鈥淭he take home message is that autism research here at 91亚色 isn鈥檛 just one thing,鈥� psychology Professor Jonathan Weiss, chair of the 91亚色 Autism Research Alliance (YARA)聽in the Faculty of Health, told the audience. 鈥淲e want you to have a picture as you walk away from today聽of the breadth聽at which different faculty members with different areas of expertise are doing research.鈥�

Left: Dorota Crawford (standing, left) and Jonathan Weiss answering questions from the audience

YARA聽is an interdisciplinary team of researchers at 91亚色 that has been in existence for about two years. This was the first time it has reached out to聽a large range of聽community service providers as a group. The event was sponsored by .

鈥淭he goal was to provide an overview of the incredible range of autism research at 91亚色 and reach out to service providers and start a conversation with them,鈥� said Weiss. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really about knowledge exchange. This was the first step in that exchange, and they can let us know what they are interested in. Rather than a one way street, it breaks down the academic silos.鈥�

Weiss has just finished two pilot projects using聽cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with people with ASD 鈥� one used聽CBT to help reduce anxiety and the other used it聽to help build anger management skills. Weiss wants to know if the interventions that already exist can be adapted to help children with ASD, who also suffer from things like anxiety and aggression.

Right: Kari Hoffman explains her research at the inaugural showcase of the 91亚色 Autism Research Alliance

But that鈥檚 not all; he is also interested in knowing whether the level of health care and access to service for families with a teenager or adult with ASD is lacking in various parts of the province, what health care services they need and their experience of the system, and has embarked on a study to find out.

Dorota Crawford, a professor in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Kinesiology & Health Science, told the gathering she is researching whether genes or the environment are responsible for ASD. One of the things she is doing is trying to identify the genes responsible for specific symptoms of ASD and determine how they affect brain function. She has so far recruited 20 families with a child with ASD to give genetic material samples through a mouth swab to be able to compare genes. She is hoping her research will lead to an earlier diagnosis (before the age of two), earlier intervention and development of specific pharmaceuticals.

鈥淭he incidence of autism in the last three decades has increased dramatically,鈥� she said. In 1977, only one in 2,500 people were diagnosed with ASD, while in 2009 one in 106 people were diagnosed. Of those being diagnosed, males are four times as likely as females to have ASD.

Left: From left, Jonathan Weiss, Adrienne Perry, James Bebko, Dorota Crawford, Jennifer Steeves, Maz Fallah, Louise Hartley, director of the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic, and Tania Xerri, director of the Health Leadership & Learning Network

Psychology Professor Kari Hoffman told the audience about her work with social and emotional processing, the destination points for processing and the routes taken, which may be different in people with ASD than in a typical person.

School of Kinesiology & Health Science Professor Maz Fallah is interested in what things people with ASD pay attention to that may differ from others, what is the reason for that and what interventions could help. People who have an ASD have a persistent preoccupation with parts. 鈥淭hey cannot see the forest for the trees,鈥� says Fallah, and that might have to do with an object-based attention deficit, for instance.

As psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves says, 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot we take for granted when we look around the room, but there鈥檚 a lot of computations that are taking place in the brain.鈥�

This plays into what psychology Professor James Bebko is researching. Children with ASD don鈥檛 seem to be able to combine visual and auditory cues into a single unit, which is needed to assess emotion when watching and listening to someone talking. Their sensory systems seem largely intact, he said, so it may be that the problem lies in the processing or the transitional skills needed before the processing occurs.

What psychology Professor Adrienne Perry is looking into is the effectiveness of Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI), the program of choice for treating children with ASD. But Perry says the results in the field are variable compared to those in a controlled situation and she wants to know why. She is looking at the predictors of how well IBI works, such as age, IQ and severity of autism, as well as parent involvement.

鈥淚t鈥檚 great to see that research is going to look at family stress and at the IBI. We really struggle in the community to know what to do,鈥� said Penny Diamantopoulos, a case manager with the child and family team of the (Central CCAC).

Dawn Ullman, also a case manager at Central CCAC, says she hopes the alliance does some follow up with the community in the next year or so. She would like to know what the results are of some of the research the professors highlighted. 鈥淚 really want to know the bottom line鈥� as the person working with the families.

For more information, visit the 91亚色 Autism Research Alliance website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Wearing red at the Olympics may give an athlete an easy advantage, according to a 91亚色 study that shows perceptions of motion are subconsciously affected by colour.

鈥淎ll things being equal between two figure skaters 鈥� including their actual speed on the ice 鈥� the judges will perceive a skater in red is moving with greater speed than a skater in blue, and may reward the skater in red with higher marks,鈥� says Mazyar Fallah, a聽professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health.

Above: The 2010 Canadian Olympic team in their red uniforms. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The study, conducted by Fallah and co-author Illia Tchernikov in 91亚色鈥檚 Centre for Vision Research, was published today by the聽the Public Library of Science open access peer-reviewed journal .

Their research on visual processing found that people鈥檚 eyes more quickly follow a red target on a computer screen more quickly than a green, yellow or especially a blue target.

VIDEO--The Daily Planet covered . The clip runs approximately 20 seconds and begins at the 7:50 mark.

鈥淚n sports, the outcome of a competition is supposed to depend on the abilities of the players, rather than the colours they are wearing,鈥� says Fallah. 鈥淗owever, our research shows it may make sense to wear red in a sport such as figure skating, in which you want to be perceived as quick. In contrast, it may be best to wear another colour in a sport in which a referee is handing out penalties.鈥�

The finding that there is a colour hierarchy that automatically guides the selection of what someone will focus on has implications for many sports such as figure skating and gymnastics in which speed may be perceived by a judge rather than measured in milliseconds, Fallah says. It may also be important for other fields such as advertising, in which capturing attention is paramount, and in designing human-computer interfaces that are effective, he said.

Left: Canadian figure skating champion and Olympic competitor Joannie Rochette. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Five subjects took part in the study, with each completing about聽a thousand聽tests. Each participant automatically focused on targets on the screen and all produced the same colour hierarchy, choosing red targets first, followed by green, yellow and blue. This suggests, says Fallah, that the colour hierarchy is inherent, either because of evolution 鈥� red is the colour of blood, whereas blue is the colour of the sky 鈥� or as a result of experience 鈭� red stop signs and traffic signals indicate danger.

Fallah's research was covered by and .

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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