1. Bal E, Harden E, Lamb D, Van Hecke AV, Denver JW, Porges SW. {{Emotion Recognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Relations to Eye Gaze and Autonomic State}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2009 (Nov 3)
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA), heart rate, and accuracy and latency of emotion recognition were evaluated in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing children while viewing videos of faces slowly transitioning from a neutral expression to one of six basic emotions (e.g., anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise). Children with ASD were slower in emotion recognition and selectively made more errors in detecting anger. ASD children had lower amplitude RSA and faster heart rate. Within the ASD group, children with higher amplitude RSA recognized emotions faster. Less severe ASD symptoms and increased gaze to the eye region in children with ASD were related to more accurate emotion recognition.
2. Baron-Cohen S, Golan O, Ashwin E. {{Can emotion recognition be taught to children with autism spectrum conditions?}} {Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci};2009 (Dec 12);364(1535):3567-3574.
Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have major difficulties in recognizing and responding to emotional and mental states in others’ facial expressions. Such difficulties in empathy underlie their social-communication difficulties that form a core of the diagnosis. In this paper we ask whether aspects of empathy can be taught to young children with ASC. We review a study that evaluated The Transporters, an animated series designed to enhance emotion comprehension in children with ASC. Children with ASC (4-7 years old) watched The Transporters every day for four weeks. Participants were tested before and after intervention on emotional vocabulary and emotion recognition at three levels of generalization. The intervention group improved significantly more than a clinical control group on all task levels, performing comparably to typical controls at time 2. The discussion centres on how vehicles as mechanical systems may be one key reason why The Transporters caused the improved understanding and recognition of emotions in children with ASC. The implications for the design of autism-friendly interventions are also explored.
3. Davidson J. {{‘It cuts both ways’: A relational approach to access and accommodation for autism}}. {Soc Sci Med};2009 (Oct 31)
Drawing on a qualitative study of 45 autobiographical texts by authors with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), this paper examines and attempts to aggregate recommendations for challenging barriers to socio-spatial inclusion. The autobiographies were selected by means of purposive sampling and subjected to a sequential process of detailed annotation, manual coding for emergent themes, and ongoing critical discourse analysis until data-saturation occurred. Resulting findings reveal that the extraordinarily heightened senses typically associated with ASDs mean that those on the spectrum often struggle to process environmental stimuli in a way that makes sense. Negotiating the sensory geographies of daily life requires considerable work, and while the access afforded by such cognitive and emotional labour may be rewarding, ASD authors reveal that their efforts are rarely understood – or assisted – by non-autistic others. Many proposed accommodations could, however, be made with relative ease, and ASD texts provide good reasons and recommendations for toning down ‘toxic’ stimuli – such as fluorescent lights – and for redesigning or reorganizing the shared sensory ‘furniture’ of social space. The paper thus suggests that by attending closely to voices from the spectrum, the non-autistic majority might ensure responsibilities to open access are taken seriously, and do indeed ‘cut both ways’.
4. Lind SE, Bowler DM. {{Impaired Performance on See-Know Tasks Amongst Children with Autism: Evidence of Specific Difficulties with Theory of Mind or Domain-General Task Factors?}} {J Autism Dev Disord};2009 (Nov 3)
It is widely assumed that children with autism have a diminished understanding of the perception-knowledge relationship, as a specific manifestation of a theory of mind (ToM) impairment. However, such a conclusion may not be justified on the basis of previous studies, which have suffered from significant methodological weaknesses. The current study aimed to avoid such problems by adopting more stringent participant matching methods, using a larger sample (N = 80), and implementing a new, more rigorous control task in order to ensure that non-ToM task factors were not confounding results. After excluding children who failed the control task, it was found that children with autism were moderately impaired in their understanding of the perception-knowledge relationship, relative to age- and verbal ability matched comparison children.
5. Long SS. {{Application of behavioral interventions for autism exceed evidence of efficacy}}. {J Pediatr};2009 (Mar);154(3):A1.
6. Picard RW. {{Future affective technology for autism and emotion communication}}. {Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci};2009 (Dec 12);364(1535):3575-3584.
People on the autism spectrum often experience states of emotional or cognitive overload that pose challenges to their interests in learning and communicating. Measurements taken from home and school environments show that extreme overload experienced internally, measured as autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation, may not be visible externally: a person can have a resting heart rate twice the level of non-autistic peers, while outwardly appearing calm and relaxed. The chasm between what is happening on the inside and what is seen on the outside, coupled with challenges in speaking and being pushed to perform, is a recipe for a meltdown that may seem to come ‘out of the blue’, but in fact may have been steadily building. Because ANS activation both influences and is influenced by efforts to process sensory information, interact socially, initiate motor activity, produce meaningful speech and more, deciphering the dynamics of ANS states is important for understanding and helping people on the autism spectrum. This paper highlights advances in technology that can comfortably sense and communicate ANS arousal in daily life, allowing new kinds of investigations to inform the science of autism while also providing personalized feedback to help individuals who participate in the research.
7. Pollmann MM, Finkenauer C, Begeer S. {{Mediators of the Link Between Autistic Traits and Relationship Satisfaction in a Non-Clinical Sample}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2009 (Nov 3)
People with ASD have deficits in their social skills and may therefore experience lower relationship satisfaction. This study investigated possible mechanisms to explain whether and how autistic traits, measured with the AQ, influence relationship satisfaction in a non-clinical sample of 195 married couples. More autistic traits were associated with lower relationship satisfaction for husbands but not for wives. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that husbands’ responsiveness towards their wives, trust, and intimacy mediated this link between autistic traits and relationship satisfaction. These findings suggest that autistic traits may hamper men’s relationship satisfaction because they impede relationship-specific feelings and behavior. There was no partner-effect of autistic traits, indicating that more autistic traits do not necessarily influence the partner’s perceptions of relationship satisfaction.
8. Scott JA, Schumann CM, Goodlin-Jones BL, Amaral DG. {{A comprehensive volumetric analysis of the cerebellum in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder}}. {Autism Res};2009 (Nov 2)
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and postmortem neuropathological studies have implicated the cerebellum in the pathophysiology of autism. Controversy remains, however, concerning the nature and the consistency of cerebellar alterations. MRI studies of the cross-sectional area of the vermis have found both decreases and no difference in autism groups. Volumetric analysis of the vermis, which is less prone to « plane of section artifacts » may provide a more reliable assessment of size differences but few such studies exist in the literature. Here we present the results of a volumetric analysis of the structure of the whole cerebellum and its components in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Structural MRI’s were acquired from 62 male participants (7.5 to 18.5 years-old) who met criteria for the following age-matched diagnostic groups: low functioning autism, high functioning autism (HFA), Asperger syndrome, and typically developing children. When compared to controls, the midsagittal area of the vermis, or of subgroups of lobules, was not reduced in any of the autism groups. However, we did find that total vermis volume was decreased in the combined autism group. When examined separately, the vermis of only the HFA group was significantly reduced compared to typically developing controls. Neither IQ nor age predicted the size of the vermis within the autism groups. There were no differences in the volume of individual vermal lobules or cerebellar hemispheres. These findings are discussed in relation to the pathology of autism and to the fairly common alterations of vermal morphology in various neurodevelopmental disorders.
