Cognition autism

Symptoms of Fragile X syndrome include cognitive impairment, autism, seizures, and hyperactivity. 

This chapter is concerned with the neurochemical basis of developmental disability which is considered here in two forms the globally delayed or halted development seen in mental retardation, and the more circumscribed pattern of disordered development of autism. A range of deficits of important key aspects of consciousness are apparent in both conditions. Of particular relevance to consciousness are the cognitive and behavioural impairments in attention, concentration, memory, information processing and social behaviour which are commonly present. Consideration of aberrant neurotransmitter activities in these developmental deficits may provide insights into the role of neurotransmitters in consciousness. 

There is as yet little evidence of specific association between abnormal serotonin activity and any of the key cognitive features of autism. More circumscribed study of particular cognitive functions of autism may yet yield new insights. Perhaps most promisingly, the findings of associations between serotonin functioning and obsessional behaviour indicate the need for further investigation. 

Campbell, M., and Plij, M. (1985) Behavioral and cognitive measures used in psychopharmacological studies of infantile autism. Psy-chopharmacol Bull 21 1047-1053. 

Impaired regulation of affective state and anxiety Impaired social behavior and sensitivity Impaired cognitive processing No diagnosis of autism... 

Other intelligence tests were considered for use in the RUPP Autism Network studies, but were not chosen for various reasons (Arnold et al., 2000). The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) General Cognitive Index is not strictly comparable to an IQ,... 

Schizophrenia is certainly not the only disorder with such impairments in cognition. Autism, poststroke dementia, Alzheimer s disease, and many other organic dementias (parkinsonian/Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal/Pick s dementia, etc.) are also associated with some cognitive dysfunctions similar to those seen in schizophrenia (Fig. 10—4). 

FIGURE 10—4. Cognitive symptoms are not just associated with schizophrenia, but also with several other disorders, including autism, Alzheimer s disease, and conditions following cerebrovascular accidents (poststroke). 

Cook EH, Leventhal BL (1996) The serotonin system in autism. Curr Opin Pediatr 8 348-354 Cools R (2008) Role of dopamine in the motivational and cognitive control of behavior. 

Lee M, Martin-Ruiz C, Graham A, Court J, Jaros E, Petty R, Iversen P, Baumtm M, Perry E 2002) Nicotinic receptor abnormalities in the cerebellar cortex in autism. Brain 125 1483-1495 Lerer E, Levi S, Salomon S, Darvasi A, Yitmiya N, Ebstein RP (2008) Association between the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and autism relationship to Vineland adaptive behavior scales and cognition. Mol Psychiatry 13 980-988... 

Baron-Cohen S 1998 Modularity in developmental cognitive neuropsychology evidence from autism and Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. In Burack JA, Hodapp RM, Zigler E (eds)... 

Suddendorf Many other acknowledged deficits that characterize autism, such as obsession with routine, stereotyped behaviour, preoccupation with parts of an object, echopraxia and echolalia, can hardly be explained as secondary deficits caused by a defect in a presumed social cognition module. Autistic children also have a deficit on creativity tasks. The clinical picture is far more complex than a malfunctioning discrete module for social cognition. 

Dopamine is a major catecholamine neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that has been implicated in the regulation of locomotor activity, emotion, cognition, and behavior reward and in neuroendocrine regulation [39]. Clinically, dopaminergic drugs (e.g., risperidone) that block or activate dopamine receptors are used to treat neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric, and neurode-velopmental conditions such as Parkinson s, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism [40],... 

Recent studies have reported that galantamine also improves the cognitive performance of patients with autism (Nicolson et al., 2006) and, unlike other cholinesterase inhibitors, decreases the negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia (Schubert et al., 2006). Eor more severe Alzheimer s disease, memantine, an antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, has also been approved. A number of newer drugs undergoing clinical trials for Alzheimer s disease work by a variety of other mechanisms, although a common theme appears to be neuroprotection (Robertson and Mucke, 2006). 

The existence of a sex bias in ASD, with a male to female sex ratio of 3 1 for autism (Lord and Schopler, 1987) and 8-9 1 for AS (Wing, 1981), as well as some characteristics of cognitive functioning and emotion perception in this condition have led some researchers to link autism to maleness . A very intriguing theory developed by Baron-Cohen et al. considers autism as an extreme form of male brain (Baron-Cohen and Hammer, 1997 Baron-Cohen, 2002, 2003). According to the Extreme Male Brain (EMB) Theory, in fact, autistic individuals show an extreme pattern of the typical male brain functions. 

Courchesne E, Redcay E, Morgan JT, Kennedy DP (2005) Autism at the beginning microstructural and growth abnormalities underlying the cognitive and behavioral phenotype of autism. Dev Psychopathol 17 577-597. 

Hollander E, Bartz J, Chaplin W, Phillips A, Sumner J, Soorya L, Anagnostou E, Wasserman S (2007) Oxytocin increases retention of social cognition in autism. Biol Psychiatry 61 498-503. 

Ring H, Baron-Cohen S, Williams S, Wheelwright S, BuUmore E, Brammer M, Andrew C (1999) Cerebral correlates of preserved cognitive skills in autism. A functional MRl study of Embedded Pigures task performance. Brain 122 1305-1315. 

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