Social cognition in adults with autism spectrum disorders: Validation of the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT).

Objective: Many existing tests of social cognition are not appropriate for clinical use, due to their length, complexity or uncertainty in what they are assessing. The Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) is a new test of social cognition that assesses affective and cognitive Theory of Mind as well as inter- and intrapersonal understanding of social norms using animated interactions.Method: To support the development of the ESCoT as a clinical tool, we derived cut-off scores from a neurotypical population (n = 236) and sought to validate the ESCoT in a sample of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n = 19) adults and neurotypical controls (NC; n = 38) matched on age and education. The ESCoT was administered alongside established tests and questionnaire measures of ASD, empathy, systemizing traits and intelligence.Results: Performance on the subtests of the ESCoT and ESCoT total scores correlated with performance on traditional tests, demonstrating convergent validity. ASD adults performed poorer on all measures of social cognition. Unlike the ESCoT, performance on the established tests was predicted by verbal comprehension abilities. Using a ROC curve analysis, we showed that the ESCoT was more effective than existing tests at differentiating ASD adults from NC. Furthermore, a total of 42.11% of ASD adults were impaired on the ESCoT compared to 0% of NC adults.Conclusions: Overall these results demonstrate that the ESCoT is a useful test for clinical assessment and can aid in the detection of potential difficulties in ToM and social norm understanding

Social cognition in adults with autism spectrum disorders: Validation of the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT).

Objective: Many existing tests of social cognition are not appropriate for clinical use, due to their length, complexity or uncertainty in what they are assessing. The Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) is a new test of social cognition that assesses affective and cognitive Theory of Mind as well as inter- and intrapersonal understanding of social norms using animated interactions.Method: To support the development of the ESCoT as a clinical tool, we derived cut-off scores from a neurotypical population (n = 236) and sought to validate the ESCoT in a sample of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n = 19) adults and neurotypical controls (NC; n = 38) matched on age and education. The ESCoT was administered alongside established tests and questionnaire measures of ASD, empathy, systemizing traits and intelligence.Results: Performance on the subtests of the ESCoT and ESCoT total scores correlated with performance on traditional tests, demonstrating convergent validity. ASD adults performed poorer on all measures of social cognition. Unlike the ESCoT, performance on the established tests was predicted by verbal comprehension abilities. Using a ROC curve analysis, we showed that the ESCoT was more effective than existing tests at differentiating ASD adults from NC. Furthermore, a total of 42.11% of ASD adults were impaired on the ESCoT compared to 0% of NC adults.Conclusions: Overall these results demonstrate that the ESCoT is a useful test for clinical assessment and can aid in the detection of potential difficulties in ToM and social norm understanding

Which types of conditions should be included in reproductive genetic carrier screening? Views of parents of children with a genetic condition

Reproductive genetic carrier screening identifies couples with an increased chance of having children with autosomal and X-linked recessive conditions. Initially only offered for single conditions to people with a high priori risk, carrier screening is becoming increasingly offered to individuals/couples in the general population for a wider range of genetic conditions. Despite advances in genomic testing technology and greater availability of carrier screening panels, there is no consensus around which types of conditions to include in carrier screening panels. This study sought to identify which types of conditions parents of children with a genetic condition believe should be included in carrier screening. Participants (n = 150) were recruited through Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Melbourne outpatient clinics, the Genetic Support Network of Victoria (GSNV) and a databank of children with hearing loss (VicCHILD). This study found that the majority of participants support offering carrier screening for: neuromuscular conditions (n = 128/134, 95.5%), early fatal neurodegenerative conditions (n = 130/141, 92.2%), chronic multi-system disorders (n = 124/135, 91.9%), conditions which cause intellectual disability (n = 128/139, 92.1%) and treatable metabolic conditions (n = 120/138, 87.0%). Views towards the inclusion of non-syndromic hearing loss (n = 88/135, 65.2%) and preventable adult-onset conditions (n = 75/135, 55.6%) were more mixed. Most participants indicated that they would use reproductive options to avoid having a child with the more clinically severe conditions, but most would not do so for clinically milder conditions. A recurring association was observed between participants’ views towards carrier screening and their lived experience of having a child with a genetic condition