-based motor differences are also highly prevalent. It is commonly referred to as autism and officially designated autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Eric Courchesne is an autism researcher and Professor of Neurosciences in University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Director of the UCSD Autism Center located in La Jolla, California.

Paul Ashwood is an associate professor of immunology at the MIND Institute at the University of California Davis. His lab conducts research regarding the potential role of immune system disorders in autism, as well as other neurodevelopmental disorders such as Fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia and mood disorders.

Daniel A. Rossignol, MD, FAAFP, is a family medicine doctor. Rossignol runs the Rossignol Medical Center, with offices in Melbourne, Florida and in Aliso Viejo, California. He also works at the Wisconsin Integrative Hyperbaric Center in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, and is a member of the physician advisory board for The Autism Community in Action. Rossignol is known for his advocacy of certain autism therapies.

Richard Eugene Frye is an American autism researcher and associate professor at Arizona Children's Hospital in Phoenix, and formerly of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences's department of pediatrics, as well as the Director of the Autism Multispecialty Clinic at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Frye was formerly a faculty member at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston's division of child and adolescent neurology.

Cerebral folate deficiency Medical condition

Cerebral folate deficiency is a condition in which concentrations of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate are low in the brain as measured in the cerebral spinal fluid despite being normal in the blood. Symptoms typically appear at about 5 to 24 months of age. Without treatment there may be poor muscle tone, trouble with coordination, trouble talking, and seizures.

Marian Diamond Sigman (1941–2012) was a developmental and child clinical psychologist known for her research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). At the time of her death, she was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Evdokia Anagnostou is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto, and is cross-appointed as pediatric neurologist and a senior clinician scientist at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Canada. She is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Translational Therapeutics in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Edward Ross Ritvo American psychiatrist, autism researcher

Edward Ross Ritvo was an American psychiatrist known for his research on genetic components of autism. He was a professor emeritus of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute.

References

  1. ↑ "International autism researchers put their technology on display at Montreal conference l". CTV News Montreal. May 4, 2019. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  2. ↑ "International autism meeting tilts balance back toward biology". Spectrum | Autism Research News. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  3. ↑ "Why Autism Is Different in the Brains of Girls Than in Boys". Time. May 12, 2015. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  4. ↑ "Imfar | Insar". Autism-insar.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  5. ↑ "International Meeting for Autism Research (London, May 15-17, 2008): Pediatric Vaccines Influence Primate Behavior, and Brain Stem Volume and Opioid Ligand Binding". Imfar.confex.com. 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  6. ↑ "2013 International Meeting for Autism Research: The Role of Environmental Exposures in Autism Etiology: A Retrospective of the Last Decade, New Results and Frontiers for the Future". Imfar.confex.com. 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  7. ↑ "2013 International Meeting for Autism Research: How Severe is Autism - Really?". Imfar.confex.com. 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  8. ↑ "2013 International Meeting for Autism Research: Autism Speaks". Imfar.confex.com. 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  9. ↑ "2013 International Meeting for Autism Research: The Status of Biomarker Research for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Recent Progress and Future Directions". Imfar.confex.com. 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  10. ↑ "2012 International Meeting for Autism Research: Cerebral Folate Receptor Autoantibodies in Autism Spectrum Disorder". Imfar.confex.com. 2012-05-18. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  11. ↑ Frye, R. E.; Sequeira, J. M.; Quadros, E. V.; James, S. J.; Rossignol, D. A. (2012). "Cerebral folate receptor autoantibodies in autism spectrum disorder". Molecular Psychiatry. 18 (3): 369–381. doi:10.1038/mp.2011.175. PMC   3578948 . PMID   22230883.
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