autism

Question 1

what is autism? (5)

Answer 1

DSM 5

• Multi-faceted disorder
• Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
• Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviours for social interaction: i.e. ToM, eye contact
• Repetitive behaviours - difficulty in pretend play
• Communication: some autistic children may use non-verbal means to communicate: pushing, biting etc

Question 2

comorbidity of autism (3)

Answer 2

• range of comobidity
  a) health issues (Treating Autism, 2013)
  c) SLI (speech) - Bonneh et al. (2011)
  d) OCD - Boyd et al. (2010)

Question 3

Proprioception - what & hypo/hyper?

Answer 3

where & how body is moving
Hypo: proximity – personal space
Hyper: fine motor difficulties

Question 4

Vestibular - what & hypo/hyper?

Answer 4

Where the body is in space:
Hypo - need for rocking
Hyper - difficulties in activities that require movement

Question 5

auditory - hypo/hyper

Answer 5

Hypo - enjoys noisy

Hyper - mag of sounds

Question 6

visual - hypo/hyper

Answer 6

Hypo - poor depth percep

Hyper - too many sources, focus on 1 particular detail

Question 7

tactile: hypo/hyper

Answer 7

Hypo - high pain threshold, holding others tightly, self harming i.e. biting
Hyper - find touch painful/uncomfortable

Question 8

Olfaction/gustation - hypo/hyper

Answer 8

Hypo - spicy foods, oblivious of strong odours

Hyper - bland food, sensitive to smells

Question 9

role of perception in social interaction?

Answer 9

• social knowledge is undated automatically - helps shape our judgements/ feelings (Ferguson & Barg, 2004)
• mimicking aids social affiliations (Gueguen et al. 2004)

Question 10

Parietal lobe & perception

Answer 10

Fujii et al. (2007) - encoding information about social interactions.
Pflugshaupt (2014) - integration of perception

Question 11

Corpus callosum & perception

Answer 11

Pietrasanta (2012)

• Links hemispheres
• Depth perception

Question 12

Occipital lobe & perception

Answer 12

Pitcher et al. 2011

• vision
• object recognition
• face recognition

Question 13

vision perception in ASD (2)

Answer 13

Denis et al. (1997) - more long sightedness (but used 1 year olds who had already been sent to vision clinic)

Functional neuroimaging study –> Milne et al. (2009)

• abnormal neuron activity in the striate cortex (low level)
• occurs even on simple tasks (so its not connectivity of complex tasks like the complexity hypothesis says)
• & not attentional deficit bc of the fast recognition
• its a perceptual deficit bc of low amplitude

Question 14

audition & ASD (3)

Answer 14

Sharda et al., (2010) 
- pitch diffs
- their speech mimics motherese
- developmental delay
Bonneh et al. (2011)
 - found the same
 - not a delay BUT deviance from normal trajectory
Teder- salejarvi et al. (2005)
- difficulty attending to one stimuli 
- more complex sounds - ASD cant distinguish

Question 15

Repetitive Behaviour in ASD

Answer 15

Lidstone et al. (2014) 
-  questionnaire 
- link IS & arousal & reduce sensory input 
- IS also links w anxiety 
- not best option
Kushki et al. (2013) -
- autonomic NS role in arousal
- dont use questionnaires
- ASD associated with atypical ANS response 
 Boyd et al. (2010) 
- neurobio mechanism (ODC links) 
- amygdala & anxiety

Question 16

role of genes in perception

Answer 16

• perception can be heritable
  EG: vision –> Shannon et al, 2011
  Twin study: similar genes are involved in determining the dynamics of switching for multiple forms of perception
  BUT
  probs with twin study
• Stromswold, (2006) MZ share diff envrios in womb - important for perception (Kinsella & Monk, 2013)
  BUT
  Jansen et al. (1999)
• Found specifc genes that were inherited & responsible for perception

Question 17

interventions

Answer 17

• Low & high forms of repetitive behaviours: present @ 2-3 yrs (much earlier than ToM) (Boyd et al. 2012)
• Subtypes aid treatment options - due to the heterogeneity – will be able to categorise & see if results pay off

Question 18

sensory subtypes

Answer 18

Uljarevic et al. (2016):
- 3 sub types: sensory adaptive, sens moderate, sens severe (adaptive - non clin sensory impairments)
BUT
Deboth & Reynolds (2017)
- didnt include a category for ALL sensory impairments
- particularly difficult bc may not respond to interventions as quickly due to complexity

Question 19

ASD on the family

Answer 19

Smith & elder (2010)

• siblings: more socially developed i.e. more empathy etc
• mothers: more vulnerable to anxiety