Adults with Asperger syndrome are less sensitive to intonation than control persons when listening to speech

In conversation, speakers typically draw attention to items that are meant to be informative by pronouncing the words referring to these items in a particular way. These words have a distinct intonation, and are accented—typically involving a rise or fall in vocal pitch on the stressed syllable. Listeners use this information to know which part of the sentence is new, and therefore worthy of attention. In a perception study, adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) and a group of control persons were instructed to rate the informativeness of words, based on how they sounded. The AS group showed a reduced sensitivity to intonation and subsequently based their judgement less on the way the word was pronounced and more on word frequency and semantic features of the words themselves. This finding is in concordance with a general reduced sensitivity to non-verbal cues in social encounters and to a propensity towards literal interpretation in the group of persons with AS

Examination and validation of a measure of anxiety specific to children with autism spectrum disorders

OBJECTIVE: Investigated the use of a combined scale (Worry/Depressed and Avoidant scales) from the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Comorbidity for Children (ASD-CC) as a measure of anxiety. Alternative methods of measuring anxiety were examined using the ASD-CC in an ASD population. METHODS: Participants included 147 children, age 2-16 years, evincing a mixture of behavior problems. Comparisons between scores on the ASD-CC and Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) were examined to determine the most efficacious method of measuring anxiety and to establish convergent and discriminant validity. RESULTS: The worry/depressed subscale was the most effective subscale of the ASD-CC to measure anxiety with proven incremental validity over the combined scale. CONCLUSION: The worry/depressed subscale is the best measure of anxiety utilizing the ASD-CC in children with an ASD. Additionally, convergent and discriminant validity was demonstrated by comparing the scale with similar and dissimilar scales of the BASC-2

Executive and visuo-motor function in adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder

This study broadly examines executive (EF) and visuo-motor function in 30 adolescent and adult individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to 28 controls matched for age, gender, and IQ. ASD individuals showed impaired spatial working memory, whereas planning, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition were spared. Pure movement execution during visuo-motor information processing also was intact. In contrast, execution time of reading, naming, and of visuo-motor information processing tasks including a choice component was increased in the ASD group. Results of this study are in line with previous studies reporting only minimal EF difficulties in older individuals with ASD when assessed by computerized tasks. The finding of impaired visuo-motor information processing should be accounted for in further neuropsychological studies in ASD