scholarly journals M33. ATTENTUATED POSITIVE SYMPOMS AND FACIAL AFFECT PROCESSING IN HIGH-RISK ADOLESCENTS WITH AND WITHOUT AUTISM

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S146-S147
Author(s):  
Arija Maat ◽  
Sebastian Therman ◽  
Hanna Swaab ◽  
Tim Ziermans
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Clinical Predictors ◽  
Schizophrenic Psychosis ◽  
Affect Processing

Abstract Background Autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders both represent severely disabling neurodevelopmental disorders with marked impairments in social functioning. Despite an increased incidence of psychosis in autism, and substantial overlap in symptoms and cognitive markers, it is unclear whether such phenotypes are specifically related to risk for psychosis or perhaps reflect more general, idiosyncratic autism traits. Attenuated positive symptoms (APS) currently constitute the best and most-replicated clinical predictors of schizophrenic psychosis, and are common in clinical youth with and without autism. The aims of this study were to test the hypothesis that facial affect processing is impaired in adolescents with APS and to explore whether such deficits are more indicative of psychotic or autistic phenotypes on a categorical and dimensional level. Methods Fifty-three adolescents with APS and 81 typically developing controls (aged 12–18) were included. The APS group consisted of adolescents with (n = 21) and without (n = 32) a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Facial affect recognition and ‘lower-level’ cognitive skills, namely pattern and face recognition, were assessed with the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks. For associations with schizotypal and autistic-like traits the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and Social Communication questionnaire were used and one-dimensional factor scores were generated with confirmatory factor analysis. Results Our preliminary findings suggest that APS in adolescents is not associated with impairments in pattern, face, or emotion recognition. However, the APS group with autism spectrum disorder generally showed slower reaction times for face/emotional stimuli and they were significantly worse in recognizing fearful expressions than APS participants without autism spectrum disorder and controls. There were no dimensional correlations with schizotypal traits and marginal correlations between autistic-like traits and speed of recognizing faces. Discussion Contrary to our expectations, APS demonstrated limited use in identifying cognitive deficits typical to schizophrenic psychosis. A more autistic-like profile may be characterized by slower reaction times to facial stimuli, suggesting that more complicated and dynamic social cognitive stimuli have a better chance of discerning between autistic and psychotic-like phenotypes.

scholarly journals Early neural activation during facial affect processing in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 203-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel C. Leung ◽  
Elizabeth W. Pang ◽  
Daniel Cassel ◽  
Jessica A. Brian ◽  
Mary Lou Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Adolescents With Autism ◽  
Affect Processing

scholarly journals Enhancement of psychomotor skills in children with autism spectrum disorder by employing a mechatronic training kit

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramya S. Moorthy ◽  
Kritika Iyer ◽  
R. Hari Krishnan ◽  
S. Pugazhenthi
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Psychomotor Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
Skill Deficits ◽  
Hand Coordination

AbstractPrevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children has been increasing over the years. These children, when compared to typically growing children, face challenges in leading a day-to-day life. Other than the social interactions, communication and cognitive skills, psychomotor skill deficits are also found in them. This paper focuses on enhancement of psychomotor skills in children with ASD by employing a mechatronic training kit. Training using this kit aims at developing skills like ‘palmar grasp’, ‘wrist rotation’ and ‘eye-hand coordination’. Trials were conducted with six children with autism aged between four and nine years. Significant improvements were seen in these children both in skills and in behaviour after the training. Thus, teaching psychomotor skills to children with autism using the newly developed mechatronic door training kit is found to be working and the results are encouraging.

scholarly journals Callous-unemotional traits in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): replication of prevalence estimates and associations with gaze patterns when viewing fearful faces

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Virginia Carter Leno ◽  
Rachael Bedford ◽  
Susie Chandler ◽  
Pippa White ◽  
Isabel Yorke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽  
Cu Traits ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Callous Unemotional

Abstract Research suggests an increased prevalence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and a similar impairment in fear recognition to that reported in non-ASD populations. However, past work has used measures not specifically designed to measure CU traits and has not examined whether decreased attention to the eyes reported in non-ASD populations is also present in individuals with ASD. The current paper uses a measure specifically designed to measure CU traits to estimate prevalence in a large community-based ASD sample. Parents of 189 adolescents with ASD completed questionnaires assessing CU traits, and emotional and behavioral problems. A subset of participants completed a novel emotion recognition task (n = 46). Accuracy, reaction time, total looking time, and number of fixations to the eyes and mouth were measured. Twenty-two percent of youth with ASD scored above a cut-off expected to identify the top 6% of CU scores. CU traits were associated with longer reaction times to identify fear and fewer fixations to the eyes relative to the mouth during the viewing of fearful faces. No associations were found with accuracy or total looking time. Results suggest the mechanisms that underpin CU traits may be similar between ASD and non-ASD populations.

scholarly journals Development of attention from birth to 5 months in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Bradshaw ◽  
Ami Klin ◽  
Lindsey Evans ◽  
Cheryl Klaiman ◽  
Celine Saulnier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
At Risk ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Familial Risk ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Spectrum Disorder

AbstractSocial-communication skills emerge within the context of rich social interactions, facilitated by an infant's capacity to attend to people and objects in the environment. Disruption in this early neurobehavioral process may decrease the frequency and quality of social interactions and learning opportunities, potentially leading to downstream deleterious effects on social development. This study examined early attention in infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are at risk for social and communication delays. Visual and auditory attention was mapped from age 1 week to 5 months in infants at familial risk for ASD (high risk; N = 41) and low-risk typically developing infants (low risk; N = 39). At 12 months, a subset of participants (N = 40) was administered assessments of social communication and nonverbal cognitive skills. Results revealed that high-risk infants performed lower on attention tasks at 2 and 3 months of age compared to low-risk infants. A significant association between overall attention at 3 months and developmental outcome at 12 months was observed for both groups. These results provide evidence for early vulnerabilities in visual attention for infants at risk for ASD during a period of important neurodevelopmental transition (between 2 and 3 months) when attention has significant implications for social communication and cognitive development.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of Virtual/Augmented Reality–Based Therapeutic Interventions on Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behnam Karami ◽  
Roxana Koushki ◽  
Fariba Arabgol ◽  
Maryam Rahmani ◽  
Abdol-Hossein Vahabie
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Vr Training ◽  
Living Skills ◽  
And Training

In recent years, the application of virtual reality (VR) for therapeutic purposes has escalated dramatically. Favorable properties of VR for engaging patients with autism, in particular, have motivated an enormous body of investigations targeting autism-related disabilities with this technology. This study aims to provide a comprehensive meta-analysis for evaluating the effectiveness of VR on the rehabilitation and training of individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Accordingly, we conducted a systematic search of related databases and, after screening for inclusion criteria, reviewed 33 studies for more detailed analysis. Results revealed that individuals undergoing VR training have remarkable improvements with a relatively large effect size with Hedges g of 0.74. Furthermore, the results of the analysis of different skills indicated diverse effectiveness. The strongest effect was observed for daily living skills (g = 1.15). This effect was moderate for other skills: g = 0.45 for cognitive skills, g = 0.46 for emotion regulation and recognition skills, and g = 0.69 for social and communication skills. Moreover, five studies that had used augmented reality also showed promising efficacy (g = 0.92) that calls for more research on this tool. In conclusion, the application of VR-based settings in clinical practice is highly encouraged, although their standardization and customization need more research.

scholarly journals A Facial Affect Analysis System for Autism Spectrum Disorder

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beibin Li ◽  
Sachin Mehta ◽  
Deepali Aneja ◽  
Claire Foster ◽  
Pamela Ventola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Analysis System
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