Abstract
Background: Deficit in social communication is a core feature in Autism Spectrum Disorder but remains poorly assessed in classical clinical practice, especially in adult populations. This gap between needs and practice is partly due to a lack of standardized evaluation tools. The multicentric Research group in psychiatry GDR3557 (Institut de Psychiatrie) developed a new battery for social cognitive evaluation named “ClaCoS,” which allows testing the main components of social cognition: Emotion Recognition, Theory of Mind, Attributional Style, and Social Perception and Knowledge. It further provides an assessment of subjective complaints in social cognition.Methods: We compared the social cognition abilities of 45 adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder without intellectual disability and 45 neurotypically developed volunteers using the “ClaCoS” battery, in order to determine its relevance in the evaluation of social cognition impairments in autism. A correlational approach allowed us to test the links between subjective complaints and objectively measured impairments for the different components of social cognition.Results: As expected, the Autism Spectrum Disorder group showed deficits in all four components of social cognition. Moreover, they reported greater subjective complaints than controls regarding their social abilities, correlated to the neuropsychological assessments.Conclusion: The “ClaCoS” battery is an interesting tool allowing to assess social impairments in autism and to specify the altered components, for a better adjustment of tailored social cognition training programs. Our results further suggest that people with Autism Spectrum Disorder have a good social cognitive insight, i.e., awareness into social cognitive functioning, and may thus benefit from social cognitive training tools.
Highlights
Social Cognition in Autism Spectrum DisorderAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social functioning and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities [1].Individuals with Autism Spectrum DisorderAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience daily challenges with social function, which frequently impact negatively their relationships and access to education or employment
Self-Assessment of Social Cognition Impairments (ACSo) The total score as well as all four sub-scores were higher in adults with ASD compared to controls
Facial Emotion Recognition (TREF) Adults with ASD required a higher threshold in order to correctly recognize emotional facial expressions from photographs
Summary
Social Cognition in Autism Spectrum DisorderAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social functioning and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities [1].Individuals with ASD experience daily challenges with social function, which frequently impact negatively their relationships and access to education or employment. Children and adults with ASD encounter difficulties to understand other’s emotional states or intentions This may lead to inappropriate behaviors in social situations. Despite good intellectual abilities, high functioning adults with ASD may ask inappropriate questions, act oddly and are vulnerable to bullying and isolation These difficulties have been linked to welldocumented deficits in social cognition in ASD [2]. Deficit in social communication is a core feature in Autism Spectrum Disorder but remains poorly assessed in classical clinical practice, especially in adult populations. This gap between needs and practice is partly due to a lack of standardized evaluation tools. It further provides an assessment of subjective complaints in social cognition
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