Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a trending area in neuropsychology. It is a developmental disorder that affects an individual’s communicative and behavioral capabilities. Autism can be diagnosed at any particular age and the symptoms fundamentally appear in the initial two years of life. A majority of people with ASD have specific difficulties with interaction and general communication with other individuals. Further, they have repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. They possess symptoms that greatly the person’s ability to function effectively in work, school, and other life areas. Autism is a spectrum disorder since it has a broad variation in the severity and types of symptoms that individuals experience. Despite the fact that ASD can be a lifetime disorder, services and treatments can elevate an individual’s symptoms and functional abilities. Treatment is, therefore, an important factor, especially in children. The caregivers should as well talk to their doctors concerning ASD evaluation and screening. ASD starts in early childhood and ultimately results in functional problems in the society- in school, socially and at work for instance. Quite often children display autism symptoms in the first year bracket. Few children appear to manifest normal developmental within the first year, and then enter into a regression season between 18 and 24 months of age. At that time, the symptoms of autism develop.
Autism and Amygdala: An Endocrine Hypothesis
Persons with autism have certain behavioral and communicative limitations. They find bodily communications aversive and that, therefore, limits what they can learn from other people in the event of social interactions. The amygdala is a significant segment of the brain, among others, that integrates the internal milieu and social ambiance. Persons with ASD often show dysregulation of amygdala function. A majority of children with autism are socially withdrawn. Autism is more frequent in males as compared with females. Surprisingly, it is common knowledge that the female gender has a higher social intelligence.
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According to Schulkin (2007), autism affects approximately five to fifteen children by a count of ten thousand. The disorder cuts across habit and class. Some of the symptoms of autism include social withdrawal, minimal or lack of responsiveness to social facts and a loss in eye contact. The condition is highly characterized by the avoidance of eye contact. When one looks at the eye of another person, one can easily extract diverse kinds of information that facilitate rapid unconscious interpretations of their present intentions. The features entail; whether an individual is happy; whether an individual is angry; whether a person is hungry, solemn, dishearten, reflective or recuperative ( Schulkin, 2007) . Most young people and adults use such kind of information to develop an attachment. Facial displays are instrumental in developing an attachment. Such kinds of attachment behavioral characteristics are highly compromised in children with ASD.
Attachments are the core of social relations and provide a sense of stability and security.
Autism appears in changing degrees and is manifested in developmental delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas; language as utilized in social communication, social interactions, and imaginative or symbolic play. The disorder, therefore, shows diminished social contact or social interactions and one capability to utilize separate kinds of information. Also, most of the affected persons have reduced social enjoyment, lots of communicative decrements and stereotyped locomotion. It is inherently apparent that autism incorporates abnormalities that manifest the degradation of normal contact in humans. Persons with ASD suffer from lots of cognitive impairments, and that incorporates not being oriented towards the experiences of other people and eventually with the view of receiving a classical worldview orientation ( Schulkin, 2007) . Children with autism have great impairments when it comes to matters of joint interactions. For instance, ASD affected children cannot perform gaze monitoring. From the illustrations, it is apparent that children with autism possess little interest in what their fellow mates are doing; what others around them hear, see or experience. The single time they can point to an object is when they want help in obtaining or using an object.
The amygdala regions in non-human primates respond to eye movement or eye gaze and that illustrates the significance of facial stimuli when it comes to social communication. The amygdala and parietal and temporal lobe play a critical role in gaze monitoring. The amygdala forms part of the circuit that is linked to perception in particular individuals and that enshrines what specific people look at and also what they find interesting. The amygdala plays an integrative duty in a diverse array of visceral processing. The gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, olfactory, and gustatory information are all directed through the amygdala. The modern neuroscientists look at the amygdala as a sensory gateway ( Schulkin, 2007) . The amygdala is incorporated in the generation of motivation to approach food after seeing a familiar person eat and enjoy a unique source of food. When the affected person notices the movement in the mouth and other responses in the body ignite the practice into the brain. The medial amygdala has several neuropeptides incorporating oxytocin that is regulated by estrogen. The estrogen is charged with promoting oxytocin expression. The amygdala medial nucleus via the actions of oxytocin may be a critical region for discerning safe or avoidable projects.
Separate neural mechanisms under social adaptation. Persons with ASD have a problem in making contact with others, finding a foothold in the world, obtaining knowledge from others and benefitting from other peoples experiences. Neurochemical coding through the limbic system is essentially incorporated in the coordination and integration of behavioral adaptation.
The impact of atypical Sensory Processing on Social Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder
According to the American Psychiatric Association, ASD is a complicated neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by a deficiency in social communication and portrayal of restricted, recurring behaviors. Earlier pieces of research on ASD fundamentally focused on the social and sensory properties of ASD independently of each other ( Thye et al., 2017) . Present empirical and theoretical evidence suggest a robust relationship between the two than was previously argued. Sensory and social behaviors have the capability of arising from a similar underlying mechanism and exert a reciprocal influence on one other in the course of child advancement. Such a relationship is also evident from pieces of research of initial abnormal sensory sensitivity regarding stimuli that predict later language development and joint attention. The relationship between sensory and social feature can, therefore, be interdependent or bidirectional.
The connection between social and sensory processing might take place at several hierarchical levels. At each basic level, the sensory receptors are always stimulated by environmental stimuli. The sensory information is then relayed to the brain to develop a subjective representation of neurons through a perceptive process ( Thye et al., 2017) . Perception and sensation are interrelated constructs.
Persons on the autism spectrum many a time seek to avert visual stimulation. Differences in vision have equally emerged as one of the earlier stable ASD markers possessing a saccade period of 7 months old evidently differencing children who are later diagnosed with ASD. Such differences can play vital roles in ASD social impairments as the perception of social cues promotes attention of visual patterns and thus critical in social growth and interpersonal interactions. The preferential attention to faces and eyes by infants records how early social growth is fundamentally built on observation. The rates of visual hypo-responsively and lateral glance show low social skills and higher ASD symptomology ( Thye et al., 2017) . Also, children with visual problems predominantly have social deficits since they have issues with learning through visual cues. Most children who cannot see are in most cases socially withdrawn. That makes learning cumbersome especially amongst peers who are not visually impaired. The aspect of vision and its relation to autism ultimately covers problems with gaze processing, face processing biological motion processing and the developmental consequences of atypical vision.
The hearing, like vision, is a significant aspect of a robust process of a successful social-communicative interaction. The initial exposure to auditory stimuli takes place in the intrauterine region, and postnatal research indicates how infants easily recognize and prefer the voice of the mother. Vast infants have often been seen to prefer and equally discriminate speech versus non-speech sounds and that is predictive of the receptive development of language. Initial auditory inputs facilitate the abstraction of socially outstanding information from the area of operation. Speech recognition is an important area of differentiating infants with ASD from the ones without. The common auditory stimuli in the early stages of development come from the mother’s voice ( Thye et al., 2017) . In contrast, children with ASD do not favorably respond to mother’s voice or speech directed by another peer. The high-risk infants respond to speech versus non-speech sounds less as compared to the low-risk infants. Inappropriate usage of prosody and the inability to extract socially salient features is remarkably reported with ASD patients. ASD differences in prosody may insinuate a higher order perceptual breakdown. A majority of auditory profiles are noticed principally in children with ASD and to a lower degree in adults that have ASD. Conversely, the capability for one to process speech functionality decreases as one advance in age and becomes even more prevalent in persons with ASD ( Thye et al., 2017) .
The amalgamation of multisensory is crucial for the perception of complicated social concerns. For instance, social interaction immensely needs the integration of the other person’s face, voice, gesture and lip movements and failure of this may result into misinterpretation and an obscene social response. Persons who have ASD manifest altered sensory integration across multiple domains, and that can adeptly affect their social functioning.
The integration of social and sensory features entails the use of separate theoretical models. The models include; temporal binding hypothesis, intense world theory, and the atypical hierarchical processing of information. A prolonged temporal binding window can easily create unprecedented sensory environment while unrelated stimuli increase the intensity of the bond. A prolonged temporal binding window can adversely affect social behavior in ASD via a changed binding of the social cues. The intense world hypotheses illustrate both the unique sensory and social features enshrined ASD persons and provide a mechanism through which an up-regulation in primary sensory perception results in social withdrawal ( Thye et al., 2017) .
Current Practice in Psychopharmacology for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Floyd and McIntosh (2009) defined p sychopharmacology is the study of drug-induced changes in mood, thinking, and behavior. The effectiveness of educational therapies can function well if linked well with specific characteristics of individuals with ASD. These new measures are considered safer and better tolerated than the older atypical antipsychotics such as olanzapine¸clozapine, ziprasidone, and aripiprazole which are used widely with ASDs to treat severe maladaptive behaviors of aggression, self-injury, property destruction and severe tantrums.
Research indicates that risperidone is safe and a quick treatment for self-injury, irritability, aggression, and outbursts in children and teens with ASD. It contributes to a reduction in challenging behavior that was constant over a time and also the likelihood of deterioration when an individual ceases the medication. Little improvements were reported in areas of lack of socialization, repetitive behavior, adaptive functioning, and communication. Though safe and effective over a short period of time, weight gain, sedation, and increased serum prolactin levels may be experienced hence the American Diabetes Association recommendation of fasting glucose and blood lipids to be kept in check throughout the treatment ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) . Following two years consideration of administration of risperidone, U.S. Food, Drug and Administration approved of its use categorically to address serious behavioral challenges, not core discrepancies associated with ASD in children of age bracket, 5-17years.
Floyd and McIntosh (2009) mentioned that s erotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are widely used too in overall medical practices though not yet thoroughly considered for practice with kids and adolescents with ASD. In addressing anxiety disorders and repetitive behaviors associated with ASD, SSRIs fluvoxamine, fluoxetine and escitalopram have been reported as suitable ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) . Conversely, these drugs as well may cause great levels of stimulation characterized by irritability, hyperactivity, and insomnia, especially in youngsters. A tricyclic antidepressant such as clomipramine is rarely used due to the probability of adverse effects.
Although individuals with ASD by description cannot have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), attention deficits are inherent in ASD and are mostly targeted for pharmacological intervention. More than 50% of youngsters experience some levels of challenges with hyperactivity, distractibility, less attention span, difficulty in finishing tasks and concentration. Recent double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of the stimulant methylphenidate have shown enhancement in some of these symptoms in youngsters with ASD. However, this has been different in youngsters with ADHD only as there has been low improvements and frequently occurring of the adverse effects. Also, research on selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine, including one double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot test reports some usefulness in handling impulsivity, oppositionality and hyperactivity in youngsters with ASD. Significant weight loss and increased heartbeats may be experienced.
Floyd and McIntosh (2009) confirmed that a drenergic agonists which were traditionally used in treating clonidine, guanfacine, and hypertension are recurrently recommended to enhance symptoms of hyperactivity, aggression, inattention and impulsivity in ASDs. Limited studies of clonidine display modest decreases in irritability, impulsivity, hyperactivity and repetitive behaviors in youngsters with ASD. A single study on guanfacine for youngsters with ASD validated a 48% responder rate and effectiveness for signs of inattention and hyperactivity, however, adverse effects like irritability, sleep disturbance, and sedation may be experienced.
To treat attack disorders, which are seen in individuals with ASD subject to age, cognitive level and type of language disorder, anticonvulsants are normally recommended. These medications are also useful in addressing psychiatric conditions such as impulsivity, mood labiality, aggression, irritability, and compulsions, as well as boost the effects of various SSRIs. Correspondingly, a study on Divalproex has shown a decrease in repetitive behaviors, aggression, and instability linked with ASD, with minimal side effects ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) . In a related research, quite a number of youngsters with ASD who had shown positive changes in repetitive behaviors with Divalproex consequently received fluoxetine; initial results pointed out that pretreatment with Divalproex prior to treatment with fluoxetine may aid in preventing early symptoms of irritability or activation ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) .
Discussion
A child is said to have ASD when several symptoms can be noticed in the child. Such symptoms disrupt the child’s capability in communication, explore, form relationships, learn and play. Most of the ASD casualties have hindered social behavior and social understanding. That entails unusual body language, facial expressions, and gestures. That entails avoidance of eye contact and at certain use eye contacts that do not match what the affected individuals are trying to say. There is a general reduced interest in people or total lack of it ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) . Most of the affected persons do not fancy sharing information, for instance, pointing a bird. Some of the persons are most unlikely to follow a social interaction; they easily detach themselves and prefer to be lonely. They rarely make friends with people in their age bracket. Such kinds of children are also noticed to offer resistance when someone touches them.
Many young people with ASD have difficulties with language and speech comprehension. That is manifested through an array of symptoms. The individuals meet delay in learning how to speak; some speak after two years or do not speak entirely. They repeat phrases or words without properly communicating their main intent. Majority of the children are noticed not to understand simple questions or statements and further have a difficulty in communicating their desires nor specific needs. A section of the children speaks with an abnormal tone or with an odd pitch. Such children take what is said so literally and in that essence often miss the humor, irony, and sarcasm ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) .
Children with ASD are usually restricted and obsessive in their behaviors, interests, and activities. Their body movements are repetitive and change constantly. Such persons exhibit unusual attachments to unusual objects for instance keys, rubber bands among others. Such persons have a strong desire order, sameness, and routine, for example, rigid schedules, lines up toys etc. they quickly get upset by a change in their environment or routine. Children with ASD also get fascinated by moving pieces or spinning objects or toy parts, for example, they can be fascinated by the spinning wheels instead of the entire car.
ASD takes place at all levels of intelligence. Persons with ASD often show dysregulation of amygdala function. Nonetheless, even children that have normal to high intelligence occasionally have unevenly developed skills of cognition. Unsurprisingly, the verbal skills appear to weaker in comparison to the nonverbal cue skills. In addition, they perform well in tasks that incorporate immediate visual or memory skills. Duties that entail abstract and symbolic thinking tend to be more cumbersome ( Floyd & McIntosh, 2009) . Children with ASD have a problem in regulating their emotions in expressing the emotions in an appropriate manner. Some children may begin to shout, laugh hysterically or cry for no ostensible reason. Victims of autism need to check on proper medication through drug-induced changes in mood, thinking, and behavior. The drugs need to function on how to control the proper functioning of the amygdala section of the section.
Conclusion
ASD entails conditions that were previously seen as separate- Asperger’s syndrome, autism, childhood disintegrative disorder and an unidentified nature of pervasive developmental kind of disorder. There are lots of cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms upon which sensory processing abnormalities may either result or propagate several cases of autism. ASD diagnosis in adults may prove difficult as compared to diagnosing ASD in children. In the adult category, particular ASD symptoms can potentially overlap with other mental health disorders e.g. anxiety or hyperactivity disorder.
References
Schulkin, J. (2007). Autism and the amygdala: An endocrine hypothesis. Brain and Cognition , 65 (1), 87-99.
Thye, M. D., Bednarz, H. M., Herringshaw, A. J., Sartin, E. B., & Kana, R. K. (2017). The impact of atypical sensory processing on social impairments in autism spectrum disorder. Developmental cognitive neuroscience .
Floyd, E. F., & McIntosh, D. E. (2009). Current practice in psychopharmacology for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Psychology in the Schools , 46 (9), 905-909.
