Autism Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is the prevalence of autism?
Autism proper - 1 in 1000, 5 times more likely in males
Autism spectrum - a little higher, at 0.5%, 15 times more likely in males
What is the heritability of autism?
Highly heritable. 58% concordance rate for autism proper, and 47% concordance rate for autism spectrum.
What is the DSM-5 criteria?
A. Persistence deficits in social communication and social interaction
B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interest, or activities
C. Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period
D. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning
Sub-criterium of A. Persistence deficits in social communication and social interaction
Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity.
Deficits in non-verbal communication.
Deficits in developing and maintaining relationships.
Sub-criterium of B. Restricted, repetitive behaviour, interest, or activites
(Only need 2) Stereotypies, repetitive motor movements Inflexibility and adherence to routine Restricted and fixated interests Hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input
Heider-Simmel illusion. What is its relevance to autism?
Autistic people display significantly less use of mental state verbs to describe reciprocal interactions, compared to people with mild intellectual disorders, normally developing children, and adults.
Sally-Anne task. What is its relevance to autism?
Children who are healthy, and children with mild intellectual disabilities have 85% probability of choosing basket when asked where Sally will look. Only 20% of autistic children do so.
This leads to the mind-blindness hypothesis.
What is the mind-blindness hypothesis?
It states that people with autism cannot represent the mental state of others. They may not get that others have beliefs, intentions, and motivations just as they do.
What is the weak central coherence hypothesis?
It states that a specific perceptual-cognitive style, loosely described as a limited ability to understand context or to “see the big picture”, underlies the central disturbance in autism and related autism spectrum disorders.
What may the weak central coherence hypothesis be able to explain?
It may be able to explain autistic savants. e.g. Stephen Wiltshire, an artist who can draw photograph-like paintings.
On what tasks do autistic people do better?
Autistic people do not take longer to do an upside-down jigsaw puzzle. They do not take longer (akin to a stroop effect) to pick out letters in matching vs non-matching task.
What are some treatments for autism?
Camera in head - allows people to improve on task such as Sally Anne.
Facial expression - training children to break down components of facial expression, to work out post-hoc what emotions are.
