Autism

Question 1

Rates/amounts of people with autism?

Answer 1

• boys diagnosed more frequently (3-4 for every female)
• roughly equally common across culture and social class
• 75% of children with autism have learning disability

Question 2

How may parental influence cause autism?

Answer 2

• historically thought that a lack of bond between mother and child, cold rejecting parents but this has 0 evidence
• if parent has autism/aspergers may increase it though

Question 3

Taylor (BMJ, 2002)

MMR vaccine and autism

Answer 3

• investigated 278 children with autism and 195 with atypical autism over period since 1979 and introduction of MMR vaccine
• no evidence for causal link

Question 4

Kaye (BMJ, 2001)

MMR vaccine and autism

Answer 4

-????????? (don’t understand need to rewatch portion of lecture first)

Question 5

What are the 2 major components of empathy?

Answer 5

• cognitive empathy

- affective empathy

Question 6

What is cognitive empathy?

Answer 6

• theory of mind

- ability to attribute mental states, to infer what someone else is thinking or feeling

Question 7

What is affective empathy?

Answer 7

-the drive to respond with an appropriate emotion to someone else’s mental states

Question 8

What link is there between empathy and autism?

Answer 8

-both components of empathy may be impaired in autism and Asperger syndrome

Question 9

What is the developmental deficit/delay in communication?

Answer 9

• seem not to have the abilities to attend to others to begin the development of social and communicative skills
• brain development of synapses and connectivity systems may be affected

Question 10

What is the impact of having development deficit/delay in communication?

Answer 10

• leaves them at risk of not understanding the ‘social world’
• puts at risk of anxiety and idiosyncratic ‘coping’ behaviours
• leads to Triad of disorders of Autism

Question 11

What is autism defined by?

Answer 11

• an absence

- a series of impairments of behaviours in individuals

Question 12

What areas are autistic people impaired in?

Answer 12

• socialisation
• language development
• behaviour

Question 13

What are signs of social impairment?

Answer 13

• absent/impaired imitation
• absent/abnormal social play
• impaired ability to make friendships
• no/lack of wanting to seek comfort from others at times of distress

Question 14

What are the causes of social impairment?

Answer 14

• lacking a Theory of Mind

- underlies their difficulties in social relationships

Question 15

What are the signs of language impairment?

Answer 15

• developmentally delayed appropriate mode of communication
• absent/abnormal nonverbal communication
• abnormalities in form of speech
• pronominal reversals
• abnormalities in production of speech
• lack of understanding about symbolic nature of language

Question 16

What are signs of restricted behaviour repertoire?

Answer 16

• stereotyped body movements
• preoccupation with parts of objects/ attachment to unusual objects
• marked distress over changed made in trivial aspects of environment
• insistence on following routines in detail
• absence of imaginative activity
• stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest

Question 17

What are the goals of intervention for autism?

Answer 17

• provide with adaptive skills for engaging and making sense of greater part of the world and promote independence
• relieve symptoms of anxiety, frustration, and possibly difficult behaviour

Question 18

What are the difficulties with interventions?

Answer 18

• rigidity with routines, educational approaches rely on changing routines
• usual rewards not rewarding

Question 19

What are the biological causes?

Answer 19

• genetics

- illness

Question 20

How can genetics cause autism?

Answer 20

• 91% concordance in MZ twins
• nearly 0% in DZ twins
• about 3% of siblings of people with autism are also affected

Question 21

How can illness cause autism?

Answer 21

• rubella, meningitis, tuber sclerosis, encephalitis
• often signs of increased neurological abnormality from them
• systems related to social cognition seem to be different in people with autism