BackgroundThe Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) is widely used to quantify autistic traits, which have been evaluated in the parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and in the general population. This paper’s objective was to investigate the AQ's psychometric properties of the Chinese version for mainland China and to establish whether the pattern of sex differences in the quantity of autistic traits exists. We also examined the usefulness of the AQ in differentiating between individuals with ASD, schizophrenia (SCH), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and healthy controls (HC).MethodsIn this study, the psychometric properties of the AQ were assessed in 1037 parents of children with ASD and in 1040 parents of typically developing children (TDC). Additionally, 32 participants with ASD, 37 patients with SCH, 38 OCD patients and 38 healthy controls (matched for age, gender and IQ) were assessed with the AQ.ResultsThe internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the AQ and AQ subscales were within an acceptable range. Parents of ASD children scored higher than TDC parents on total AQ and AQ subscales, and TDC parents scored more than parents of ASD children on 2 items of 50. Fathers scored higher than did mothers on total AQ and four subscales, with the sole exception being the subscale attention to detail. The total AQ score of the ASD group was higher than that of the SCH, OCD and HC groups, and the total AQ score of the HC group was significantly lower than that of the SCH and OCD groups, with no differences being observed between the SCH and OCD groups.ConclusionsThe Mandarin AQ demonstrated promising psychometric properties and was a reliable instrument for quantifying autistic traits in both clinical and non-clinical samples in mainland China.

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BackgroundEvidence in the literature suggests that there is an impairment of social cognition in schizophrenia. Theory of Mind (ToM) is defined as one’s ability to understand others’ wishes, beliefs, intentions, and other psychological states and thereby to judge others’ behavior, as an essential component of social cognition. However, there have been limited studies on social cognition, especially ToM in adolescent onset schizophrenia (AOS). The current study aims to investigate ToM abilities in adolescent schizophrenia according to various ToM subcomponents (cognitive ToM and affective ToM) and various ToM orders (first order and second order).MethodsThis study examines ToM in 35 adolescent schizophrenic patients and 35 healthy adolescents using the “Yoni task” and “Faux Pas Recognition test” to assess their affective and cognitive ToM abilities.ResultsIn the Yoni task, patients with AOS showed differences in ToM abilities either on a different order or under different conditions. The Faux Pas Recognition task results revealed that AOS patients were not always able to recognize a faux pas or understand complicated emotions under the faux pas scenario. Furthermore, as indicated by the correlation analysis, neither cognitive ToM nor affective ToM was related to the patients’ symptoms, disease duration, dose of medication, or intelligence quotient (IQ).ConclusionOur findings showed AOS impairment in the performance of ToM tasks. It seemed that impairment in second-order-ToM is more serious. Moreover, these deficits are largely independent of symptom clusters, disease duration, dose of medication, and IQ. It can be speculated that ToM dysfunction may be a hallmark of adolescent schizophrenia.

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Biological motion (BM) perception is the compelling ability of the visual system to perceive complex animated movements effortlessly and promptly. A recent study has shown that BM can automatically lengthen perceived temporal duration independent of global configuration. The present study aimed mainly to investigate this temporal dilation effect of BM signals in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. We used the temporal dilation effect as an implicit measure of visual processing of BM. In all, 32 PD patients (under off-therapy conditions) and 32 healthy controls (HCs) participated in our study. In each trial, an upright BM sequence and an inverted BM sequence were presented within an interval in the center of the screen. We tested both canonical and scrambled BM sequences; the scrambled ones were generated by disturbing the global configuration of the canonical ones but preserving exactly the same local motion components. Observers were required to make a verbal two-alternative forced choice response to indicate which interval (the first or the second) appeared longer. Statistical analyses were conducted on the points of subjective equality (PSEs). We found that the temporal dilation effect was significantly reduced for PD patients compared with HCs in both canonical and scrambled BM conditions. Moreover, no temporal dilation effects of scrambled BM were shown in both early- and late-stage PD patients, while the temporal dilation effect of canonical BM was relatively preserved in the early stages.

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