A review of neuropsychological and neuroimaging research in autistic spectrum disorders: Attention, inhibition and cognitive flexibility

Abstract

Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are devastating neurodevelopmental disorders of unknown aetiology with characteristic deficits in social interaction, communication and behaviour. Individuals with ASD show deficits in executive function (EF), which are hypothesised to underlie core repetitive, stereotyped behaviours of autism. Neuroimaging research has identified structural brain abnormalities in ASD, which coincide with brain regions involved in EF. Therefore, we reviewed the literature on four specific executive functions in ASD-sustained attention, orienting attention, response inhibition and set shifting. Medline and Embase searches were carried out using specific search terms. This task was followed by the identification of further relevant publications from papers referenced in initial search results. Discussion with experts in neuropsychology, neuroimaging and autism research yielded further publications that were reviewed. Based on these data there is evidence to suggest that deficits in orienting attention, response inhibition and set shifting exist in ASD, but sustained attention ability appears to be normal. A striking lack of research attempting to link neural correlates with these deficits in orienting attention, response inhibition and set shifting was noted. Future research should focus on understanding links between the neuropsychological deficits and structural and functional brain abnormalities. #

Visuospatial working memory in children with autism: The effect of a semantic global organization

“…It is worth noting that our task was quite long (included 160 trials and lasted about 30-40 min). Thus, we indirectly confirmed that children with ASD do not have problems in sustained attention tasks (Sanders, Johnson, Garavan, Gill, & Gallagher, 2008). Importantly, the performances of the two groups were similar at every level of complexity.…”

Relationship Between Sustained, Selective and Shifting Attention and Behavioral Symptoms in Children With High-Functioning Autism

“…The statements measure awareness of shifting in communication, tendency toward adaption to the situation and self-efficacy in being flexible (27). Concurrent validity and convergent validity of this test have been approved by Sanders et al (12). Due to the fact that this test is not dependent on culture, it also can be used in the Persian cultural context.…”

“…The continuous performance test is used to investigate the pattern of cortical activation in individuals with autism across a variety of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions. In addition, it serves as an objective measure of treatment outcome (12). The continuous performance test is comprised of 22 subscales and intends to produce errors of commission (requires responding) and errors of omission (requires not responding) through a series of trial sets.…”

“…Involvement of the cerebral frontal regions in children with autism could be responsible for the notion that says "children with autism have an impaired sustained attention" (12).…”

Particularités cognitives dans le trouble du spectre de l'autisme : la théorie de l'esprit et les fonctions exécutives

“…Les tâches relatives à l'inhibition et au contrôle de l'action produisent des résultats moins tranchés. Sanders et al [31] procèdent à une revue de la littérature qui met également en évidence les fonctions exécutives déficitaires comme la flexibilité. Il convient en core de relever que ces déficiences ne sont pas spécifiques à l'autisme [31].…”