Can You Play with Fire and Not Hurt Yourself? A Comparative Study in Figurative Language Comprehension between Individuals with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

High-functioning autism spectrum disorder: phenotypic subgroups, diagnostic instruments, and predictors of behavioural and emotional functioning

Unlike their English-speaking counterparts, Japanese children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs) perform as well as typically developing (TD) children in comprehending metaphor, despite lacking 1st order theory of mind (ToM) reasoning. Additionally, although Japanese sarcasm and “indirect reproach” appear theoretically to need 2nd order ToM reasoning, HFASD children without this comprehended these forms of language as well as TD children. To attempt to explain this contradiction, we asked college freshmen to evaluate the strangeness (unconventionality) of these types of figurative language. We aimed to test the hypothesis that metaphor, sarcasm, and “indirect reproach” might be evaluated as more conventional than irony, which children with HFASDs do not comprehend as well as those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The results for irony, metaphor, and “indirect reproach” supported the hypothesis, while those for sarcasm did not. Sarcasm is comprehended by HFASDs children as well as by TD children despite being evaluated as highly unconventional. This contradiction is discussed from a self-in-relation-to-other perspective. We postulate that a new explanation of disabilities of figurative language comprehension in children with HFASDs is needed instead of relying on a single cognitive process.

Background/Objectives: Figurative language is a central tool for enriching spoken and written languages, and it is important for building social relationships. Difficulties in figurative language understanding may impair social adjustment. Some studies have found more gaps in the understanding of irony and idioms among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to those of their peers with typical development (TD). To date, no studies have examined the relationship between the ability to understand social situations (as a separate ability) and the ability to understand irony and idioms. The present study examined the roles of theory of mind (ToM) and social situation understanding in the comprehension of idioms and ironic criticism. Methods: The current study included 58 participants aged 8-11, including 28 children with high-functioning ASD and 30 children with TD matched by age, gender, and nonverbal intelligence. All the participants completed a ToM questionnaire that assesses their understanding of others' intentions, as well as a questionnaire pertaining to their comprehension of social situations, ironic criticism, and idioms. Results: TD children outperformed the autistic children in idiom and irony understanding, as well as in ToM and social situation understanding. Understanding social situations and ToM contributed to idiom and irony understanding, with ToM ability uniquely contributing to irony (but not to idiom) understanding. Path analysis revealed that social cognitive abilities mediated the link between group affiliation and vocabulary, affecting figurative language comprehension. Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that social cognition skills influence the ability to understand ironic criticism and idioms, mediating the association between vocabulary and figurative language comprehension.

ABSTRACTResearch on figurative meaning in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) would benefit from considering a greater variety of data types and using more diverse methods. Previous studies have predominantly applied experimental methods to investigate processing of figurative language (mostly metaphor) and have for the most part concluded that individuals with ASD have deficits in figurative language comprehension. In this study, we focus on the creation and communication of figurative meaning in discursively situated and thematically organized verbal, gestural, and pictorial data published by an autistic artist in the form of videos and comics. Across three prominent experiential themes in the data, we isolate types of conceptualizations and generalize over mappings between target and source experiences. We find that the data are rich in figurative meaning expression (e.g., metaphor and metonymy) conveyed through language, co-speech gestures, and pictures in ways that are clearly embodied (experientially based) and that reflect affordances and constraints of these modes of communication. While our case study of meaning production does not contradict previous research on figurative meaning comprehension in populations, it does indicate benefits of taking a broader and multimodal approach to figurative meaning in research on ASD.

We present a meta-analysis of studies that compare figurative language comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and in typically developing controls who were matched based on chronological age or/and language ability. A total of 41 studies and 45 independent effect sizes were included based on predetermined inclusion criteria. Group matching strategy, age, types of figurative language, and cross-linguistic differences were examined as predictors that might explain heterogeneity in effect sizes. Overall, individuals with autism spectrum disorder showed poorer comprehension of figurative language than their typically developing peers (Hedges’ g = –0.57). A meta-regression analysis showed that group matching strategy and types of figurative language were significantly related to differences in effect sizes, whereas chronological age and cross-linguistic differences were not. Differences between the autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups were small and nonsignificant when the groups were matched based on the language ability. Metaphors were more difficult to comprehend for individuals with autism spectrum disorder compared with typically developing controls than were irony and sarcasm. Our findings highlight the critical role of core language skills in figurative language comprehension. Interventions and educational programmes designed to improve social communication skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder may beneficially target core language skills in addition to social skills.

Background and AimsChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability often face challenges in understanding written text. However, considerable variability in this area underscores the need to examine their reading profiles and the factors influencing the development of reading comprehension (RC). This study investigates the RC of upper elementary school children with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) peers and explores the role of broader linguistic abilities in RC, with a specific focus on pragmatic competence (e.g., figurative language comprehension). Nonlinguistic factors such as age and nonverbal cognitive capacity are also considered. A secondary aim is to assess the potential heterogeneity in RC and linguistic abilities within the ASD sample.MethodsIn total, 35 children with ASD and 35 TD controls (mean age = 10.7 years, SD = 0.97) were matched for age, gender, and nonverbal cognitive ability using Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices. Both groups completed assessments of RC, structural language skills (receptive vocabulary and morphosyntax), and figurative language competence. To evaluate variability, the ASD group was divided into two subgroups based on RC performance.ResultsParticipants with ASD scored significantly lower than their TD peers in RC, morphosyntactic skills, and figurative language comprehension, but no significant differences were observed in receptive vocabulary. For children with ASD, chronological age, nonverbal cognitive ability, and receptive vocabulary accounted for significant variance in RC. In contrast, RC in TD children was predicted by morphosyntactic ability and figurative competence. Furthermore, the substantial heterogeneity within the ASD group was evident, highlighting their variability across the range of examined variables.Conclusions and ImplicationsThe findings indicate that children with ASD as a group experience notable difficulties in text comprehension and language processing at the morphosyntactic and pragmatic levels, despite achieving receptive vocabulary and nonverbal cognitive scores comparable to those of their TD peers. The two groups appear to employ distinct strategies for deriving meaning from text. The pronounced variability in RC and linguistic abilities among ASD participants underscores the complexity of their reading and language profiles, highlighting the importance of tailored educational assessments and interventions, which are further discussed.

Objective To compare the integrity of cingulate bundles with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developed (TD) children and adolescents, and further to investigate the relationship between eigenvalues of cingulate bundles and clinical symptoms of high-functioning ASD. Methods Thirty-four high-functioning ASD and thirty-nine TD children and adolescents , with age, gender and intelligent quotient (IQ) matched, underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values in the bilateral cingulate bundles were compared using interactive tractography, respectively. Pearson correlation was used to investigate the association of cingulate bundle eigenvalues with scores of Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Autism Interview Scale-Revised (ADI-R), as well as age and IQ in high-functioning ASD children. Results Compared with TD children and adolescents, FA value of the white matter cingnulate bundle in the right side was significantly higher in high-functioning ASD group (0.36 ± 0.03 vs. 0.34 ± 0.03, t=2.74, P<0.01). Moreover, FA values of bilateral cingulate bundles were positively associated with age (left side: r=0.42, P=0.02, right side: r=0.38, P=0.03), while MD values of left cingulate bundle was negatively correlated with age (r=- 0.44, P=0.01) in high-functioning ASD group. There was a significant positive correlation between the left cingulate bundle FA and age in TD group(r=0.35, P=0.03).There was no significant correlation between FA and MD values of bilateral cingulate bundle eigenvalues and scores of CARS, ADI-R and IQ. Conclusion The integrity of cingulate bundles may be abnormal in high-functioning ASD patients, which be related to age. Key words: Autistic disorder; Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging; Tractography; Cingulate bundle

First-order theory of mind (ToM) is necessary for comprehension of metaphors, and second-order ToM is necessary for comprehension of irony. This study investigated the role of ToM and language ability in comprehending figurative language in 50 Taiwanese children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs) compared with 50 typically developing children. Results showed that the No-ToM HFASDs group performed worse than the first-order ToM HFASDs group and the second-order ToM HFASDs group in comprehension of metaphors, irony, sarcasm and indirect reproach, but not for indirect request. Receptive vocabulary correlated only with metaphor comprehension. The volatility of results seen among studies in terms of the relationship between ToM and figurative language comprehension is discussed.

Impairments in the broader domain of pragmatics are considered to be a defining feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A challenging aspect of pragmatic competence is the ability to process nonliteral language. Interestingly, previous studies in figurative language comprehension in ASD have demonstrated conflicting results regarding participants' performance. The main scientific debate focuses on the underlying skills which facilitate processing of nonliteral speech in ASD. Namely, Theory of Mind (ToM), language abilities and Executive functions (EFs) are regarded as factors affecting autistic individuals' performance. This review addresses figurative language comprehension in ASD in light of the above three interpretive accounts. We reviewed data from recent studies in this field concluding that autistic children indeed encounter systematic difficulties in the processing of non-literal language. Moreover, only ToM and verbal skills were found to correlate the most with figurative language comprehension in ASD. Notably, we found that differences related to research methodology and tasks' properties may have led to discrepancies between studies' results. Finally, we argue that future studies should encompass in their experimental design figurative comprehension tasks with minimal linguistic demands and also measures of ToM, verbal ability and EFs in order to shed more light in the independent contribution of those skills to the processing of nonliteral language in ASD.

Problems with pragmatic aspects of language are well attested in individuals on the autism spectrum. It remains unclear, however, whether figurative language skills improve with language status and whether problems in figurative language are no longer present in highly verbal individuals with autism. To investigate whether highly verbal individuals with autism perform similarly as age-, intelligence- and verbal comprehension-matched controls on the processing of one of the most common types of figurative language, metaphors. The goal was to establish whether the participants with autism are primed similarly to controls by figurative expressions (metaphors) presented in different conditions. The experiment was designed as a cross-modal lexical-decision task where metaphors served as primes for target words related to their figurative or literal meaning. Our findings show that both ASD and control participants made very few errors in the experimental task. However, the participants with ASD presented with problems in performance on the task, reflected in significantly slower reaction times compared with the typically developing peer groups. The similar response speed observed between the younger typical control children and the adult ASD participants suggests that the mechanisms underlying metaphor processing (e.g., selection of metaphorical versus literal interpretation) are still developing in high-functioning autism, very much like in typical children. These results may suggest that metaphor processing requires more than adequate language competences. The findings are also suggestive of a delay in developing sensitivity to figurative language, rather than sheer inability. This suggests that a timely training programme can be implemented to improve figurative language abilities in ASD.

The Contactin Associated Protein-like 2 (CNTNAP2) gene has been discussed to be associated with different symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. We aimed to elucidate the genetic association of CNTNAP2 within high functioning ASD (HFA), focusing on autism specific symptoms and reducing intelligence related factors. Furthermore, we compared our findings conducting a meta-analysis in patients with ASD and HFA only. A case-control association study was performed for HFA (HFA, n=105; controls, n=133). Moreover, we performed a family-based association study (DFAM) analysis (HFA, n=44; siblings, n=57). Individuals were genotyped for the two most frequently reported single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CNTNAP2 gene (rs2710102, rs7794745). Furthermore, a meta-analysis using the MIX2 software integrated our results with previously published data. A significant association for the carriers of the T-allele of the rs7794745 with HFA was found in the case-control sample [OR=1.547; (95% CI 1.056-2.266); p=0.025]. No association could be found by DFAM with any of the CNTNAP2 SNPs with HFA. The meta-analysis of both SNPs did not show a significant association with either ASD or with HFA. Overall, including case-control, sibs, and meta-analysis, we could not detect any significant association with the CNTNAP2 gene and HFA. Our results point in the direction that CNTNAP2 may not play a major role in HFA, but rather seems to have a significance in neurodevelopmental disorders or in individuals displaying intellectual delays.

Psychiatric comorbidity in persons with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: Findings from a tertiary care neuropsychiatric hospital.

Social Communication: A Framework for Assessment and Intervention

Background and Objectives: The overall objective of the current thesis was to investigate three forms of prospection in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), namely episodic future thinking, episodic foresight and prospective memory (PM), using three empirical studies. While few past studies have found ASD-related impairments in episodic future thinking, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms that might underpin these impairments in this clinical group. The aim of the first empirical study was therefore to investigate whether difficulties in two potential cognitive mechanisms, specifically scene construction and self-projection through time, might contribute to episodic future thinking deficits in children with ASD. In addition, no studies to date have examined the practical application of episodic future thinking, which involves taking steps in the present in light of imaginations of the future (referred to as episodic foresight in the current thesis), in individuals with ASD. Thus, the second empirical study aimed to investigate whether episodic foresight might be compromised in children with ASD, and possible cognitive factors that might underpin any identified episodic foresight deficits. Furthermore, while time-based PM has consistently been shown to be impaired in ASD, findings on event-based PM have been mixed in the literature. The cognitive contributors to impairments in PM also remain unclear. Hence, the aim of the third empirical study was to investigate event-based and time-based PM, as well as their potential contributing factors, in children with ASD. Lastly, given the importance of episodic foresight and PM on daily functioning argued in the literature, the current thesis also explored the relationships between these forms of prospection and functional capacity in children with ASD. Method and Results: Children with high-functioning ASD (i.e., IQ > 80) aged 8 to 12 years and age- and IQ-matched healthy controls were recruited for the current research project. Study 1 (n = 37 ASD, 60 controls) showed that impairments in episodic future thinking were linked to difficulties in scene construction, rather than self-projection through time. In addition, Study 2 (n = 40 ASD, 55 controls) provided novel evidence of an intact capacity to take appropriate steps in the present in anticipation of potential future problems in the ASD group. However, children with the disorder demonstrated an impaired capacity to subsequently implement actions at specific future points that allowed successful problem resolutions, therefore result in a failure in episodic foresight. The impairments in implementing actions at appropriate future points were not attributable to retrospective memory or executive functioning deficits. Study 3 (n = 32 ASD, 42 controls) revealed pervasive deficits in both event-based and time-based PM in children with ASD, and indicated that these deficits were related to difficulties in executive functioning and retrospective memory for PM task content. Finally, episodic foresight and PM were not found to be associated with functional capacity in the ASD group. Conclusions: The current thesis provided novel insights into the unique profile of impairments across different forms of prospection in children with ASD. Further investigations will be needed to clarify how and why specific impairments in these forms of prospection are apparent in children with ASD, specifically whether these impairments may be attributable to common underlying deficits. Future research in this area will be beneficial in contributing to the development of targeted interventions that aim to improve daily functioning in this clinical population.

The experimental research on figurative language comprehension is often difficult to categorize because of the diverse ways scholars describe their work and its theoretical implications. Several researchers clearly aim to present broad models of figurative language comprehension and attempt to show how their specific theories can possibly explain understanding of many different kinds of tropes. Even if these research programs do not always provide empirical evidence related to each kind of figurative speech typically studied in the field, there is still an overt attempt to apply the findings of various empirical tests to broader conceptions of how figurative language, and language in general, is comprehended. There are other researchers, however, who typically focus on one or two tropes in their empirical studies. Although this latter group of psycholinguists does not usually provide full-scale models of figurative language comprehension, they sometimes suggest how their empirical findings bear on enduring issues in the study of figurative language processing. Finally, there are scholars, and their empirical studies, that focus exclusively on specific tropes and aim only to construct theories appropriate for understanding those figures. It should also come as no surprise that some psycholinguists flow back and forth among these various research strategies, and summarizing these scholars’ contributions can be challenging. Our aim in this chapter is to evaluate different traditional and contemporary models of figurative language comprehension. The emphasis here is on research that bears on general issues related to the ease or difficulty of comprehending figurative language as a general form of linguistic meaning. Following the traditional belief about differences between literal and figurative language (see Chapter 2), psycholinguists have focused a great deal on examining the possibility that figurative language is understood after some sort of preliminary, default analysis of an expression's literal meaning. Psycholinguistic research over the past 40 years, however, has struggled to create adequate accounts of sentence parsing, and discourse processing, even for so-called literal language. Although there has been significant progress in the study of different aspects of online sentence processing in regard to specific topics (e.g., the interaction of syntax and semantics in sentence parsing, reference assignment, ambiguity resolution, establishing coherence relations in text), there is no single, coherent agreed-on position as to what people ordinarily do when they encounter language word-by-word in speech and reading. Thus, there is not one single position on so-called literal meaning processing, even among scholars who embrace traditional views of literal meaning. This state of affairs highlights some of the problems with theories of interpreting figurative meaning that are based on unverified assumptions as to how so-called literal language is usually understood.