A closer look at visually guided saccades in autism and Asperger’s disorder

Beth P. Johnson,Joanne Fielding,Owen White,Nicole J. Rinehart,Nicole Papadopoulos,Bruce Tonge,Lynette Millist

doi:10.3389/fnint.2012.00099

Beth P. Johnson, Joanne Fielding + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00099

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Abstract

Motor impairments have been found to be a significant clinical feature associated with autism and Asperger’s disorder (AD) in addition to core symptoms of communication and social cognition deficits. Motor deficits in high-functioning autism (HFA) and AD may differentiate these disorders, particularly with respect to the role of the cerebellum in motor functioning. Current neuroimaging and behavioral evidence suggests greater disruption of the cerebellum in HFA than AD. Investigations of ocular motor functioning have previously been used in clinical populations to assess the integrity of the cerebellar networks, through examination of saccade accuracy and the integrity of saccade dynamics. Previous investigations of visually guided saccades in HFA and AD have only assessed basic saccade metrics, such as latency, amplitude, and gain, as well as peak velocity. We used a simple visually guided saccade paradigm to further characterize the profile of visually guided saccade metrics and dynamics in HFA and AD. It was found that children with HFA, but not AD, were more inaccurate across both small (5°) and large (10°) target amplitudes, and final eye position was hypometric at 10°. These findings suggest greater functional disturbance of the cerebellum in HFA than AD, and suggest fundamental difficulties with visual error monitoring in HFA.

Highlights

Autism and Asperger’s disorder (AD) are pervasive developmental disorders that share disturbances in social interaction and communication, as well as repetitive and stereotyped behaviors and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2000)
AD is currently differentiated from autism by the absence of clinically significant delays in language, and no delays in cognitive development (American Psychiatric Association, 2000)
PRIMARY SACCADE METRICS Primary saccade gain and variable error of primary saccade gain did not differ between groups for 5◦ or 10◦ target amplitudes

Summary

Introduction

Autism and Asperger’s disorder (AD) are pervasive developmental disorders that share disturbances in social interaction and communication, as well as repetitive and stereotyped behaviors and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). AD is currently differentiated from autism by the absence of clinically significant delays in language (single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years), and no delays in cognitive development (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In addition to the core symptoms associated with autism and AD, motor impairments have been consistently reported in these groups (Fournier et al, 2010) impacting postural control (Gepner and Mestre, 2002), fine motor (Cartmill et al, 2009), upper limb (Martineau et al, 2004; Papadopoulos et al, 2012; Rinehart et al, 2006a), gait (Rinehart et al, 2006b,c), and ocular motor control (Takarae et al, 2004; Nowinski et al, 2005; Stanley-Cary et al, 2011). The revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will see the amalgamation of autism and AD into a single autism spectrum disorders category, determining whether a history of language and cognitive delay is associated with additional motor symptoms is essential to establishing a comprehensive understanding of the symptomatology of these disorders, and for the development of appropriately tailored interventions for autism and AD

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