Lecture 9 Flashcards
(9 cards)
Early infantile autism
- Kaner 1944
- Observed children who came into clinics
- Defined autism as having:
- ->linguistic problems
- ->Problems with social interactions
- ->Restrictive and repetitive interests and behaviours
Core features of ASD
Communication difficulties:
- Echolalia = children repeat something in a parrot like way
- Neologism = children make up words
- Conversation problems
- Language delays
- Poor eye contact
Social interaction difficulties:
- Lack of interest in others
- Difficulties with reciprocity
- Difficulties with understanding others
Restricted, repetitive behaviour and interests:
- Stereotypes repetitive movements
- Obsessional interests
- Insistence on sameness
- Unusal memory
Nativist = twin study
Folstein and Rutter 1977:
- 21 same sex twins
- 1 or both diagnosed with ASD
- Concordance rate = 36% for MZ and 0% DZ
- MZ twins have more similar treatment and behaviours
Nativist study = polygenic
Leblond et al 2019:
- 356 individuals from isolated population = small gene pool
- ASD individuals had more copy number alleles, higher load of homozygous, deletion alleles and higher inbreeding status
Nativist study = candidate genes
Lyall et al 2017:
- Candidate genes such as SHANK 3 and CNTN 4 found in patients with ASD
- Shows polygenic in nature
Counter = Castermans et al 2004:
- Found it difficult to establish polygenic nature of ASD
- Neither genome screening or associating studies could establish candidate genes associated with ASD
Empiricist study = traffic pollution - Judith
Beceria, Wilhelm, Olsen, Cockburn, Ritz 2013:
-7,600 children with ASD and 10 controls for each found per IQR increase for ozone and particle matter there was around 12-15% increase in odds of child developing ASD
Empiricist study = maternal pre natal stress - Georgia
Kinney, Miller, Crowley, Huang and Geber (2008):
- Found stress hormones cross the placenta and alter HPA functioning in development of foetus
- Study births over 16 year period in Louisiana during severe storms
- Mothers that were highly exposed to severe storms - 13/10000 had ASD compared to 4/10000 in the low exposure condition
Empiricist study = alcohol intake
Streissguth, Barr and Sampson (1990)
- 482 children with learning problems (including ASD)
- Found associating between learning problems and mothers drinking more than 5 drinks on at least 1 occasion whilst pregnant
Empiricist study = mothers experiencing abuse before birth
- Roberts et al 2015
- Increased risk of ASD in offspring whose mother experienced abuse 2 years before the birth but not those who experienced harm during pregnancy
Counter:
-But this finding may be due to only a small number of women in the sample experiencing physical harm during pregnancy as these women were more likely to have abortions or miscarriages
