Abilities In Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Articles

The Relationship Between Brain Activation for Taking Others' Perspective and Interoceptive Abilities in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An fMRI Study.

In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we aimed to investigate the differences in brain activation between individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) individuals during perspective taking. We also examined the association between brain activation and empathic and interoceptive abilities. During scanning, participants from the ASD (n=17) and TD (n=22) groups were shown pain stimuli and asked to rate the level of the observed pain from both self- and other-perspectives. Empathic abilities, including perspective taking, were measured using an empathic questionnaire, and three dimensions of interoception were assessed: interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive sensibility, and interoceptive trait prediction errors. During self-perspective taking, the ASD group exhibited greater activation in the left precuneus than the TD group. During other-perspective taking, relative hyperactivation extended to areas including the right precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus, left caudate nucleus, and left amygdala. Brain activation levels in the right superior frontal gyrus while taking other-perspective were negatively correlated with interoceptive accuracy, and those in the left caudate were negatively correlated with perspective taking ability in the ASD group. Individuals with ASD show atypical brain activation during perspective taking. Notably, their brain regions associated with stress reactions and escape responses are overactivated when taking other-perspective. This overactivity is related to poor interoceptive accuracy, suggesting that individuals with ASD may experience difficulties with the self-other distinction or atypical embodiment when considering another person's perspective.

Resting Frontal Gamma Power is Associated with Both Expressive Language and Non-verbal Cognitive Abilities in Young Autistic Children.

Previous research links resting frontal gamma power to key developmental outcomes in young neurotypical (NT) children and infants at risk for language impairment. However, it remains unclear whether gamma power is specifically associated with language or with more general cognitive abilities among young children diagnosedwith autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study evaluates differences in resting frontal gamma power between young autistic and NT children and tests whether gamma power is uniquely associated with individual differences in expressive language, receptive language and non-verbal cognitive abilities in autistic and NT children. Participants included 48 autistic children and 58 age- and sex-matched NT children (ages 22-60months). Baseline electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were acquired from each participant. Children also completed the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). We found thatfrontal gamma power at rest did not differ between autistic and NT children. Among autistic children, reduced frontal gamma power was significantly associated with both higher expressive language skills and higher non-verbal cognitive skills, controlling for age and sex. The interaction between frontal gamma power and diagnostic status no longer explained unique variance in expressive language skills after controlling for variance associated with non-verbal cognitive skills across autistic and NT children. Together, these findings suggest that reduced gamma power is associated with both better expressive language and non-verbal cognitive skills among young autistic children. Moreover, associations between high frequency neural activity and cognition are not specific to verbal abilities but reflect neural mechanisms associated with general higher-order cognitive abilities in ASD.

Neurodevelopmental trajectories of cerebellar grey matter associated with verbal abilities in males with autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition frequently associated with structural cerebellar abnormalities. Whether cerebellar grey matter volumes (GMV) are linked to verbal impairments remains controversial. Here, the association between cerebellar GMV and verbal abilities in ASD was examined across the lifespan. Lobular segmentation of the cerebellum was performed on structural MRI scans from the ABIDE I dataset in male individuals with ASD (N=144, age: 8.5–64.0 years) and neurotypical controls (N=188; age: 8.0–56.2 years). Stepwise linear mixed effects modeling including group (ASD vs. neurotypical controls), lobule-wise GMV, and age was performed to identify cerebellar lobules which best predicted verbal abilities as measured by verbal IQ (VIQ). An age-specific association between VIQ and GMV of bilateral Crus II was found in ASD relative to neurotypical controls. In children with ASD, higher VIQ was associated with larger GMV of left Crus II but smaller GMV of right Crus II. By contrast, in adults with ASD, higher VIQ was associated with smaller GMV of left Crus II and larger GMV of right Crus II. These findings indicate that relative to the contralateral hemisphere, an initial reliance on the language-nonspecific left cerebellar hemisphere is offset by more typical right-lateralization in adulthood.

Decreased wrist rotation imitation abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder.

While meaningless gross motor imitation (GMI) is a common challenge for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), this topic has not attracted much attention and few appropriate test paradigms have been developed. The current study proposed a wrist rotation imitation (WRI) task (a meaningless GMI assignment), and established a WRI ability evaluation system using low-cost wearable inertial sensors, which acquired the simultaneous data of acceleration and angular acceleration during the WRI task. Three metrics (i.e., total rotation time, rotation amplitude, and symmetry) were extracted from those data of acceleration and angular acceleration, and then were adopted to construct classifiers based on five machine learning (ML) algorithms, including k-nearest neighbors, linear discriminant analysis, naive Bayes, support vector machines, and random forests. To illustrate our technique, this study recruited 49 ASD children (aged 3.5-6.5 years) and 59 age-matched typically developing (TD) children. Findings showed that compared with TD children, those with ASD may exhibit shorter total rotation time, lower rotation amplitude, and weaker symmetry. This implies that children with ASD might exhibit decreased WRI abilities. The classifier with the naive Bayes algorithm outperformed than other four algorithms, and achieved a maximal classification accuracy of 88% and a maximal AUC value of 0.91. Two metrics (i.e., rotation amplitude and symmetry) had high correlations with the gross and fine motor skills [evaluated by Gesell Developmental Schedules-Third Edition and Psychoeducational Profile-3 (PEP-3)]. While, the three metrics had no significant correlation with the visual-motor imitation abilities (evaluated by the subdomain of PEP-3) and the ASD symptom severity [evaluated by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)] . The strengths of this study are associated with the low-cost measurement system, correlation between the WRI metrics and clinical measures, decreased WRI abilities in ASD, and high classification accuracy.

Hubungan antara Penguasaan Kosakata dengan Kemampuan Story Telling pada Anak Autism Spectrum Disorder di PLDPI Kota Surakarta

Background: The vocabulary allow a person to speak well and correctly, one of which is the ability to tell or can also be called by story telling. The problem of the language is close to the child special needs. One of them is a language problem that occurs in children with autism spectrum disorder. However, children who have autism spectrum disorder have different characteristics of language disorders. Purpose: This research aims to know if there is a relationship between the ruler of the vocabulary with the story telling ability in the autism spectrum disorder in PLDPI Surakarta city. Method: This type of research is a quantitative research with observative analytical research design and cross sectional design. The quantity of samples in this research is 30 autism children in PLDPI Surakarta city using Purposive Sampling technique. The statistical tests used are Spearman-rank. Research Result: The analysis results show the value of p is 0.632 that means p > 0.005, and the significance value is 0.000 it means sig. (2-tailed) < 0.05. It can be concluded that there is a relationship between the rulers of the vocabulary with the story telling ability in autism spectrum disorder. Conclusion: Vocabulary has a close relationship with children's storytelling abilities, because to be able to tell stories children must first master vocabulary. When the child understands the vocabulary, the child is able to form phrases, these phrases will develop again into sentences and the series of sentences will eventually form a story. Keywords: Vocabulary, Story Telling, Autism Spectrum Disorder

Relationships between Affect Recognition, Empathy, Alexithymia, and Co-Occurring Conditions in Autism.

Prior studies show differences in empathy and affect-recognition ability between those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) individuals. Autistic individuals also exhibit increased behavioral, gastrointestinal, and sleep issues. In the current study, we explored the differences in empathy and affect recognition between the ASD and TD groups; and we investigated their associations with conditions co-occurring in ASD. A total of 54 TD and 56 ASD children (8-17 years) were included. As compared to the TD group, the ASD group showed lower scores for affect recognition and perspective taking (PT) and higher scores for personal distress (PD). Interestingly, results from hierarchical linear regressions suggested that disparities in the PD and PT between the groups were primarily attributable to attenuated levels of alexithymia, rather than being mediated by the presence of an autism diagnosis. Differences in affect-recognition ability, however, were mediated by both an autism diagnosis and alexithymia. We also found significant correlations between empathy and affect recognition and measures of related conditions common in ASD. Alexithymia, hence, contributes to difficulties in empathy while both alexithymia and autism are associated with affect-recognition ability in ASD. Additionally, the association between affect recognition and empathic ability with co-occurring conditions in ASD needs to be considered during assessments and interventions.

Exploring intervention strategies to enhance face recognition abilities in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: assessing the impact of verbalization and Navon tasks

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of two intervention strategies – identifying the global letter of Navon letters and verbally describing a face – in improving face recognition abilities of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Design/methodology/approachA total of 15 adolescents with ASD and 15 typically developing (TD) adolescents participated in this study, which consisted of three experimental conditions: verbalization, Navon and control. Participants were presented with a target face for a short period of time, then completed a task specific to the condition in a counterbalanced order, followed by a face recognition task.FindingsThe results of this study showed no significant interaction effects between groups and conditions, either in accuracy or reaction time. However, TD adolescents performed better than ASD adolescents in terms of accuracy. In addition, the verbalization condition resulted in better performance with slower response times compared to the control condition.Originality/valueThese findings suggest that verbalization may be a useful strategy to enhance face recognition abilities in ASD and TD individuals.

Quantitative analysis of perception ability in autism spectrum disorder

The perception ability has attained much recognition in the identification of cognitive processing and decision-making in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) individuals. However, the prior studies have subjectively worked on perception ability using conditioning paradigms that can be intolerable for ASD individuals. The present paper quantitatively investigates the perception ability of ASD individuals by modelling visual judgement and statistical learning. Thirty ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals are selected for experimenting distinguishing animated images related to risk situations with different risk levels. The experimental paradigm-based behavioural measures (reaction time, d′ index, and accuracy) revealed that ASD individuals, although performed poorly than TDs, they visually and statistically perceived the risk. Quantitatively, the perception level in ASD is (mean 0.57 ± 0.02) in the range [0 1]. In comparison to TDs, the attenuated visual and statistical learning during the experiment could lead to impaired perception in ASD. However, when statistical learning comes into action (comparing performance in block 1 and block 6), it played a crucial role in improving visual knowledge; thus, the perception ability of ASD individuals. In the future, the studies can implicate the quantitative perception to identify other deficits in the ASD phenotype.

Preserved navigation abilities and spatio-temporal memory in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Cerebellar abnormalities have been reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Beyond its role in hallmark features of ASD, the cerebellum and its connectivity with forebrain structures also play a role in navigation. However, the current understanding of navigation abilities in ASD is equivocal, as is the impact of the disorder on the functional anatomy of the cerebellum. In the present study, we investigated the navigation behavior of a population of ASD and typically developing (TD) adults related to their brain anatomy as assessed by structural and functional MRI at rest. We used the Starmaze task, which permits assessing and distinguishing two complex navigation behaviors, one based on allocentric learning and the other on egocentric learning of a route with multiple decision points. Compared to TD controls, individuals with ASD showed similar exploration, learning, and strategy performance and preference. In addition, there was no difference in the structural or functional anatomy of the cerebellar circuits involved in navigation between the two groups. The findings of our work suggest that navigation abilities, spatio-temporal memory, and their underlying circuits are preserved in individuals with ASD.

Intellectual disabilities moderate sex/gender differences in autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Girls/women with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are suggested to exhibit different symptom profiles than boys/men with ASD. Accumulating evidence suggests that intellectual disability (ID) may affect sex/gender differences in ASD. However, a systematic review and meta-analysis on this topic is missing. Two databases (MEDLINE and PsycINFO) were used to search for studies reporting sex/gender differences (girls/women versus boys/men) in social communication and interaction, restrictive and repetitive behaviour and interests (RRBIs), sensory processing, and linguistic and motor abilities in ASD. The final sample consisted of 79 studies. The meta-analysis was performed with Review Manager using a random-effects model. Participants with ASD without and with ID were analysed as separate subgroups, and the effects in these two subgroups were also compared with each other. Girls/women with ASD without ID displayed fewer RRBIs, more sensory symptoms and less problems in linguistic abilities than their boys/men counterparts. In contrast, girls/women with ASD with ID displayed more social difficulties and RRBIs, poorer linguistic abilities and more motor problems than boys/men with ASD with ID. Comparisons of groups of participants with ASD without ID versus participants with ASD with ID confirmed differences in sex/gender effects on social difficulties, sensory processing, linguistic abilities and motor abilities. Our results clearly suggest that thefemale phenotype of ASD is moderated by ID. Among individuals with ASD with ID, girls/women seem to be more severely affected than boys/men, whereas among individuals with ASD without ID, girls/women with ASD may have less symptoms than boys/men. Such phenotypic differences could be a potential cause of underrecognition of girls/women with ASD, and it is also possible that observed phenotypic differences may reflect underdiagnosing of girls/women with ASD.

Compreensão de estruturas com movimento A´ em crianças com Perturbações do Espectro do Autismo

This investigation aims to study the comprehension of A´movement (wh-questions and relatives) in L1 European Portuguese children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), since previous research on syntactic abilities in ASD remains inconclusive. 24 Portuguese speaking children with ASD (aged 5;6 to 13;11), including children with low and high non-verbal IQ, were compared to 35 typically developing (TD) children. The comprehension of subject, object and oblique wh-questions and subject, object and oblique relatives was assessed via a picture selection task. Overall, ASD children seem to have more difficulties than the control group with these structures, although there were only statiscally significant differences between the control group and the experimental group in younger children. No significant differences were found between ASD children with low and high IQ, with heterogeneous behavior in both groups. The results are in line with the ones we find in studies with this population conducted in other languages that suggest that ASD may be associated with general language delays and that there is a dissociation between non-verbal IQ and the comprehension of syntactic structures.

Further developing the Frith-Happé animations: A quicker, more objective, and web-based test of theory of mind for autistic and neurotypical adults.

The Frith-Happé Animations Test, depicting interactions between triangles, is widely used to measure theory of mind (ToM) ability in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This test began with recording, transcribing, and subjectively scoring participants' verbal descriptions, which consistently found ToM-specific difficulties in ASD. More recently in 2011, White et al. created a more objective version of this ToM test using multiple-choice questions. However, there has been surprisingly little uptake of this test, hence it is currently unclear if White et al.'s findings replicate. Further, the lack of an online version of the test may be hampering its use in large-scale studies and outside of research settings. Addressing these issues, we report the development of a web-based version of the Frith-Happé Animations Test for autistic and neurotypical adults. An online version of the test was developed in a large general population sample (study 1; N=285) and online data were compared with those collected in a lab-based setting (study 2; N=339). The new online test was then administered to adults with a clinical diagnosis of ASD and matched neurotypical controls (study 3; N=231). Results demonstrated that the test could successfully be administered online to autistic adults, who showed ToM difficulties compared to neurotypical adults, replicating White et al.'s findings. Overall, we have developed a quicker, more objective, and web-based version of the Frith-Happé Animations Test that will be useful for social cognition research within and beyond the field of autism, with potential utility for clinical settings. LAY SUMMARY: Many autistic people find it hard to understand what other people are thinking. There are many tests for this 'mentalising' ability, but they often take a long time to complete and cannot be used outside of research settings. In 2011, scientists used short silent animations of moving shapes to create a fast way to measure mentalising ability. We developed this into an online test to use in research and clinics to measure mentalising ability in autism.

Influence of siblings on adaptive behavior trajectories in autism spectrum disorder.

Siblings have the potential to shape the developmental trajectories of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Having siblings has been associated with better social communication skills, less severe non-verbal communication deficits, and improved theory of mind abilities in autism spectrum disorder. This study examined the influence of the presence of a sibling, participant's position in the birth order, gender of the closest-age sibling, and gender match of the sibling dyad on the rate of growth in adaptive skills from ages 9 to 26 years among individuals with autism spectrum disorder and individuals with a history of non-spectrum developmental disorders. While all participants showed consistent gains in adaptive skill development as a function of age, there was variability in rates of growth based on sibling constellation group membership. Participants with at least one sibling, regardless of other sibling constellation factors, experienced greater rates of growth in adaptive behavior trajectories from childhood to adulthood than participants with no siblings across both Black and White participants, although differences were magnified in Black participants. Furthermore, among participants with siblings, those with male closest-age siblings and those with gender-matched siblings, irrespective of birth order position, demonstrated the steepest growth patterns in adaptive functioning within their respective groups over the 17-year period. Results suggest that siblings may serve an important role in improving the adaptive functioning trajectories and overall outcomes of individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Reduced engagement of visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Limited eye contact and difficulty tracking where others are looking are common in people with autism spectrum disorder. It is unclear, however, whether these are specifically social differences; it is possible that they are a result of broader alterations in engaging and disengaging visual attention. We used eye-tracking technology with children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 35) and typical development (n = 32), showing them both social and nonsocial imaging to test their visual attention. Children with autism spectrum disorder had a significant difference in how long it took them to look from an image in the middle to one on the side, depending on whether the middle image stayed on the screen or flashed off before the one on the side appeared. This difference was present for both social and nonsocial images, and was related to cognitive ability for only the children with autism spectrum disorder. Our findings suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder have differences in general processes of engaging visual attention that are not specifically social in nature, and that these processes may relate to cognitive ability in autism spectrum disorder. Affected processes of visual engagement in autism spectrum disorder may contribute to symptoms like reduced eye contact, but social-specific symptoms of autism spectrum disorder likely do not stem from reduced visual engagement alone.

Face perception predicts affective theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder but not schizophrenia or typical development.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SCZ) have overlapping symptomatology related to difficulties with social cognition. Yet, few studies have directly compared social cognition in ASD, SCZ, and typical development (TD). The current study examined individual differences in face recognition and its relation to affective theory of mind (ToM) in each diagnostic group. Adults with ASD (n = 31), SCZ (n = 43), and TD (n = 47) between the ages of 18 and 48 years-old with full scale IQ above 80 participated in this study. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) measured affective ToM, and the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) measured face perception. Adults with ASD and SCZ did not differ in their affective ToM abilities, and both groups showed affective ToM difficulties compared with TD. However, better face recognition ability uniquely predicted better affective ToM ability in ASD. Results suggest that affective ToM difficulties may relate to face processing in ASD but not SCZ. By clarifying the complex nature of individual differences in affective ToM and face recognition difficulties in these disorders, the present study suggests there may be divergent mechanisms underlying pathways to social dysfunction in ASD compared with SCZ. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Atypical visual motion prediction abilities in autism spectrum disorder.

A recent theory posits that prediction deficits may underlie the core symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, empirical evidence for this hypothesis is minimal. Using a visual extrapolation task, we tested motion prediction abilities in children and adolescents with and without ASD. We examined the factors known to be important for motion prediction: the central-tendency response bias and smooth pursuit eye movements. In ASD, response biases followed an atypical trajectory that was dominated by early responses. This differed from controls who exhibited response biases that reflected a gradual accumulation of knowledge about stimulus statistics. Moreover, while better smooth pursuit eye movements for the moving object were linked to more accurate motion prediction in controls, in ASD, better smooth pursuit was counterintuitively linked to a more pronounced early response bias. Together, these results demonstrate atypical visual prediction abilities in ASD and offer insights into possible mechanisms underlying the observed differences.

Daily living skills in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: Implications for intervention and independence

BackgroundChallenges in adaptive behaviors are present in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while variation in IQ, social skills, and comorbidities are possible influences on adaptive behaviors. However, adaptive behaviors do not consistently map onto cognitive abilities in ASD, as high IQ is not protective against challenges in adaptive behaviors. Additionally, individuals with both ASD and elevated levels of externalizing problem behaviors experience even worse adaptive behaviors. Identifying factors that contribute to the variance in adaptive behaviors, particularly daily living skills (DLS), may inform strategies to improve adaptive behaviors necessary for independence in adulthood. MethodAdolescents with typical cognitive development (TD, n = 84), intellectual disability (ID, n = 30), or ASD (n = 45) were included in this study to examine group differences in adaptive behaviors, identify relations between IQ and DLS, and determine factors that contribute to variance in DLS at youth age 13. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 2nd Edition (VABS-II) was used to measure adaptive behaviors. ResultsAll domains of adaptive behavior were significantly higher in TD groups compared to ASD and ID youth. Significant positive correlations were observed between IQ and DLS in the ASD and ID groups. In the ASD youth group, higher externalizing behavior problems explained the most variance in DLS. ConclusionsDLS are below age-expected levels in young adolescents with ASD, in part because of the higher externalizing behavior problems in this group. Incorporating adaptive skills training and behavior management strategies into current interventions may serve to prepare adolescents and families for the transition to adulthood.

Visual Noise Effect on Contour Integration and Gaze Allocation in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Contradictory results have been obtained in the studies that compare contour integration abilities in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) and typically developing individuals. The present study aimed to explore the limiting factors of contour integration ability in ASD and verify the role of the external visual noise by a combination of psychophysical and eye-tracking approaches. To this aim, 24 children and adolescents with ASD and 32 age-matched participants with typical development had to detect the presence of contour embedded among similar Gabor elements in a Yes/No procedure. The results obtained showed that the responses in the group with ASD were not only less accurate but also were significantly slower compared to the control group at all noise levels. The detection performance depended on the group differences in addition to the effect of the intellectual functioning of the participants from both groups. The comparison of the agreement and accuracy of the responses in the double-pass experiment showed that the results of the participants with ASD are more affected by the increase of the external noise. It turned out that the internal noise depends on the level of the added external noise: the difference between the two groups was non-significant at the low external noise and significant at the high external noise. In accordance with the psychophysical results, the eye-tracking data indicated a larger gaze allocation area in the group with autism. These findings may imply higher positional uncertainty in ASD due to the inability to maintain the information of the contour location from previous presentations and interference from noise elements in the contour vicinity. Psychophysical and eye-tracking data suggest lower efficiency in using stimulus information in the ASD group that could be caused by fixation instability and noisy and unstable perceptual template that affects noise filtering.

Quantitative analysis of perception ability in autism spectrum disorder

Quantitative analysis of perception ability in autism spectrum disorder

Age of walking and intellectual ability in autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders: a population-based study.

Delayed walking is common in intellectual disability (ID) but may be less common when ID occurs with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies examining this were limited by reliance on clinical samples and exclusion of children with severe motor deficits. To examine in a population-based sample if age of walking is differentially related to intellectual ability in children with ASD versus other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Participants were from the nested Autism Birth Cohort Study of the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Cox proportional hazards regression assessed if diagnosis (ASD n=212 vs. NDD n=354), continuous nonverbal IQ, and their interaction, were associated with continuous age of walking. The relationship between nonverbal IQ and age of walking was stronger for NDD than for ASD (Group×nonverbal IQ interaction, χ2 =13.93, p=.0002). This interaction was characterized by a 21% decrease in the likelihood of walking onset at any given time during the observation period per 10-point decrease in nonverbal IQ (hazard ratio=0.79, 95% CI: 0.78-0.85) in the NDD group compared to 8% (hazard ratio=0.92, 95% CI: 0.86-0.98) in the ASD group. The finding that age of walking is less strongly related to low intellectual ability in children with ASD than in children without other NDDs supports the hypothesis that ID in ASD may result from heterogeneous developmental pathways. Late walking may be a useful stratification variable in etiological research focused on ASD and other NDDs.