Carolina Institute News

CDL physical therapy trainee, Catherine Alexander, has developed new materials to help parents encourage their children with ASD to stay active. The brochure entitled Let's Get Moving is available on the CDL website. Click here and scroll down to find the Let's Get Moving heading.

Exciting New Funding at the CIDD

A Family-Genetic Study of Language in Autism (to be funded through NIDCD)

PI: Molly Losh (Dept. of Allied Health Sciences, UNC Chapel Hill)

The principal aim of this study is to identify genetically meaningful language phenotypes among individuals with autism and their family members, for use in genetic studies and for target in future intervention work. Analyses will examine developmental-longitudinal language profiles among relatives, along with objectively defined computational linguistic and psycholinguistic measures of discourse processing among individuals with autism and their family members.

In an article published in the prestigious journal Neuron, NDRC postdoctoral fellow Adam Roberts demonstrates that NR3A is an inhibitory regulator of synapse maturation and plasticity during early periods of brain development (link to article).  This insight may help us understand synapse and memory dysfunctions associated with schizophrenia and a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders.  This work was featured as a “Must Read” in Faculty of 1000.

This August, Dr. Greg Olley of the Center for Development and Learning became President of the Division on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities of the American Psychological Association. Also in August, Dr. Olley was elected Vice-Chair of the North Carolina Commission on Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services.

Dr. Lee Marcus was interviewed  about Autism on WCHL's "Here's to Your Health" weekly radio program hosted by Drs. Adam Goldstein and Christy Page from UNC Family Medicine. Click here to listen.

Neuropsychological Profile of Autism and the Broad Autism Phenotype Study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals further information about how a specific area of the brain that helps read facial cues is larger in toddlers with autism than in children without the disorder.  Dr. Piven was interviewed in conjunction  with this article for a spot on CNN and an article in the Raleigh News & Observer.

Dr. William Coleman, a Developmental Behavioral Pediatrician at the CDL, was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition! Click here to view and listen to the article entitled Home Alone: Is Your Tween Ready?

Dr. Piven and the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities were featured in the News & Observer Sunday April 12th. Click Here