Autism

Question 1

What type of different behaviors do you expect from an autistic child?

Answer 1

Triad of Strengths
	Systemizing
		Islets of ability
		Obsessions with systems
		Repetitive behavior

Triad of Deficits
	Empathy
		Social
		Communication
		Imagining other's minds

Question 2

Social brain… yes–there’s a network.

One specific area:

Answer 2

Four lines of evidence shows amygdala deficit in autism:
• Increased cell packing density in amygdala for autistic individuals
• Patients with amygdala lesions behave similarly with people with autism
• (MRI) studies suggest abnormal volume of the amygdala
• Emotion processing is associated with low activation of the amygdala with autistic individuals

Question 3

Analytical brain… Abnormal excitability or arousal

Answer 3

Abnormal excitability or arousal in the analytical brain:
• For visual tasks, heightened activity in ventral occipital cortex and abnormally low activations in parietal and prefrontal cortices
• For tasks that require inference of mental state from pictures of eyes, activity in superior temporal gyrus during is heightened (Makes it rather overwhelming to make eye contact)
• For sentence processing tasks, activation is greater than normal in Wernicke’s area and less than normal in Broca’s area

Question 4

Diagnostic tool for autism?

Answer 4

Can you use the brain as a diagnostic tool for autism?
… No.
Genetic screening?
Nope.
Other factors?
Family studies have shown that in families with one child with autism there is an increased risk for another child to have the condition.
The age of both the mother and the father are predictive.

Question 5

What is the cognitive profile of autism like?

Answer 5

Cognitive profile of autism:
Preschool age DAS (Differential Abilities Scale), School age DAS
Huge variation in verbal versus nonverbal task performance. Same story here–The spectrum is really not predictive at all.

Question 6

FILL IN In class exercise and article discussion

Answer 6

W13L2