Cortical processing of speech and non-speech sounds in autism and Asperger syndrome

Autism and Asperger syndrome (AS) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterised by deficient social and communication skills, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour. The language development in individuals with autism is significantly delayed and deficient, whereas in individuals with AS, the structural aspects of language develop quite normally. Both groups, however, have semantic-pragmatic language deficits. The present thesis investigated auditory processing in individuals with autism and AS. In particular, the discrimination of and orienting to speech and non-speech sounds was studied, as well as the abstraction of invariant sound features from speech-sound input. Altogether five studies were conducted with auditory event-related brain potentials (ERP); two studies also included a behavioural sound-identification task. In three studies, the subjects were children with autism, in one study children with AS, and in one study adults with AS. In children with autism, even the early stages of sound encoding were deficient. In addition, these children had altered sound-discrimination processes characterised by enhanced spectral but deficient temporal discrimination. The enhanced pitch discrimination may partly explain the auditory hypersensitivity common in autism, and it may compromise the filtering of relevant auditory information from irrelevant information. Indeed, it was found that when sound discrimination required abstracting invariant features from varying input, children with autism maintained their superiority in pitch processing, but lost it in vowel processing. Finally, involuntary orienting to sound changes was deficient in children with autism in particular with respect to speech sounds. This finding is in agreement with previous studies on autism suggesting deficits in orienting to socially relevant stimuli. In contrast to children with autism, the early stages of sound encoding were fairly unimpaired in children with AS. However, sound discrimination and orienting were rather similarly altered in these children as in those with autism, suggesting correspondences in the auditory phenotype in these two disorders which belong to the same continuum. Unlike children with AS, adults with AS showed enhanced processing of duration changes, suggesting developmental changes in auditory processing in this disorder.

Linguistic and perceptual processing of communicative cues in Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (AS) belongs to autism spectrum disorders where both verbal and non-verbal communication difficulties are at the core of the impairment. Social communication requires a complex use of affective, linguistic-cognitive and perceptual processes. In the four studies included in the current thesis, some of the linguistic and perceptual factors that are important for face-to-face communication were studied using behavioural methods. In all four studies the results obtained from individuals with AS were compared with typically developed age, gender and IQ matched controls. First, the language skills of school-aged children were characterized in detail with standardized tests that measured different aspects of receptive and expressive language (Study I). The children with AS were found to be worse than the controls in following complex verbal instructions. Next, the visual perception of facial expressions of emotion with varying degrees of visual detail was examined (Study II). Adults with AS were found to have impaired recognition of facial expressions on the basis of very low spatial frequencies which are important for processing global information. Following that, multisensory perception was investigated by looking at audiovisual speech perception (Studies III and IV). Adults with AS were found to perceive audiovisual speech qualitatively differently from typically developed adults, although both groups were equally accurate in recognizing auditory and visual speech presented alone. Finally, the effect of attention on audiovisual speech perception was studied by registering eye gaze behaviour (Study III) and by studying the voluntary control of visual attention (Study IV). The groups did not differ in eye gaze behaviour or in the voluntary control of visual attention. The results of the study series demonstrate that many factors underpinning face-to-face social communication are atypical in AS. In contrast with previous assumptions about intact language abilities, the current results show that children with AS have difficulties in understanding complex verbal instructions. Furthermore, the study makes clear that deviations in the perception of global features in faces expressing emotions as well as in the multisensory perception of speech are likely to harm face-to-face social communication.

Asperger Syndrome and the English curriculum: addressing the challenges

A major criterion for the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome is an impairment of the imagination. This article focuses on the specific difficulties that students with Asperger syndrome have with the imaginative content of the English curriculum. It examines the problems with reading and writing imaginatively of a group of students with AS in a secondary school mainstream setting. Various strategies and interventions are considered and discussed which could aid their understanding and learning in relation to the imaginative element of the English curriculum. While acknowledging that this is an area of real difficulty for these students, recommendations include: treating students with AS as individuals; using a small group setting; providing support through structured frameworks.

Working with Adults with Asperger Syndrome: A Practical Toolkit

Book review

Tracking the Links to Social Functioning: Asperger Syndrome and Gaze Patterns

The application of Eye Tracking (ET) to the study of social functioning in Asperger Syndrome (AS) provides a unique perspective into social attention and cognition in this atypical neurodevelopmental group. Research in this area has shown how ET can capture social attention atypicalities within this group, such as diminished fixations to the eye region when viewing still images and movie clips; increased fixation to the mouth region; reduced face gaze. Issues exist, however, within the literature, where the type (static/dynamic) and the content (ecological validity) of stimuli used appear to affect the nature of the gaze patterns reported. Objectives: Our research aims were: using the same group of adolescents with AS, to compare their viewing patterns to age and IQ matched typically developing (TD) adolescents using stimuli considered to represent a hierarchy of ecological validity, building from static facial images; through a non-verbal movie clip; through verbal footage from real-life conversation; to eye tracking during real-life conversation. Methods: Eleven participants with AS were compared to 11 TD adolescents, matched for age and IQ. In Study 1, participants were shown 2 sets of static facial images (emotion faces, still images taken from the dynamic clips). In Study 2, three dynamic clips were presented (1 non-verbal movie clip, 2 verbal footage from real-life conversation). Study 3 was an exploratory study of eye tracking during a real-life conversation. Eye movements were recorded via a HiSpeeed (240Hz) SMI eye tracker fitted with chin and forehead rests. Various methods of analysis were used, including a paradigm for temporal analysis of the eye movement data. Results: Results from these studies confirmed that the atypical nature of social attention in AS was successfully captured by this paradigm. While results differed across stimulus sets,
collectively they demonstrated how individuals with AS failed to focus on the most socially relevant aspects of the various stimuli presented. There was also evidence that the eye movements of the AS group were atypically affected by the presence of motion and verbal information. Discriminant Function Analysis demonstrated that the ecological validity of stimuli was an important factor in identifying atypicalities associated with AS, with more accurate classifications of AS and TD groups occurring for more naturalistic stimuli (dynamic rather than static). Graphical analysis of temporal sequences of eye movements revealed the atypical manner in which AS participants followed interactions within the dynamic stimuli. Taken together with data on the order of gaze patterns, more subtle atypicalities were detected in the gaze behaviour of AS individuals towards more socially pertinent regions of the dynamic stimuli. Conclusions: These results have potentially important implications for our understanding of deficits in Asperger Syndrome, as they show that, with more naturalistic stimuli, subtle differences in social attention can be detected that

Asperger syndrome pocketbook.

Recurso de bolsillo que ayuda a los profesores y al personal de apoyo a entender las dificultades de los alumnos con síndrome de Asperger y les ofrece estrategias para superar los retos que plantean en el aula. El primer capítulo explica exactamente lo que es, y lo que no es, el citado síndrome, enumera sus características y destaca las complicaciones y los placeres de tener un alumno con estas dificultades en clase. Los capítulos siguientes hacen frente a desafíos específicos: deterioro social; intereses obsesivos; problemas con el cambio; la etapa de la rabia, la etapa de recuperación. Tiene ejemplos ilustrativos y soluciones prácticas. Hace referencia a recursos adicionales, programas de enseñanza, sitios web.

Simple strategies that work! : helpful hints for all educators of students with Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, and relates disabilities.

Recurso que ofrece enfoques y estrategias que los profesores pueden utilizar para ayudar a sus estudiantes con síndrome de Asperger y autismo en el camino hacia el éxito. Analiza los problemas que pueden surgir en el aula de inclusión y cómo los educadores pueden hacer adaptaciones para atender a sus alumnos con autismo sin interferir en las rutinas del aula estándar. Incluye información sobre lo que puede causar ansiedad en el estudiante con estas discapacidades, los posibles incrementos en los problemas de comportamiento, y lo que el profesor puede hacer para ayudar. Cuenta con diez estrategias acompañadas de ejemplos y razones por las que son importantes usarlas.

Genes related to sex steroids, neural growth, and social-emotional behavior are associated with autistic traits, empathy, and Asperger syndrome

Genetic studies of autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have mostly focused on the "low functioning" severe clinical subgroup, treating it as a rare disorder. However, ASC is now thought to be relatively common ( approximately 1%), and representing one end of a quasi-normal distribution of autistic traits in the general population. Here we report a study of common genetic variation in candidate genes associated with autistic traits and Asperger syndrome (AS). We tested single nucleotide polymorphisms in 68 candidate genes in three functional groups (sex steroid synthesis/transport, neural connectivity, and social-emotional responsivity) in two experiments. These were (a) an association study of relevant behavioral traits (the Empathy Quotient (EQ), the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)) in a population sample (n=349); and (b) a case-control association study on a sample of people with AS, a "high-functioning" subgroup of ASC (n=174). 27 genes showed a nominally significant association with autistic traits and/or ASC diagnosis. Of these, 19 genes showed nominally significant association with AQ/EQ. In the sex steroid group, this included ESR2 and CYP11B1. In the neural connectivity group, this included HOXA1, NTRK1, and NLGN4X. In the socio-responsivity behavior group, this included MAOB, AVPR1B, and WFS1. Fourteen genes showed nominally significant association with AS. In the sex steroid group, this included CYP17A1 and CYP19A1. In the socio-emotional behavior group, this included OXT. Six genes were nominally associated in both experiments, providing a partial replication. Eleven genes survived family wise error rate (FWER) correction using permutations across both experiments, which is greater than would be expected by chance. CYP11B1 and NTRK1 emerged as significantly associated genes in both experiments, after FWER correction (P<0.05). This is the first candidate-gene association study of AS and of autistic traits. The most promising candidate genes require independent replication and fine mapping.

Autobiographical memory, autonoetic consciousness, and identity in Asperger syndrome

Previous results from research on individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) suggest a diminished ability for recalling episodic autobiographical memory (AM). The primary aim of this study was to explore autobiographical memory in individuals with Asperger syndrome and specifically to investigate whether memories in those with AS are characterized by fewer episodic 'remembered' events (due to a deficit in autonoetic consciousness). A further aim was to examine whether such changes in AM might also be related to changes in identity, due to the close relationship between memory and the self and to the established differences in self-referential processes in AS. Eleven adults with AS and fifteen matched comparison participants were asked to recall autobiographical memories from three lifetime periods and for each memory to give either a remember response (autonoetic consciousness) or a know response (noetic consciousness). The pattern of results shows that AS participants recalled fewer memories and that these memories were more often rated as known, compared to the comparison group. AS participants also showed differences in reported identity, generating fewer social identity statements and more abstract, trait-linked identities. The data support the view that differences in both memory and reported personal identities in AS are characterized by a lack of specificity.

Anxiety problems in young people with Asperger syndrome: a case series

It is now well established that the prevalence of mental health difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is considerably higher than in the general population. With recent estimates of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders being as high as one percent, increasing numbers of children and young people are presenting to local and specialist services with mental health problems in addition to a diagnosis of ASD. Many families report that the impact of the mental health problems can be as or more impairing than the autism spectrum difficulties themselves. Clinical services are frequently called upon to treat these difficulties; however, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of treatments in this population. This paper reports a case series of children and adolescents with ASD and an anxiety disorder who were treated with a standard cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) rationale adapted to take account of the neuropsychological features of ASD. Common features of the presentation of the disorders and also treatment processes are discussed.

Life at university with Asperger syndrome: a comparison of student and staff perspectives

Although increasing numbers of students with disabilities are accessing higher education, there is relatively little information about the needs of students with Asperger syndrome. Crucially, students themselves have rarely been included in research examining their needs or the supports they might find helpful. Three focus groups, one with students with Asperger syndrome and two with staff were conducted to explore the challenges, barriers and supports to students’ successful progress though one university in the UK. Thematic analysis revealed some key differences between staff and student perspectives, particularly with regard to impact of sensory sensitivities and daily life difficulties on academic progress. Students and staff also held differing views about what is helpful, relating to disclosure of diagnosis and the value of formal social supports. The study highlights the importance of developing services beyond traditional academic supports that students with Asperger syndrome themselves feel are valuable.