Cognitive Deficits in Parents from Multiple‐incidence Autism Families

Piven, Joseph; Palmer, Pat

doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01618.x

Cited by 124 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…In several studies, rates of 10-45% of social impairment, aloofness, shyness and pragmatic language impairment were present in fathers and mothers of children with autism or AS. [106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114] This finding did not differ in parents of children with autism with and without a history of language regression. 115 Regarding obsessive-compulsive behaviours in parents of multiplex autism families, a strong correlation of the severity of restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests and activities in the child and rates of obsessive-compulsive traits or disorders were found in parents.…”

Section: Family Studiesmentioning

confidence: 84%

The genetics of autistic disorders and its clinical relevance: a review of the literature

2006

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Twin and family studies in autistic disorders (AD) have elucidated a high heritability of the narrow and broad phenotype of AD. In this review on the genetics of AD, we will initially delineate the phenotype of AD and discuss aspects of differential diagnosis, which are particularly relevant with regard to the genetics of autism. Cytogenetic and molecular genetic studies will be presented in detail, and the possibly involved aetiopathological pathways will be described. Implications of the different genetic findings for genetic counselling will be mentioned.

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Section: Family Studiesmentioning

confidence: 84%

The genetics of autistic disorders and its clinical relevance: a review of the literature

2006

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“…Using the same tasks Hughes, Plumet, and Leboyer (1999) identified difficulties in executive function in the nonautistic siblings of children with autism, while Ozonoff, Rogers, Farnham, and Pennington (1993) reported a similar finding in performance on a four-ring Tower of Hanoi task, and a trend towards such a significant difference on the WCST. The parents of two children with autism have been shown to be impaired in comparison to parents of children with Down Syndrome on the Tower of Hanoi task (Piven & Palmer, 1997). Thus, evidence of a broader autism phenotype is provided in the executive domain.…”

Section: Executive Function In Autism Across the Lifespanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the theory of executive dysfunction in autism

Hill

2004

Developmental Review

665

551

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In this paper studies of executive function in autism spectrum disorder are reviewed. Executive function is an umbrella term for functions such as planning, working memory, impulse control, inhibition, and shifting set, as well as for the initiation and monitoring of action. In this review, the focus will be on planning, inhibition, shifting set, generativity, and action monitoring. While it is known that these functions depend upon the frontal lobes, and particularly on prefrontal cortex, very little is known about neuroanatomical correlates of executive function in autism. The review acknowledges the complexity of investigating executive functions in autism, the possible influence of IQ on executive performance in these groups and the possibility of overlap between performance on tests of executive function in other neurodevelopmental disorders that are likely to involve congenital deficits in the frontal lobes, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourette's syndrome. Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Executive function; Frontal lobesEvaluating the theory of executive dysfunction in autism Goldsmiths Research Online 2 Autism is a developmental disorder characterised by impaired social interaction and communication as well as repetitive behaviours and restricted interests. It is a life-long disorder, with recent population studies suggesting that autism affects at least 0.6% of the population, and is three times more common in males than females. Learning disability (meaning an IQ under 70) is strongly associated with autism and is present in 25-40% cases of the disorder (Baird et al., 2000;Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2001). In the absence of specific known biological markers, autism is defined using behavioural criteria. The clinical picture of autism varies in severity, and it is now generally agreed that there is a spectrum of autistic disorder. This spectrum includes individuals who are perhaps typified by the 'Rainman' character, through to those who could be considered a rather more 'high-functioning' subgroup, diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. In this review, I will use the term _autism_ to refer to individuals across the whole spectrum, and will distinguish the level of ability of participants in the studies reviewed as necessary.In recent years cognitive theories have been proposed and investigated in an attempt to understand the link between the brain and behaviour in autism. One well-known theory of autism is the theory of mind deficit hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that a fault in just one of the many components of the social brain can lead to an inability to understand certain basic aspects of communication (see chapters in Baron-Cohen, Tager-Flusberg, & Cohen, 2000). Although able to account for many of the behaviours typically associated with autism, it is difficult to see how the nonsocial features of autism could be accounted for by the theory of mind deficit hypothesis. The non-social features of autism are rather varied; they include a restricted repertoire of rep...

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“…In addition, parents share difficulties in pragmatic language tasks [87], impairments in some tasks that tap executive function [114], and autistic personality characteristics such as rigidity, aloofness, and anxiety [179,178]. Many first-degree relatives show a disparity between performance IQ and verbal IQ, with the performance score being lower [89,177,87] due to impairment on Picture Arrangement and Picture Completion, both of which demand attention to global, contextual information. These subtle characteristics of the broader autism phenotype are visible in the cognitive skills that relatives tend to develop: occupations in engineering, which demands meticulous attention to detail, are over-represented in the fathers and grandfathers of people with autism [23] and, conversely, the incidence of autism is increased in the families of engineers, mathematicians, and physicists [19].…”

Section: Phenotypes Within and Beyond The Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%