Julie M. Wolf

Neural signatures of autism

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of brain responses to biological motion in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), unaffected siblings (US) of children with ASD, and typically developing (TD) children has revealed three types of neural signatures: (i) state activity, related to the state of having ASD that characterizes the nature of disruption in brain circuitry; (ii) trait activity, reflecting shared areas of dysfunction in US and children with ASD, thereby providing a promising neuroendophenotype to facilitate efforts to bridge genomic complexity and disorder heterogeneity; and (iii) compensatory activity, unique to US, suggesting a neural system–level mechanism by which US might compensate for an increased genetic risk for developing ASD. The distinct brain responses to biological motion exhibited by TD children and US are striking given the identical behavioral profile of these two groups. These findings offer far-reaching implications for our understanding of the neural systems underlying autism.

Using computerized games to teach face recognition skills to children with autism spectrum disorder: the Let's Face It! program

BACKGROUND An emerging body of evidence indicates that relative to typically developing children, children with autism are selectively impaired in their ability to recognize facial identity. A critical question is whether face recognition skills can be enhanced through a direct training intervention. METHODS In a randomized clinical trial, children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were pre-screened with a battery of subtests (the Lets Face It! Skills battery) examining face and object processing abilities. Participants who were significantly impaired in their face processing abilities were assigned to either a treatment or a waitlist group. Children in the treatment group (N = 42) received 20 hours of face training with the Lets Face It! (LFI!) computer-based intervention. The LFI! program is comprised of seven interactive computer games that target the specific face impairments associated with autism, including the recognition of identity across image changes in expression, viewpoint and features, analytic and holistic face processing strategies and attention to information in the eye region. Time 1 and Time 2 performance for the treatment and waitlist groups was assessed with the Lets Face It! Skills battery. RESULTS The main finding was that relative to the control group (N = 37), children in the face training group demonstrated reliable improvements in their analytic recognition of mouth features and holistic recognition of a face based on its eyes features. CONCLUSION These results indicate that a relatively short-term intervention program can produce measurable improvements in the face recognition skills of children with autism. As a treatment for face processing deficits, the Lets Face It! program has advantages of being cost-free, adaptable to the specific learning needs of the individual child and suitable for home and school applications.

Specific impairment of face‐processing abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder using the Let's Face It! skills battery

Although it has been well established that individuals with autism exhibit difficulties in their face recognition abilities, it has been debated whether this deficit reflects a category‐specific impairment of faces or a general perceptual bias toward the local‐level information in a stimulus. In this study, the Lets Face It! Skills Battery [Tanaka & Schultz, 2008] of developmental face‐ and object‐processing measures was administered to a large sample of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children. The main finding was that when matched for age and IQ, individuals with ASD were selectively impaired in their ability to recognize faces across changes in orientation, expression and featural information. In a face discrimination task, ASD participants showed a preserved ability to discriminate featural and configural information in the mouth region of a face, but were compromised in their ability to discriminate featural and configural information in the eyes. On object‐processing tasks, ASD participants demonstrated a normal ability to recognize automobiles across changes in orientation and a superior ability to discriminate featural and configural information in houses. These findings indicate that the face‐processing deficits in ASD are not due to a local‐processing bias, but reflect a category‐specific impairment of faces characterized by a failure to form view‐invariant face representations and discriminate information in the eye region of the face.

The perception and identification of facial emotions in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders using the Let’s Face It! Emotion Skills Battery

BACKGROUND Although impaired social-emotional ability is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the perceptual skills and mediating strategies contributing to the social deficits of autism are not well understood. A perceptual skill that is fundamental to effective social communication is the ability to accurately perceive and interpret facial emotions. To evaluate the expression processing of participants with ASD, we designed the Lets Face It! Emotion Skills Battery (LFI! Battery), a computer-based assessment composed of three subscales measuring verbal and perceptual skills implicated in the recognition of facial emotions. METHODS We administered the LFI! Battery to groups of participants with ASD and typically developing control (TDC) participants that were matched for age and IQ. RESULTS On the Name Game labeling task, participants with ASD (N = 68) performed on par with TDC individuals (N = 66) in their ability to name the facial emotions of happy, sad, disgust and surprise and were only impaired in their ability to identify the angry expression. On the Matchmaker Expression task that measures the recognition of facial emotions across different facial identities, the ASD participants (N = 66) performed reliably worse than TDC participants (N = 67) on the emotions of happy, sad, disgust, frighten and angry. In the Parts-Wholes test of perceptual strategies of expression, the TDC participants (N = 67) displayed more holistic encoding for the eyes than the mouths in expressive faces whereas ASD participants (N = 66) exhibited the reverse pattern of holistic recognition for the mouth and analytic recognition of the eyes. CONCLUSION In summary, findings from the LFI! Battery show that participants with ASD were able to label the basic facial emotions (with the exception of angry expression) on par with age- and IQ-matched TDC participants. However, participants with ASD were impaired in their ability to generalize facial emotions across different identities and showed a tendency to recognize the mouth feature holistically and the eyes as isolated parts.

Improvements in Social and Adaptive Functioning Following Short-Duration PRT Program: A Clinical Replication

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is an empirically validated behavioral treatment for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of the current study was to assess the efficacy of PRT for ten cognitively-able preschool-aged children with ASD in the context of a short-duration (4-month) treatment model. Most research on PRT used individual behavioral goals as outcome measures, but the current study utilized standardized assessments of broader-based social communication and adaptive skills. The children made substantial gains; however, magnitude and consistency of response across measures were variable. The results provide additional support for the efficacy of PRT as well as evidence for improvements in higher-order social communication and adaptive skill development within the context of a short-duration PRT model.

When children with autism become adults.

Autism and related conditions have been described since the 1940s, but official recognition did not come until 1980, with the publication of the DSM-III. Early confusion centered on the validity of the condition, that is, whether it could be considered distinct from childhood schizophrenia. This confusion was clarified with work on clinical phenomenology and genetics of the two conditions. Specifically, differences in clinical features were identified, with autism being marked by profound social difficulties and very early onset relative to schizophrenia. It also became clear that autism was a strongly genetic disorder, distinct from schizophrenia. Autism was associated, at least initially, with a rather poor outcome, with the earliest studies suggesting that about two-third of individuals, as adults, required institutional care 1,2. Early treatment approaches were centered on psychotherapy (often of parent and child), but gradually shifted as work indicated that structured behavioral and educational approaches were associated with better outcome, as was earlier diagnosis and intervention. It has become increasingly clear that greater public awareness, earlier intervention, and more effective management have had a major impact on the outcome of the condition 1.

Re-conceptualizing ASD Within a Dimensional Framework: Positive, Negative, and Cognitive Feature Clusters

Introduction of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria and revision of diagnostic classification for Autism Spectrum Disorder in the latest diagnostic manual call for a new way of conceptualizing heterogeneous ASD features. We propose a novel conceptualization of ASD, borrowing from the schizophrenia literature in clustering ASD features along positive, negative, and cognitive dimensions. We argue that this dimensional conceptualization can offer improved ability to classify, diagnose, and treat, to apply and predict response to treatment, and to explore underlying neural and genetic alterations that may contribute to particular feature clusters. We suggest the proposed conceptualization can advance the field in a manner that may prove clinically and biologically useful for understanding and addressing heterogeneity within ASD.

Assessment and Treatment Planning in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may present quite differently than children with ASD due to developmental maturation, effects of years of intervention, and differing environmental demands and expectations placed upon them in adulthood as compared to childhood. Support services for adults are much less widely available than for children, and after the age of 21, adults are no longer entitled to a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). With this reduction in supports and services, young adults may struggle to successfully meet the new demands they face. A comprehensive assessment of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses can aid in treatment planning and in identifying areas of support and accommodation that would be beneficial to the adult.