1. Alt M, Moreno MH. {{The effect of test presentation on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and neurotypical peers}}. {Language, speech, and hearing services in schools}. 2012 Jan 9.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there would be alternate form reliability for paper- and computer-administered standardized vocabulary tests. Additionally, we hypothesized that children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) would have improved behavioral ratings during the computer-administered testing sessions secondary to a decreased need for social interaction. METHOD: Thirty-six school-aged children (half with ASDs, half neurotypical (NT)) took two versions (i.e., paper vs. computer) of the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT-2000) (Brownell, 2000a) and the Receptive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (ROWPVT-2000) (Brownell, 2000b). Order of presentation was counter-balanced across participants. Test sessions were videotaped, and randomly selected 1-minute intervals were rated for behaviors. Standardized test scores and behavior ratings were compared for equivalence across test presentation methods. RESULTS: Standard scores for both versions of the tests were not significantly different for both groups of participants. There were no differences in behavioral ratings across method of test administration. CONCLUSIONS: We found alternate form reliability, thus expanding the options for testing for school-aged populations. The use of computers had no effect on behaviors for a group of children with ASDs. The ramifications of this finding for assessment and intervention for children with ASDs are discussed.
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2. Kover ST, McDuffie A, Abbeduto L, Brown WT. {{Effects of Sampling Context on Spontaneous Expressive Language in Males with Fragile X Syndrome or Down Syndrome}}. {J Speech Lang Hear Res}. 2012 Jan 9.
PURPOSE: This study examined the impact of sampling context on multiple aspects of expressive language in males with fragile X syndrome in comparison to males with Down syndrome or typical development. METHOD: Participants with fragile X syndrome (n = 27), ages 10 to 17 years, were matched groupwise on nonverbal mental age to adolescents with Down syndrome (n = 15) and typically developing 3- to 6-year-olds (n = 15). Language sampling contexts were an interview-style conversation and narration of a wordless book, with scripted examiner behavior. Language was assessed in terms of amount of talk, MLU of communication unit (MLCU), lexical diversity, fluency, and intelligibility. RESULTS: Participants with fragile X syndrome had lower MLCU and lexical diversity than participants with typical development. Participants with Down syndrome produced yet lower MLCU. A differential effect of context among those with fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, and typical development emerged for the number of attempts per minute, MLCU, and fluency. For participants with fragile X syndrome, autism symptom severity related to the number of utterances produced in conversation. Aspects of examiner behavior related to participant performance. CONCLUSIONS: Sampling context characteristics should be considered when assessing expressive language in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
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3. Liao W, Gandal MJ, Ehrlichman RS, Siegel SJ, Carlson GC. {{MeCP2+/- mouse model of RTT reproduces auditory phenotypes associated with Rett syndrome and replicate select EEG endophenotypes of autism spectrum disorder}}. {Neurobiology of disease}. 2012 Jan 9.
Impairments in cortical sensory processing have been demonstrated in Rett syndrome (RTT) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and are thought to contribute to high-order phenotypic deficits. However, underlying pathophysiological mechanisms for these abnormalities are unknown. This study investigated auditory sensory processing in a mouse model of RTT with a heterozygous loss of MeCP2 function. Cortical abnormalities in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, including ASD are reflected in auditory evoked potentials and fields measured by EEG and MEG. One of these abnormalities, increased latency of cortically sourced components, is associated with language and developmental delay in autism. Additionally, gamma-band abnormalities have recently been identified as an endophenotype of idiopathic autism. Both of these cortical abnormalities are potential clinical endpoints for assessing treatment. While ascribing similar mechanisms of idiopathic ASD to Rett syndrome (RTT) has been controversial, we sought to determine if mouse models of RTT replicate these intermediate phenotypes. Mice heterozygous for the null mutations of the gene MeCP2, were implanted for EEG. In response to auditory stimulation, these mice recapitulated specific latency differences as well as select gamma and beta band abnormalities associated with ASD. MeCP2 disruption is the predominant cause of RTT, and reductions in MeCP2 expression predominate in ASD. This work further suggests a common cortical pathophysiology for RTT and ASD, and indicates that the MeCP2+/- model may be useful for preclinical development targeting specific cortical processing abnormalities in RTT with potential relevance to ASD.
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4. Manor-Binyamini I, Abu-Ajaj O. {{Coping of siblings of children with developmental disabilities in the Bedouin community}}. {Res Dev Disabil}. 2012 Jan 9;33(3):825-31.
This is the first study that examines the coping of siblings of children with developmental disabilities in comparison with siblings of children without disabilities in the Bedouin community in Israel. For this purpose, the study examines the components of self-esteem, stress, and growth. Data were collected from 200 adolescents. The findings of this study show that siblings to children with developmental disabilities have a similar degree of self-esteem to those siblings to children without disabilities, whereas siblings to children with developmental disabilities have higher levels of stress perception and growth compared to siblings f children without developmental disabilities. In addition, a negative correlation was found between perception of stress and growth and a positive correlation between self-esteem and growth.
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5. Nakano T, Kato N, Kitazawa S. {{Superior haptic-to-visual shape matching in autism spectrum disorders}}. {Neuropsychologia}. 2012 Jan 9.
A weak central coherence theory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) proposes that a cognitive bias toward local processing in ASD derives from a weakness in integrating local elements into a coherent whole. Using this theory, we hypothesized that shape perception through active touch, which requires sequential integration of sensorimotor traces of exploratory finger movements into a shape representation, would be impaired in ASD. Contrary to our expectation, adults with ASD showed superior performance in a haptic-to-visual delayed shape-matching task compared to adults without ASD. Accuracy in discriminating haptic lengths or haptic orientations, which lies within the somatosensory modality, did not differ between adults with ASD and adults without ASD. Moreover, this superior ability in inter-modal haptic-to-visual shape matching was not explained by the score in a unimodal visuospatial rotation task. These results suggest that individuals with ASD are not impaired in integrating sensorimotor traces into a global visual shape and that their multimodal shape representations and haptic-to-visual information transfer are more accurate than those of individuals without ASD.
