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Biomedical subjects

M R Prior

Publications and source records attributed to M R Prior.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Urinary cortisol circadian rhythm in a group of high-functioning children with autism.

Previous research has suggested that there may be dysfunction in the control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in autistic children. Both an abnormal cortisol circadian rhythm and failure to suppress cortisol secretion in response to dexamethasone have been reported. This study investigated the basal urinary cortisol circadian rhythm in a group of high-functioning children with autism and matched controls. No evidence was found for abnormal temporal placement of the circadian rhythm in the autistic group. There was a tendency towards cortisol hypersecretion during the day, predominantly in those autistic children who were integrated into the normal school system. While the temporal parameters of the cortisol circadian rhythm in these children with autism were probably normal, the tendency towards cortisol hypersecretion may indicate an environmental stress response in this group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

The rule learning behavior of reading disabled and normal children as a function of task characteristics and instruction.

The purpose of this research was to investigate rule learning in reading disabled (RD) and normal children (chronological age and reading age (RA) match) when required to (a) abstract rules independently, and (b) use rules after instruction. Study 1 required the children to solve problems using shapes and letters. Although there was no difference between groups in the rate of problem solving when children were asked to abstract rules independently, the pattern of errors was different. The RD children made a greater proportion of errors on the negative instance for the more complex problems. In particular, this occurred on the letter task which involved psycholinguistic categorization. After instruction, the RA controls made more errors than the other groups. Study 2 was an analogous pseudoword reading task. Even with statistical adjustment for differences in prior grapheme-phoneme (g-p) rule knowledge, the RD children performed less accurately than the RA controls when they had to abstract rules, although this was restricted to the most difficult rule (rule of e). There was no difference after instruction in rule application, although the pattern of errors and post-test results indicated that the RD children continued to experience decoding difficulty. These results suggest a phonologically based productive deficit which interferes with the learning of g-p rules. This may be part of a more general language deficit which includes psycholinguistic categorization. Despite the severity of this handicap, RD children seem responsive to instruction.

Attention↗
PubMed1988

Singing ability after right and left sided brain damage. A research note.

Capacity to sing following brain damage was investigated in a series of 15 right sided and 15 left sided lesioned subjects and 15 normal control subjects. All subjects were asked to sing the same well-known song and performance was judged by independent expert musicians using criteria of ability to pitch the melody, accurately produce the rhythm, and overall quality of the production. There was a lack of support for differential effect of right and left cerebral damage on pitch and rhythm aspects of singing, but a generalized effect of brain damage was found.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Temperament and behavioural adjustment in hearing impaired children.

Temperament and behavioural adjustment were assessed in 26 hearing impaired pre-school children. By comparison with normally hearing children the clinical group was rated by their mothers as having a more difficult temperament, but no greater level of behaviour problems. Teachers of these children rated them as less well adjusted overall and specifically, more anxious compared with a normative group. Mothers of hearing impaired children showed elevated levels of anxiety, depression and overall problem scores on the General Health Questionnaire and the latter variable was the best predictor of rated behaviour problems in their children. Teacher rating of behaviour problems was best predicted by their rating of the child's temperament. Greater support for mothers of hearing impaired children is suggested as important in preventing behavioural maladjustment in this handicapped group.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1987

Biological and neuropsychological approaches to childhood autism.

There is growing conviction that childhood autism is a biologically based disorder. The evidence that has accrued in a variety of areas pertaining to biological abnormality in autism suggests that, with the possible exception of genetic factors, very few data are available that illuminate the autistic disorder specifically. Neurological models which might be useful in guiding further research are discussed and reasons for the slow progress in this important aspect of the study of autism are identified.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1979

Cognitive abilities and disabilities in infantile autism: a review.

The literature on various aspects of learning and performance in autistic children is reviewed and interpreted as indicating very little that is specific to autism. Inadequate and inconsistent methodology precludes generalizations concerning the nature of the disorder. It is suggested that future research should be particularly concerned with controlling for developmental influences on performance, and with investigation of the higher functioning autistic children who are less governed by retardation factors. The current evidence is considered to support a hypothesis concerning abnormal hemisphere functioning in this group of children.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1979

Comprehension of transitive and intransitive phrases by autistic, retarded, and normal children.

Autistic children were compared with retarded and normal control groups in a verbal comprehension task. Subjects were asked to select from four pictures the one that illustrated a two-word intransitive or three-word transitive phrase which was described verbally. Distractor pictures differed from the target picture by one, two, or all three features. Autistic children were poorer in performance than the control groups; however, the hierarchy of difficulty of discrimination was common to all three groups, with transitive phrases more difficult than intransitive phrases. Word type did not affect comprehension for the autistic children, although control children evidenced most difficulty with the verb or middle word. Results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that a severe and global language disorder is characteristic of autism.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Hemisphere functioning in autistic children.

Recent research in childhood autism has provided support for the hypothesis that a central cognitive deficit involving severe language impairment underlies this disorder. In this study a group of autistic children were tested for handedness and for lateralization of speech function using a dichotic listening task. Contrary to earlier reports there were no left-handed children in the group although a number showed mixed preference. In the dischotic listening task using pairs of single syllable words the autistic group performed similarly to a matched group of normal children in terms of numbers of correct responses but over all did not show the right ear advantage characteristic of the normal children. There was a significant excess of right hemisphere dominance for verbal stimuli amongst the autistic children suggesting that for some at least, language functions had developed in the right hemisphere. Lateralization was shown to be related to presence or absence of speech before the age of 5 years and to IQ level.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Laterality and selective attention in hyperactive children.

Laterality and selective attention were investigated in a group of 20 hyperactive children and their matched controls using a dichotic listening task. There was a strong right-ear advantage for both groups indicating that hyperactive children were not different from normal children in hemispheric specialization for verbal stimuli. In the selective attention experiment hyperactive children were again not different from normal children in their ability either to select the input designated as relevant or to resist the distraction of input designated irrelevant. Both groups gave more correct responses from the right ear than from the left ear, and more intrusions from the right ear than from the left. The results do not suggest abnormalities of lateralization for verbal material or indicate the existence of a selective attentional deficit. It is suggested that such reported deficits may be situation or task-specific.

Attention↗
PubMed1976

Short-term and serial memory in autistic, retarded, and normal children.

Experimental data on memory ability of autistic children is scarce and contradictory. It is suggested that this may in part be the result of failure to control for acquisition of the correct response before memory is tested. In the first experiment reported, acquisition was controlled in a delayed-response visual discrimination task. The performance of autistic children was compared with MA matched normal and retarded controls. Recall deteriorated with increasing delay interval in each group. There were no significant group differences. The second experiment was designed to measure the effects of interference on memory using a serial memory task. No differences were found among groups in rate of learning, although the autistic children improved significantly on the second and longer series. There was no relationship between performance on the STM and the serial memory tasks over the same time intervals for any group. The results are interpreted as supporting the view that when MA and response acquisition level are equated with normal and retarded children in a memory task, autistic children do not show any specific memory deficits.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

An epidemiological study of autistic and psychotic children in the four eastern states of Australia.

Data on general behavioural and etiological characteristics of a sample of 146 autistic and psychotic children from the four eastern states of Australia are presented. Both inter and intra study comparisons are made with reference to a number of factors considered significant in childhood psychosis. The findings accord with those of similar overseas studies on most factors although methodological and diagnostic differences limit the conclusions. A notable finding was that of an excess of "organic" indications in a sub-group of early onset, severly withdrawn "autistic" chhildren suggesting that further neurological and EEG testing of autistic children is desirable.

Adolescent↗