Abstract:The aim of the present study was to examine whether children with Asperger's syndrome differ from typically developing children in the appreciation of and behavioral responses to simple slapstick type humor, in which cognitive requirements that are commonly impaired in autism spectrum disorders are reduced to a minimum. Short slapstick scenes and matched non-humorous control scenes were extracted from popular movies to produce an appropriate humor assessment material. Twenty-four boys with Asperger's syndrome (5 to 14 years) and 24 age-matched typically developed controls were tested. The results indicated that children with Asperger's syndrome enjoy humorous material as much as healthy children do, if the humor elements are simple and the incongruence can be perceived independently from theory of mind requirements, inferential demands, or language abilities. However, similar funniness ratings and behavioral expressions of mirth to the humorous scenes, but relatively higher values in response to the non-humorous scenes, suggested that the autistic children did not discriminate non-humorous from humorous stimuli as sensitively as the typically developing children did. Moreover, in autistic children, the outwards displays of emotion did not match their reports of subjective amusement. This dissociation may relate to the social interaction and communication difficulties in autism spectrum disorders.

Deficits in specific executive domains are highly prevalent in autism spectrum disorder; however, age-related improvements in executive functions (reflecting prefrontal maturational changes) have been reported even in individuals diagnosed with autism. The current study examined two components of cognitive flexibility (inhibition of prepotent responses and memory monitoring/updating) by using a random-motor-generation task (MPT) in a group of 23 boys with Asperger syndrome (AS) and 23 matched healthy controls. We found poorer inhibition and more repetitive responses in younger AS children solely, but comparable memory monitoring/updating skills across groups. Overall, our findings correspond well with previous studies and reveal that even in AS specific EFs may improve with age and, thus, call for a more differentiated view of executive (dys) function profiles in children diagnosed with AS. Tests such as the random-motor-generation task may help to disentangle more specific processes of executive deficits in autism spectrum disorder as compared to the more classical tests.

Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war die systematische Erfassung der Kreativitätsleistung bei 5- bis 14-jährigen Jungen mit Asperger Syndrom im Vergleich mit einer gesunden Kontrollgruppe (je n=24). Untersucht wurden sowohl quantitative Kreativitätsaspekte (Ideenflüssigkeit, Ideenflexibilität) als auch qualitative Kreativitätsaspekte (Originalität) bei zwei Altersgruppen (jüngere Kinder: 5 – 9 Jahre, ältere Kinder/Jugendliche: 10 – 14 Jahre). Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass bei Kindern/Jugendlichen mit Asperger Syndrom primär die quantitativen Aspekte der Kreativität beeinträchtigt sind (Ideenflüssigkeit und -flexibilität bei gleichbleibenden Items aus dem 5-Punkte Test), während die Kreativitätsleistung bei den abwechslungsreicheren Bildergänzungsaufgaben des Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, bei denen die Qualität/Originalität im Vordergrund steht, unbeeinträchtigt ist. In unserer Stichproben waren die Alterseffekte signifikant (jüngere Kinder zeigten schlechtere Leistungen), aber über die Gruppen vergleichbar (d. h. die Interaktionseffekte waren nicht signifikant). Im Sinne einer ressourcenorientierten Diagnostik, die für eine maßgeschneiderte Interventionsplanung unerlässlich ist, sollten also zusätzlich zu den quantitativen auch die qualitativen Aspekte kreativer und exekutiver Denkleistungen erfasst werden.