(Press-News.org) A new study has provided insight into how experiences and features of neurodiversity vary amongst adults in the UK.
There is variation in people’s attributes and experiences across all populations. Neurodivergent people, such as people with a diagnosis of ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, may experience the world in distinctive ways. But, we are only beginning to appreciate how traits and experiences associated with neurodivergence differ across the whole population.
Now, new research from the University of Birmingham has provided a more detailed picture of what neurodiversity looks like amongst adults in the UK.
The research is published in JCPP Advances.
Ian Apperly, Professor of Cognition and Development and Director of the Centre for Developmental Science at the University of Birmingham, who led the study said: “People’s experiences of neurodevelopmental conditions are highly variable, and it is common for people to have more than one condition. Previous research has found, for example, that the prevalence of ADHD among autistic people is around 40%.
“We also know that people show traits associated with neurodiversity to varying extents across the entire population; it’s not just people with a diagnosed neurodevelopmental condition whose experience is influenced by these traits. What we don’t have, is a detailed understanding of what this looks like. This raises important questions that can inform our understanding of the complexity of neurodiversity across the general population.”
Professor Apperly and his team asked 1000 people representative of the UK population aged 18-70 to report on their experiences of characteristics commonly associated with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other conditions. For example:
High scores for characteristics associated with autism were linked with experiences of challenges with social and imaginative skills, higher preference for routines, and attention to details, numbers, and patterns.
High scores for characteristics associated with ADHD were linked with tendencies for inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.
High scores in cortical hyperexcitability were connected with visual sensitivity, and unusual visual experiences.
High scores for characteristics associated with dyslexia were linked with lower fluency with reading and word-finding.
Although characteristics associated with different neurodevelopmental conditions are often considered separately, the research found that when examined at the same time there were high levels of overlap, so people reporting high characteristics for one condition, also tended to report experiences associated with other conditions.
However, the research also found evidence of distinctive characteristics associated with specific conditions, above and beyond this general shared neurodiversity.
Professor Apperly explained: “We found that there is considerable overlap in the broader characteristics associated with different neurodevelopmental conditions so that people with higher levels of characteristics associated with one condition (e.g., ADHD) are also more likely to have higher levels of characteristics associated with other neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, tic disorders). But we also discovered that the same traits can be explained by different underlying causes. For example, some people reported high levels of several traits associated with autism, even though they did not report high levels of neurodivergent characteristics overall, while other people reported high levels of autistic traits alongside high levels of traits associated with other conditions. And some combinations were particularly unusual. For example, people showing high levels of traits associated with dyslexia and dyspraxia tended not to show high interest in numbers and patterns.”
This study is the largest examination to date to explore the diversity in how characteristics relating to neurodevelopmental conditions are expressed amongst adults in the UK. The researchers say that it has provided critical benchmark data and a framework approach for examining neurodiversity in the whole population, including people with one or more diagnoses.
Professor Apperly concluded: “Our findings help make sense of the complexity of neurodiversity. They help us understand characteristics and experiences that might be common across neurodevelopmental conditions, as well as those that are distinctive. The study also helps us understand how two people with the same diagnosis might nonetheless have rather different characteristics and experiences. By providing a picture of how neurodiversity appears across the whole population, this research can go on to inform improvements for future studies in this area. The more we know about other people’s experiences, the better we can understand each other.”
ENDS
END
American Geophysical Union
6 February 2024
AGU Release No. 24-04
For Immediate Release
This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/seattle-fault-may-have-origins-in-an-ancient-tear-in-the-continent
Seattle fault may have origins in an ancient tear in the continent
Magnetic data suggest the hazardous Seattle fault zone developed as the edge of the continent tore itself in two more than 50 million years ago, providing a possible new origin story for the fault
AGU ...
Black holes not only existed at the dawn of time, they birthed new stars and supercharged galaxy formation, a new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope data suggests.
The insights upend theories of how black holes shape the cosmos, challenging classical understanding that they formed after the first stars and galaxies emerged. Instead, black holes might have dramatically accelerated the birth of new stars during the first 50 million years of the universe, a fleeting period within its 13.8 billion—year history.
"We know these monster black holes ...
Xuan Wang, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, is designing a framework for Multi-Autonomous Multi-Human (MAMH) systems.
The operation of many real-world systems involves the co-existence of human and autonomous agents. Inadequate coordination among these agents can lead to significant performance degradation or safety risks.
In this project, Wang aims to develop a novel framework for Multi-Autonomous Multi-Human coordination, which could enhance algorithmic scalability and ...
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- When diagnosing skin diseases based solely on images of a patient’s skin, doctors do not perform as well when the patient has darker skin, according to a new study from MIT researchers.
The study, which included more than 1,000 dermatologists and general practitioners, found that dermatologists accurately characterized about 38 percent of the images they saw, but only 34 percent of those that showed darker skin. General practitioners, who were less accurate overall, showed a similar decrease in accuracy ...
The Vilcek Foundation announces the recipients of the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science. Awarded annually since 2006, the prizes recognize outstanding immigrant scientists at the forefront of their fields, and celebrate the importance of immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery in the United States. In 2024, the foundation awards $250,000 in prizes to Luciano Marraffini (b. Argentina), Gerta Hoxhaj (b. Albania), Tomasz Nowakowski (b. Poland) and Takanori Takebe (b. Japan).
“With the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, we honor scientists who have ...
No increased risks for babies, and for some serious neonatal complications lower risks. This is the result of the largest study to date on the safety of newborn babies whose mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy. The study is a collaboration between Swedish and Norwegian researchers and is published in the journal JAMA.
COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy was not associated with any increased risks in newborn infants. On the contrary, the study of nearly 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway showed that babies born by women who chose to be vaccinated ...
About The Study: In this population-based study from Sweden and Norway that included 94,000 infants exposed to COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and 102,000 control infants born between June 2021 and January 2023, vaccination of pregnant individuals with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was not associated with increased risks of neonatal adverse events in their infants.
Authors: Mikael Norman, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jama.2023.26945)
Editor’s Note: Please ...
About The Study: The bivalent COVID-19 vaccines protected children and adolescents against SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic COVID-19 in this study including 2,959 participants ages 5 to 17 years. These data demonstrate the benefit of COVID-19 vaccine in children and adolescents. All eligible children and adolescents should remain up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations.
Authors: Leora R. Feldstein, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...
Italian scientists from Università Cattolica at Rome discovered an important genetic mechanism that pancreatic cancer cells employ to evade therapies, paving the way to new drugs for a killer disease. The tumor evades treatments by implementing a 'favorable genetic reshuffling,' strategically playing its best cards to thwart cures. This finding is the result of a study published today in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, coordinated by Claudio Sette, Professor of Human Anatomy at the Catholic University, and Director of the "Organoids Facility" at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli ...
About The Study: Gun violence exposure among Black adults in the U.S. was significantly associated with lifetime suicidal ideation and behavior in this study that included 3,015 Black adults. Public health efforts to substantially reduce interpersonal gun violence may yield additional benefits by decreasing suicide among Black individuals in the U.S.
Authors: Daniel C. Semenza, Ph.D., of Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.54953)
Editor’s ...