Social-cognition and the broad autism phenotype: identifying genetically meaningful phenotypes.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Strong evidence from twin and family studies suggests that the genetic liability to autism may be expressed through personality and language characteristics qualitatively similar, but more subtly expressed than those defining the full syndrome. This study examined behavioral features of this 'broad autism phenotype' (BAP) in relation to performance on a measure of social-cognition in an attempt to tease out this complex clinical picture and identify markers of underlying neuropsychological systems of genetic significance to autism. We hypothesized that mild social-cognitive impairment would be associated with clinically defined social characteristics of the BAP (aloof personality style, lower quality social relationships, and impaired pragmatic language use).

METHOD:
Forty-eight parents of individuals with autism (13 of whom were identified as 'aloof'), and 22 control parents, were administered the 'Eyes Test', a social-cognitive measure that taps the ability to read complex psychological states from viewing only the eye region of faces.

RESULTS:
Whereas social-cognitive ability was unimpaired among parents of autistic children in general, the subgroup of parents defined as 'aloof' displayed significant social-cognitive deficits on the 'Eyes Test'. Impaired social-cognitive ability was associated with low quality of friendships and problems with pragmatic language use, associations which mirror those documented in autism.

CONCLUSIONS:
Findings suggest that social-cognitive impairments co-segregate with conceptually related personality, social, and language features that constitute the BAP, and point towards performance on the Eyes Test as a genetically meaningful endophenotype.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Losh, Molly (M); Piven, Joseph (J);

Affiliation: Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3367, USA. losh(-atsign-)med.unc.edu

Grants: U54 MH66418 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines (J Child Psychol Psychiatry), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jan; vol 48 (issue 1) : pp 105-12

Dates: Created 2007/01/24; Completed 2007/03/29; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 17244276, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Autistic Disorder - epidemiology; genetics
Child
Child of Impaired Parents
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; epidemiology
Female
Friends
Humans
Language

Language
Male
Middle Aged
Parents - psychology
Phenotype
Questionnaires
Social Behavior
Social Perception

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.