What Is Urinary Incontinence? Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

Modifiable Factors In Autism

Modifiable Factors in Autism (MFA) researchers carry out different kinds of studies to better understand autism. The goal is to learn more about different factors linked to autism across the lifespan. For example, studies may address the impact of being born before the end of the full 9 months of pregnancy or having different kinds of health conditions through life, and how those outcomes come about. Studies also examine factors that may influence brain development and other biologic pathways involved in early development to learn more about underlying mechanisms so that, ultimately, better treatments and supports can be developed. In other words, MFA researchers ask "why" and "how" questions. Answers to those questions help families and communities find the best ways to support persons on the spectrum.

So, MFA researchers look for risk and protective factors that are modifiable (able to be changed) and linked to outcomes in autistic persons in order to find ways to improve the lives of persons on the spectrum and their families.

To do this, MFA researchers look at many different factors, in different kinds of studies, with partners in the US and around the world. 

Research Topics

MFA researchers study many different risk and protective factors linked to development and life course outcomes in autism to better understand pathways in development.

Learn More Research Approaches

MFA researchers use different types of studies for different purposes.

Learn More Ongoing Projects

MFA researchers are involved in many ongoing projects.

Learn More Collaborations

MFA researchers collaborate with a wide network of leading researchers in the US and worldwide.

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Research Topics

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Modifiable Factors in Autism (MFA) researchers study how many different factors contribute to the development of autism. Additional study is also devoted to factors contributing to different outcomes over the life course, such as development of co-occuring conditions in autistic people.

MFA investigators also work on developing new methods to better measure characteristics of autism, risk and protective factors, and outcomes. Examples of key research topics include:                                                                                                        

Environmental factors like parent exposure to chemicals at work or at home during pregnancy, or exposure of the child in early life to chemicals like air pollutants and pesticides

Maternal health during and around pregnancy, including medical conditions, reproductive history, and pregnancy and infant factors

Maternal diet during and around pregnancy, including prenatal vitamins, nutrients, food and how nutrition might influence other factors linked to autism and early child development

Family health history and demographics, including the diagnosis of autism or other conditions in parents, siblings or other family members, and family sociodemographic factors (including parent or grandparent age, parent immigration)

Measurement of autism and related traits in different ways that may help is learn more about brain development and how autism is related to other neurodevelopmental outcomes

Pathways linked to differences in brain development and outcomes, such as co-occurring conditions, in autism. Pathways include inflammation, oxidative stress, placenta development, hormones, genetic differences and the interplay of genetics and environmental factors in autism.

Health over the life course of persons on the spectrum

Our Best Brain Tips For A Healthier, Happier Life

Exercise your body, eat fiber-rich foods, stay social and do hard things. These are some of the habits of "SuperAgers." They are the "Betty Whites of the world," says Emily Rogalski, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Rogalski was part of the research team that coined the term "SuperAgers" 15 years ago. It describes people older than 80 whose memory is as good as those 20 to 30 years younger, if not better.

What researchers are learning from SuperAgers could allow us to discover new protective factors in lifestyle, genetics and resilience for common changes that arise with aging. Becoming a SuperAger is probably partly because of the genetic lottery, but our lifestyle choices — food, exercise, social connections and taking on new challenges — can also make a difference in our cognitive health span as we age.

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