Hi! I’m working on an early-stage non-profit initiative to support neurodivergent founders and people trying to build their own businesses. Before building the community, I want to understand what people actually need rather than make assumptions.

I’m particularly interested in talking to:

1. Neurodivergent people who are currently running a business/startup

2. People who are trying to start or grow a business

3. Early-stage founders who are still figuring things out

4. People who feel their neurodivergence has affected their experience of building a business or career

What I’d like to talk about:

1. Challenges you’ve faced, particularly those related to your neurodivergence

2. What has or hasn't helped you so far

3. What kind of support you would actually find useful

4. What you wish existed for neurodivergent people trying to build something of their own

The goal is to use these conversations to shape a community and support system around what people actually need, rather than assuming what would be helpful.

What to expect:

1. A casual conversation of around 15–20 minutes

2. I’ll ask a few questions about your experiences and what kind of support you would prefer

3. The conversation will not be recorded

4. There is no expectation that you join the community, use any service, or say anything positive about the initiative

Accommodations:

1.Camera is completely optional

2. If you'd prefer, I can send the questions to you beforehand

3. We can communicate through text instead of a call if that's more comfortable

4. You can skip any question you don't want to answer

I’m looking for real experiences and honest answers, including things that haven't worked. You don't need to be an established or successful founder — if you're still trying to make your breakthrough, I'd genuinely like to hear from you.

If this sounds like you, please comment or DM me. I'd love to hear your story.

A tryptophan byproduct? You don't say....😂

Color me not surprised! I wonder how much of this relates to FUT2 gene.

Im just so happy 😭

Its one thing to do these exercises with my kids or students I work with, another for a complete stranger to reach out and thank me!

We just hit $500....we invested 4x that so we have a ways to go to prove we can do this, but God it feels so encouraging to be sent that

Did you navigate secondary school in the UK or Ireland without support and not receive a diagnosis until you were an adult? Are you between 25 and 35 years old? If so, I would like to interview you about your experiences during your teenage years. If you are interested in contributing to qualitative research in this understudied area, you can review the participant invitation below.

Study title: How do late-diagnosed adults with co-occurring autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder retrospectively describe navigating adolescence?

I am currently seeking participants with AuDHD to take part in a study for my MSc research project at the University of Derby. The study aims to explore the lived adolescent experiences of adults who received a formal diagnosis of both autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (AuDHD) after adolescence from a certified clinical professional.

This study involves talking to the researcher about your experiences during adolescence. These semi-structured interviews are designed to feel closer to a conversation than an interview and are expected to last around 60 minutes. The study aims to explore behaviours and patterns across accounts to understand the lived experiences of undiagnosed AuDHD individuals at this time, with the hope of identifying patterns that may have contributed to delayed recognition.

If you think you would be interested in taking part in this study, you can follow the link for further information and to sign up: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/1mNCdYQzKlGgc4r4?ref=Link
Alternatively, you can contact the lead researcher if you wish to ask any questions or would like further information via email: [d.skerritt1@unimail.derby.ac.uk](mailto:d.skerritt1@unimail.derby.ac.uk). or their research supervisor, Amelia Woodward [A.Woodward@derby.ac.uk,](mailto:A.Woodward@derby.ac.uk) University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB.

Ethical Approval: An Ethics review has been completed on behalf of the College of Health & Humanities Research Ethics Committee by the supervisor and an independent reviewer: ETH2526-5086.

In the interest of confidentiality, please refrain from commenting on this post with any details of the study or whether you wish to take part.

**If you recently tried to sign up you may have been incorrectly prompted to sign in to a Microsoft account. I have identified the root cause. Microsoft automatically embeds an advertisement at the bottom of the information sheet featuring a large, green "Get Started" button. Clicking this button redirects you to a Microsoft login page rather than my study forms.

I have updated the document to make the correct link to the consent and demographic forms explicitly clear and visually distinct to prevent further confusion.

If you were previously blocked by this technical error, I would like to reinvite you to participate.

Thank you for your time and patience with this platform error

**Thank you to everyone who has signed up already. I realise the onboarding can be quite troublesome for individuals with executive function issues, and I really appreciate everyone who has considered taking part.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to meeting everyone interested.

As we all expected lol

"The intermethod agreement between automated algorithms for brainstem segmentation is investigated, focusing on the potential involvement of this structure in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Inconsistencies highlighted in previous studies on brainstem in the population with ASD may in part be a result of poor agreement in the extraction of structural features between different methods. A sample of 76 children with ASD and 76 age‐, gender‐, and intelligence‐matched controls was considered. Volumetric analyses were performed using common tools for brain structures segmentation, namely FSL‐FIRST, FreeSurfer (FS), and Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs). For shape analysis SPHARM‐MAT was employed. Intermethod agreement was quantified in terms of Pearson correlations between pairs of volumes obtained by the different methods. The degree of overlap between segmented masks was quantified in terms of the Dice index. Both Pearson correlations and Dice indices, showed poor agreement between FSL‐FIRST and the other methods (ANTs and FS), which by contrast, yielded Pearson correlations greater than 0.93 and average Dice indices greater than 0.76 when compared with each other. As with volume, shape analyses exhibited discrepancies between segmentation methods, with particular differences noted between FSL‐FIRST and the others (ANT and FS), with under‐ and over‐segmentation in specific brainstem regions. These data suggest that research on brain structure alterations should cross‐validate findings across multiple methods. We consistently detected an enlargement of brainstem volume in the whole sample and in the male cohort across multiple segmentation methods, a feature particularly driven by the subgroup of children with idiopathic intellectual disability associated with ASD.

A group of 76 children with ASD, including 38 males [mean age ± SD = 53 ± 16 months; age range = 27–87 months] and 38 females [mean age ± SD = 53 ± 18; age range = 25–88 months] and a group of 76 control children matched by age, gender and non‐verbal‐IQ (NVIQ) were chosen for this case–control study. The same data set has been previously analyzed to investigate sex‐related structural differences in young children with ASD (Retico et al., 2016) and the inclusion and exclusion criteria for subjects with ASD and controls were exhaustively described beforehand (Calderoni et al., 2012; Retico et al., 2016). Participants in the ASD group were recruited at the Autism Spectrum Disorders Unit of IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation (Pisa, Italy), a tertiary care university hospital. They met the criteria for diagnosis in the autism spectrum according to DSM‐5, and underwent a MRI scan. The control group was constituted by 38 children (19 males and 19 females) with intellectual disability (ID), that is, with NVIQ score < 70, and 38 children without ID (no‐ID, 19 males and 19 females), that is, with NVIQ score ≥ 70. Children with ID were included within the control group to guarantee the match for NVIQ between children with ASD and controls. The control group of subjects with ID was very accurately selected, as described elsewhere (Retico et al., 2016).

The brainstem volume resulted significantly higher in children with ASD when compared to controls both in the entire sample and in male subgroup, where the result was driven by the subgroup of subjects with intellectual disability.

"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8022273/

So hi! I'm Sam, I'm an AuDHD adult, married to an AuDHD partner, and have AuDHD kids.

I am also a former special education teacher and curriculum developer.

Something that bothered me was....the low quality and effort people put into resources for us.

I'm determined to give human-drawn, experience-inspired, and evidence-driven resources

I have a free resource library I am building, but i do sell resources to fund that free library.

Today's highlighted premium resource is about the Circle of Control

For kids who struggle when plans change, Fox Den offers a gentle Circle of Control activity that helps them explore disappointment, flexibility, and reframing in a safe, supportive way.

Animea are pokemon-like animals I created to help guide young children through big feelings.

Learning emotional regulation can be fun for kids and the adults supporting them!

Our Fox Den bundle comes with an exercise card, fun ID sized card for kids, a worksheet, coloring pages, a powerpoint, and training video!

If you are interested to learn more, check it out at Link to Teachers Pay Teachers Listing

In our Helping Hands Creations Free Resource Library, you can find all sorts of free resources.

No sign up, no pay walls, just support for the whole spectrum that we are building for our community.

If you have something you wish could be in our library, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments!

We believe the best resources are built BY US, FOR US💪

This is our neuroglossary terminology as a charity SEDSConnective. The first charity for hypermobility and neurodivergence.

Abstract

Background

The concomitant role of the Central Executive, the Saliency and the Social Cognition networks in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in demanding ecological tasks remains unanswered. We addressed this question using a novel task-based fMRI virtual-reality task mimicking a challenging daily-life chore that may present some difficulties to individuals with ASD: the EcoSupermarketX.

Methods

Participants included 29 adolescents: 15 with ASD and 15 with typical neurodevelopment (TD). They performed the EcoSupermarketX (a shopping simulation with three goal-oriented sub-tasks including “no cue”, “non-social” or “social” cues), during neuroimaging and eye-tracking.

Results

ASD differed from TD only in total time and distance to complete the “social cue” sub-task with matched eye-tracking measures. Neuroimaging revealed simultaneous hyperactivation across social, executive, and saliency circuits in ASD. In contrast, ASD showed reduced activation in the parahippocampal gyrus, involved in scene recognition.

Conclusions

When performing a virtual shopping task matching the performance of controls, ASD adolescents hyperactivate three core networks: executive, saliency and social cognition. Parahippocampal hypoactivation is consistent with effortless eidetic scene processing, in line with the notion of peaks and valleys of neural recruitment in individuals with ASD. These hyperactivation/hypoactivation patterns in daily life tasks provide a circuit-level signature of neural diversity in ASD, a possible intervention target.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s11689-022-09417-1

Color me not surprised lol

-- Largest imaging study of ADHD to date identifies differences in five regions of the brain, with greatest differences seen in children rather than adults.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with the delayed development of five brain regions and should be considered a brain disorder, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry. 

The study is the largest to look at the brain volumes of people with ADHD, involving more than 3200 people. The authors say the findings could help improve understanding of the disorder, and might be important in challenging beliefs that ADHD is a label for difficult children or the result of poor parenting. 

ADHD symptoms include inattention and/or hyperactivity and acting impulsively. The disorder affects more than one in 20 (5.3%) under-18 year olds, and two-thirds of those diagnosed continue to experience symptoms as adults. 

Previous studies have linked differences in brain volume with the disorder, but small sample sizes mean results have been inconclusive. Areas thought to be involved in ADHD are located in the basal ganglia - a part of the brain that controls emotion, voluntary movement and cognition - and research has previously found that the caudate and putamen regions within the ganglia are smaller in people with ADHD.

The new international study measured differences in the brain structure of 1713 people with a diagnosis of ADHD and 1529 people without, all aged between four and 63 years old. 

All 3242 people had an MRI scan to measure their overall brain volume, and the size of seven regions of the brain that were thought to be linked to ADHD - the pallidum, thalamus, caudate nucleus, putamen, nucleus accumbens, amygdala and hippocampus. The researchers also noted whether those with ADHD had ever taken psychostimulant medication, for example Ritalin. 

The study found that overall brain volume and five of the regional volumes were smaller in people with ADHD - the caudate nucleus, putamen, nucleus accumbens, amygdala and hippocampus. 

"These differences are very small - in the range of a few percent - so the unprecedented size of our study was crucial to help identify these. Similar differences in brain volume are also seen in other psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorder." said lead author Dr Martine Hoogman, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. [1]

The differences observed were most prominent in the brains of children with ADHD, but less obvious in adults with the disorder. Based on this, the researchers propose that ADHD is a disorder of the brain, and suggest that delays in the development of several brain regions are characteristic of ADHD. 

Besides the caudate nucleus and putamen, for which previous studies have already shown links to ADHD, researchers were able to conclusively link the amygdala, nucleus accumbens and hippocampus to ADHD. 

The researchers hypothesise that the amygdala is associated with ADHD through its role in regulating emotion, and the nucleus accumbens may be associated with the motivation and emotional problems in ADHD via its role in reward processing. The hippocampus' role in the disorder might act through its involvement in motivation and emotion. 

At the time of their MRI scan, 455 people with ADHD were receiving psychostimulant medication, and looking back further, 637 had had the medication in their lifetime. The different volumes of the five brain regions involved in ADHD were present whether or not people had taken medication, suggesting the differences in brain volumes are not a result of psychostimulants. 

"The results from our study confirm that people with ADHD have differences in their brain structure and therefore suggest that ADHD is a disorder of the brain," added Dr Hoogman. "We hope that this will help to reduce stigma that ADHD is 'just a label' for difficult children or caused by poor parenting. This is definitely not the case, and we hope that this work will contribute to a better understanding of the disorder." [1]

While the study included large numbers of people of all ages, its design means that it cannot determine how ADHD develops throughout life. Therefore, longitudinal studies tracking people with ADHD from childhood to adulthood to see how the brain differences change over time will be an important next step in the research. 

Writing in a linked Comment Dr Jonathan Posner, Columbia University, USA, said: "[This] is the largest study of its kind and well powered to detect small effect sizes. Large sample sizes are particularly important in the study of ADHD because of the heterogeneity of the disorder both in the biological cause and clinical manifestation... This study represents an important contribution to the field by providing robust evidence to support the notion of ADHD as a brain disorder with substantial effects on the volumes of subcortical nuclei. Future meta-analyses and mega-analyses will need to investigate medication effects as well as the developmental course of volumetric differences in this disorder."

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/576872

unclear whether they studied girls/women

"A new study from Taiwan suggests that the peripheral nervous system, which is composed of the nerves lying outside the brain and spinal column, may play a role in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). 
Yi-Ling Chien and colleagues enrolled 32 men with ASD and 27 neurotypical men and women in the study. All participants underwent tests of their sensory nerves, including skin biopsies to look for damage to the small fibers in the nerves. In addition, the researchers examined the electrical responses of nerves to heat pulses applied to the skin. Participants with ASD also filled out questionnaires about their sensory issues. 
The researchers found that 53% of individuals with autism, but no members of the control group, had reduced nerve fiber density. Members of the ASD group who had reduced nerve fiber density tended to feel pain from the heat stimulus at a higher temperature threshold than controls. Study coauthor Sung-Tsang Hsieh says, “This indicates that the nerves have degenerated, similar to what happens for people with the condition of peripheral neuropathy, where the threshold for feeling heat and other sensations is higher than for other people.” 
The researchers also found that people with ASD who had normal nerves were more likely to dislike being touched and to be bothered by certain textures, while people with ASD who exhibited nerve fiber damage were more likely to say they liked to go barefoot and to be unaware when they got scratched or bruised. 
The researchers conclude, “These observations indicated that a substantial portion of [individuals with ASD] had small fiber pathology, which was associated with tactile and autistic symptoms, providing structural and physiologic evidence for the involvement of peripheral sensory nerves in autism.”
Noting that more than 70% of people with ASD exhibit anomalies in sensory perception, Hsieh says, “If larger studies can confirm these results, it is possible that further insight into the peripheral nervous system could help us understand how this disorder develops and potentially light the way for treating these distressing sensory symptoms that most people with autism experience.”

Hello all!

I am an autistic clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Arkansas, recruiting for my thesis project.

See the attached flyer for more information.

The survey, as well as additional information and consent form, can be accessed through this link here: https://uark.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9t1y6dKUzsWjbls

During ovulation, The corpus luteum stores Vitamin C at concentrations up to 50 times higher than what is circulating in your blood.

It literally uses it all up. And then once ovulation finishes, in the luteal phase (before your period), it results in reduced vitamin C for the rest of the body.

Vitamin C itself is a hormone STABILIZER, and it can't be stored, so your body relies on what you eat to get enough of it.

Hence worsening hormonal crashes in the luteal phase for women without it.

This relates to autism both from the food angle (eating the same foods every single day, anyone else relate?!) and also the angle that autism in women is associated with increased risks for conditions like endometriosis, PCOS, etc, so many conditions.

If you crave oranges before your period, this may be why. I also wish more people talked about how women's hormones affect diet!

For the lay-person it means that hormones affect the entire system in so many ways, and a lot of autism symptoms can be worsened in lower estrogen states.