Editorial: Autism Spectrum Disorders: Developmental Trajectories, Neurobiological Basis, Treatment Update, Volume III

Roberto Palumbi ^*

• Department of Translational Biomedicine and Neuroscience, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

On the same topic of this work, Yutong Li and colleagues conducted a systematic review on the various effects of enriched environment interventions on autism-like behavior in mouse models, and on neurogenesis, the synaptic plasticity or the inflammatory activity mediated by glial cells (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1328240/full). The systematic analyses found that the application of enriched environmental interventions might improve autistic symptoms, by increasing the activity in specific brain regions and by positively modulating the synaptic plasticity.Patients with ASD often experience symptoms related to an Emotional Dysregulation (ED), characterized by extreme and inappropriate reaction to emotional stimuli, irritability or other difficulties in coping with emotions-related challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the lockdown restrictions caused deep changes in everyone' daily life routine and medical care, even for ASD patients. Some of the therapeutic interventions were converted in tele-health modality, like "Regulating Together" (RT), an outpatient intervention for ED addressed to ASD patients and their caregiver. In the pilot trial conducted by Coffman et al., they found that the tele-health RT might be a promising therapeutic option for both ASD patients and their caregivers, leading to significant and stable improvements of several ED aspects. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1401148/full).In conclusion, the studies collected in this volume add new evidence on the current research on ASD, reporting significant data in both physiopathology and more effective therapeutic interventions. The results on the hippocampus role or the predictive factors of response to a treatment might lead to new care strategies for a more effective and personalized treatment, including the tele-health modality as in "Regulating Together" intervention for the emotional dysregulation. Besides the promising results, further studies are needed to confirm these data and to improve our knowledge on ASD, providing advances in the neurobiological aspects and better outcomes for the patients.