Autism Flashcards

Question

PREVALENCE

Answer 1

LYALL ET AL (2017) - 4.2% school aged kids diagnosed (6.4% = boy; 2% = girls) - 14% don't have any Special Educational Needs - true values likely to be higher due to not having functional difficulties/unrecognised by teachers/waiting times

Answer 2

CROEN ET AL (2002) - pop study; 8 successive birth cohorts in California - 4.5m births; 5038 w/autism (4.9 p/10k prevalence) - prevalence ^ 5.8 -> 14.9 p/10k during study period; unrelated to maternal age/race/education/gender changes - diagnosis of Mental Retardation decreased 28.8 -> 19.5 p/10k at the same time - CONCL: observed increase = results of detection/diagnosis improvements; likely to improve w/better understanding

Answer 3

YANG & GILL (2007) - numerous candidate genes located; suggests marks heterogeneity; most encode proteins involved in neural development/function - calculated heritability = 80%; 35-45% = chance of 2nd twin being autistic if 1st is - recurrence rate (in family) = 4% (girl)/7% (boy) - if 2nd kids = autistic -> 25-35% sibling recurrence

Answer 4

- 192 twin pairs w/at least 1 autistic twin - 1st study to use both ADI-R/ADOS - susceptibility to ASD = moderate genetic heritability/substantial shared twin environment component - shared environmental factors explain 58% autism variance/moderate genetic heritability (autism = 38%)

Answer 5

- all 9Y twins in Sweden born between 1992-2001 (19k); 260 affected probands (individual affected) - heritability = 84% BUT... - MZ recurrence rate = 39% - 11/260 = autism only (pop prevalence = 4.2 p/10k) - 50.3% = > 4 coexisting disorders (ADHD/LD/TD/ODD/OCD)

Answer 6

- almost all kids w/neurodevelopmental conditions = impaired in multiple areas - autism = far from sharply demarcate at genotypic/phenotypic lvl - genes implicated in autism also implicated in other neurodevelopmental conditions - to understand/support autistic people we MUST look at symptoms > categorical labels

Answer 7

HALLMEYER ET AL. (2011); LYALL ET AL. (2017) - prematurity - short inter-birth interval - parental age - low birth weight - multiple births - maternal infections during pregnancy - foetal drug & toxin exposure - preterm exposure to air pollution

Answer 8

- pre-conception risks = advanced parental age/valproate/possible SSRIs/traffic related air pollutants & pesticides/heavy metals/severe obesity/maternal diabetes/steroidal activity/immune activation - pre-conception protection = folate - peri-natal risks = unclear BUT elevated by events associated w/hypoxia (neonatal anaemia/meconium aspiration/birth trauma/v low birthweight) - post-natal risks = severe early deprivation (ONLY w/prodromal features ie. reduced social orientating)

Answer 9

- virtually every brain structure = implicated in autism: 1. cerebral cortex 2. amygdala 3. hippocampus 4. basal ganglia 5. brain stem 6. cerebellum 7. corpus callosum

Answer 10

- brain weight/volume & head circumference = greater w/autism - cellular/molecular bases of pathological early overgrowth = unknown - unknown if overgrown neural systems cause autism characteristics

Answer 11

1. neuron excess causing local over-connectivity in key brain regions 2. disturbed neuronal migration during early gestation 3. unbalanced excitatory-inhibitory networks 4. abnormal synapse/dendritic spine formation

Answer 12

- strong genetic origin BUT issues w/research (ie. low stat power/sample heterogeneity/need to consider epigenetic factors across lifespan) - appears to result from developmental factors affecting many/all functional brain systems - neuroanatomical studies/teratogen (compounds/environmental factors interfering w/normal in utero dev) association strongly suggest autism's mechanism = brain dev alteration soon post conception - starts event cascade in brain (local overgrowth w/under-connectivity) sig influenced by environmental factors

Answer 13

BARON-COHEN ET AL. (1985) - typically dev 4 year olds answer correctly (aka. Sally looks for ball in her basket) - 80% autism answered Sally would look in Anne's box -> implicated poor TOM - BUT maybe unable to get involved in story requiring suspended belief? Sally = doll w/o mind so meaningless q?

Answer 14

BARON-COHEN (1995) - proposes there are empathising deficits in autism relative to mental age - empathising includes: 1. attributing mental states to oneself/others to explain beh (TOM) 2. having appropriately emotional reactions to others' mental states (ie. affective reactions aka. sympathy)

Answer 15

- likely that shared attention = early branch in TOM/empathy development through maturity - possible that early imitation skills predict later empathy skills

Answer 16

- same neural structures involved in processing/controlling executed actions/felt sensations/emotions also active when same actions/sensations/emotions detected in others - understanding intentions depends on recognition of own states in others

Answer 17

- babies = very social aka. orient to mother's voice in utero/born w/interest in faces; social frame sets scene for language/learning

Answer 18

- WITH: 1. take lead from looking at others (ie. what are they looking at/feeling/doing?) 2. good at multi-tasking as have to integrate visual/auditory inputs w/context 3. become quickly adept in social world; play constantly - WITHOUT: 1. everything matters (no filter) 2. seek consistency/stability 3. difficulties w/multi-tasking 4. meaning comes from environment NOT others

Answer 19

- behs associated w/autism = caused by difs in flexibility/planning/other executive dysfunctions - tends to be seen as model which works well w/repetitive/restricted interest BUT less well for social cognition - EF model = less popular today BUT maybe all theories imply EF issues

Answer 20

- sig correlations (r = .68) between composite EF/TOM measure in 5-9Ys - executive function may underlie both TOM/social issues

Answer 21

- shifted from competing explanations -> potentially overlapping models - describe social cognition continua - stimulate research into social cognition development - contribute to understanding of metacognition > generally - less successful in knowing what causes social cognition difs/differentiating between causal factors & dif social cognition outcomes

Answer 22

- normal tendency to integrate info in context for meaning oft at surface form expense - autistic people process details well at global configuration/meaning expense FRITH (1989) - this detail focus = "weak coherence" - weak coherence = style NOT deficit; -> assets/issues; bias can be overcome

Answer 23

- weak (ie. good proof reading) - CC (ie. good gist recall) - strong - both extremes could have costs/benefits/sex difs

Answer 24

- designed to invite local completion at odds w/global coherence of sentence - ie. "in the sea there are fish and (chips/other sea life) -> chips = weak coherence; sea life = strong - "chips" = locally coherent w/final 2 words in isolation BUT incongruent in sentence context

Answer 25

BOOTH & HAPPE (2010) - no sig between male/female BUT... - males made fewer local completions w/age - no relationship w/IQ - BUT is this weak central coherence/impaired inhibitory control?

Answer 26

LAWSON ET AL. (2004) - systemising = drive to analyse/build systems ie: 1. technical (ie. machines) 2. natural (ie. biological/geographical phenomena) 3. abstract (ie. maths) 4. social (ie. football league tables) - fascination w/underlying rules/regularities - E-S theory holds that autism = empathising deficits + intact/superior systemising

Answer 27

MARKRAM & MARKRAM (2001) - autistic people perceive world as overwhelmingly multisensory stimulation aka. sensory over-responsivity - social situations = esp. complex/intense - social experiences -> withdrawal/self-soothing behs (aka. less opportunity to experience social interaction) - NOT fixed; varies depending on tiredness/body cues; no conscious perception

Answer 28

PELLICANO ET AL. (2012) - relatively recent model - perception = unconscious inference - sensory perception = similar in autism BUT sensory input interpretation to yield perceptions DOESN'T use prior knowledge - prior beliefs generating top-down predictions = somehow compromised -> increased reliance on bottom-up sensory evidence (aka. hypo-priors)

Answer 29

PELLICANO ET AL. (2012) - produces ^ accurate BUT less reliable/interpretable perceptions - eg. shadows help interpret object via shape/size/orientation/slant; if all you perceive are lines/curves/colours they may not draw inferences about what it is/intentions

Answer 30

- priors support interpretation BUT also expectation/prediction ability - may shed light on intense desire for sameness; may not be issue w/change but prediction - fewer/weaker priors (hypo-priors) could result in reduced generalisation; oft seen as issue for autistic people; could constrain motor plans to already known (hence stimming)

Answer 31

- becoming comfortable w/new situations may require more exposure to stimulus/context - self-generated repetitive behs (aka. individual = full control) might be means of reducing environmental uncertainty (self-intervention) - sensory inputs from others = less tolerated < similar sensory inputs created by autistic person

Answer 32

SINHA ET AL. (2014) - bottom-up info processing explanation - autistic brain relies on sensory systems at expense of ^ integrative processing requiring awareness of contextual subtleties necessary for prediction - prediction processes may be critical to adaptive cognitive/beh/social function

Answer 33

- inability to approximate relevant future -> stressful reactions/overstimulation - only remedy = complex social situation avoidance/focus on highly predictable routines - compromised prediction skills -> "magical" world where events occur unexpectedly/w/o cause - immersion in this capricious environment = overwhelming/compromising of interaction

Answer 34

MILTON (2012) - successful social interaction requires participation of minimum 2 people - where interactions between people w/w/o autism = unsatisfactory -> both parties take responsibility - BUT neurotypical people oft have little empathy for autistic people; manifests in failure to create autism-enabling environments/adapting own beh (ie. insisting on societal eye contact norms)

Answer 35

- autistic people have unique view of world: 1. Silicon valley 2. research 3. problem solving 4. areas requiring creativity

Answer 36

- autism presents in many dif ways; few models can explain variability - most suggest bottom-up perceptual processes = favoured - cognition can appear unaffected BUT context = missed -> generalisation/prediction affected - produces "empathy disorder" - causal paths from early neurogenesis to social cognitive outcome = still uncertain

Answer 37

- studying cognitive style in autism might: 1. provide evidence to support neurodiversity movement 2. raise awareness of positive autism aspects 3. inform educational approaches working to strengths