Autism Flashcards
What’s the triad of deficit in autism?
Impairment of early language and communication
Impairment of reciprocal social interaction
Restricted interested, and repetitive, stereotyped behaviors
Symptoms must start by what age for a patient to be diagnosed with autism?
3 years.
What drives the language impairment in autism?
It’s thought to be the absence of a drive to socialize, rather than a primary language deficit.
What may drive “savant” abilities in autism?
Restricted interests - e.g. a patient being so focused on calendars that he could what day of the week people were born on.
What are 5 common comorbidities of autism?
Anxiety, ADHD, disordered sleep, seizures, and intellectual disability.
What made Asperger’s distinct from autism (in the DSM IV)?
In Asperger’s, language capacities are intact.
What’s the least severe syndrome on the autism spectrum?
PDD NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) -can still have crippling anxiety, though
Does the DSM V distinguish between Asperger’s and autism?
No, they’re all just part of autism spectrum disorder.
What’s the largest risk factor for autism?
Vaccines.
Just kidding, it’s having a sibling with autism. There’s a 20% chance of recurrence.
What, approximately, is the heritability of autism?
“about 70%” (34 - 80% on the slide)
List 3 prenatal exposures that are known to be causative for autism?
Thalidomide, Valproic Acid, maternal Rubella infection
What might one aspect of pathophysiology of autism at the molecular level be? Why do we think this?
Synaptic dysfunction with too much mGluR activity. Common genetic mutations associated with autism affect mGluR signaling.
What’s different about the brain, grossly, in kids with autism at 12 years?
The brain is much bigger (macroencephaly).
What are 5 brain areas that are less active in autism?
Fusiform gyrus -> person perception
Superior temporal sulcus -> facial expression perception
Amygdala -> social arousal, attention/salience (if there isn’t co-morbid anxiety)
Superior frontal gyrus -> “theory of mind”
Ventral striatum -> reward/motivation
What has the ventral striatum / reward system got to do with autism?
Most people are “addicted” to social interactions, but people with autism don’t seem to get that reward system activation from social interactions.
As compared with controls, do people with autism have a greater preference for looking at objects than at people?
Yes, but this doesn’t occur in every person with autism.
What’s the difference between “wanting” and “liking” social interaction in the context of autism?
People with autism may find a positive social response from a person pleasing, but they don’t have a drive to make it happen again.
What does the “heuristic model” say about autism?
It all starts with a deficit in motivation for /attention to social interactions.
This leads to impaired development of social perception, then impaired social cognition.
What’s the implication of the heuristic model for treatment?
If kids with autism are trained to derive pleasure from interpreting social cues, looking at faces, this may lead them to more normally develop social and language skills.
