Brief Report: A Preliminary Study of the Relationship between Repetitive Behaviors and Concurrent Executive Function Demands in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cissne, Mackenzie N; Kester, Lindsay E; Gunn, Amanda J. Moffitt; Bodner, Kimberly E.; Miles, Judith H.; Christ, Shawn E.

doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05071-z

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…One study, with 22 autistic participants found that repetitive behaviour scores were unrelated to performance on a switch-only or inhibition-only condition of an anti-saccade task. Yet, repetitive behaviours were associated with performance on the combined switching and inhibition condition (Cissne et al, 2022). In a sample of 222 typically developing participants, using a coherent motion task, autistic traits were unrelated to both the starting point or boundary separation parameters on a drift-diffusion model (Retzler et al, 2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decision-making in autism: A narrative review

Plas

Mason

Happé

2023

Autism

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Autistic people often have an atypical profile of abilities: while excelling in some structured paradigms, many report difficulties with making real-life decisions. To test whether decision-making in autism is different from in typically developing controls, we reviewed 104 studies that compared decision-making performance between autistic and comparison participants ( N = 2712 autistic and N = 3189 comparison participants) between 1998 and 2022. Our searches revealed four main decision-making paradigms that are widely used in the field of decision neuroscience: perceptual discrimination, reward learning, metacognition and value-based decision-making paradigm. Our synthesis highlights that perceptual processing and reward learning were similar between autistic and comparison participants, whereas value-based decision-making and metacognitive accuracy were often different between groups. Furthermore, decision-making differences were most pronounced when the autistic participant was explicitly probed to report on an internal belief, while implicit markers of the same decision (e.g. error-related response times) were usually not different. Our findings provide evidence in favour of a metacognitive explanation of decision-making atypicalities in autism. Lay summary Many autistic people report difficulties with real-life decision-making. However, when doing decision-making tests in laboratory experiments, autistic people often perform as well or better than non-autistic people. We review previously published studies on autistic people’s decision-making, across different types of tests, to understand what type of decision-making is more challenging. To do this, we searched four databases of research papers. We found 104 studies that tested, in total, 2712 autistic and 3189 comparison participants on different decision-making tasks. We found that there were four categories of decision-making tests that were used in these experiments: perceptual (e.g. deciding which image has the most dots); reward learning (e.g. learning which deck of cards gives the best reward); metacognition (e.g. knowing how well you perform or what you want); and value-based (e.g. making a decision based on a choice between two outcomes that differ in value to you). Overall, these studies suggest that autistic and comparison participants tend to perform similarly well at perceptual and reward-learning decisions. However, autistic participants tended to decide differently from comparison participants on metacognition and value-based paradigms. This suggests that autistic people might differ from typically developing controls in how they evaluate their own performance and in how they make decisions based on weighing up the subjective value of two different options. We suggest these reflect more general differences in metacognition, thinking about thinking, in autism.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decision-making in autism: A narrative review

Plas

Mason

Happé

2023

Autism

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“…Instead, their cognitive instability was inferred based on the RRB score in the ADI-R system. Such an inference is based on previous findings on (i) close links between the ADHD symptoms and cognitive flexibility/instability (Das et al, 2014;Semrud-Clikeman et al, 2010) and (ii) significant inverse correlations between the cognitive instability and the RRB score in clinical tests (Cissne et al, 2022;Lopez et al, 2005;Watanabe et al, 2019a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3C). Given that a lower RRB score indicates more flexible cognition (Cissne et al, 2022;Lopez et al, 2005;Watanabe et al, 2019a) and such cognitive instability is related to ADHD symptoms (Das et al, 2014;Semrud-Clikeman et al, 2010), this result suggests that the ADHD-like trait in the ASD+ADHD children is linked with the atypically frequent A-C-F-B transition.…”

Section: Brain State Dynamics and Symptomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The severity of ADHD symptoms seen in the pure ADHD children was assessed based on the CPRS scores (CPRS ADHD Index, CPRS Inattention score and CPRS hyperactivity score) that were provided in the ADHD200 dataset. This inference is primarily grounded on previous literature showing that (i) the symptoms of highfunctioning ADHD individuals-in particular, their hyperactivity-are correlated with their cognitive flexibility/instability (Das et al, 2014;Semrud-Clikeman et al, 2010) and (ii) the cognitive instability measured by psychological experiments is inversely associated with the RRB score assessed in clinical tests for ASD symptoms (Cissne et al, 2022;Lopez et al, 2005;Watanabe et al, 2019a). We can find face validation for this assumption in other prior findings that (a) pure ADHD children had more flexible and unstable cognition compared to TD (Kuntsi and Klein, 2011) and pure ASD individuals (Corbett et al, 2009;Lawson et al, 2015;Ozonoff and Jensen, 1999;Sergeant et al, 2002) and (b) the RRB score was likely to be lower in pure ADHD individuals than in pure ASD children (Brierley et al, 2021;Mellahn et al, 2022).…”

Section: Symptom Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distinct Frontoparietal Brain Dynamics Underlying the Co-Occurrence of Autism and ADHD

Watanabe

2023

eNeuro

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Previous diagnostic systems precluded the co-existence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in one person; but, after many clinical reports, such diagnostic criteria were updated to allow their co-occurrence. Despite such a clinical change, the neurobiological bases underpinning the comorbidity remain poorly understood, and whether the ASD+ADHD condition is a simple overlap of the two disorders is unknown. Here, to answer this question, we compared the brain dynamics of high-functioning ASD+ADHD children with age-/sex-/IQ-matched pure ASD, pure ADHD, and typically developing children. Regarding autistic traits, the socio-communicational symptom of the ASD+ADHD children was explained by the same over-stable brain dynamics as seen in pure ASD. In contrast, their ADHD-like traits were grounded on a unique neural mechanism that was unseen in pure ADHD: the core symptoms of pure ADHD were associated with the overly flexible whole-brain dynamics that were triggered by the unstable activity of the dorsal-attention network and the left parietal cortex; by contrast, the ADHD-like cognitive instability of the ASD+ADHD condition was correlated with the atypically frequent neural transition along a specific brain state pathway, which was induced by the atypically unstable activity of the frontoparietal control network and the left prefrontal cortex. These observations need to be validated in future studies using more direct and comprehensive behavioural indices, but the current findings suggest that the ASD+ADHD comorbidity is not a mere overlap of the two disorders. Particularly, its ADHD-like traits could represent a unique condition that would need a specific diagnosis and bespoke treatments.Significance statementChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have cognitive rigidity and tend to persist in specific thoughts, whereas those with ADHD exhibit overly flexible cognition and have trouble with concentration. Despite such contrast, clinically, the two neurodevelopmental disorders are often reported to co-exist in one person. How can such a co-occurrence happen? By investigating the global and local brain dynamics, this study found that the comorbidity of ASD and ADHD is not a simple overlap of the two conditions. Instead, the cognitive instability seen in ASD+ADHD children was underpinned by unique brain dynamics that were not observed in pure ADHD. These findings indicate that the comorbid condition would need a bespoke diagnosis and treatment.

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“…Stereotypy behavior is another impairment that needs long-term rehabilitation for correction because irritability and stereotypy behaviors in ASD may be attributed to neurobiological mechanisms, including dysfunction of the serotonergic, dopaminergic, and GABA neurotransmitter systems [ 47 , 48 ]. More specially, the basal ganglia are prone to dysfunction of the neurotransmitter system, which has been documented to contribute to stereotypical behaviors in ASD [ 49 , 50 ]. However, the changes in neurotransmitter systems require longer periods of exercise intervention (≥36 weeks) based on an animal model study [ 51 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Therapeutic Horseback-Riding Program on Social and Communication Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Chen

Zhang

Zhao

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Animal-assisted therapy has become a fast-growing and effective approach for remediating core impairments of children with ASD; however, recent systematic review studies on the effects of AAT in children with ASD have some limitations, including referral to a variety of animal-assisted interventions rather than to horseback-riding therapy alone and the absence of any meta-analysis in systematic reviews. A complete systematic review of the studies that describe the use of THR as an intervention is needed to specifically target the core impairments of children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to employ the systematic review method to synthesize research findings regarding the effects of THR programs on the social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD. We conducted a structured search in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched for potentially relevant studies in five databases (Web of Science, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus) from inception until February 2022. In addition, we manually searched the bibliographies of the included studies to find articles that might otherwise have been missed. We considered articles eligible or ineligible if they satisfied specific inclusion or exclusion criteria. Our results showed that the THR program is an effective direct and alternative therapeutic program that can considerably improve the social behaviors and communication skills of children with ASD and can effectively impact autistic impairments in areas such as social awareness, social cognition, social motivation, and social communication. These findings are in line with those of previous studies; however, we did not find statistical evidence of any effect of THR on the autistic behaviors of irritability, stereotypy, and inappropriate speech. In conclusion, the findings produced by this meta-analysis study provide evidence that THR programs can considerably improve the social behaviors and communication skills of children with ASD.

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Brief Report: A Preliminary Study of the Relationship between Repetitive Behaviors and Concurrent Executive Function Demands in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 6 publications

References 30 publications

Decision-making in autism: A narrative review

Decision-making in autism: A narrative review

Distinct Frontoparietal Brain Dynamics Underlying the Co-Occurrence of Autism and ADHD

Effects of Therapeutic Horseback-Riding Program on Social and Communication Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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