Heterogeneity of subclinical autistic traits among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: Identifying the broader autism phenotype with a data‐driven method

Baykara

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology

2017

To cite this article: Murat Eyuboglu, Burak Baykara & Damla Eyuboglu (2018) Broad autism phenotype: theory of mind and empathy skills in unaffected siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder, Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 28:1, 36-42, ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: Difficulties in social communication is core syptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and it is often present in first-degree relatives in varying degrees. However, these subclinical autistic traits, which are thought to be related to genetic susceptibility factors, may be heterogeneous in family members. This prospective, the aim of this study was to compare unaffected siblings of children with ASD in terms of theory of mind, empathy skills, and broad autism phenotype (BAP). METHODS: Fourty-one children who were diagnosed Autistic Disorder, Asperger Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-not otherwise specified according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition and their unaffected siblings and 43 controls of typically developing children were included. The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children -Present and Lifetime Version was conducted all children with the aim of excluding a psychiatric diagnosis. False-belief tasks and Emotion Recognition Scales were used to evaluate theory of mind and empathy skills. The Social Communication Questionnaire was administered by the clinician in order to evaluate subthreshold autistic symptoms. RESULTS: Unaffected siblings of ASD children exhibited worse performance in theory of mind and emotion recognition tasks. Additionally, these children had more autistic symptoms and there was a correlation with autism symptoms and social cognition tasks. DISCUSSION: In compatible with BAP, the results indicated that the siblings of children with ASD showed a neurocognitive profile associated with ASD at a slight level, and they had more subsyndromal autism symptoms compared with healthy children. The findings also indicated that there was a weakness in skills of empathy and theory of mind ability of siblings of ASD. ARTICLE HISTORY

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broad autism phenotype: theory of mind and empathy skills in unaffected siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder

Baykara

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology

2017

“…Parental BAP is a set of sub-clinical characteristics of ASD that includes anxiety, cognitive rigidity, poor social skills, and problems with pragmatic language Sucksmith et al 2011). BAP – like ASD, anxiety, and depression – is highly heritable and prone to co-occur with other mental health problems (Bora et al 2016; Lyall et al 2014; Sasson et al 2013). Together, the results of Wiggins et al (2017), Rubenstein et al (2018), and those described here imply shared etiologic risk among several conditions that blurs diagnostic boundaries and highlights the importance of diagnostic qualifiers that capture an array of social, emotional, and psychiatric disturbances.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Phenotype of Childhood Autism Is Associated with Preexisting Maternal Anxiety and Depression

Wiggins

Rubenstein

Daniels

et al. 2018

J Abnorm Child Psychol

This study explored whether ASD phenotypes in the child were associated with a history of anxiety or depression in the mother. We hypothesized that an ASD profile in children characterized by mild delays and increased rates of dysregulation would be associated with preexisting maternal anxiety or depression. Participants were 672 preschool children with ASD and their mothers. Children were classified as ASD after a comprehensive developmental evaluation. Mothers reported whether a healthcare provider ever diagnosed them with anxiety or depression before the birth of their child. Four child ASD phenotypes were derived from latent class analysis: Mild Language Delay with Cognitive Rigidity (Type 1), Significant Developmental Delay with Repetitive Motor Behaviors (Type 2), General Developmental Delay (Type 3), and Mild Language and Motor Delay with Dysregulation (i.e., aggression, anxiety, depression, emotional reactivity, inattention, somatic complaints, and sleep problems) (Type 4). Type 2 ASD served as the referent category in statistical analyses. Results showed that 22.6% of mothers reported a diagnosis of anxiety or depression before the birth of their child. Maternal anxiety or depression was associated with 2.7 times the odds (95% confidence interval: 1.4, 5.3) of Type 4 or Dysregulated ASD in the child; maternal anxiety and depression was associated with 4.4 times the odds (95% confidence interval: 1.4, 14.0) of Type 4 or Dysregulated ASD in the child. Our findings suggest an association between Dysregulated ASD in the child and anxiety and depression in the mother. These findings can enhance screening methods and inform future research efforts.

Autism Research and Treatment

“…One possibility is that participants in the High AQ group used some strategies during the task. Recently, broader autism phenotype has been paid more attention [42]. It is necessary to examine the cognitive styles in the nonclinical populations having high autistic traits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autistic Traits Affect P300 Response to Unexpected Events, regardless of Mental State Inferences

Ishikawa

Itakura

Tanabe

2017

Limited use of contextual information has been suggested as a way of understanding cognition in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it has also been argued that individuals with ASD may have difficulties inferring others' mental states. Here, we examined how individuals with different levels of autistic traits respond to contextual deviations by measuring event-related potentials that reflect context usage. The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to quantify autistic-like traits in 28 university students, and 19 participants were defined as Low or High AQ groups. To additionally examine inferences about mental state, two belief conditions (with or without false belief) were included. Participants read short stories in which the final sentence included either an expected or an unexpected word and rated the word's degree of deviation from expectation. P300 waveform analysis revealed that unexpected words were associated with larger P300 waveforms for the Low AQ group, but smaller P300 responses in the High AQ group. Additionally, AQ social skill subscores were positively correlated with evaluation times in the Unexpected condition, whether a character's belief was false or not. This suggests that autistic traits can affect responses to unexpected events, possibly because of decreased availability of context information.