Claude Berthiaume

Quebec child mental health survey: prevalence of DSM-III-R mental health disorders.

The Quebec Child Mental Health Survey (QCMHS) was conducted in 1992 on a representative sample of 2400 children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years from throughout Quebec. Prevalences of nine Axis-I DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) mental health disorders were calculated based on each informant (for 6-11-year-olds: child, parent, and teacher; for 12-14-year-olds: child and parent). Informant parallelism allows the classification of results of the demographic variables associated with disorders in the logistic regression models. This strategy applies to group variables (correlates of disorders) whereas informant agreement applies to individual diagnoses. Informant parallelism implies that results for two informants or more are in the same direction and significant. In the QCMHS, informant parallelism exists for disruptive disorders, i.e. in two ADHD regression models (child and parent) higher rates among boys and young children, and in three oppositional/conduct disorders regression models (child, parent, and teacher) higher rates among boys. No informant parallelism is observed in the logistic regression models for internalizing disorders, i.e. the patterns of association of demographic variables with anxiety and depressive disorders vary across informants. Urban-rural residence does not emerge as a significant variable in any of the logistic regression models. The overall 6-month prevalences reach 19.9% according to the parent and 15.8% according to the child. The implications of the results for policy makers and clinicians are discussed.

Face perception in high-functioning autistic adults: evidence for superior processing of face parts, not for a configural face-processing deficit.

Configural processing in autism was studied in Experiment 1 by using the face inversion effect. A normal inversion effect was observed in the participants with autism, suggesting intact configural face processing. A priming paradigm using partial or complete faces served in Experiment 2 to assess both local and configural face processing. Overall, normal priming effects were found in participants with autism, irrespective of whether the partial face primes were intuitive face parts (i.e., eyes, nose, etc.) or arbitrary segments. An exception, however, was that participants with autism showed magnified priming with single face parts relative to typically developing control participants. The present findings argue for intact configural processing in autism along with an enhanced processing for individual face parts. The face-processing peculiarities known to characterize autism are discussed on the basis of these results and past congruent results with nonsocial stimuli.

Local bias and local-to-global interference without global deficit: A robust finding in autism under various conditions of attention, exposure time, and visual angle

A wide variety of paradigms have shown that autistic individuals present with superior performance on visual tasks. Here, the impact of task constraints on visual hierarchical processing in autism was investigated. By employing free- and forced-choice procedures, global and local processing of Navon-type hierarchical numerals was examined in 15 autistic persons (13 males, 2 females) and a comparison group. In the free-choice condition, autistics chose global and local targets randomly, though they were faster responding to local than to global targets, regardless of visual angle and exposure duration. In contrast, the comparison group exhibited a global advantage in naming time, which was evident only for shorter exposures, as well as effects of visual angle. In the forced-choice condition, autistics presented with a more important local-to-global interference than global-to-local interference, whereas the comparison group exhibited global advantage and bidirectional interference. Overall, the autistic participants presented with atypical local-to-global interference and local advantage in incongruent conditions (where global and local targets differ), in naming time as well as accuracy. The relative insensitivity of local bias to task constraints in autistics, in comparison to nonautistic participants, indicates that local bias, with local-to-global interference, is a key and characteristic feature of autistic visual cognition and a strong candidate for the “endophenotype” of autism.

A Physical Activity Program Improves Behavior and Cognitive Functions in Children with ADHD: An Exploratory Study.

Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the effects of a moderate- to high-intensity physical activity program on fitness, cognitive functions, and ADHD-related behavior in children with ADHD. Method: Fitness level, motor skills, behaviors, and cognitive functions are assessed by standardized tests before and after a 10-week training or control period. Results: Findings show that participation in a physical activity program improves muscular capacities, motor skills, behavior reports by parents and teachers, and level of information processing. Conclusion: A structured physical activity program may have clinical relevance in the functional adaptation of children with ADHD. This supports the need for further research in the area of physical activity with this population.

Enhanced Pure-Tone Pitch Discrimination among Persons with Autism but not Asperger Syndrome.

Persons with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) display atypical perceptual processing in visual and auditory tasks. In vision, Bertone, Mottron, Jelenic, and Faubert (2005) found that enhanced and diminished visual processing is linked to the level of neural complexity required to process stimuli, as proposed in the neural complexity hypothesis. Based on these findings, Samson, Mottron, Jemel, Belin, and Ciocca (2006) proposed to extend the neural complexity hypothesis to the auditory modality. They hypothesized that persons with ASD should display enhanced performance for simple tones that are processed in primary auditory cortical regions, but diminished performance for complex tones that require additional processing in associative auditory regions, in comparison to typically developing individuals. To assess this hypothesis, we designed four auditory discrimination experiments targeting pitch, non-vocal and vocal timbre, and loudness. Stimuli consisted of spectro-temporally simple and complex tones. The participants were adolescents and young adults with autism, Asperger syndrome, and typical developmental histories, all with IQs in the normal range. Consistent with the neural complexity hypothesis and enhanced perceptual functioning model of ASD (Mottron, Dawson, Soulières, Hubert, & Burack, 2006), the participants with autism, but not with Asperger syndrome, displayed enhanced pitch discrimination for simple tones. However, no discrimination-thresholds differences were found between the participants with ASD and the typically developing persons across spectrally and temporally complex conditions. These findings indicate that enhanced pure-tone pitch discrimination may be a cognitive correlate of speech-delay among persons with ASD. However, auditory discrimination among this group does not appear to be directly contingent on the spectro-temporal complexity of the stimuli.

Developmental Changes of Autistic Symptoms

The study examined developmental changes in autistic symptoms retrospectively in a sample of 28 verbal children and adolescents with autism. Individuals with Asperger syndrome, PDD-NOS, and related medical conditions were not included in the study. We compared autistic symptoms present at the retrospective assessment and during the 4- to 5-year age period using the ADI-R. Our findings revealed a significant improvement in the three domains relevant for the diagnosis of autism, independent of age or IQ level. Improvement occurred in more symptoms from the social than the communication domain, and for more symptoms from the latter than the restricted interest and repetitive behavior domains. The finding that improvement was not linked to level of functioning and was found in individuals still positive for a diagnosis of autism suggests that improvement belongs to the ‘natural history’ of the handicap.

Attachment and behavior problems in middle childhood as reported by adult and child informants

The predictive relation between attachment and mother, teacher, and self-reported psychopathology was examined for a diverse socioeconomic status French Canadian sample of 96 children. Attachment classifications were assigned on the basis of reunion behavior with mother when the children were approximately 6 years old, and child problem behavior was assessed 2 years later using the Child Behavior Checklist (mother report), the Social Behavior Questionaire (teacher report), and the Dominic Questionnaire (child self-report). Results indicated that both insecure/ambivalent and insecure/controlling children children were rated higher than secure children on a composite measure of externalizing problems. Concerning internalizing problems, only the controlling group was significantly higher on both a composite adult (teacher and mother) and self-report measure of internalizing problems. Analyses of clinical cutoff scores showed that only the controlling group had a significantly greater likelihood of overall problem behavior than other children.

Lateral glances toward moving stimuli among young children with autism: Early regulation of locally oriented perception?

Autistic adults display enhanced and locally oriented low-level perception of static visual information, but diminished perception of some types of movement. The identification of potential precursors, such as atypical perceptual processing, among very young children would be an initial step toward understanding the development of these phenomena. The purpose of this study was to provide an initial measure and interpretation of atypical visual exploratory behaviors toward inanimate objects (AVEBIOs) among young children with autism. A coding system for AVEBIOs was constructed from a corpus of 40 semistandardized assessments of autistic children. The most frequent atypical visual behavior among 15 children aged 33-73 months was lateral glance that was mostly oriented toward moving stimuli and was detected reliably by the experimenters (intraclass correlation > .90). This behavior was more common among autistic than typically developing children of similar verbal mental age and chronological age. As lateral vision is associated with the filtering of high spatial frequency (detail perception) information and the facilitation of high temporal frequencies (movement perception), its high prevalence among very young autistic children may reflect early attempts to regulate and/or optimize both excessive amounts of local information and diminished perception of movement. These findings are initial evidence for the need to consider the neural bases and development of atypical behaviors and their implications for intervention strategies.

Informant-Specific Correlates of Suicidal Behavior in a Community Survey of 12- to 14-Year-Olds

OBJECTIVES To arrive at a better estimation of informant-specific correlates of suicidal behavior in young adolescents and to see how agreements and discrepancies between child and parent informants can contribute to the development of research and interventions. METHOD The weighted sample from the Quebec Child Mental Health Survey conducted in 1992 included 825 adolescents, aged 12 to 14 years, and their parents. The adolescent and one parent were questioned by two different interviewers. The response rate was 80.3%. Three categories of independent variables were assessed: adolescent, family, and socioeconomic characteristics. Logistic regression models were based on the adolescent and parent informant reports. RESULTS Parents identified 6 of the 59 adolescents having reported suicidal ideation and 2 of the 36 adolescents having reported suicide attempts. Two informant-specific models of correlates of suicidal behavior were found. The adolescent model included internalizing and externalizing mental disorders, family stressful events, and parent-adolescent relationship difficulties, while the parent model included perceiving a need for help for the adolescent, parents depressive disorders, and parent-adolescent relationship difficulties. CONCLUSION The study shows the relevance of considering informant-specific correlates of suicidal behavior in the development of research and interventions targeting youths suicidal behavior.

Enhanced connectivity between visual cortex and other regions of the brain in autism: a REM sleep EEG coherence study.

Functional interregional neural coupling was measured as EEG coherence during REM sleep, a state of endogenous cortical activation, in 9 adult autistic individuals (21.1±4.0 years) and 13 typically developed controls (21.5±4.3 years) monitored for two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory. Spectral analysis was performed on 60 s of artefact‐free EEG samples distributed equally throughout the first four REM sleep periods of the second night. EEG coherence was calculated for six frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, sigma, beta, and total spectrum) using a 22‐electrode montage. The magnitude of coherence function was computed for intra‐ and interhemispheric pairs of recording sites. Results were compared by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). Each time the autistic group showed a greater EEG coherence than the controls; it involved intrahemispheric communication among the left visual cortex (O1) and other regions either close to or distant from the occipital cortex. In contrast, lower coherence values involved frontal electrodes in the right hemisphere. No significant differences between groups were found for interhemispheric EEG coherence. These results show that the analysis of EEG coherence during REM sleep can disclose patterns of cortical connectivity that can be reduced or increased in adults with autism compared to typically developed individuals, depending of the cortical areas studied. Superior coherence involving visual perceptual areas in autism is consistent with an enhanced role of perception in autistic brain organization.