Psychology For Medicine - Autism

Front 1

What 3 things did Leo Kanner (1943) find about infant autism?

Back 1

autistic aloneness
insistence on sameness
islets of ability

Front 2

What did Hans Asperger (1944) deduce on Autistic psychopathy?

Back 2

difficulties in social integration
originality of thought & exceptional achievements

Front 3

According to Rainman (1989) who does autism effect?

Back 3

not only children but also adults
increased awareness of autism as a life-long disorder, not just a disorder of childhood

Front 4

Is autism increasing?

Back 4

Increasing prevalence but incidence may be the same
As wider criteria (autistic spectrum is now used) and awareness of disease has increased.

Front 5

How is the diagnosis of autism made?

Back 5

lack of normal social interaction
lack of normal verbal and nonverbal communication
restricted repertoire of interests/pattern of behaviour/actions
independent of level of intelligence
signs before age 3

Front 6

What are the 4 types of autistic diagnosis?

Back 6

Autism
Asperger Syndrome (no delay in language / general ability)
Atypical Autism (late onset / atypical or mild symptoms)
PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder)-NOS (including pragmatic language impairment / semantic-pragmatic disorder?)

Front 7

What are the problems of diagnosis?

Back 7

Diagnosis is behavioural: different causes of same behaviour; different manifestations of the same cause; treatment of symptoms not cause

Heterogeneity leads to autistic spectrum: severity of symptoms, pattern of symptoms at different stages of development

Front 8

What are the 4 types of autistic diagnosis?

Back 8

Autism
Asperger Syndrome (no delay in language / general ability)
Atypical Autism (late onset / atypical or mild symptoms)
PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder)-NOS (including pragmatic language impairment / semantic-pragmatic disorder?)

Front 9

What are the problems of diagnosis?

Back 9

Diagnosis is behavioural: different causes of same behaviour; different manifestations of the same cause; treatment of symptoms not cause

Heterogeneity leads to autistic spectrum: severity of symptoms, pattern of symptoms at different stages of development

Front 10

What are the biological causes of autism?

Back 10

Autism is a biologically based condition:
with a strong genetic component ( concordance in identical twins is around 90%; several genes implicated, especially loci on chromosome 2 and 7; likely to be multifactorial)
Site of damage in brain.

Front 11

How does the head brian size and weight effect autism?

Back 11

one of most consistent biological findings
mentioned by Kanner
20% macrocephaly (top 3% of population)
• present from 1 year, most noticeable at
2-4 years of age
• in normal development, massive generation of synapses, then pruning (eliminates faulty connections & encourages strong connections to grow, optimising neural processing)
• less pruning -> excess synapses?

Front 12

What is cognition?

Back 12

intermediary level of explanation between biology and behaviour:
describes functions of brain/mind; allows a range of behaviours to be linked to unitary cause
useful in autism: theory of mind / mentalising theory; central coherence theory; executive function theory

Front 13

What is the theory of mind?

Back 13

Allows us to predict behaviour on the basis of mental states (wishes, beliefs, feelings)

“Mind reading” not a theory, but an everyday unconscious activity (implicit)

Makes us better at understanding what other people are doing

Enables us to monitor the intentions of others (why they are doing s/t)

Front 14

What is mind blindness?

Back 14

an inability to represent another’s
mental states as distinct from your own

not putting yourself into someone else’ shoes

not recognising what another person thinks or feels

not properly communicating

not recognising sarcasm, jokes

not building and keeping long-term friendships

Front 15

How do autistic children compare to "normal children" with the sally-anne test?

Back 15

A 5 year delay

Front 16

What is mind blindness?

Back 16

are slow at learning social conventions

don’t understand deception or make/keep secrets

don’t communicate important missing information

don’t understand non-literal language

Hence, no implicit Theory of Mind

Front 17

What are the non-scocial problems of autism?

Back 17

Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests and activities

Executive Function:
• umbrella term for a range of higher-order control processes
• needed in order to act flexibly in novel or complex situations

Front 18

How can frontal lobe patients shed light on autism?

Back 18

similarities in behaviour between patients with acquired frontal lobe damage and individuals with autism, particularly repetitive and socially inappropriate behaviour

poor executive control is associated with poor frontal lobe function and explains a range of these problem behaviours

Front 19

How can you test Executive Function?

Back 19

Planning – Tower of Hanoi / Tower of London: move discs in as few moves as possible to reach end state; more complex puzzles and additional rules to follow as task goes on. Seems to be a problem in autism at all ages and ability levels; less efficient strategy use in complex puzzles

Flexibility/set-shifting–Wisconsin: sort cards by shape, colour or number, not told which rule is current, experimenter gives corrective feedback, experimenter will sometimes shift to a new rule. Seems to be a problem in autism at all ages and ability levels, tend to perseverate, using old rule, unless prompted

Inhibition – Stroop: first, read words as quickly as possible blue green red blue red red blue green blue red blue. Doesn’t seem to be a problem for people with ASD