Topic
Autism
About: Autism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 54700 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2039777 citations. The topic is also known as: autistic disorder & autistic disorder of childhood onset.
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TL;DR: Autistic subjects were impaired at providing context-appropriate mental state explanations for the story characters' nonliteral utterances, compared to normal and mentally handicapped controls.
Abstract: Research has suggested that the core handicaps of autism result from a specific impairment in theory of mind (ToM). However, this account has been challenged by the finding that a minority of autistic subjects pass 1st- and even 2nd-order ToM tests while remaining socially handicapped. In the present study, able autistic subjects who failed ToM tasks, those who passed 1st-order, and those who passed 2nd-order tasks were tested with a battery of more naturalistic and complex stories. Autistic subjects were impaired at providing context-appropriate mental state explanations for the story characters' nonliteral utterances, compared to normal and mentally handicapped controls. Performance on the stories was closely related to performance on standard ToM tasks, but even those autistic subjects who passed all ToM tests showed impairments on the more naturalistic story materials relative to normal adult controls.
2,041 citations
TL;DR: Prevalence of autism and related ASDs is substantially greater than previously recognised and services in health, education, and social care will need to recognise the needs of children with some form of ASD, who constitute 1% of the child population.
2,033 citations
TL;DR: This is the first randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a comprehensive developmental behavioral intervention for toddlers with ASD for improving cognitive and adaptive behavior and reducing severity of ASD diagnosis.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To conduct a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a comprehensive developmental behavioral intervention, for improving outcomes of toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS: Forty-eight children diagnosed with ASD between 18 and 30 months of age were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: (1) ESDM intervention, which is based on developmental and applied behavioral analytic principles and delivered by trained therapists and parents for 2 years; or (2) referral to community providers for intervention commonly available in the community. RESULTS: Compared with children who received community-intervention, children who received ESDM showed significant improvements in IQ, adaptive behavior, and autism diagnosis. Two years after entering intervention, the ESDM group on average improved 17.6 standard score points (1 SD: 15 points) compared with 7.0 points in the comparison group relative to baseline scores. The ESDM group maintained its rate of growth in adaptive behavior compared with a normative sample of typically developing children. In contrast, over the 2-year span, the comparison group showed greater delays in adaptive behavior. Children who received ESDM also were more likely to experience a change in diagnosis from autism to pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified, than the comparison group. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a comprehensive developmental behavioral intervention for toddlers with ASD for improving cognitive and adaptive behavior and reducing severity of ASD diagnosis. Results of this study underscore the importance of early detection of and intervention in autism.
1,990 citations
TL;DR: In 1966, when an outpatient treatment program for autistic children and their families was initiated, there were two major sets of guidelines for diagnosing the children who were referred to the program, and the most promising at tempt to translate the Kanner definition into an empirical rating scale was the Rimland Checklist.
Abstract: In 1966, when we initiated an outpatient treatment program for autistic children and their families (Schopler & Reichler, 1971), there were two major sets of guidelines for diagnosing the children who were referred to our program. The first was Kanner ' s (1943) original definition of autism. At the start of our program the most promising at tempt to translate the Kanner definition into an empirical rating scale was the Rimland Checklist (1964), later revised into a second form (Rimland, 1971). This checklist was completed for all children evaluated in our program. From the very beginning, however, we had the clinical impression that very few of our children were autistic according to Kanner ' s criteria. The Creak (1964) criteria served as a second system of classification. Like Kanner 's , these were not entirely satisfactory from our perspective. Specifically, classification guidelines suitable for very young children were lacking. In response to the limitations of existing classification systems, we developed our own 15-scale rating system (Reichler & Schopler, 1971). These scales incorporated (a) Kanner ' s pr imary features, (b) other characteristics, noted by Creak, found
1,967 citations
New York University1, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research2, MIND Institute3, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven4, University of Utah5, Yale University6, University of California, Los Angeles7, Massachusetts Institute of Technology8, Trinity College, Dublin9, Carnegie Mellon University10, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev11, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich12, Oregon Health & Science University13, California Institute of Technology14, Indiana University15, San Diego State University16, University of Groningen17, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience18, University of Wisconsin-Madison19, Cornell University20, University of Pittsburgh21, Stanford University22, University of Michigan23, Kennedy Krieger Institute24, Johns Hopkins University25
TL;DR: W Whole-brain analyses reconciled seemingly disparate themes of both hypo- and hyperconnectivity in the ASD literature; both were detected, although hypoconnectivity dominated, particularly for corticocortical and interhemispheric functional connectivity.
Abstract: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) represent a formidable challenge for psychiatry and neuroscience because of their high prevalence, lifelong nature, complexity and substantial heterogeneity. Facing these obstacles requires large-scale multidisciplinary efforts. Although the field of genetics has pioneered data sharing for these reasons, neuroimaging had not kept pace. In response, we introduce the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE)-a grassroots consortium aggregating and openly sharing 1112 existing resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) data sets with corresponding structural MRI and phenotypic information from 539 individuals with ASDs and 573 age-matched typical controls (TCs; 7-64 years) (http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/abide/). Here, we present this resource and demonstrate its suitability for advancing knowledge of ASD neurobiology based on analyses of 360 male subjects with ASDs and 403 male age-matched TCs. We focused on whole-brain intrinsic functional connectivity and also survey a range of voxel-wise measures of intrinsic functional brain architecture. Whole-brain analyses reconciled seemingly disparate themes of both hypo- and hyperconnectivity in the ASD literature; both were detected, although hypoconnectivity dominated, particularly for corticocortical and interhemispheric functional connectivity. Exploratory analyses using an array of regional metrics of intrinsic brain function converged on common loci of dysfunction in ASDs (mid- and posterior insula and posterior cingulate cortex), and highlighted less commonly explored regions such as the thalamus. The survey of the ABIDE R-fMRI data sets provides unprecedented demonstrations of both replication and novel discovery. By pooling multiple international data sets, ABIDE is expected to accelerate the pace of discovery setting the stage for the next generation of ASD studies.
1,939 citations