The use of the Autism-spectrum Quotient in differentiating high-functioning adults with autism, adults with schizophrenia and a neurotypical adult control group

Wouters, Saskia; Spek, Annelies

doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2011.01.002

Cited by 34 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…showing the social, communicative and imagination impairments of autism but little evidence of increased sensory sensitivity and increased attention-to-detail. Candidate disorders are anorexia nervosa (Westwood et al, 2016) and schizophrenia (Wouters & Spek, 2011) which are linked to an elevated AQ score, but not including attention-to-detail. Thus, although autistic traits are found in a wide variety of neurodevelopmental conditions there may be an important split, hitherto underappreciated, between the causes of sensory/attention and socio-cognitive symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An autistic-like profile of attention and perception in synaesthesia

Ward

Brown

Sherwood

et al. 2018

Cortex

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Synaesthesia and autism are two neurodevelopmental conditions that have been shown to co-occur more than expected by chance. The studies reported here test the hypothesis that increased sensory sensitivity and enhanced Attention-to-detail are core cognitive features that are shared between them. In Study 1, we administer self-report measures of sensory sensitivity and autistic traits (the Autism Spectrum Quotient, AQ) to a large heterogeneous sample of synaesthetes. Both sensory sensitivity and the Attention-to-detail subscale of the AQ show a "dose-like" relationship with synaesthesia: namely, more kinds of synaesthesia is related to a greater shift up the autistic spectrum. Study 2 uses two objective measures of visual perception/attention linked to autistic traits: Change Blindness and detection of local embedded figures. Both measures are shown here to be sensitive to the Attention-to-detail subscale of the AQ, and synaesthetes outperformed controls on both tasks. Synaesthetes appear to occupy a specific cognitive niche of having autistic-like traits linked to enhanced perception and attention. Whilst these typically occur in the absence of the traditional impairments that define autism, they may carry the cost of increased vulnerability to clinical levels of autism (Odds Ratio = 2.07).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An autistic-like profile of attention and perception in synaesthesia

Ward

Brown

Sherwood

et al. 2018

Cortex

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A cut off of 32 is recommended for non-clinical samples (Baron-Cohen et al 2001; Woodbury-Smith et al 2005). Studies suggest that the AQ can be a useful screening tool for discriminating ASD from a number of other psychopathologies (Wouters and Spek 2011; Cath et al 2008; Sizoo et al 2009). Due to its reported advantageous psychometric properties, researchers frequently use the AQ to measure the severity of ATs to predict performance of people with ASD (Miu et al 2012; Rhodes et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Latent Structure of Autistic Traits: A Taxometric, Latent Class and Latent Profile Analysis of the Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient

James

Dubey

Smith

et al. 2016

J Autism Dev Disord

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Autistic traits are widely thought to operate along a continuum. A taxometric analysis of Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient data was conducted to test this assumption, finding little support but identifying a high severity taxon. To understand this further, latent class and latent profile models were estimated that indicated the presence of six distinct subtypes: one with little probability of endorsing any autistic traits, one engaging in ‘systemising’ behaviours, three groups endorsing multiple components of Wing and Gould’s autistic triad, and a group similar in size and profile to the taxon previously identified. These analyses suggest the AQ (and potentially by extension autistic traits) have a categorical structure. These findings have important implications for the analysis and interpretation of AQ data.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2897-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…In a related investigation, Wouters and Spek [26] assessed the ability of the AQ to differentiate between individuals with high-functioning autism, individuals with schizophrenia, and non-clinical individuals. They found that the AQ was 75% accurate in distinguishing subjects with autism from subjects with schizophrenia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Are Autism and Schizotypy Related? Evidence from a Non-Clinical Population

et al. 2013

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Both autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) and schizophrenia spectrum conditions (SSCs) involve altered or impaired social and communicative functioning, but whether these shared features indicate overlapping or different etiological factors is unknown. We outline three hypotheses (overlapping, independent, and diametric) for the possible relationship between ASCs and SSCs, and compare their predictions for the expected relationships between autistic and schizotypal phenotypes using the Autism Spectrum Quotient and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised from a large non-clinical sample of undergraduate students. Consistent with previous research, autistic features were positively associated with several schizotypal features, with the most overlap occurring between interpersonal schizotypy and autistic social and communication phenotypes. The first component of a principal components analysis (PCA) of subscale scores reflected these positive correlations, and suggested the presence of an axis (PC1) representing general social interest and aptitude. By contrast, the second principal component (PC2) exhibited a pattern of positive and negative loadings indicative of an axis from autism to positive schizotypy, such that positive schizotypal features loaded in the opposite direction to core autistic features. These overall PCA patterns were replicated in a second data set from a Japanese population. To evaluate the validity of our interpretation of the PCA results, we measured handedness and mental rotation ability, as these are established correlates of SSCs and ASCs, respectively. PC2 scores were significantly associated with hand preference, such that increasingly ‘schizotypal’ scores predicted reduced strength of handedness, which is consistent with previous research. PC1 scores were positively related to performance on the mental rotation task, suggesting trade-offs between social skills and visual-spatial ability. These results provide novel evidence for an autism-positive schizotypy axis, and highlight the importance of recognizing that psychological variation involving reduced social interest and functioning may have diverse causes.

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The use of the Autism-spectrum Quotient in differentiating high-functioning adults with autism, adults with schizophrenia and a neurotypical adult control group

Cited by 34 publications

References 36 publications

An autistic-like profile of attention and perception in synaesthesia

An autistic-like profile of attention and perception in synaesthesia

The Latent Structure of Autistic Traits: A Taxometric, Latent Class and Latent Profile Analysis of the Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient

How Are Autism and Schizotypy Related? Evidence from a Non-Clinical Population

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