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Query: UMLS:C0004352 (autism)
 32,579 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social and communicative development, and restricted interests and activities. This article will argue that we can discover more about developmental disorders such as autism through demonstrations of task success than through examples of task failure. Even in exploring and explaining what people with autism find difficult, such as social interaction, demonstration of competence on contrasting tasks has been crucial to defining the nature of the specific deficit. Deficit accounts of autism cannot explain, however, the assets seen in this disorder; for example, savant skills in maths, music and drawing, and islets of ability in visuospatial tests and rote memory. An alternative account, reviewed here, suggests that autism is characterized by a cognitive style biased towards local rather than global information processing - termed 'weak central coherence'. Evidence that weak coherence might also characterize the relatives of people with autism, and form part of the extended phenotype of this largely genetic disorder, is discussed. This review concludes by considering some outstanding questions concerning the specific cognitive mechanism for coherence and the neural basis of individual differences in this aspect of information processing.
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PMID:Autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style? 1035 74

Autism can be considered as an early general developmental disorder, characterized by problems of social interaction, problems of verbal and non verbal communication, and behavioral or ideational stereotypes. However, within autism we observe a clinical heterogeneity of autistic disorders which suggests the possibility of autistic subtypes. Several authors hypothesize an analgesia among autistic children; this analgesia may be related to self-mutilation found among autistics. The current research had two objectives: 1) to develop and validate evaluation tools for measuring aggression directed towards the self (Yale-Paris Self-Injurious Behavior Scale: YAPA SIB) and pain reactivity (Pre-Linguistic Behavioral Pain Reactivity Scale: PLBPRS); instruments appropriate for autistics and capable of showing different behavioral sub-types; 2) to study in 80 autistic children pain reactivity, self-injurious behavior, and their relation in different observational situations. The results show that the scales of self-injurious behavior and pain reactivity have good discriminative capacity, good test-retest reliability, and good validity. The results suggest additionally that the apparent decreased pain reactivity observed in autistics does not derive from a real analgesia but from a different mode of pain expression related to difficulties with verbal communication, body representation and certain cognitive disorders (learning disorders, problems representing sensations and emotions, problems establishing cause-effect relationships). Additionally, there is a significant relationship between certain self-injurious behaviors and the apparent reduced pain reactivity. Interpretations of this result are presented and the possible role of stress in autism is discussed.
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PMID:[Study of the relationships between self-injurious behavior and pain reactivity in infantile autism]. 1037 Aug 85

The ability to attribute thoughts and feelings to self and others ('theory of mind') has been hypothesised to have an innate neural basis and a dedicated cognitive mechanism. Evidence in favour of this proposal has come from autism; a brain-based developmental disorder which appears to be characterised by impaired theory of mind, despite sometimes good general reasoning skills/IQ. To date no case of specific acquired theory of mind impairment has been reported. The present study examined theory of mind in adults who had suffered right hemisphere stroke, a group known to show pragmatic and social difficulties. In one study using story materials and two using cartoons, patients' understanding of materials requiring attribution of mental states (e.g. ignorance, false belief) was significantly worse than their understanding of non-mental control materials. Data from healthy elderly subjects, and a small group of left hemisphere patients (who received the tasks in modified form), suggest that this impairment on mental state tasks is not a function of task difficulty. The findings support the notion of a dedicated cognitive system for theory of mind, and suggest a role for the healthy right hemisphere in the attribution of mental states.
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PMID:Acquired 'theory of mind' impairments following stroke. 1038 36

Very little is known about the early stages of self-injurious behaviour (SIB) in young children with developmental disabilities, even though there has been a great deal of research into the prevalence, assessment and treatment of well-established SIB in older individuals. In the present initial study, teachers in special schools for children under II years of age with severe intellectual disability and/or autism were asked to identify children who were beginning to show early self-injury (the index group). These children were then matched to classroom controls (of the same ability level and mobility), and teachers were interviewed about the children's behaviours and skills. The index children showed significantly more potential SIB than the control group children, but there was overlap between the groups in terms of percentage duration of potential SIB, suggesting that teachers do not find it easy to identify children with 'early' SIB. The index children's skills and problem behaviours, their sensory impairments and degree of autism did not differ significantly from those of the control group. When all the children showing any potential SIB were pooled together, it transpired that developmental age and degree of mobility were significantly correlated with percentage duration of SIB, suggesting that these characteristics may be important risk markers. The index children were also observed at 3-month intervals at school over the following 18 months and self-injury clearly escalated for some of the index children, while it did not do so for others. Using regression analysis, increases in SIB were shown to be associated only with the degree of concern expressed about the child's behaviour at time I by the teacher, no other variables predicting increases in SIB.
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PMID:Identification of early self-injurious behaviour in young children with intellectual disability. 1039 2

This retrospective video study explored the usefulness of sensory-motor measures in addition to social behaviors as early predictors of autism during infancy. Three groups included 11 children with autism, 10 with developmental disabilities, and 11 typically developing children. Home videos were edited to obtain a 10-minute cross-section of situations at 9-12 months for each subjects. Using interval scoring, raters coded several behavioral categories (i.e., Looking, Affect, Response to Name, Anticipatory Postures, Motor/Object Stereotypies, Social Touch, Sensory Modulation). Nine items, in combination, were found to discriminate the three groups with a correct classification rate of 93.75%. These findings indicate that subtle symptoms of autism are present at 9-12 months, and suggest that early assessment procedures need to consider sensory processing/sensory-motor functions in addition to social responses during infancy. Furthermore, prior to a time that they reported autistic symptoms, caregivers used compensatory strategies to increase the saliency of stimuli in order to engage their children more successfully; these strategies may provide a window for earlier diagnosis.
J Autism Dev Disord 1999 Jun
PMID:Autism during infancy: a retrospective video analysis of sensory-motor and social behaviors at 9-12 months of age. 1042 84

Several reports have described the occurrence of chromosome abnormalities in autism, a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by social deficits, communication impairment, and a restricted range of interests. These include the fragile X abnormality and 15q duplications. In this report, we describe two cases of chromosome 2q37 and review the literature on this topic. We propose that deletion of the distal portion of the long arm of chromosome 2 (2q37) may be associated with some cases of autism and with a distinct phenotype. Increased awareness of the dysmorphic features associated with 2q37 deletions may aid in the molecular genetic analysis of this chromosome anomaly and clarify its relationship with autism.
J Autism Dev Disord 1999 Jun
PMID:Deletion of chromosome 2q37 and autism: a distinct subtype? 1042 88

Autism is a developmental disorder with variable severity, occurring at all levels of cognitive ability and having a number of slightly different clinical presentations. It is associated with neuropsychological deficits that occur in other conditions also, but its pattern may be specific to autism. Genetic and environmental early insults to brain development are etiological determinants of the disorder. Brain circuitries important for social, communicative, and integrational purposes have been suggested to be dysfunctional in autism. There could be at least two different pathways to autism, one connected with primary temporofrontal dysfunction (and late prenatal-early postnatal origins) and another linked to primary brain-stem dysfunction (and early prenatal origins). Further study of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological processes in autism will help elucidate not only the pathological mechanisms involved in the specific syndromes but also the underpinnings of normal brain development.
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PMID:Neurodevelopmental processes and psychological functioning in autism. 1053 25

Concurrent with the sweeping changes in health care during the past decade, particularly in Medicaid financed health care, has been the reshaping of social policy toward people with developmental disabilities. The extent to which managed care entities match the themes now driving social services for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities (cerebral palsy, autism, etc.) is the extent to which they will be successful in serving this unique group of consumers of managed health care. The authors suggest a number of considerations for managed care organizations that increasingly serve significant numbers of this population.
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PMID:Serving people with developmental disabilities in Medicaid managed care. 1053 36

The authors studied mortality rates of persons with autism, using the extensive California developmental disabilities registry. There was an overall mortality ratio (MR) of 213%. The MR for females (490%) was strikingly higher than for males (167%). The excess mortality rate (EDR) increased with age, while the mortality ratio (MR) decreased with age. Persons with autism are subject to increased mortality risk, as summarized in the provided tables.
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PMID:Comparative mortality of persons with autism in California, 1980-1996. 1053 26

Fibers of the global projection system ramify tremendously and distribute in the diverse region of the brain. Biogenic amines in the global projection system have been shown to facilitate formation and maintenance of synapses in the developing and adult brain. In terms of serotonin 5-HT2A receptor was shown to mediate the function of serotonin. We raised specific antibodies against 5-HT2A receptor protein. Virtually all the neurons in the cerebral cortex expressed 5-HT2A receptor. By using the function of biogenic amines to facilitate synapse formation and maintenance a novel approach can be developed in the neuroscience. That is to perturb biogenic amines, to change synaptic density, and to examine changes in the ability of learning and memory. Removing serotonin and acetylcholine for a week, at the maximum 58% of synapses are decreased in the hippocampus. The animals losing synapses spent a longer latency compared to intact animals in Morris water maze. The level of biogenic amines in the developing brain has been known to decrease tremendously by genetic diseases such as phenylketonuria, Down syndrome and autism as well as environmental factors such as nutrition and stress. In those situations synapses in the brain are suggested to be decreased. Synaptic mechanism for mental retardation and developmental disability by the cascade appears to contribute for understanding pathophysiology and a new therapy.
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PMID:[Mechanisms for formation and maintenance of synapses mediated by biogenic amines: pathogenesis and therapy of mental retardation and developmental disabilities by genetic and epigenetic factors]. 1057 64


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