1. Aan Het Rot M, Hogenelst K. {{The influence of affective empathy and autism spectrum traits on empathic accuracy}}. {PLoS One};2014;9(6):e98436.
Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by interpersonal deficits and has been associated with limited cognitive empathy, which includes perspective taking, theory of mind, and empathic accuracy (EA). The capacity for affective empathy may also be impaired. In the present study we aimed to determine if EA in normally developing individuals with varying levels of autism spectrum traits is moderated by trait affective empathy. Fifty male and fifty female participants (‘perceivers’) completed the Autism-Spectrum Quotient and the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale to assess autism spectrum traits and trait affective empathy, respectively. EA was assessed using a Dutch-language version of a previously developed task and involved rating the feelings of others (‘targets’) verbally recounting autobiographical emotional events. Targets varied in trait emotional expressivity, assessed using the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire. Perceivers with more autism spectrum traits performed worse on the EA task, particularly when their trait affective empathy was relatively low. Interpersonal deficits in autism spectrum disorder may be partially explained by low cognitive empathy. Further, they might be aggravated by a limited capacity for affective empathy.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
2. Brodhead MT, Higbee TS, Pollard JS, Akers JS, Gerencser KR. {{The use of linked activity schedules to teach children with autism to play hide-and-seek}}. {J Appl Behav Anal};2014 (Jun 6)
Linked activity schedules were used to establish appropriate game play in children with autism during a game of hide-and-seek. All 6 participants demonstrated acquisition of appropriate play skills in the presence of the activity schedules and maintained responding during subsequent phases. When the schedules were removed, responding decreased to baseline levels, demonstrating that the schedules controlled responding. Implications for future research on the use of activity schedules to teach social behavior are discussed.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Chatterjee SS, Guha P, Talukdar A, Dasgupta G. {{Autism: a rare presentation of Bardet-Biedl syndrome}}. {BMJ Case Rep};2014;2014
Although mental retardation is generally associated with Bardet-Biedl (BBS) syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder with multisystem involvement, autism is an unusual comorbidity. An 8-year-old boy presented to our psychiatry department with poor social skills and night blindness. On further assessment autism, mild mental retardation, retinitis pigmentosa, polydactyly and syndactyly, obesity, micropenis, maldescended testis, hypodontia and high-arched palate were noted and subsequently a diagnosis of BBS was made. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of BBS with autism from eastern India; it also emphasises the importance of thorough physical examination even in a patient presenting with pure psychiatric symptoms.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
4. Grow LL, Kodak T, Carr JE. {{A comparison of methods for teaching receptive labeling to children with autism spectrum disorders: A systematic replication}}. {J Appl Behav Anal};2014 (Jun 6)
Previous research has demonstrated that the conditional-only method (starting with a multiple-stimulus array) is more efficient than the simple-conditional method (progressive incorporation of more stimuli into the array) for teaching receptive labeling to children with autism spectrum disorders (Grow, Carr, Kodak, Jostad, & Kisamore, ). The current study systematically replicated the earlier study by comparing the 2 approaches using progressive prompting with 2 boys with autism. The results showed that the conditional-only method was a more efficient and reliable teaching procedure than the simple-conditional method. The results further call into question the practice of teaching simple discriminations to facilitate acquisition of conditional discriminations.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
5. Hasegawa C, Kikuchi M, Yoshimura Y, Hiraishi H, Munesue T, Nakatani H, Higashida H, Asada M, Oi M, Minabe Y. {{The broader autism phenotype in mothers predicts social responsiveness in young children with autism spectrum disorders}}. {Psychiatry Clin Neurosci};2014 (Jun 6)
AIMS: The aim of this study was to identify phenotypes in mothers and fathers that are specifically associated with disturbances in reciprocal social interactions and communication in their young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a Japanese sample. METHOD: Autistic traits in parents were evaluated using the autism spectrum quotient (AQ), the empathy quotient (EQ) and the systemizing quotient (SQ) in 88 parents (44 mothers and corresponding fathers) of children with ASD and in 60 parents (30 mothers and corresponding fathers) of TD (typically development) children. For the measurement of autistic traits in children, we employed the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). RESULTS: In two of the five AQ subscales (social skills and communication), the parents of ASD children scored significantly higher than did the parents of TD children, regardless of whether the parent was a mother or a father. In addition, in mothers of ASD children, there were significant positive correlations between two of the five AQ subscales (attention switching and communication) and the SRS T-score in their children. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to demonstrate that the social skills and communication subscales in the AQ are more sensitive as autism traits in a Japanese sample and to demonstrate that some autistic traits in mothers are specifically associated with disturbances in the social ability of their young children with ASD, as measured by the SRS score. Further study is necessary to determine whether these results were caused by genetic or environmental factors.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
6. Kaboski JR, Diehl JJ, Beriont J, Crowell CR, Villano M, Wier K, Tang K. {{Brief Report: A Pilot Summer Robotics Camp to Reduce Social Anxiety and Improve Social/Vocational Skills in Adolescents with ASD}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers. Eight individuals with ASD and eight TD peers ages 12-17 participated in a weeklong robotics camp, during which they learned robotic facts, actively programmed an interactive robot, and learned « career » skills. The ASD group showed a significant decrease in social anxiety and both groups showed an increase in robotics knowledge, although neither group showed a significant increase in social skills. These initial findings suggest that this approach is promising and warrants further study.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
7. Kerns CM, Kendall PC, Berry L, Souders MC, Franklin ME, Schultz RT, Miller J, Herrington J. {{Traditional and Atypical Presentations of Anxiety in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 6)
We assessed anxiety consistent (i.e., « traditional ») and inconsistent (i.e., « atypical ») with diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM) definitions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Differential relationships between traditional anxiety, atypical anxiety, child characteristics, anxiety predictors and ASD-symptomology were explored. Fifty-nine participants (7-17 years, Mage = 10.48 years; IQ > 60) with ASD and parents completed semi-structured interviews, self- and parent-reports. Seventeen percent of youth presented with traditional anxiety, 15 % with atypical anxiety, and 31 % with both. Language ability, anxious cognitions and hypersensitivity predicted traditional anxiety, whereas traditional anxiety and ASD symptoms predicted atypical anxiety. Findings suggest youth with ASD express anxiety in ways similar and dissimilar to DSM definitions. Similarities support the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders in ASD. Whether dissimilarities are unique to ASD requires further examination.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
8. Lambert N, Wermenbol V, Pichon B, Acosta S, van den Ameele J, Perazzolo C, Messina D, Musumeci MF, Dessars B, De Leener A, Abramowicz M, Vilain C. {{A Familial Heterozygous Null Mutation of MET in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Autism Res};2014 (Jun 6)
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) results from interactions of genetic and environmental factors. The MET proto-oncogene has been identified as a candidate gene for autism susceptibility, and is implicated in neurodevelopment and social brain circuitry. Here, we describe the first case of a familial mutation of MET, consisting of an interstitial genomic deletion removing exons 12 through 15, causing a frameshift and premature stop codon, with evidence of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. On the other allele, patients carried the C allele of the MET promoter rs1858830 polymorphism, known to decrease MET expression and previously associated with autism susceptibility. The heterozygous mutation was associated with autism in one patient, and language and social impairment in a sibling. Our observations delineate the phenotypic spectrum associated with a clearly defined, very likely complete loss of function mutation of MET. Incomplete penetrance in this family was consistent with MET as a partial susceptibility gene for ASD. Implication of MET in normal and pathological brain development opens new perspectives for understanding the pathophysiology of autism and for eventual therapeutical clues. Autism Res 2014, : -. (c) 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
9. Limprasert P, Maisrikhaw W, Sripo T, Wirojanan J, Hansakunachai T, Roongpraiwan R, Sombuntham T, Ruangdaraganon N, Guo X. {{No association of Val158Met variant in the COMT gene with autism spectrum disorder in Thai children}}. {Psychiatr Genet};2014 (Jun 6)
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
10. Maccari L, Pasini A, Caroli E, Rosa C, Marotta A, Martella D, Fuentes LJ, Casagrande M. {{Visual Search and Emotion: How Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Scan Emotional Scenes}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
This study assessed visual search abilities, tested through the flicker task, in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Twenty-two children diagnosed with ASD and 22 matched typically developing (TD) children were told to detect changes in objects of central interest or objects of marginal interest (MI) embedded in either emotion-laden (positive or negative) or neutral real-world pictures. The results showed that emotion-laden pictures equally interfered with performance of both ASD and TD children, slowing down reaction times compared with neutral pictures. Children with ASD were faster than TD children, particularly in detecting changes in MI objects, the most difficult condition. However, their performance was less accurate than performance of TD children just when the pictures were negative. These findings suggest that children with ASD have better visual search abilities than TD children only when the search is particularly difficult and requires strong serial search strategies. The emotional-social impairment that is usually considered as a typical feature of ASD seems to be limited to processing of negative emotional information.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
11. Murray AL, McKenzie K, Kuenssberg R, O’Donnell M. {{Are We Under-Estimating the Association Between Autism Symptoms?: The Importance of Considering Simultaneous Selection When Using Samples of Individuals Who Meet Diagnostic Criteria for an Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
The magnitude of symptom inter-correlations in diagnosed individuals has contributed to the evidence that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a fractionable disorder. Such correlations may substantially under-estimate the population correlations among symptoms due to simultaneous selection on the areas of deficit required for diagnosis. Using statistical simulations of this selection mechanism, we provide estimates of the extent of this bias, given different levels of population correlation between symptoms. We then use real data to compare domain inter-correlations in the Autism Spectrum Quotient, in those with ASD versus a combined ASD and non-ASD sample. Results from both studies indicate that samples restricted to individuals with a diagnosis of ASD potentially substantially under-estimate the magnitude of association between features of ASD.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
12. Takahashi J, Yasunaga D, Gyoba J. {{Differences in the Efficiency of Pattern Encoding in Relation to Autistic-Like Traits: An Event-Related Potential Study}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2014 (Jun 5)
We examined the effects of complexity on the efficiency of pattern encoding in the general population differing on autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores. We compared brain activity (electroencephalography) during a same-different task for High and Low AQ groups. The task was composed of identical comparison and categorical comparison (CC) conditions that presented simple or complex patterns. In the CC condition, the Low AQ showed large P3b amplitudes with simple patterns than with complex patterns, whereas the High AQ showed the same amplitude levels for these patterns. These indicate that, similar to simple patterns, complex patterns are efficiently encoded in the High AQ. Moreover, the High AQ had no impairment in the global pattern encoding compared with the Low AQ.
