Lecture 10 - Autism

what is autism?

a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people and the world around them, it can affect body language and posture, social interactions and relationships, how you engage with your interests and sensory processing capacities, it is a way of being and inseparable from the person, it exists in all cultures, ethnicities, races and gender identities, classifies it as a disorder but autistic ppl prefer neurological difference or condition, it exists on a spectrum, it is lifelong and not caused by vaccinations or parenting styles

spectrum

the degree to which each autistic person experiences differences, determines the amount of support they need (low vs high functioning)

history of autism

it was first thought of as a child whose condition differs markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far, kranner thought the disorder was marked by emergence in early childhood, deficits in communication and social interaction, restricted or repetitive behaviors and a desire for sameness, asperger included a wider range of intelligence and abilities in his definition

neurodiversity 

natural diversity in how human brain develop and function, its a descriptive term

neurodivergent

when someone’s brain functions in ways that differ from the typical or expected developmental patterns, autistim influences how ppl experience and interact with the world due to lifelong neurodivergence and disability

ASD diagnosis

autistic ppl are different from eachother but share differences from non autistic ppl, the individual has to show core characteristics of autism for diagnosis, lifelong differences in communication, behaviors and interests compared to non autistic ppl, present from an early age

dual exceptionality

support is different if you are low or high functioning with autism, this term refers to two abilities that can mask one another so someone who is intellectually advanced can have autism and use those abilities to mask differences in certain areas

restrictive and repetitive behaviors

moving in a particular way, saying or repeating certain things, this serves as a coping strategy to keep the person calm and happy, regulated, autistic ppl’s self regulation system is not as effective at detecting signals from the environment so self regulation looks different, stimming behaviors can also help with regulation but its hard for them to regulate intensity of their emotions (easily overstimulated), they also show differences in sensory processes, on a perceptual level different ways of perceiving sensory info, may be able to see things differently or have different perceptual experiences than others, less perceptual to visual illusions, may be very sensitive to other modalities like smell

temple gradin

she is a consultant for livestock but also an academic, she is an autism self advocate, ASD individuals are typically better at visual thinking, its not that they dont understand their intellectual abilities but that they dont have access to the same info someone else does, intervention is to change that perception like using sunglasses to help dull intense stimuli

criteria A

persistent differences in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts as manifested by differences in social emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction and differences in developing, maintaining and understanding relationships, all three have to be present for diagnosis, impaired non verbal skills (eye contact, facial expressions)

criteria B

restricted repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities as manifested by at least two of the following; stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects or speech, insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines or ritualized patterns of verbal and nonverbal behavior (need to know what is gonna happen next, get anxious when routine is disrupted), highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus, hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment (may need to touch certain textures or surfaces to feel like they know that feature, may need coping strategies to feel better like wearing headphones to dull sound)

criteria C

traits must be present in the early developmental period but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities or may be masked by learned strategies in later life, clinicians need info from people who were around the child when they were born)

criteria D

traits cause clinicians significant impairment in social occupational or other important areas of current functioning

criteria E

disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability or global developmental delay 

sensory processing

the way the nervous system receives, interprets and responds to info from the senses, challenges are present in autism throughout the lifespan, increased sensory processing deficits related to increased challenges with social function

sensory systems

auditory, visual, taste, smell, touch, vestibular, proprioceptive and interoception

vestibular system

sense of body position and movement

proprioceptive

joint and muscle sense

interoception

sense of internal organs, linked to emotions

sensory over responders

overreact to sensations, will try to move away or block sensory input, may shut down, cautious, fearful and upset by changes in routine, picky eaters, sleep issues, need predictable routines

sensory under responders

don't react to sensory input they normally should react to, unaware of bodily sensations (hunger, thirst, pain, need to use the bathroom), passive behaviors like inattention, slow to respond, uninterested in games

sensory seekers

crave constant stimulation, crashing, jumping, constantly touching objects, licks/chews on objects, takes excessive risks, may become angry or explosive easily

universal design sensory strategies

create inclusive environment where ppl with a wide range of sensory needs can participate comfortably, without needing special accommodations, you could make the environment sensory friendly using lighting, reducing noise, having calming and alerting sections in the classroom, sensory bins and islands of retreat

visual schedules

tools that use pictures, symbols and words to show a sequence of activities or steps, used to support autistic ppl, make routines more predictable and reduce anxiety, individualized by age, interests, communication style and ability to understand symbols vs words, autistic ppl usually struggle with task switching

reinforcement

process in which consequence follows behavior and increased probability that the behavior will occur again in the future, could be positive or negative, many autistic ppl benefit from reinforcement for learning new skills, replacing a challenging behavior and motivation

positive reinforcement

adding smth desirable

negative reinforcement

removing something unpleasant

first then board

have activity and reward conjoined together, this is also known as gamification, this makes the experience fun, ppl able to achieve lots of success because they are more efficient and reward is built into structure of the task 

social cognition in autism

experience difficulties in core functions needed for social abilities, disrupted in autistic individuals, these functions include theory of mind empathy, imitation and language development

theory of mind

being able to infer other ppl’s states of mind

mirror neuron system (MNS)

network of neurons that are active when an individual performs an action and when they observe another individual performing the same action, this is the basis of the ability to empathize with ppl, it plays a functional role in many aspects of social cognition, it was first discovered in premotor cortex of monkeys, shown to exist in analogous regions of the human brain (premotor cortex area and parietal lobule), this system does not simply code the observed action but intention associated with the action

unit 67 (MNS)

responds to action of grasping to eat and not so much to grasp for placing, on the right this is reversed, looks like there is a network of neurons that are encoding specific intentions as well as actions, grasping to eat or to place would activate different populations of neurons,it does not simply code the observed action but intention associated with the action

MNS in primates

located in the inferior frontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule which is anatomically connected to the frontoparietal system for sensorimotor integration

broken mirror hypothesis

idea that dysfunction in the MNS is responsible for core social and cognitive difficulties in individuals with ASD

MNS in ASD (ADOS study)

had ASD children undergo fMRI while they observed or imitated facial expressions, they found they had reduced activity in the frontal MNS area located in the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, they found ADOS scores were negatively correlated to activation in the pars opercularis,

MNS in ASD (EEG study)

EEG showed mu suppression was associated with MNS activity, there was reduced mu suppression in response to the observed action in children with ASD

mu suppression

this brainwave pattern depends on the level of familiarity someone has with the person you are observing, in ASD this is observed when observing actions of a familiar individual, not a stranger, familiarity is important here because it improves MNS activity, better social imitative abilities and helps with predictability which is very important in ASD

feature search

target letter shares color but not shape with a set of distractors, have to find target letter

conjunction search

target shares color with one set and shape with another set of distractors

attentional differences in ASD

neurotypical kids were slower at conjunctive search compared to ASD, ASD had an advantage over controls

enhanced perceptual functioning model

the idea that autistic individuals prioritize low level sensory processing relative to higher level operations, changes in how you perceive info is the focus for explaining higher level interactional changes, enhanced perceptual functioning, can lead to enhancements in perceptual abilities, deficits in global integrative sensory processing and changes in low level perceptual processing

perceptual abilities

pitch memory and visual discrimination

global integrative sensory processing deficits in ASD

biological motion recognition is impaired while atypical integration of pieces of info to form coherent whole of that scene is intact, neurotypical individuals have a global bias but in ASD global integration is missing so greater focus on the local elements of a scene, arises from atypical integration of little pieces of info to a coherent whole picture

changes in low level perceptual processing in ASD

speakers face and tone, they wont focus on their whole face but rather focus on particular regions of the face rather than regions that are important for social processing, heightened sensitivity, accuracy and detailed focused processing

sensory processing differences (study)

used a visual working memory task involved in seeing a display that consists of boxes of different displays, participants had to indicate color of a given target location that they saw, recall color of a randomly colored location, the color wheel allows measurement capacity, recall precision and perceptual binding errors, they wanted to see degrees of errors with respect to target color

sensory processing differences study (results)

autistic ppl had fewer errors than typically developing ppl, showed increased recall and precision compared to controls, they showed higher binding errors than the TD group, pMem and pNT enhanced and impaired sensory processing in ASD because of attentional deficits, ASD had more bnding errors in proportion of remembered colors over toatal errorsso they performed better

pMem

probability of recalling the target color, strongest predictor for symptom severity

pNT

probability of retrieving the non target color, binding error

precision

the resolution with which the color is represented in memory when it is retrieved, recall error derivative

ASD strengths in sensory processing

exceptional visual search abilities, rapid detection of fine detail, superior auditory pitch perception and strong abilities in pattern based tasks, makes them more open to dif perspectives so makes them have better success in creative fields

ASD challenges in sensory processing

sensory sensitivity/overload, difficulty filtering irrelevant info, challenges with global integration, increased cognitive load cause they operate based on fewer assumptions that we operate with normally, interactions become taxing and tiring, 

self esteem in ASD

adolescents with ASD have low self esteem leading to higher rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse, this is a predictor of mental health, self esteem relates strongly to depression in both groups and negatively relates to theory of mind in ASD, ASD have lower self esteem when controlling for verbal IQ and theory of mind abilities

why do autistic ppl have lower self esteem?

because their theory of mind is higher it might make them realize their own deficits more which lowers their self esteem, this causes increased introspection and rumination on those critical evals of yourself, noticing differences in communication but they cant respond to it