Adrenarche, social cognition, and the development and evolution of autism spectrum traits
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition characterized by underdeveloped social cognition, along with restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. ASD manifests through a range of genetic, environmental, and psychosocial factors, which influence brain development and lead to maladaptive social and behavioral processes. While early diagnosis is common, ASD traits can develop and express themselves through various stages of childhood, driven by dynamic changes in cognitive and social abilities in relation to stressors and challenges. A recent study reports genomic and psychological evidence for two different age-related trajectories of autism development, one early, and one later and near the time of adrenarche and middle childhood, around ages 7 - 10. Given that middle childhood represents a key period for the development of social cognition including complex theory of mind and peer relationships, that adrenarche mediates the origin and social adaptations of middle childhood, and that social challenges increase with its onset, we hypothesize that autism onset, expression and diagnoses during this period may involve alterations to adrenarche, and to its endocrinological and neurological bases. Adrenarche involves onset and increase in secretion of the androgens dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfate (DHEAS). A series of systematic reviews was conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that DHEA or DHEAS levels are associated with ASD, autism spectrum traits, or aspects of brain development relevant to autism. The reviews showed that: (1) higher DHEA demonstrated evidence of positive associations with aspects of internalizing and externalizing, including social anxiety, with especially notable effects in girls, and (2) higher DHEA showed evidence of association with ASD diagnoses overall, as also indicated by a recent meta-analysis. These findings provide initial support for the hypothesis that alterations to the social adaptations associated with adrenarche, and DHEA levels in middle childhood may underlie a subtype of autism with diagnosis during this developmental period.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".