Maturation of Executive Function in Autism

Luna, Beatríz; Doll, Sara K.; Hegedus, Stephen; Minshew, Nancy J.; Sweeney, John A.

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.02.030

Cited by 279 publications

(358 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…These traits are an integral part of schizophrenia, and evidence exists of their abnormal function in infantile autism and AS as well. 56,57 This would be consistent with the neurodevelopmental hypothesis associated with DISC1 functioning.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Association of DISC1 with autism and Asperger syndrome

et al. 2007

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The DISC1 gene at 1q42 has generated considerable interest in various psychiatric diseases, since a balanced translocation interrupting the gene was found to cosegregate with schizophrenia and related mental illnesses in a large Scottish pedigree. To date, linkage and association findings to this locus have been replicated in several study samples ascertained for psychotic disorders. However, the biological function of DISC1 in neuronal development would suggest a potential role for this gene also in other, early onset neuropsychiatric disorders. Here we have addressed the allelic diversity of the DISC1, DISC2 and TRAX genes, clustered in 1q42, in Finnish families ascertained for infantile autism (97 families, n affected = 138) and Asperger syndrome (29 families, n affected = 143). We established association between autism and a DISC1 intragenic microsatellite (D1S2709; P = 0.004). In addition, evidence for association to Asperger syndrome was observed with an intragenic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of DISC1 (rs1322784; P = 0.0058), as well as with a three-SNP haplotype (P = 0.0013) overlapping the HEP3 haplotype, that was previously observed to associate with schizophrenia in Finnish families. The strongest associations were obtained with broad diagnostic categories for both disorders and with affected males only, in agreement with the previous sex-dependent effects reported for DISC1. These results would further support the involvement of DISC1 gene also in the etiopathogenesis of early onset neuropsychiatric disorders.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Association of DISC1 with autism and Asperger syndrome

et al. 2007

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“…The degree of executive dysfunction was also negatively correlated with comprehension of humor (performance in humor tests such as the Joke Completion Test) in a sample of otherwise healthy elderly people (Shammi and Stuss 2003). Hence, the finding of slightly impaired discrimination in the younger AS group may only relate to delayed developmental progression of certain executive functions in ASD (Luna et al 2007). …”

Section: Humorous Film Clipsmentioning

confidence: 97%

From Ice Age to Madagascar: Appreciation of slapstick humor in children with Asperger's syndrome

Weiss

Gschaidbauer²,

Samson

et al. 2013

Humor

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Abstract:The aim of the present study was to examine whether children with Asperger's syndrome differ from typically developing children in the appreciation of and behavioral responses to simple slapstick type humor, in which cognitive requirements that are commonly impaired in autism spectrum disorders are reduced to a minimum. Short slapstick scenes and matched non-humorous control scenes were extracted from popular movies to produce an appropriate humor assessment material. Twenty-four boys with Asperger's syndrome (5 to 14 years) and 24 age-matched typically developed controls were tested. The results indicated that children with Asperger's syndrome enjoy humorous material as much as healthy children do, if the humor elements are simple and the incongruence can be perceived independently from theory of mind requirements, inferential demands, or language abilities. However, similar funniness ratings and behavioral expressions of mirth to the humorous scenes, but relatively higher values in response to the non-humorous scenes, suggested that the autistic children did not discriminate non-humorous from humorous stimuli as sensitively as the typically developing children did. Moreover, in autistic children, the outwards displays of emotion did not match their reports of subjective amusement. This dissociation may relate to the social interaction and communication difficulties in autism spectrum disorders.

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“…However, people with autism have difficulty in tasks that impose a working memory load in addition to requiring response inhibition (Hughes 1996;Hughes and Russell 1993;Minshew et al 1999;Russell 1997) or when they are required to shift from one response set to another (Ozonoff and Strayer 1997;Ozonoff et al 1994). Paradigms such as memory-based eye movement inhibition tasks (Goldberg et al 2002(Goldberg et al , 2005Luna et al 2006;Minshew et al 1999), the set shifting component of "go-no-go" tasks (Ozonoff and Strayer 1997;Ozonoff et al 1994), and NEPSY Knock-Tap tasks (Korkman et al 1998) that tap working memory and inhibitory control (Joseph et al 2005) have shown impairments in performance in autism. Thus, behavioral studies indicate that the inhibition impairments in autism are not ubiquitous but depend on the nature, complexity, and subdomains of the task at hand.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibitory Control in High-Functioning Autism: Decreased Activation and Underconnectivity in Inhibition Networks

Kana

Keller

Minshew

et al. 2007

Biological Psychiatry

Self Cite

410

305

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Background: Inhibiting prepotent responses is critical to optimal cognitive and behavioral function across many domains. Several behavioral studies have investigated response inhibition in autism, and the findings varied according to the components involved in inhibition. There has been only one published functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study so far on inhibition in autism, which found greater activation in participants with autism than control participants.

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Maturation of Executive Function in Autism

Cited by 279 publications

References 57 publications

Association of DISC1 with autism and Asperger syndrome

Association of DISC1 with autism and Asperger syndrome

From Ice Age to Madagascar: Appreciation of slapstick humor in children with Asperger's syndrome

Inhibitory Control in High-Functioning Autism: Decreased Activation and Underconnectivity in Inhibition Networks

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