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Biomedical subjects

S Baron-Cohen

Publications and source records attributed to S Baron-Cohen.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

Linguistic processing in high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger's syndrome. Is global coherence impaired?

BACKGROUND: Linguistic processing was explored in normally intelligent adults with either autism or Asperger's syndrome, to test if global coherence was impaired. Global coherence is the ability to establish causal connections and interrelate local chunks into higher-order chunks so that most linguistic elements are linked together thematically. Since individuals with autism are hypothesized to have weak central coherence then one would predict that the clinical groups would have difficulty integrating information globally so as to derive full meaning. METHODS: Two experiments were designed to test global coherence. Experiment 1 investigated whether individuals on the autism spectrum condition could arrange sentences coherently. Experiment 2 investigated whether they were less able to use context to make a global inference. RESULTS: The clinical groups were less able to arrange sentences coherently and use context to make a global inference. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that individuals on the autism spectrum have impaired global coherence. Arranging sentences and making global inferences correlated highly, suggesting that central coherence may be a unitary force in these different tasks. Of the two clinical groups, the autism group had the greater deficit. The effect that such a deficit would have on one's daily life is discussed, along with possible explanations for the clinical groups' greater difficulty, and suggestions for future research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The Awkward Moments Test: a naturalistic measure of social understanding in autism.

Details are given of a new advanced theory of mind task, developed to approximate the demands of real-life mentalizing in able individuals with autism. Excerpts of films showing characters in social situations were presented, with participants required to answer questions on characters' mental states and on control, nonsocial questions. When compared with control participants, adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome were most impaired in their ability to answer the questions requiring mind-reading ability. Although the present findings have implications for task modification, such naturalistic, dynamic stimuli are held to offer an important means of studying subtle difficulties in mentalistic understanding.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

A screening instrument for autism at 18 months of age: a 6-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVES: A population of 16,235 children aged 18 months was screened using the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) to identify childhood autism (CA). Two further screening procedures were conducted at age 3 and 5 years. The population was followed up at age 7 years in order to establish the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of the instrument. METHOD: A brief checklist assessing joint attention and pretend play behaviors was administered by primary health care practitioners when the children were 18 months old. Follow-up methods included screening through parents and health practitioners and checking medical and educational records. RESULTS: Nineteen cases of CA were successfully identified by the CHAT at 18 months. At follow-up a total of 50 cases of CA were identified via all surveillance methods. Thus, the CHAT has a sensitivity of 38% and a specificity of 98% for identifying CA. The positive predictive value of the instrument was maximized by concentration on the highest-risk group. Repeated screening 1 month later increased the positive predictive value to 75% for identification of CA but reduced the sensitivity to 20%, although the specificity was close to 100%. The screen also identified cases of pervasive developmental disorder as well as children with language and other developmental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The CHAT can be used to identify cases of autism and related pervasive developmental disorders at 18 months of age. It is emphasized that the CHAT is not a diagnostic instrument but can identify potential cases of autism spectrum disorders for a full diagnostic assessment.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2000

Story-telling ability in children with autism or Asperger syndrome: a window into the imagination.

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum conditions are diagnosed on the basis of impaired imagination. The present study used a totally free story-telling method to assess if narratives produced by children with autism or Asperger Syndrome (AS) contained fewer imaginative events. METHOD: In Condition 1, children were offered an imaginary theme and asked to elaborate a story. In Condition 2, they were offered a reality-based theme with the same instructions. Comparison groups included 13 children with autism, 14 children with AS, 15 children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD), and 14 normally developing children. The non-autistic controls had a verbal mental age (VMA) either equivalent or lower than the autism and AS groups. RESULTS: Both the children with autism and AS were less likely to introduce imaginary elements into their stories in Condition 2, though the children with AS were more able to produce imaginative narratives than children with autism in Condition 1. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides experimental evidence for imaginative impairments in story-telling in children with autism spectrum conditions. These are discussed in terms of two cognitive theories: executive dysfunction and theory of mind. LIMITATIONS: In this study it was not possible to match the children with autism and AS with each other on VMA, as the children with autism were not as high-functioning. Future research could examine VMA matched groups of autism and AS.

Asperger Syndrome↗
PubMed2000

Is asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism necessarily a disability?

This article considers whether Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) necessarily leads to disability or whether AS/HFA simply leads to "difference." It concludes that the term "difference" in relation to AS/ HFA is a more neutral, value-free, and fairer description than terms such as "impairment," "deficiency," or "disability"; that the term "disability" only applies to the lower functioning cases of autism; but that the term "disability" may need to be retained for ASIHFA as long as the legal framework provides financial and other support only for individuals with a disability. Two models are summarized which attempt to define in what way individuals with AS/HFA are "different": the central coherence model, and the folk psychology-folk physics model. The challenge for research is to test the value of such models and to precisely characterize the differences in cognitive style.

Asperger Syndrome↗
PubMed1999

A test of central coherence theory: linguistic processing in high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome: is local coherence impaired?

Central coherence theory (Frith, U., 1989. Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Blackwell, Oxford.) is addressed by exploring linguistic processing in normally intelligent adults with either autism or Asperger syndrome, to test whether local coherence is impaired. Local coherence is the ability to make contextually meaningful connections between linguistic information in short-term or working memory. Experiment 1 demonstrated that individuals with an autism spectrum condition were less likely to use the sentence context spontaneously to provide the context-appropriate pronunciation of a homograph. Experiment 2 presented scenarios which had a situation and outcome which only cohered if a bridging inference was drawn. The clinical groups were less likely to select the most coherent (bridging) inference from competing alternatives. Experiment 3 demonstrated that individuals with an autism spectrum condition were less able to use context to interpret an auditorily presented ambiguous sentence. The findings from Experiments 2 and 3 suggest that individuals with autism or Asperger syndrome have a difficulty in achieving local coherence, while the evidence from Experiment 1 suggests a preference not to strive for coherence. Taken together, these results suggest that individuals with an autism spectrum condition are impaired in achieving local coherence, and they have a preference not to strive for coherence unless instructed to do so, or unless they make a conscious decision to do so. Moreover, the three experiments correlate with one another, which suggests that central coherence may be a unitary force in these different tasks. Of the two clinical groups, the autism group had the greater difficulty in achieving coherence. Possible explanations for the clinical groups' difficulty are explored.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

The prevalence of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome in children and adolescents with autism: a large scale study.

BACKGROUND: An earlier small-scale study of children with autism revealed that 8.1% of such patients were co-morbid for Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS). The present study is a large scale test of whether this result replicates. METHOD: Four hundred and forty-seven pupils from nine schools for children and adolescents with autism were screened for the presence of motor and vocal tics. RESULTS: Subsequent family interviews confirmed the co-morbid diagnosis of definite GTS in 19 children, giving a prevalence rate of 4.3%. A further 10 children were diagnosed with probable GTS (2.2%). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the rate of GTS in autism exceeds that expected by chance, and the combined rate (6.5%) is similar to the rates found in the smaller-scale study. Methodological considerations and alternative explanations for an increased prevalence are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Creativity and imagination in autism and Asperger syndrome.

Three studies are reported that address the often described impoverished creativity in autism. Using the Torrance Creativity Tests, Experiment 1 found that children with autism and Asperger syndrome (AS) showed impairments. Experiment 2 tested two explanations of these results: the executive dysfunction and the imagination deficit hypotheses. Results supported both hypotheses. Children with autism and AS could generate possible novel changes to an object, though they generated fewer of these relative to controls. Furthermore, these were all reality-based, rather than imaginative. Experiment 3 extended this using a test of imaginative fluency. Children with autism and AS generated fewer suggestions involving attribution of animacy to foam shapes, compared to controls, instead generating reality-based suggestions of what the shapes could be. Although this is evidence of executive dysfunction, it does not directly account for why imaginative creativity is more difficult than reality-based creativity.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1999

Recognition of faux pas by normally developing children and children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

Most theory of mind (ToM) tests are designed for subjects with a mental age of 4-6 years. There are very few ToM tests for subjects who are older or more able than this. We report a new test of ToM, designed for children 7-11 years old. The task involves recognizing faux pas. Study 1 tested 7-9, and 11-year-old normal children. Results showed that the ability to detect faux pas developed with age and that there was a differential developmental profile between the two sexes (female superiority). Study 2 tested children with Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA), selected for being able to pass traditional 4- to 6-year level (first- and second-order) false belief tests. Results showed that whereas normal 9- to 11-year-old children were skilled at detecting faux pas, children with AS or HFA were impaired on this task. Study 3 reports a refinement in the test, employing control stimuli. This replicated the results from Study 2. Some patients with AS or HFA were able to recognize faux pas but still produced them. Future research should assess faux pas production.

Asperger Syndrome↗
PubMed1999

The Strange Stories Test: a replication with high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome.

Two groups of individuals, one with high-functioning autism and the other with Asperger syndrome were tested using Happé's Strange Stories Test of a more advanced theory of mind (Happé, 1994). This assesses the ability to interpret a nonliteral statement. Relative to normal controls who were IQ and age-matched, individuals with autism or Asperger syndrome performed less well on the task, while performing normally on a non-mentalistic control task. Individuals with autism or Asperger syndrome could provide mental state answers, but had difficulty in providing contextually appropriate mental state answers. Rather, their answers tended to concentrate on the utterance in isolation. This replicates Happé's result. Although the majority of both clinical groups provided context-inappropriate interpretations, the autism group had the greater difficulty. Results are discussed in relation to both weak central coherence and theory of mind.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Social intelligence in the normal and autistic brain: an fMRI study.

There is increasing support for the existence of 'social intelligence' [Humphrey (1984) Consciousness Regained], independent of general intelligence. Brothers et al. 1990) J. Cog. Neurosci., 4, 107-118] proposed a network of neural regions that comprise the 'social brain': the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG) and amygdala. We tested Brothers' theory by examining both normal subjects as well as patients with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome (AS), who are well known to have deficits in social intelligence, and perhaps deficits in amygdala function [Bauman & Kemper (1988) J. Neuropath. Exp. Neurol., 47, 369]. We used a test of judging from the expressions of another person's eyes what that other person might be thinking or feeling. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we confirmed Brothers' prediction that the STG and amygdala show increased activation when using social intelligence. Some areas of the prefrontal cortex also showed activation. In contrast, patients with autism or AS activated the fronto-temporal regions but not the amygdala when making mentalistic inferences from the eyes. These results provide support for the social brain theory of normal function, and the amygdala theory of autism.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Cerebral correlates of preserved cognitive skills in autism: a functional MRI study of embedded figures task performance.

When considering the cognitive abilities of people with autism, the majority of studies have explored domains in which there are deficits. However, on tests of local processing and visual search, exemplified by the Embedded Figures Task (EFT), people with autism have been reported to demonstrate superiority over normal controls. This study employed functional MRI of subjects during the performance of the EFT to test the hypothesis that normal subjects and a group with autism would activate different brain regions and that differences in the patterns of these regional activations would support distinct models of cerebral processing underlying EFT performance in the two groups. It was found that several cerebral regions were similarly activated in the two groups. However, normal controls, as well as demonstrating generally more extensive task-related activations, additionally activated prefrontal cortical areas that were not recruited in the group with autism. Conversely, subjects with autism demonstrated greater activation of ventral occipitotemporal regions. These differences in functional anatomy suggest that the cognitive strategies adopted by the two groups are different: the normal strategy invokes a greater contribution from working memory systems while the autistic group strategy depends to an abnormally large extent on visual systems for object feature analysis. This interpretation is discussed in relation to a model of autism which proposes a predisposition towards local rather than global modes of information processing.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

'Obsessions' in children with autism or Asperger syndrome. Content analysis in terms of core domains of cognition.

BACKGROUND: We report a survey of the content of obsessions in children with autism spectrum conditions. We use the term 'obsessions' narrowly, to indicate strong, repetitive interests. We predicted that obsessions would not cluster randomly, but rather would occur significantly more often in the domain of 'folk physics' (an interest in how things work), and significantly less often in the domain of 'folk psychology' (an interest in how people work). These predictions were tested relative to a control group of 33 children with Tourette syndrome. AIMS: To examine the content of autistic obsessions, and to test the theory that these reflect an evolved cognitive style of good folk physics alongside impaired folk psychology. METHOD: Ninety-two parents returned a questionnaire designed to determine the subject of their child's obsessional interests. The results were analysed in terms of core domains of cognition. RESULTS: Both predictions were confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that impaired folk psychology and superior folk physics are part of the cognitive phenotype of autism. A content-free theory of obsessions is inadequate.

Asperger Syndrome↗
PubMed1999

The prevalence of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome in children and adolescents with autism.

Thirty-seven pupils attending a special school for children and adolescents with autism were observed for the presence of motor and vocal tics. Subsequent family interviews confirmed the diagnosis of comorbid Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome (GTS) in three children with autism, giving a minimum prevalence rate of 8.1 %. Family history data also suggested this was heritable. The presence of GTS was not associated with superior intellectual, language, or social development. Results suggest that the rate of GTS in autism may exceed that expected by chance. The limited sample size constrains this conclusion. A large-scale epidemiological study testing this association study would appear merited.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Autism spectrum disorders at 20 and 42 months of age: stability of clinical and ADI-R diagnosis.

The association between, and stability of, clinical diagnosis and diagnosis derived from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R; Lord, Rutter, & Le Couteur, 1994) was examined in a sample of prospectively identified children with childhood autism and other pervasive developmental disorders assessed at the age of 20 months and 42 months. Clinical diagnosis of autism was stable, with all children diagnosed with childhood autism at age 20 months receiving a diagnosis of childhood autism or a related pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) at age 42 months. Clinical diagnosis of childhood autism was also reasonably sensitive, with all children who went on to receive a clinical diagnosis of childhood autism at 42 months being identified as having autism or PDD at 20 months. However, clinical diagnosis for PDD and Asperger's syndrome lacked sensitivity at 20 months, with several children who subsequently received these diagnoses at 42 months receiving diagnoses of language disorder or general developmental delay, as well as in two cases being considered clinically normal, at the earlier timepoint. The ADI-R was found to have good specificity but poor sensitivity at detecting childhood autism at 20 months; however, the stability of diagnosis from 20 to 42 months was good. In addition, the ADI-R at age 20 months was not sensitive to the detection of related PDDs or Asperger's syndrome. The continuity and discontinuity between behavioural abnormalities identified at both timepoints in the three domains of impairment in autism was examined, both in children who met final clinical criteria for an autistic spectrum disorder, and for children with language disorder who did not, as well as for a small sample of typically developing children.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1998

Frontal lobe contributions to theory of mind.

"Theory of mind," the ability to make inferences about others" mental states, seems to be a modular cognitive capacity that underlies humans" ability to engage in complex social interaction. It develops in several distinct stages, which can be measured with social reasoning tests of increasing difficulty. Individuals with Asperger"s syndrome, a mild form of autism, perform well on simpler theory of mind tests but show deficits on more developmentally advanced theory of mind tests. We tested patients with bilateral damage to orbito-frontal cortex (n = 5) and unilateral damage in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (n = 5) on a series of theory of mind tasks varying in difficulty. Bilateral orbito-frontal lesion patients performed similarly to individuals with Asperger"s syndrome, performing well on simpler tests and showing deficits on tasks requiring more subtle social reasoning, such as the ability to recognize a faux pas. In contrast, no specific theory of mind deficits were evident in the unilateral dorsolateral frontal lesion patients. The dorsolateral lesion patients had difficulty only on versions of the tasks that placed demands on working memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Reading the windows to the soul: evidence of domain-specific sparing in Williams syndrome.

This study tested the hypothesis that Williams syndrome, a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder with an unusual cognitive phenotype, involves spared abilities in the domain of understanding other minds. A group of retarded adults with Williams syndrome was compared to an age-, IQ-, and language-matched group of adults with Prader-Willi syndrome, another genetic disorder without the cognitive characteristics of Williams syndrome, and a group of age-matched normal adults, on a task that taps mentalizing ability. The task involved selecting the correct labels to match photographs of complex mental state expressions in the eye region of the face. The adults with Williams syndrome performed significantly better than the adults with Prader-Willi on this task, and about half the group performed in the same range as the normal adults. These findings are consistent with anecdotal evidence about Williams syndrome and provide evidence that mentalizing is a distinct cognitive domain. This spared cognitive capacity may be linked to the relative sparing of limbic-cerebellar neural substrate in Williams syndrome, which is also connected to cortico-frontal regions that are known to be involved in understanding complex mental states.

Adult↗