Background: Autism is a developmental disorder marked by deficits in social interaction, communic... more Background: Autism is a developmental disorder marked by deficits in social interaction, communication, and behavior. One of the less studied deficits in autism is the dysfunction of the ambient visual system, which can affect attention, movement, and visuo-motor coordination. These deficits of the ambient vision may limit the ability to process information regarding gait, posture, movement, speech, and spatial attention. Objectives: The proposed study aims to understand the abnormal neural and functional mechanisms underlying visual distortion in autism by incorporating neurophysiologic studies, behavioral studies, and qEEG/ERP measurements of spatial attention. Methods: Individuals with ASD were recruited with the assistance of local autism treatment centers in Louisville. Pre-screening questionnaires were filled out by parents, while evaluation of visual abnormalities related to ambient vision deficits were conducted by Dr. Kaplan. Twenty subjects with autism screened and ambient...
ABSTRACT Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in co... more ABSTRACT Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication, social interaction, and behavior. An additional common yet overlooked deficit in autism is the dysfunction of the ambient visual system, which can have negative effects on visually dependent cognitive abilities such as proper shifting of attention, hand-eye coordination, and gross motor skills. Objectives: The current study evaluates the effects of corrective ambient prism lenses on these deficits in autism. In addition, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of abnormal autonomic reactivity mechanisms present in autism. Methods: The participants in this study were 21 children with autism, mean age of 12.5 years. The study was a 2x2 within subject design, with Prism / Placebo Prism conditions, and High / Low emotional arousal video stimuli taken from the classic Disney film Lion King. The order of stimuli type and Prism conditions were counterbalanced across all subjects. Physiological responses, which included Heart Rate (HR), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and Skin Conductance Level (SCL), were monitored and collected during the session and later analyzed block by block. Results: Analysis of Heart Rate showed significant difference between Prism and No Prism in the Low emotional arousal condition (p = 0.032), and across all conditions combined (p = 0.032). Furthermore, subjects had significantly higher SCL in Prism conditions versus No Prism conditions (F=11.5, p=0.003), and had a significantly higher number of Skin Conductance Responses (NS.SCR) in Prism conditions (p = .007). Analysis of High (HF) and Low frequency (LF) components of HRV (LF and HF of HRV) revealed no significant differences, though the power of LF of HRV tended to be higher in Prism condition (p = .062). Conclusions: The lowered HR and increased electrodermal responses during viewing of the stimuli suggest increased attention to audio-visual stimuli during wearing ambient prism lenses. Higher electrodermal reactivity (SCL, NS.SCR) in Prism condition during more emotionally loaded episodes is indicative of increased emotional arousal and attentiveness to affective content of the movie. Our preliminary study support utility of ambient prism lenses application to improve emotional reactivity in autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1998
A specially designed hand-support device was evaluated to determine its effectiveness in assistin... more A specially designed hand-support device was evaluated to determine its effectiveness in assisting nonspeaking mentally handicapped children transition from facilitated communication (FC) to independent typing. Six autistic individuals (age range: 5 to 31) participated in the main experiment. All six had been reported to be moderately to highly proficient in the use of FC prior to the study. Pre- and posttraining tasks included pointing to pictures, numbers, and letters as well as copying single words by typing on a keyboard or letterboard. After 8 weeks of training, subjects' ability to point or type on all four tasks was assessed in three different conditions: (a) with an experienced facilitator, (b) independently, and (c) with the mechanical hand-support system. Postassessment measures did not reveal any evidence of independent communication with or without the device. An informal extension of the study, in which four of the original six subjects and three additional subjects...
Background: Motor abnormalities in autism bear the characteristics of precedence and universality... more Background: Motor abnormalities in autism bear the characteristics of precedence and universality that characterize a core symptom. Underlying the motor skill deficits in autism and Asperger syndrome is a dyspraxia that by definition is an inability to plan, organize, and execute movements in the absence of any known physical and/or neurological condition. This deficit is more apparent in autism spectrum disorders when compared to other neurodevelopmental disabilities, i.e., ADHD. Objectives: The lateralized readiness potential (LRP) is an index of motor processes and it is assumed that this brain potential is generated by a source within the motor cortex. LRP reflects the response-specific involvement of the left and right cortices of the brain and enables the determination of the point in time at which the activation of the motor cortex controlling one hand surpasses the activation of the motor cortex controlling the other side. The LRP is assumed to be related to selective respon...
Despite the fact that seizures are commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the e... more Despite the fact that seizures are commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the effectiveness of treatments for seizures has not been well studied in individuals with ASD. This manuscript reviews both traditional and novel treatments for seizures associated with ASD. Studies were selected by systematically searching major electronic databases and by a panel of experts that treat ASD individuals. Only a few anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have undergone carefully controlled trials in ASD, but these trials examined outcomes other than seizures. Several lines of evidence point to valproate, lamotrigine, and levetiracetam as the most effective and tolerable AEDs for individuals with ASD. Limited evidence supports the use of traditional non-AED treatments, such as the ketogenic and modified Atkins diet, multiple subpial transections, immunomodulation, and neurofeedback treatments. Although specific treatments may be more appropriate for specific genetic and metabolic syndrome...
Asperger disorder is a complex behavioral disorder that may be related to autism. We examined a 4... more Asperger disorder is a complex behavioral disorder that may be related to autism. We examined a 49-year-old man with Asperger disorder who had multiple neuro-ophthalmologic abnormalities, including colobomatous defects involving the optic discs and peripapillary retina, and abnormal ocular motility with an oculocephalic dyskinesia. Asperger disorder may be associated with a variety of neuro-ophthalmologic disturbances.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1982
Category learning theories can be separated into those that expect judgments to be sensitive to c... more Category learning theories can be separated into those that expect judgments to be sensitive to configural information and those that expect judgments to be based on a weighted, additive summation of information. Predictions of these two classes of models were investigated in a simulated medical diagnosis task. Subjects learned about a fictitious disease or about two diseases from hypothetical case studies in which some symptoms were correlated with each other and others were independent. Following this initial training, subjects were presented either with pairs of new cases and asked to judge which was more likely to have the disease or with a single case and asked which disease was present. Across four experiments, subjects proved to be sensitive to configural information. When choosing between pairs of new cases, subjects tended to choose the case that preserved the correlation over the case that broke the correlation, even when the case with correlated symptoms contained fewer typical symptoms. When judging which disease was present in a single case, subjects' diagnoses were determined primarily by the correlated symptoms. Implications of these findings to process models of categorization are discussed.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1995
... improved. Of these, only Stehli's daughter, Georgie, was said to have recovered from... more ... improved. Of these, only Stehli's daughter, Georgie, was said to have recovered from autism. ArT, as developed and practiced by Berard, entails 10 hours of listen-ing to electronically modulated music through headphones. ...
Background: Autism is a developmental disorder marked by deficits in social interaction, communic... more Background: Autism is a developmental disorder marked by deficits in social interaction, communication, and behavior. One of the less studied deficits in autism is the dysfunction of the ambient visual system, which can affect attention, movement, and visuo-motor coordination. These deficits of the ambient vision may limit the ability to process information regarding gait, posture, movement, speech, and spatial attention. Objectives: The proposed study aims to understand the abnormal neural and functional mechanisms underlying visual distortion in autism by incorporating neurophysiologic studies, behavioral studies, and qEEG/ERP measurements of spatial attention. Methods: Individuals with ASD were recruited with the assistance of local autism treatment centers in Louisville. Pre-screening questionnaires were filled out by parents, while evaluation of visual abnormalities related to ambient vision deficits were conducted by Dr. Kaplan. Twenty subjects with autism screened and ambient...
ABSTRACT Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in co... more ABSTRACT Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication, social interaction, and behavior. An additional common yet overlooked deficit in autism is the dysfunction of the ambient visual system, which can have negative effects on visually dependent cognitive abilities such as proper shifting of attention, hand-eye coordination, and gross motor skills. Objectives: The current study evaluates the effects of corrective ambient prism lenses on these deficits in autism. In addition, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of abnormal autonomic reactivity mechanisms present in autism. Methods: The participants in this study were 21 children with autism, mean age of 12.5 years. The study was a 2x2 within subject design, with Prism / Placebo Prism conditions, and High / Low emotional arousal video stimuli taken from the classic Disney film Lion King. The order of stimuli type and Prism conditions were counterbalanced across all subjects. Physiological responses, which included Heart Rate (HR), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and Skin Conductance Level (SCL), were monitored and collected during the session and later analyzed block by block. Results: Analysis of Heart Rate showed significant difference between Prism and No Prism in the Low emotional arousal condition (p = 0.032), and across all conditions combined (p = 0.032). Furthermore, subjects had significantly higher SCL in Prism conditions versus No Prism conditions (F=11.5, p=0.003), and had a significantly higher number of Skin Conductance Responses (NS.SCR) in Prism conditions (p = .007). Analysis of High (HF) and Low frequency (LF) components of HRV (LF and HF of HRV) revealed no significant differences, though the power of LF of HRV tended to be higher in Prism condition (p = .062). Conclusions: The lowered HR and increased electrodermal responses during viewing of the stimuli suggest increased attention to audio-visual stimuli during wearing ambient prism lenses. Higher electrodermal reactivity (SCL, NS.SCR) in Prism condition during more emotionally loaded episodes is indicative of increased emotional arousal and attentiveness to affective content of the movie. Our preliminary study support utility of ambient prism lenses application to improve emotional reactivity in autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1998
A specially designed hand-support device was evaluated to determine its effectiveness in assistin... more A specially designed hand-support device was evaluated to determine its effectiveness in assisting nonspeaking mentally handicapped children transition from facilitated communication (FC) to independent typing. Six autistic individuals (age range: 5 to 31) participated in the main experiment. All six had been reported to be moderately to highly proficient in the use of FC prior to the study. Pre- and posttraining tasks included pointing to pictures, numbers, and letters as well as copying single words by typing on a keyboard or letterboard. After 8 weeks of training, subjects' ability to point or type on all four tasks was assessed in three different conditions: (a) with an experienced facilitator, (b) independently, and (c) with the mechanical hand-support system. Postassessment measures did not reveal any evidence of independent communication with or without the device. An informal extension of the study, in which four of the original six subjects and three additional subjects...
Background: Motor abnormalities in autism bear the characteristics of precedence and universality... more Background: Motor abnormalities in autism bear the characteristics of precedence and universality that characterize a core symptom. Underlying the motor skill deficits in autism and Asperger syndrome is a dyspraxia that by definition is an inability to plan, organize, and execute movements in the absence of any known physical and/or neurological condition. This deficit is more apparent in autism spectrum disorders when compared to other neurodevelopmental disabilities, i.e., ADHD. Objectives: The lateralized readiness potential (LRP) is an index of motor processes and it is assumed that this brain potential is generated by a source within the motor cortex. LRP reflects the response-specific involvement of the left and right cortices of the brain and enables the determination of the point in time at which the activation of the motor cortex controlling one hand surpasses the activation of the motor cortex controlling the other side. The LRP is assumed to be related to selective respon...
Despite the fact that seizures are commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the e... more Despite the fact that seizures are commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the effectiveness of treatments for seizures has not been well studied in individuals with ASD. This manuscript reviews both traditional and novel treatments for seizures associated with ASD. Studies were selected by systematically searching major electronic databases and by a panel of experts that treat ASD individuals. Only a few anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have undergone carefully controlled trials in ASD, but these trials examined outcomes other than seizures. Several lines of evidence point to valproate, lamotrigine, and levetiracetam as the most effective and tolerable AEDs for individuals with ASD. Limited evidence supports the use of traditional non-AED treatments, such as the ketogenic and modified Atkins diet, multiple subpial transections, immunomodulation, and neurofeedback treatments. Although specific treatments may be more appropriate for specific genetic and metabolic syndrome...
Asperger disorder is a complex behavioral disorder that may be related to autism. We examined a 4... more Asperger disorder is a complex behavioral disorder that may be related to autism. We examined a 49-year-old man with Asperger disorder who had multiple neuro-ophthalmologic abnormalities, including colobomatous defects involving the optic discs and peripapillary retina, and abnormal ocular motility with an oculocephalic dyskinesia. Asperger disorder may be associated with a variety of neuro-ophthalmologic disturbances.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1982
Category learning theories can be separated into those that expect judgments to be sensitive to c... more Category learning theories can be separated into those that expect judgments to be sensitive to configural information and those that expect judgments to be based on a weighted, additive summation of information. Predictions of these two classes of models were investigated in a simulated medical diagnosis task. Subjects learned about a fictitious disease or about two diseases from hypothetical case studies in which some symptoms were correlated with each other and others were independent. Following this initial training, subjects were presented either with pairs of new cases and asked to judge which was more likely to have the disease or with a single case and asked which disease was present. Across four experiments, subjects proved to be sensitive to configural information. When choosing between pairs of new cases, subjects tended to choose the case that preserved the correlation over the case that broke the correlation, even when the case with correlated symptoms contained fewer typical symptoms. When judging which disease was present in a single case, subjects' diagnoses were determined primarily by the correlated symptoms. Implications of these findings to process models of categorization are discussed.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1995
... improved. Of these, only Stehli's daughter, Georgie, was said to have recovered from... more ... improved. Of these, only Stehli's daughter, Georgie, was said to have recovered from autism. ArT, as developed and practiced by Berard, entails 10 hours of listen-ing to electronically modulated music through headphones. ...
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