1. Candini M, Giuberti V, Manattini A, Grittani S, di Pellegrino G, Frassinetti F. {{Personal space regulation in childhood autism: Effects of social interaction and person’s perspective}}. {Autism Res};2016 (May 9)
Studies in children with Typical Development (TD) and with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) revealed that autism affects the personal space regulation, influencing both its size (permeability) and its changes depending on social interaction (flexibility). Here, we investigate how the nature of social interaction (Cooperative vs. Uncooperative) and the person perspective influence permeability and flexibility of interpersonal distance. Moreover, we tested whether the deficit observed in ASD children, reflects the social impairment (SI) in daily interactions. The stop-distance paradigm was used to measure the preferred distance between the participant and an unfamiliar adult (first-person perspective, Experiment 1), and between two other people (third-person perspective, Experiment 2). Interpersonal distance was measured before and after the interaction with a confederate. The Wing Subgroups Questionnaire was used to evaluate SI in everyday activities, and each ASD participant was accordingly assigned either to the lower (children with low social impairment [low-SI ASD]), or to the higher SI group (children with high social impairment [high-SI ASD]). We observed larger interpersonal distance (permeability) in both ASD groups compared to TD children. Moreover, depending on the nature of social interaction, a modulation of interpersonal distance (flexibility) was observed in TD children, both from the first- and third-person perspective. Similar findings were found in low-SI but not in high-SI ASD children, in Experiment 1. Conversely, in Experiment 2, no change was observed in both ASD groups. These findings reveal that SI severity and a person’s perspective may account for the deficit observed in autism when flexibility, but not permeability, of personal space is considered. Autism Res 2016. (c) 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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2. Chezan LC, Drasgow E, Martin CA, Halle JW. {{Negatively-Reinforced Mands: An Examination of Resurgence to Existing Mands in Two Children With Autism and Language Delays}}. {Behav Modif};2016 (May 9)
In this study, we extended the literature on negatively-reinforced mands by teaching multiple novel, socially appropriate alternative mands to two young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). First, we replaced existing mands (e.g., pushing away) with two novel, socially appropriate, negatively-reinforced mands. Next, we examined responding under immediate- and delayed-reinforcement conditions to assess resurgence to existing mands and to determine whether the function of the communicative behavior influences the consistency with which different mands are emitted. Finally, we examined generalization to different social partners. Our data suggest that both children acquired the new mands and used them to avoid nonpreferred items. Resurgence to existing mands during delayed-reinforcement conditions was documented for one child, and the sequence in which mands were emitted within a response class was not influenced by the function of the communicative behavior. Generalization data indicate that both children emitted the new mands and one of the two children alternated between the two mands with a social partner who was not involved in the training. We discuss the importance of teaching multiple negatively-reinforced alternative mands to children with autism in applied settings.
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3. Neely KA, Mohanty S, Schmitt LM, Wang Z, Sweeney JA, Mosconi MW. {{Motor Memory Deficits Contribute to Motor Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2016 (May 7)
Sensorimotor abnormalities are common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, the processes underlying these deficits remain unclear. This study examined force production with and without visual feedback to determine if individuals with ASD can utilize internal representations to guide sustained force. Individuals with ASD showed a faster rate of force decay in the absence of visual feedback. Comparison of force output and tests of social and verbal abilities demonstrated a link between motor memory impairment and social and verbal deficits in individuals with ASD. This finding suggests that deficits in storage or retrieval of motor memories contribute to sensorimotor deficits and implicates frontoparietal networks involved in short-term consolidation of action dynamics used to optimize ongoing motor output.
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4. Noel JP, De Niear MA, Stevenson R, Alais D, Wallace MT. {{Atypical rapid audio-visual temporal recalibration in autism spectrum disorders}}. {Autism Res};2016 (May 9)
SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACT: Changes in sensory and multisensory function are increasingly recognized as a common phenotypic characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Furthermore, much recent evidence suggests that sensory disturbances likely play an important role in contributing to social communication weaknesses-one of the core diagnostic features of ASD. An established sensory disturbance observed in ASD is reduced audiovisual temporal acuity. In the current study, we substantially extend these explorations of multisensory temporal function within the framework that an inability to rapidly recalibrate to changes in audiovisual temporal relations may play an important and under-recognized role in ASD. In the paradigm, we present ASD and typically developing (TD) children and adolescents with asynchronous audiovisual stimuli of varying levels of complexity and ask them to perform a simultaneity judgment (SJ). In the critical analysis, we test audiovisual temporal processing on trial t as a condition of trial t – 1. The results demonstrate that individuals with ASD fail to rapidly recalibrate to audiovisual asynchronies in an equivalent manner to their TD counterparts for simple and non-linguistic stimuli (i.e., flashes and beeps, hand-held tools), but exhibit comparable rapid recalibration for speech stimuli. These results are discussed in terms of prior work showing a speech-specific deficit in audiovisual temporal function in ASD, and in light of current theories of autism focusing on sensory noise and stability of perceptual representations. LAY ABSTRACT: The integration of information across the different sensory modalities constitutes a fundamental step toward building a cohesive and comprehensive perceptual representation of the world. This integration and perceptual « binding » is highly dependent on the temporal structure of the multisensory cues. In ASD, multisensory temporal acuity has been found to be impaired, most notably for the integration of audiovisual speech stimuli, a finding that is confirmed in the current study. In addition, we show a striking difference in how those with ASD recalibrate their audiovisual temporal judgments based on prior trial history relative to those who are typically-developing. Most notable is the finding that whereas recalibration for speech stimuli fails to differ between ASD and TD participants, those with ASD fail to recalibrate when making judgments concerning non-speech audiovisual stimuli. These results not only expand our understanding of multisensory temporal function in ASD, but also have important implications for models suggesting changes in predictive coding and sensory priors in autism. Autism Res 2016. (c) 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
