Understanding Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Methodological Shift in Neuroimaging Research From Investigating Group Differences to Individual Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 762-764
Author(s):  
Budhachandra Khundrakpam ◽  
Carola Tuerk ◽  
Linda Booij
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Group Differences

scholarly journals PENERAPAN DIR FLOORTIME PADA ANAK DENGAN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN SOSIAL

Psibernetika ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elita Kirana ◽  
Ediasri T Atmodiwirjo ◽  
Debora Basaria
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior

<p><strong><em>ABSTRACT</em></strong><strong><em>: </em></strong><em>Children with autism have deficit characteristics in social communication and social interaction, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, and limited interests or activities. As children grow and engage in a wider environment, this is become a problem because of the lack of social skills on children with autism. The purpose of this research is to improve the social skills of children with autism. There are several methods that can be applied to children with autism to improve their social skills. One of them is the DIR </em>(<em>Developmental, Individual Differences, &amp; Relationship Based</em>) <em>Floortime method. DIR Floortime aims to help children reach the stage of their emotional development through play activities. This type of research is a clinical case study, involving two middle childhood boys that are diagnosed with a mild level of autism. The instruments used in this study are Autism Social Skills Profile and Functional Emotional Assessment Scale. This research involves 20 sessions, conducted in May until June 2018, consisting of 10 sensory sessions and 10  symbolic sessions for each subject. The results of this research show an improvement in social skills in both participants, marked by an increase in the post test scores, but not significantly. Qualitatively, both subject demonstrates an improvement on social skills in their daily behavior after they had participated in the intervention.</em><strong><em></em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><strong>: </strong><em>autism spectrum disorder, middle childhood, </em>DIR <em>Floortime,social skills</em></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>ABSTRAK</strong><strong>: </strong>Anak autistik memiliki karakteristik kesulitan dalam komunikasi dan interaksi sosial serta adanya yang minat terbatas, perilaku berulang, atau keterikatan dalam minat dan aktivitas. Hal ini menjadi masalah saat anak tumbuh seiring usia dan terlibat dalam lingkungan yang lebih luas karena kurangnya kemampuan sosial pada anak autistik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan sosial anak autistik. Ada beberapa metode yang dapat diterapkan pada anak autistik untuk meningkatkan kemampuan sosial. Salah satunya adalah metode DIR (<em>Developmental, Individual Differences, &amp; Relationship Based</em>) <em>Floortime</em>. DIR<em> Floortime</em>  bertujuan membantu anak mencapai tahap perkembangan emosionalnya melalui kegiatan bermain. Jenis penelitian ini adalah case study yang melibatkan dua orang partisipan, yaitu anak laki-laki berusia <em>middle childhood</em> dengan autisme <em>level Mild</em>. Instrumen dalam penelitian ini adalah <em>Autism Social Skills Profile dan Functional Emotional Assesment Scale</em>. Penelitian ini berlangsung selama 20 sesi intervensi yang dilaksanakan pada bulan Mei hingga Juni 2018. Sesi intervensi terdiri dari 10 sesi sensori auditori dan 10 sesi simbolik bagi masing-masing subjek. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya peningkatan yang signifikan pada kapasitas emosi, tetapi kemampuan sosial kedua partisipan tidak meningkat secara signifikan. Secara kualitatif, kedua subjek menunjukkan kemampuan sosial yang lebih baik setelah mengikuti sesi intervensi, hal ini tampak dalam perilaku sehari-hari.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Kata kunci</strong>: autisme<em>, middle childhood, </em>DIR <em>Floortime,</em> kemampuan sosial</p>

Delay of gratification in preschoolers with and without autism spectrum disorder: Individual differences and links to executive function, emotion regulation, and joint attention

Autism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1720-1731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laudan B Jahromi ◽  
Yanru Chen ◽  
Andrew J Dakopolos ◽  
Alice Chorneau
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Delay Of Gratification ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Behavioral Strategies

This study examined delay of gratification behaviors in preschool-aged children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Recent research has found that elementary-aged children with autism spectrum disorder showed challenges with delay of gratification and that there were individual differences in terms of children’s behaviors during the wait. We extend this work to a younger sample of children with autism spectrum disorder to understand whether these difficulties emerge by the preschool years. Moreover, we assessed whether individual differences in other key self-regulatory capacities (i.e. effortful control, emotion regulation, executive function, and joint attention) were related to delay of gratification wait durations or behavioral strategies. Findings revealed that preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder waited for a shorter duration, demonstrated more temptation-focused behaviors, and expressed less positive affect than their typical peers during the delay of gratification task. At the full-sample level, individual differences in children’s temptation-focused behaviors (i.e. visual attention and verbalizations focused on the temptation) were related to children’s executive function, joint attention, and parents’ ratings of emotion regulation. When we examined associations within groups, the associations were not significant for the autism spectrum disorder group, but for typically developing children, there was a positive association between temptation-focused behaviors and emotion regulation.

Binding of Dopamine D1 Receptor and Noradrenaline Transporter in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A PET Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 6458-6468
Author(s):  
Manabu Kubota ◽  
Junya Fujino ◽  
Shisei Tei ◽  
Keisuke Takahata ◽  
Kiwamu Matsuoka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
D1 Receptor ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Noradrenaline Transporter

Abstract Although previous studies have suggested the involvement of dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) neurotransmissions in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) pathophysiology, few studies have examined these neurotransmissions in individuals with ASD in vivo. Here, we investigated DA D1 receptor (D1R) and noradrenaline transporter (NAT) binding in adults with ASD (n = 18) and neurotypical controls (n = 20) by utilizing two different PET radioligands, [11C]SCH23390 and (S,S)-[18F]FMeNER-D2, respectively. We found no significant group differences in DA D1R (striatum, anterior cingulate cortex, and temporal cortex) or NAT (thalamus and pons) binding. However, in the ASD group, there were significant negative correlations between DA D1R binding (striatum, anterior cingulate cortex and temporal cortex) and the “attention to detail” subscale score of the Autism Spectrum Quotient. Further, there was a significant positive correlation between DA D1R binding (temporal cortex) and emotion perception ability assessed by the neurocognitive battery. Associations of NAT binding with empathic abilities and executive function were found in controls, but were absent in the ASD group. Although a lack of significant group differences in binding might be partly due to the heterogeneity of ASD, our results indicate that central DA and NA function might play certain roles in the clinical characteristics of ASD.

scholarly journals Difficulties in Recognising Dynamic but not Static Emotional Body Movements in Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noemi Mazzoni ◽  
Paola Ricciardelli ◽  
Rossana Actis-Grosso ◽  
Paola Venuti
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Dynamic Stimuli ◽  
Static Images ◽  
Point Light

AbstractIn this study, we investigated whether the difficulties in body motion (BM) perception may led to deficit in emotion recognition in Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To this aim, individuals with high-functioning ASD were asked to recognise fearful, happy, and neutral BM depicted as static images or dynamic point-light and full-light displays. Results showed slower response times in participants with ASD only in recognising dynamic stimuli, but no group differences in accuracy. This suggests that i) a deficit in action chaining mechanism in ASD may prevent the recognition of dynamic BM automatically and rapidly, ii) individuals with ASD and high cognitive resources can develop alternative—but equally successful—strategies to recognise emotional body expressions. Implications for treatment are discussed

scholarly journals DIR/FLOORTIME UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KOMUNIKASI ANTARA ANAK DENGAN AUTISME DAN IBU DENGAN PROFIL SENSORI BERBEDA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Ezra Dessabela Isnannisa ◽  
Lia Mawarsari Boediman
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Single Case Design ◽  
Case Design ◽  
Structured Play

Kesulitan menjalin komunikasi adalah salah satu fitur utama pada Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Anak dengan ASD cenderung memiliki gangguan pemrosesan sensori yang berdampak pada defisit kemampuan komunikasi. Hal tersebut membuat anak membutuhkan bantuan pengasuh untuk meregulasi diri sebelum dapat menjalin komunikasi dengan orang lain. Salah satu intervensi yang membantu meningkatkan kemampuan komunikasi adalah Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship (DIR)/Floortime. Intervensi ini mempertimbangkan keunikan profil sensori dan perkembangan functional emotional partisipan sebagai landasan pembuatan program, serta melibatkan pengasuh secara aktif. Secara lebih lanjut, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi efektivitas DIR/Floortime untuk meningkatkan komunikasi antar anak usia 4 tahun 2 bulan dengan autisme dan ibu dengan profil sensori yang berbeda.  Penelitian ini menggunakan single case design dan multiple baselines across situations untuk mengevaluasi penerapan DIR/Floortime pada situasi free dan semi-structured play. Lembar Observasi Circle of Communication (CoC) digunakan untuk menghitung jumlah komunikasi dua arah yang terjalin antara anak dan ibu. Skor kapasitas perkembangan functional emotional anak dan ibu juga diukur menggunakan Functional Emotional Assesment Scale untuk mengetahui kapasitas perkembangan yang melandasi kemampuan komunikasi. Hasil penelitian mengindikasikan bahwa DIR/Floortime efektif untuk meningkatkan jumlah dan kualitas komunikasi antara anak dan ibu. Setelah intervensi, anak lebih sering melakukan kontak mata, melakukan inisiasi dan respons verbal, serta tampak lebih engaged dalam berinteraksi bersama ibu. Keterlibatan aktif ibu dalam intervensi membuat ibu langsung merasakan perubahan positif pada anak saat berinteraksi. Hal tersebut memotivasi ibu yang sebelumnya cenderung pasif dalam berinteraksi untuk lebih dapat mengikuti minat dan tingkat keaktifan anak.

scholarly journals Uncharacteristic task-evoked pupillary responses implicate atypical locus coeruleus activity in autism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Granovetter ◽  
Charlie S. Burlingham ◽  
Nicholas M. Blauch ◽  
Nancy J. Minshew ◽  
David J. Heeger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Attentional Demands ◽  
Environmental Stimuli ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized partly by atypical attentional engagement, such as hypersensitivity to environmental stimuli. Attentional engagement is known to be regulated by the locus coeruleus (LC). Moderate baseline LC activity globally dampens neural responsivity and is associated with adaptive deployment and narrowing of attention to task-relevant stimuli. In contrast, increased baseline LC activity enhances neural responsivity across cortex and widening of attention to environmental stimuli regardless of their task relevance. Given attentional atypicalities in ASD, this study is the first to evaluate whether individuals with ASD exhibit a different profile of LC activity compared to typically developing controls under different attentional task demands. Males and females with ASD and age- and gender-matched controls participated in a one-back letter detection test while task-evoked pupillary responses—an established inverse correlate for baseline LC activity—were recorded. Participants completed this task in two conditions, either in the absence or presence of distractor auditory tones. Compared to controls, individuals with ASD evinced atypical pupillary responses in the presence versus absence of distractors. Notably, this atypical pupillary profile was evident despite the fact that both groups exhibited equivalent task performance. Moreover, between-group differences in pupillary responses were observed only in response to task-relevant and not to task-irrelevant stimuli, providing confirmation that the group differences are specifically associated with distinctions in LC activity. These findings suggest that individuals with ASD show atypical modulation of LC activity with changes in attentional demands, offering a possible mechanistic and neurobiological account for attentional atypicalities in ASD.Significance StatementIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit atypical attentional behaviors, such as environmental hypersensitivity and atypical fixedness, but the neural mechanism underlying these behaviors remains elusive. One candidate mechanism is atypical locus coeruleus (LC) activity, as the LC has a critical role in attentional modulation. Elevated LC activity is associated with environmental exploration, while moderate LC activity is associated with focused attention on relevant stimuli. This study shows that, under tightly controlled conditions, task-evoked pupil responses—an LC activity proxy—are lower in individuals with ASD than in controls, but only in the presence of task-irrelevant stimuli. This suggests that individuals with ASD evince atypical modulation of LC activity in accordance with changes in attentional demands, offering a mechanistic account for attentional atypicalities in ASD.

scholarly journals Exploring Expressive Communication Skills in a Cross-Sectional Sample of Individuals With a Dual Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-113
Author(s):  
Alexandria Cook ◽  
Emily D. Quinn ◽  
Charity Rowland
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Communication Behaviors ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
Expressive Communication ◽  
Comorbid Diagnosis

Abstract Individuals with a comorbid diagnosis of Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been found to exhibit greater deficits in expressive communication than individuals with DS only. We hypothesized that individuals with a comorbid diagnosis (n = 430) would have significantly lower Communication Matrix scores and specifically social communication scores than individuals with DS alone (n = 4,352). In a sample of 4,782 individuals with DS, scores for individuals with a comorbid diagnosis were on average 18.01 points and 7.26 points lower for total score and social score respectively as compared to individuals with DS. Comorbid diagnosis accounted for 10.5% of the variance in communication scores. Between-group differences in referential gestures and symbolic communication behaviors were also observed.

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