Understanding the mechanisms behind deficits in imitation: Do individuals with autism know 'what' to imitate and do they know 'how' to imitate?

Although imitation problems have been associated with autism for many years, the underlying mechanisms of these problems remain subject to debate. In this article, the question whether imitation problems are caused by selection or correspondence problems is explored and discussed. This review revealed that hypotheses on the nature of imitation problems in autism are complicated and inconclusive at the present time. There is some evidence for impaired selection, especially implicating poor preferential attention to biological motion and poor ascription of intention to action. There is also some evidence that both transformations of perspectives and mapping of visual to motor information are impaired, characterized as correspondence problems. However, it is not yet clear how poor selection processes contribute to correspondence problems and vice versa. Insight in this interaction may provide a valuable contribution to our understanding of imitation problems in autism. For further research we recommend that tasks should be constrained to target as few mechanisms as possible in given experiments.status: publishe

Preserved imitation in contrast to limited free application of comfortable hand actions in intellectually able young adults with an autism spectrum disorder

Imitation problems are commonly reported in children with an autism spectrum disorder. However, it has not yet been determined whether imitation problems persist into young adulthood. In this study, we investigated imitation skills of 20 intellectually able young adults with autism spectrum disorder relative to 19 age-matched neurotypical adults. For this purpose, we used a bar-transport task, which evokes the application of the end-state comfort principle. Specifically, we examined whether young adults with autism spectrum disorder imitated the means-end structure of a demonstrator's bar-transport action with and without application of the end-state comfort principle (imitation task). In addition, we examined whether participants spontaneously applied the end-state comfort principle during a similar bar-transport task (free execution task). Results revealed that young adults with autism spectrum disorder imitated the means-end structure of observed actions to the same degree as neurotypical adults ( p = 0.428). In contrast, they applied the end-state comfort principle less often during free executed actions ( p = 0.035). Moreover, during these actions, they were slower to place the bar into the penholder ( p = 0.023), which contributed to the reduced efficiency of their performance. Findings suggest that imitation abilities of young adults with autism spectrum disorder are preserved and that observing others' actions might promote more efficient action planning in this population.status: publishe

AUT698454_Lay_Abstract – Supplemental material for Preserved imitation in contrast to limited free application of comfortable hand actions in intellectually able young adults with an autism spectrum disorder

<p> Supplemental material, AUT698454_Lay_Abstract for Preserved imitation in contrast to limited free application of comfortable hand actions in intellectually able young adults with an autism spectrum disorder by Caroline Beelen, Koen Cuypers, Lise van Schuerbeeck, Marijke Braeken, Veerle Ross, Ellen Jongen, Raf Meesen and Marleen Vanvuchelen in Autism </p