Autism Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is autism?
Impairments in social, communication and imaginative behaviours with presence of repetitive and repeated activity and interests.
The autistics triad
- Socialisation.
- Communication.
- Imagination.
DSM-5 autism criteria
Deficits in social communication and interaction + RRBIs.
Simonoff et al. (2008) co-occurence of autism with other conditions
- 71% had at least one co-occurring disorder.
- 41% had 2+.
Most commonly co-morbid with social anxiety, ADHD, and oppositional defiant disorder.
Bailey et al. (1995) comparing MZ and DZ twins and autism
60% of MZ twins both had autism and 90% had the ‘broader phenotype’ (compared with 5% and 10% in DZ).
Elsabbagh and Johnson (2010) rate of autism in siblings of autistic children
3-4% but higher than general population risk.
3 main theories of autism
- ToM deficit.
- Executive dysfunction.
- Weak central coherence.
Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) on autistic children and ToM Sally-Ann
80% of autistic children fail Sally-Anne task, but 85% controls pass. Conclude that autistic people are ‘mindblind’.
3 problems with ToM account
- Does not easily account for unusual strengths and weaknesses.
- Lacks sensitivity and specificity (some non-autistic children fail the task; some autistic children pass the task).
- Autistic people may struggle to understand the minds of non-autistic people, but the converse may also be true.
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) reading the mind in the eyes task
Autistic adults less skilled at inferring
mental state from the eye region compared to Tourette’s and controls (evidence for subtle mindreading deficits in HFA?).
But varies according to a
person’s intelligence, education level,
race and ethnicity (Dodell-Feder et al.,
2019) and this task might also target
emotion processing rather than ToM.
Senju et al. (2009) implicit and explicit mentalising in autism
Autistic people don’t show implicit, automatic mentalising. No difference between autistic and controls in standard tasks of FB or ToM, but autistic adults did not spontaneously anticipate others’ actions. Compensatory learning strategy (verbally-mediated reasoning)?
Executive dysfunction theory
Autism associated with a similar profile to patients with executive disorder (associated with frontal damage) and elements of overlap with ADHD (-lanning, inhibition, flexibility).
EF could be a protective factor. Allows individuals at risk for developmental conditions to compensate for atypicalities in other brain systems early in life.
Russell et al. (1991) windows task in autistic children
Like 3-year-olds, autistic children are often baited. Inhibition difficulties?
Ozonoff and Jensen (1999) WCST and tower of Hanoi
Autistic people perform less well than controls. Difficulties in planning and flexibility?
Problem for executive dysfunction account of autism
Evidence for difficulties in EF, but not specific to autism.
Central coherence account
Typical processing is characterised by desire for central coherence (gist or gestalt processing preferred - strive for overall meaning). Autism characterised by weak central coherence (local processing preferred over global processing).
4 pieces of evidence for central coherence account
- Embedded figures (finding a shape in a complex object).
- Block construction (creating a cube from a sheet of paper).
- Less susceptible to illusions.
- Pronunciation of homographs in and out of context.
Problems with central coherence account
Difficult to pin down experimentally and conceptually. How to define ‘global’ and ‘local’?
Multiple risk account
Rather than trying to discover the cognitive cause of autism, is it more appropriate to consider autism as
comprising multiple cognitive differences, the manifestation of which depends on complex interactions between different patterns of strength and weaknesses across development. Autism is heterogeneous.
