Lecture 22 Flashcards
What does autism spectrum disorder describe?
What are they characterized by?
A wide range of developmental disorders,
That are characterized by troubles with social interaction and communication and by restricted and repetitive behaviour
What is the incidence of autism?
1%
In every case of autism is there a clear cognitive impairment intellectual disability or reduced imaginative ability?
No
What are the first types of autism symptoms to emerge?
Social impairments
When do parents of autistic kids usually notice signs?
Within the first two or three years of their child’s life
How do autistic children react when they are picked up?
They arch their backs
Like intellectual disability, what does autism encompass?
A large set of disorders with diverse underlying causes
What is autism associated with?
A combination of genetic and environmental factors that affect early brain development
What is the heritability of autism?
For autism spectrum disorder?
70%
90%
What disorder has many cases that have been linked to spontaneous rare gene mutations that have severe effects?
What does this include?
Autism
Chromosomal abnormalities involving deletions, duplications or inversions of genetic material
What are cases of autism associated with or linked with?
Multigene interactions across common gene variants and maternal viral infections during pregnancy
What is true about people with autism and language/speech?
They have nonexistent language.
About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs
What is special about people with autism disorder:
in interests and behaviours?
in movemnts?
in behaviours?
They usually have atypical interests and behaviours
They show stereotyped movements: flapping their hand and back and forth or rocking back and forth
They exhibit compulsive or ritualistic behaviour
What do mild forms of autism do not include?
A delay in language development or the presence of important cognitive deficits
What do mild forms of autism mostly involve?
Deficient or absent social interactions and repetitive and stereotyped behaviours along with obsessional interest in narrow subjects
What are mild forms of autism usually called?
Asperger’s syndrome
Is autism more likely in females or males?
By how much?
It is more likely in males.
It is four times more common in males.
What is peculiar about why/is autism more likely in men?
In cases of autsim with high intellectual disability, the ration falls 2:1
In cases with high functioning autism, the ratio goes to 7:1
What is the heterogametic sex and the homogametic sex?
Heterogametic sex: XX (in humans, females)
Homogametic sex: XY (in humans, heterogametic sex)
What happens within species in relation to variability?
The heterogametic sex shoes slightly more variability on all kinds of traits
What is there in the development of the brains of autistic children?
There are significant abnormalities
What is special about the development of brain of autistic children?
They tend to have a slightly small brain at birth, but it grows abnormally fast and by 2-3 years of age is often about 10% larger than a normal brain, by adolescence is only about 1-2% larger than normal
What are the hypotheses for the cellular and molecular bases of early brain overgrowth for autism?
-altered neuronal migration during early gestation
-abnormal formation of synapses and dendritic spines
-over-connectivity in key brain regions
-unbalanced excitatory - inhibitory neural networks
What have fMRI studies on people with autism revealed?
marked abnormalities
