Mei-Ni Hsiao, Yi-Ling Chien, Yueh-Ming Tai, Heng-Man Chen, Hsien-Hsueh Shih, Li-Wei Chen, Yu-Ying Chen, Wei-Tsuen Soong, Yen-Nan Chiu, Wen-Che Tsai, Elizabeth Laugeson, Mei-Hui Tseng, Susan Shur-Fen Gau
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience lifelong social communication challenges and are more vulnerable to school bullying. Addressing their social difficulties and school bullying requires evidence-based interventions. PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) was adapted and translated for Taiwanese adolescents. This randomized controlled study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the Taiwanese version of PEERS® in reducing school bullying and enhancing social function among autistic adolescents. Twenty-one autistic adolescents (mean age 14.29 ± 1.67 years; female n = 733.33%) were randomized to a treatment group (TG, n = 10) or a delayed treatment control group (DTG, n = 11). The outcome measures (school bullying, social challenges, social skills knowledge, and social skills performance) were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up. The group and time interaction analyses revealed greater magnitudes of reduction in general school bullying (p < 0.001), victimization (p < 0.001), perpetration (p = 0.012), social challenges (p = 0.001), and peer conflicts (p < 0.001), and improvement in social knowledge (p < 0.001) in the TG group than the DTG group. The findings suggest that the PEERS® program tailored for Taiwanese adolescents is effective in reducing school bullying, decreasing social challenges, and enhancing social skills among autistic adolescents, with very large effect sizes (Cohen's d ranging from 1.19 to 2.88). Consequently, participation in the PEERS® program is recommended for adolescents with social difficulties to improve their social communication and interactions to offset school bullying and other social challenges related to adverse outcomes.
患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的人通常会终生面临社交沟通方面的挑战,而且更容易受到校园欺凌。要解决他们的社交障碍和校园欺凌问题,需要采取循证干预措施。PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills)经过改编和翻译,适用于台湾青少年。这项随机对照研究旨在考察台湾版 PEERS® 在减少自闭症青少年校园欺凌和增强其社会功能方面的效果。21名自闭症青少年(平均年龄14.29 ± 1.67岁;女性n = 733.33%)被随机分配到治疗组(TG,n = 10)或延迟治疗对照组(DTG,n = 11)。结果测量(校园欺凌、社交挑战、社交技能知识和社交技能表现)分别在基线、治疗后和随访时进行评估。小组与时间的交互作用分析表明,一般校园欺凌的减少幅度更大(p
{"title":"A preliminary randomized controlled study of the PEERS® program for Taiwanese autistic adolescents: The effectiveness on reducing school bullying and enhancing social function","authors":"Mei-Ni Hsiao, Yi-Ling Chien, Yueh-Ming Tai, Heng-Man Chen, Hsien-Hsueh Shih, Li-Wei Chen, Yu-Ying Chen, Wei-Tsuen Soong, Yen-Nan Chiu, Wen-Che Tsai, Elizabeth Laugeson, Mei-Hui Tseng, Susan Shur-Fen Gau","doi":"10.1002/aur.3213","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3213","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience lifelong social communication challenges and are more vulnerable to school bullying. Addressing their social difficulties and school bullying requires evidence-based interventions. PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) was adapted and translated for Taiwanese adolescents. This randomized controlled study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the Taiwanese version of PEERS® in reducing school bullying and enhancing social function among autistic adolescents. Twenty-one autistic adolescents (mean age 14.29 ± 1.67 years; female <i>n</i> = 733.33%) were randomized to a treatment group (TG, <i>n</i> = 10) or a delayed treatment control group (DTG, <i>n</i> = 11). The outcome measures (school bullying, social challenges, social skills knowledge, and social skills performance) were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up. The group and time interaction analyses revealed greater magnitudes of reduction in general school bullying (<i>p</i> < 0.001), victimization (<i>p</i> < 0.001), perpetration (<i>p</i> = 0.012), social challenges (<i>p</i> = 0.001), and peer conflicts (<i>p</i> < 0.001), and improvement in social knowledge (<i>p</i> < 0.001) in the TG group than the DTG group. The findings suggest that the PEERS® program tailored for Taiwanese adolescents is effective in reducing school bullying, decreasing social challenges, and enhancing social skills among autistic adolescents, with very large effect sizes (Cohen's <i>d</i> ranging from 1.19 to 2.88). Consequently, participation in the PEERS® program is recommended for adolescents with social difficulties to improve their social communication and interactions to offset school bullying and other social challenges related to adverse outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 8","pages":"1705-1720"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142019802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yael Estrugo, Shahar Bar Yehuda, Nirit Bauminger-Zviely
Challenges in social functioning are considered a core criterion for diagnosing autism. Although motor skills, executive functioning (EF), and theory of mind (ToM) abilities independently affect social challenges and are interconnected, these abilities' shared contribution to the explanation of social functioning in autism remains under-investigated. To address this disparity, we examined the motor, EF, and ToM abilities of 148 autistic and non-autistic youth (ages 6–16 years), evaluating these variables' impact on social ability and their interconnections. Our mediation model exploring the contribution of motor, EF, and ToM skills explained 85% of the variance in social functioning (Social Responsiveness Scale—SRS-2). Analysis yielded a direct path from study group to SRS-2-social (typically developing-TD > autistic) and two main parallel indirect joint paths: (a) Group ➔ motor ➔ EF ➔ SRS-2-social; and (b) Group ➔ motor ➔ ToM ➔ SRS-2-social. In two secondary indirect paths, autistic children showed lower motor skills, which in turn explained their higher EF and/or ToM impairment, which in turn explained their higher social skills impairment. Put differently, our results suggest that better EF and TOM proficiency may compensate for poorer motor skills. Findings also indicated that the collective impact of motor, EF, and ToM skills on social functioning, along with the mediating role played by EF and ToM on the social-motor linkage, may contribute to understanding individual differences in the social functioning of autistic children. These conclusions call for the inclusion of motor, EF, and ToM activities into daily practices to facilitate social functioning.
社交功能方面的挑战被认为是诊断自闭症的核心标准。虽然运动技能、执行功能(EF)和心智理论(ToM)能力会独立影响社交挑战并相互关联,但这些能力对解释自闭症社交功能的共同贡献仍未得到充分研究。为了解决这一差异,我们研究了 148 名自闭症和非自闭症青少年(6-16 岁)的运动、EF 和心智理论能力,评估了这些变量对社交能力的影响及其相互联系。我们的中介模型探索了运动能力、情感和态度管理能力对社会功能(社会反应量表-SRS-2)的贡献,该模型解释了社会功能(社会反应量表-SRS-2)中 85% 的差异。分析结果显示,从研究小组到 SRS-2 社交(典型发育型-自闭症>典型发育型-自闭症)有一条直接路径,还有两条平行的间接联合路径:(a) 小组 ➔ 运动 ➔ EF ➔ SRS-2-社交;(b) 小组 ➔ 运动 ➔ ToM ➔ SRS-2-社交。在两个次要间接路径中,自闭症儿童的运动技能较低,这反过来解释了他们较高的 EF 和/或 ToM 损伤,这反过来解释了他们较高的社交技能损伤。换句话说,我们的研究结果表明,较好的EF和TOM能力可以弥补较差的运动技能。研究结果还表明,运动、情商和定向行走技能对社交功能的共同影响,以及情商和定向行走对社交-运动联系的中介作用,可能有助于理解自闭症儿童社交功能的个体差异。这些结论呼吁将运动、情绪情感和待人接物活动纳入日常实践,以促进社交功能。
{"title":"Motor, cognitive, and socio-cognitive mechanisms explaining social skills in autism and typical development","authors":"Yael Estrugo, Shahar Bar Yehuda, Nirit Bauminger-Zviely","doi":"10.1002/aur.3215","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3215","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Challenges in social functioning are considered a core criterion for diagnosing autism. Although motor skills, executive functioning (EF), and theory of mind (ToM) abilities independently affect social challenges and are interconnected, these abilities' shared contribution to the explanation of social functioning in autism remains under-investigated. To address this disparity, we examined the motor, EF, and ToM abilities of 148 autistic and non-autistic youth (ages 6–16 years), evaluating these variables' impact on social ability and their interconnections. Our mediation model exploring the contribution of motor, EF, and ToM skills explained 85% of the variance in social functioning (Social Responsiveness Scale—SRS-2). Analysis yielded a direct path from study group to SRS-2-social (typically developing-TD > autistic) and two main parallel indirect joint paths: (a) Group ➔ motor ➔ EF ➔ SRS-2-social; and (b) Group ➔ motor ➔ ToM ➔ SRS-2-social. In two secondary indirect paths, autistic children showed lower motor skills, which in turn explained their higher EF and/or ToM impairment, which in turn explained their higher social skills impairment. Put differently, our results suggest that better EF and TOM proficiency may compensate for poorer motor skills. Findings also indicated that the collective impact of motor, EF, and ToM skills on social functioning, along with the mediating role played by EF and ToM on the social-motor linkage, may contribute to understanding individual differences in the social functioning of autistic children. These conclusions call for the inclusion of motor, EF, and ToM activities into daily practices to facilitate social functioning.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 11","pages":"2319-2332"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.3215","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142006016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Minimally verbal children constitute a portion of the autism spectrum. The paucity of proper measurement tools that sensitively and accurately assess behaviors has been one limiting factor in the improved knowledge of these children. Short of creating and validating a new measurement tool for this subpopulation, this study took an alternative and more immediate approach: conduct a secondary data analysis and examine an existing social communication measure, the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), with item response theory. The final sample consisted of 453 minimally verbal children culled from four different completed studies. The IRT models analyzed the frequency of social communication gestures from the ESCS and returned an objective difficulty hierarchy regarding initiations of joint attention and behavior regulation gestures. The best-fitting and final model was a zero-inflated negative binomial model (ZINBM), which determined that joint attention gestures were, on average, more difficult than behavior regulation gestures. Joint attentional shows and gives were essentially absent in the children's repertoire, and behavior regulation reaches were the easiest gestures for this sample. The ZINBM separately modeled children with some gestures and children who did not present with any gestures and determined that behavior regulation reaches and gives were likely the first gestures a child will eventually exhibit among children with no gestures. Methodological contributions and potential future applications of IRT are discussed.
{"title":"Characterizing social communication among minimally verbal children with autism: An application of item response theory","authors":"Andrew Schlink, Connie Kasari","doi":"10.1002/aur.3218","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3218","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Minimally verbal children constitute a portion of the autism spectrum. The paucity of proper measurement tools that sensitively and accurately assess behaviors has been one limiting factor in the improved knowledge of these children. Short of creating and validating a new measurement tool for this subpopulation, this study took an alternative and more immediate approach: conduct a secondary data analysis and examine an existing social communication measure, the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), with item response theory. The final sample consisted of 453 minimally verbal children culled from four different completed studies. The IRT models analyzed the frequency of social communication gestures from the ESCS and returned an objective difficulty hierarchy regarding initiations of joint attention and behavior regulation gestures. The best-fitting and final model was a zero-inflated negative binomial model (ZINBM), which determined that joint attention gestures were, on average, more difficult than behavior regulation gestures. Joint attentional shows and gives were essentially absent in the children's repertoire, and behavior regulation reaches were the easiest gestures for this sample. The ZINBM separately modeled children with some gestures and children who did not present with any gestures and determined that behavior regulation reaches and gives were likely the first gestures a child will eventually exhibit among children with no gestures. Methodological contributions and potential future applications of IRT are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 9","pages":"1830-1843"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141997003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kathryn E. Prescott, Janine Mathée-Scott, Daniel Bolt, Jenny Saffran, Susan Ellis Weismer
Domain-general prediction differences have been posited as underlying many aspects of the cognitive-behavioral profile in autism. An interesting potential implication of such differences is hyperplasticity of learning—the idea that autistic individuals may privilege more recent input over the accumulation of prior learning. Because real world language input is highly variable, hyperplasticity could have serious ramifications for language learning. To investigate potential hyperplasticity during a language processing task, we administered an experimental anticipatory eye movement (AEM) task to 2- to 3-year-old autistic children and neurotypical (NT) peers. Autistic children's change in anticipation from before to after a switch in contingencies did not significantly differ from NT counterparts, failing to support claims of hyperplasticity in the linguistic domain. Analysis of individual differences among autistic children revealed that cognitive ability was associated with prediction of the initial, stable contingencies, but neither age nor receptive language related to task performance. Results are discussed in terms of clinical implications and the broader context of research investigating prediction differences in autism.
{"title":"The effect of volatility in linguistic input on prediction behavior in autistic toddlers","authors":"Kathryn E. Prescott, Janine Mathée-Scott, Daniel Bolt, Jenny Saffran, Susan Ellis Weismer","doi":"10.1002/aur.3212","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3212","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Domain-general prediction differences have been posited as underlying many aspects of the cognitive-behavioral profile in autism. An interesting potential implication of such differences is hyperplasticity of learning—the idea that autistic individuals may privilege more recent input over the accumulation of prior learning. Because real world language input is highly variable, hyperplasticity could have serious ramifications for language learning. To investigate potential hyperplasticity during a language processing task, we administered an experimental anticipatory eye movement (AEM) task to 2- to 3-year-old autistic children and neurotypical (NT) peers. Autistic children's change in anticipation from before to after a switch in contingencies did not significantly differ from NT counterparts, failing to support claims of hyperplasticity in the linguistic domain. Analysis of individual differences among autistic children revealed that cognitive ability was associated with prediction of the initial, stable contingencies, but neither age nor receptive language related to task performance. Results are discussed in terms of clinical implications and the broader context of research investigating prediction differences in autism.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 11","pages":"2305-2318"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11568938/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141918222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stella Lampri, Eleni Peristeri, Theodoros Marinis, Maria Andreou
Research in the field of figurative language processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has demonstrated that autistic individuals experience systematic difficulties in the comprehension of different types of metaphors. However, there is scarce evidence regarding metaphor production skills in ASD. Importantly, the exact source of metaphor processing difficulties in ASD remains largely controversial. The debate has mainly focused on the mediating role of structural language skills (i.e., lexical knowledge) and cognitive abilities (i.e., Theory of Mind and executive functions) in ASD individuals' ability to comprehend and generate metaphors. The present study examines metaphor comprehension and production in 18 Greek-speaking verbally able children with ASD and 31 typically-developing (TD) controls. Participants completed two tasks, namely, a low-verbal multiple-choice sentence-picture matching task that tested their ability to comprehend conventional predicate metaphors, and a sentence continuation task that assessed their ability to generate metaphors. The study also included measures of fluid intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and working memory within the sample. The results show that the ASD group had significantly lower performance than the TD group in both metaphor comprehension and production. The findings also reveal that expressive vocabulary skills were a key factor in the metaphor comprehension and production performance of the children with ASD. Working memory capacity was also found to correlate significantly with metaphor comprehension performance in the ASD group. Conversely, no correlations were found in the TD group with neither of the above factors. Of note, children with ASD generated significantly more inappropriate responses and no-responses to the metaphor production task compared with the control group. The overall results reveal that children with ASD had difficulty with both comprehending and using metaphorical language. The findings also indicate that TD children may employ diverse cognitive strategies or rely on different underlying skills when processing metaphors compared with children with ASD.
{"title":"Metaphor comprehension and production in verbally able children with Autism Spectrum Disorder","authors":"Stella Lampri, Eleni Peristeri, Theodoros Marinis, Maria Andreou","doi":"10.1002/aur.3210","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3210","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research in the field of figurative language processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has demonstrated that autistic individuals experience systematic difficulties in the comprehension of different types of metaphors. However, there is scarce evidence regarding metaphor production skills in ASD. Importantly, the exact source of metaphor processing difficulties in ASD remains largely controversial. The debate has mainly focused on the mediating role of structural language skills (i.e., lexical knowledge) and cognitive abilities (i.e., Theory of Mind and executive functions) in ASD individuals' ability to comprehend and generate metaphors. The present study examines metaphor comprehension and production in 18 Greek-speaking verbally able children with ASD and 31 typically-developing (TD) controls. Participants completed two tasks, namely, a low-verbal multiple-choice sentence-picture matching task that tested their ability to comprehend conventional predicate metaphors, and a sentence continuation task that assessed their ability to generate metaphors. The study also included measures of fluid intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and working memory within the sample. The results show that the ASD group had significantly lower performance than the TD group in both metaphor comprehension and production. The findings also reveal that expressive vocabulary skills were a key factor in the metaphor comprehension and production performance of the children with ASD. Working memory capacity was also found to correlate significantly with metaphor comprehension performance in the ASD group. Conversely, no correlations were found in the TD group with neither of the above factors. Of note, children with ASD generated significantly more inappropriate responses and no-responses to the metaphor production task compared with the control group. The overall results reveal that children with ASD had difficulty with both comprehending and using metaphorical language. The findings also indicate that TD children may employ diverse cognitive strategies or rely on different underlying skills when processing metaphors compared with children with ASD.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 11","pages":"2292-2304"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.3210","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141914764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Leena Elbedour, Rewaa Balaum, Einav Alhozyel, Gal Meiri, Dikla Zigdon, Analya Michaelovski, Orly Kerub, Idan Menashe
Breastfeeding is associated with medical and developmental benefits. This study aimed to assess associations between nutritional patterns in the first year of life and the likelihood of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 270 children diagnosed with ASD (cases) and 500 neurotypical children (controls) matched to cases by sex, ethnicity, and birth date (± 3 months) were included in this retrospective case–control study. Both groups were ascertained from children born between 2014 and 2017 whose development/nutrition were monitored at mother–child health clinics in southern Israel. Conditional logistic regression was used to determine the independent association of nutritional patterns with ASD while adjusting for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Both exclusive and partial breastfeeding modes were associated with decreased odds of ASD diagnosis (aOR = 0.221, 95%CI = 0.136–0.360; aOR = 0.494, 95%CI = 0.328–0.743, respectively). A breastfeeding duration of >12 months was associated with lower ASD odds (aOR = 0.418, 95%CI = 0.204–0.855), while the introduction of solids after 6 months of age was associated with higher ASD odds than the introduction of solids at 6 months (aOR = 2.455, 95%CI = 1.116–4.201). These findings suggest that a longer period of exclusive breastfeeding is associated with a subsequent reduced likelihood of ASD diagnosis, thus reiterating the importance of proper post-natal nutrition for infant neurodevelopment.
{"title":"Breastfeeding patterns in infants are associated with a later diagnosis of autism Spectrum disorder","authors":"Leena Elbedour, Rewaa Balaum, Einav Alhozyel, Gal Meiri, Dikla Zigdon, Analya Michaelovski, Orly Kerub, Idan Menashe","doi":"10.1002/aur.3211","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3211","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Breastfeeding is associated with medical and developmental benefits. This study aimed to assess associations between nutritional patterns in the first year of life and the likelihood of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 270 children diagnosed with ASD (cases) and 500 neurotypical children (controls) matched to cases by sex, ethnicity, and birth date (± 3 months) were included in this retrospective case–control study. Both groups were ascertained from children born between 2014 and 2017 whose development/nutrition were monitored at mother–child health clinics in southern Israel. Conditional logistic regression was used to determine the independent association of nutritional patterns with ASD while adjusting for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Both exclusive and partial breastfeeding modes were associated with decreased odds of ASD diagnosis (aOR = 0.221, 95%CI = 0.136–0.360; aOR = 0.494, 95%CI = 0.328–0.743, respectively). A breastfeeding duration of >12 months was associated with lower ASD odds (aOR = 0.418, 95%CI = 0.204–0.855), while the introduction of solids after 6 months of age was associated with higher ASD odds than the introduction of solids at 6 months (aOR = 2.455, 95%CI = 1.116–4.201). These findings suggest that a longer period of exclusive breastfeeding is associated with a subsequent reduced likelihood of ASD diagnosis, thus reiterating the importance of proper post-natal nutrition for infant neurodevelopment.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 8","pages":"1696-1704"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.3211","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141903750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bang Du, Wenjun Zhang, Liu Chen, Xiaorui Deng, Kaiyun Li, Fengxun Lin, Fanlu Jia, Shuhua Su, Wanzhi Tang
How well autistic children can imitate movements and how their brain activity synchronizes with the person they are imitating have been understudied. The current study adopted functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning and employed a task involving real interactions involving meaningful and meaningless movement imitation to explore the fundamental nature of imitation as a dynamic and interactive process. Experiment 1 explored meaningful and meaningless gesture imitation. The results revealed that autistic children exhibited lower imitation accuracy and behavioral synchrony than non-autistic children when imitating both meaningful and meaningless gestures. Specifically, compared to non-autistic children, autistic children displayed significantly higher interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in the right inferior parietal lobule (r-IPL) (channel 12) when imitating meaningful gestures but lower INS when imitating meaningless gestures. Experiment 2 further investigated the imitation of four types of meaningless movements (orofacial movements, transitive movements, limb movements, and gestures). The results revealed that across all four movement types, autistic children exhibited significantly lower imitation accuracy, behavioral synchrony, and INS in the r-IPL (channel 12) than non-autistic children. This study is the first to identify INS as a biomarker of movement imitation difficulties in autistic individuals. Furthermore, an intra- and interindividual imitation mechanism model was proposed to explain the underlying causes of movement imitation difficulties in autistic individuals.
自闭症儿童的动作模仿能力如何,以及他们的大脑活动如何与模仿对象同步,这些问题一直未得到充分研究。本研究采用了功能性近红外光谱(fNIRS)超扫描技术,并使用了涉及有意义和无意义动作模仿的真实互动任务,以探索模仿作为动态互动过程的基本性质。实验 1 探讨了有意义和无意义的手势模仿。结果显示,在模仿有意义和无意义手势时,自闭症儿童的模仿准确性和行为同步性均低于非自闭症儿童。具体而言,与非自闭症儿童相比,自闭症儿童在模仿有意义手势时,右侧顶叶下叶(r-IPL)(通道 12)的人际神经同步性(INS)明显较高,但在模仿无意义手势时,INS 则较低。实验 2 进一步研究了四种无意义动作(口部动作、转体动作、肢体动作和手势)的模仿。结果发现,在所有四种动作类型中,自闭症儿童的模仿准确性、行为同步性和 r-IPL(通道 12)的 INS 都明显低于非自闭症儿童。本研究首次发现 INS 是自闭症儿童动作模仿困难的生物标记。此外,该研究还提出了个体内和个体间模仿机制模型,以解释自闭症儿童动作模仿困难的根本原因。
{"title":"Higher or lower? Interpersonal behavioral and neural synchronization of movement imitation in autistic children","authors":"Bang Du, Wenjun Zhang, Liu Chen, Xiaorui Deng, Kaiyun Li, Fengxun Lin, Fanlu Jia, Shuhua Su, Wanzhi Tang","doi":"10.1002/aur.3205","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3205","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How well autistic children can imitate movements and how their brain activity synchronizes with the person they are imitating have been understudied. The current study adopted functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning and employed a task involving real interactions involving meaningful and meaningless movement imitation to explore the fundamental nature of imitation as a dynamic and interactive process. Experiment 1 explored meaningful and meaningless gesture imitation. The results revealed that autistic children exhibited lower imitation accuracy and behavioral synchrony than non-autistic children when imitating both meaningful and meaningless gestures. Specifically, compared to non-autistic children, autistic children displayed significantly higher interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in the right inferior parietal lobule (r-IPL) (channel 12) when imitating meaningful gestures but lower INS when imitating meaningless gestures. Experiment 2 further investigated the imitation of four types of meaningless movements (orofacial movements, transitive movements, limb movements, and gestures). The results revealed that across all four movement types, autistic children exhibited significantly lower imitation accuracy, behavioral synchrony, and INS in the r-IPL (channel 12) than non-autistic children. This study is the first to identify INS as a biomarker of movement imitation difficulties in autistic individuals. Furthermore, an intra- and interindividual imitation mechanism model was proposed to explain the underlying causes of movement imitation difficulties in autistic individuals.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 9","pages":"1876-1901"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141908840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jessica M. Schwartzman, Ligia Antezana, Caitlin M. Conner
Anxiety and depression are prevalent among autistic adolescents and may be difficult to accurately diagnose and treat given various factors (e.g., diagnostic overshadowing, heterogeneity). Therefore, efforts to examine transdiagnostic factors (i.e., distress tolerance, behavioral activation) may afford more parsimonious means for assessment and treatment. To our knowledge, there has been little research on distress tolerance, behavioral activation, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in autistic adolescents to guide diagnostic practices and treatment planning. In the current study, we examined the interrelationships between these transdiagnostic factors and depressive and anxiety symptoms using ratings from 100 verbally fluent autistic adolescents without intellectual disability (Mage = 13.70, SDage = 2.23, Range: 11:00–17:11 years) and 100 of their caregivers. Many adolescents reported male sex assigned at birth (61%), cisgender (87%), not Hispanic/Latinx (90%), and White (80%) identities. A series of correlational analyses were employed to examine associations between these constructs from youth and caregiver perspectives, and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to explore the mediating roles of distress tolerance and behavioral activation. Preliminary results show that low distress tolerance and behavioral activation were associated with more severe internalizing symptoms per self- and caregiver-report. Some differences by rater emerged, which highlight the importance of multi-informant ratings in autism. Results from mediation analyses may show that behavioral activation may be more salient to assessments and treatment planning for depression than distress tolerance, while distress tolerance may be important for both anxiety and depression; however, findings are preliminary given the cross-sectional nature of the data. Findings suggest that these transdiagnostic concepts may be important to individualizing treatment approaches, including the timing of certain approaches, for anxiety and/or depression in autistic adolescents.
{"title":"The relationship between distress tolerance and behavioral activation on anxiety and depression symptomatology in autistic youth: Leveraging self and caregiver perspectives","authors":"Jessica M. Schwartzman, Ligia Antezana, Caitlin M. Conner","doi":"10.1002/aur.3208","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3208","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Anxiety and depression are prevalent among autistic adolescents and may be difficult to accurately diagnose and treat given various factors (e.g., diagnostic overshadowing, heterogeneity). Therefore, efforts to examine transdiagnostic factors (i.e., distress tolerance, behavioral activation) may afford more parsimonious means for assessment and treatment. To our knowledge, there has been little research on distress tolerance, behavioral activation, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in autistic adolescents to guide diagnostic practices and treatment planning. In the current study, we examined the interrelationships between these transdiagnostic factors and depressive and anxiety symptoms using ratings from 100 verbally fluent autistic adolescents without intellectual disability (<i>M</i><sub>age</sub> = 13.70, SD<sub>age</sub> = 2.23, Range: 11:00–17:11 years) and 100 of their caregivers. Many adolescents reported male sex assigned at birth (61%), cisgender (87%), not Hispanic/Latinx (90%), and White (80%) identities. A series of correlational analyses were employed to examine associations between these constructs from youth and caregiver perspectives, and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to explore the mediating roles of distress tolerance and behavioral activation. Preliminary results show that low distress tolerance and behavioral activation were associated with more severe internalizing symptoms per self- and caregiver-report. Some differences by rater emerged, which highlight the importance of multi-informant ratings in autism. Results from mediation analyses may show that behavioral activation may be more salient to assessments and treatment planning for depression than distress tolerance, while distress tolerance may be important for both anxiety and depression; however, findings are preliminary given the cross-sectional nature of the data. Findings suggest that these transdiagnostic concepts may be important to individualizing treatment approaches, including the timing of certain approaches, for anxiety and/or depression in autistic adolescents.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 11","pages":"2278-2291"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.3208","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141894984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dylan Cooper, Shelby Frisbie, Shufang Wang, Jonas Ventimiglia, Vicki Gibbs, Abigail M. A. Love, Melanie Mogavero, Teal W. Benevides, Jordan M. Hyatt, Kate Hooven, Icylee Basketbill, Lindsay Shea
Research has demonstrated that autistic individuals have higher rates of police contact, however, research has seldom explored the fundamental reasons for these interactions and how this might vary across international contexts. To remedy this, the Global Autism and Criminal Justice Consortium created and disseminated the Global Criminal Justice Survey. Descriptive statistics of survey respondents with and without police contact were compared to glean differential characteristics. Frequency and type of recent police interactions (within the last 5 years) among autistic individuals were also examined to better contextualize the reasons that autistic individuals encounter police. Study findings indicated that across a global sample (i.e., North America, Scandinavia, Europe, and Oceania) nearly half of all autistic individuals had an interaction with police and that those with a history of police contact were usually older, had higher educational qualifications, and were more likely to have a co-occurring mental health or developmental disorder. Among types of interactions, noncriminal encounters, such as welfare checks, traffic incidents, wandering, and behaviors associated with autism, were most common, followed by autistic individuals alleging a crime was committed against them. These findings offer important directions for future research and for targeted policy responses that can address the unique needs of autistic individuals within the justice system.
{"title":"What do we know about autism and policing globally? Preliminary findings from an international effort to examine autism and the criminal justice system","authors":"Dylan Cooper, Shelby Frisbie, Shufang Wang, Jonas Ventimiglia, Vicki Gibbs, Abigail M. A. Love, Melanie Mogavero, Teal W. Benevides, Jordan M. Hyatt, Kate Hooven, Icylee Basketbill, Lindsay Shea","doi":"10.1002/aur.3203","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3203","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research has demonstrated that autistic individuals have higher rates of police contact, however, research has seldom explored the fundamental reasons for these interactions and how this might vary across international contexts. To remedy this, the Global Autism and Criminal Justice Consortium created and disseminated the Global Criminal Justice Survey. Descriptive statistics of survey respondents with and without police contact were compared to glean differential characteristics. Frequency and type of recent police interactions (within the last 5 years) among autistic individuals were also examined to better contextualize the reasons that autistic individuals encounter police. Study findings indicated that across a global sample (i.e., North America, Scandinavia, Europe, and Oceania) nearly half of all autistic individuals had an interaction with police and that those with a history of police contact were usually older, had higher educational qualifications, and were more likely to have a co-occurring mental health or developmental disorder. Among types of interactions, noncriminal encounters, such as welfare checks, traffic incidents, wandering, and behaviors associated with autism, were most common, followed by autistic individuals alleging a crime was committed against them. These findings offer important directions for future research and for targeted policy responses that can address the unique needs of autistic individuals within the justice system.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 10","pages":"2133-2143"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141894985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Autistic individuals encounter challenges in recognizing emotional expressions of others. Pupillary response has been proposed as an indicator of arousal dysregulation or cognitive load. The pupillary response of autistic individuals during socio-affective tasks remains unclear. This study investigated pupillary response in autistic adults when viewing emotional faces/eyes and recognizing emotions during the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and watching interpersonal touch scenes in the social touch task. The study included 98 participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and 37 typically developing controls (TD). Pupil size was measured using the Tobii X2-30 Eye Tracker. The results showed that autistic adults had larger maximal pupil sizes, smaller minimal pupil sizes, and greater change rates of pupil size, particularly during the RMET Eyes task. Clinical correlations revealed that attention switching difficulty positively correlated with mean pupil size in TD participants, while social communication deficits positively correlated with mean pupil size in autistic participants. In conclusion, our findings suggest atypical pupillary responses in autistic adults during socio-affective tasks, indicating heightened cognitive demand. Further investigation is necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms and their association with autistic traits.
{"title":"Pupillary response during social emotion tasks in autism spectrum disorder","authors":"Juei-Po Lee, Yi-Hsuan Chang, Yi-Li Tseng, Tai-Li Chou, Yi-Ling Chien","doi":"10.1002/aur.3206","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.3206","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Autistic individuals encounter challenges in recognizing emotional expressions of others. Pupillary response has been proposed as an indicator of arousal dysregulation or cognitive load. The pupillary response of autistic individuals during socio-affective tasks remains unclear. This study investigated pupillary response in autistic adults when viewing emotional faces/eyes and recognizing emotions during the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and watching interpersonal touch scenes in the social touch task. The study included 98 participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and 37 typically developing controls (TD). Pupil size was measured using the Tobii X2-30 Eye Tracker. The results showed that autistic adults had larger maximal pupil sizes, smaller minimal pupil sizes, and greater change rates of pupil size, particularly during the RMET Eyes task. Clinical correlations revealed that attention switching difficulty positively correlated with mean pupil size in TD participants, while social communication deficits positively correlated with mean pupil size in autistic participants. In conclusion, our findings suggest atypical pupillary responses in autistic adults during socio-affective tasks, indicating heightened cognitive demand. Further investigation is necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms and their association with autistic traits.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"17 10","pages":"2120-2132"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141879937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}