Understanding Behavioural Rigidity in Autism Spectrum Conditions: The Role of Intentional Control

Patterns of Food Selectivity among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by food selectivity in a significant portion of the population. The nature of this selectivity remains unclear, with hypotheses suggesting associations with sensory disorders or stereotypical and repetitive patterns of activity and interests. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and nature of food selectivity traits in individuals with ASD compared with the neurotypical population. This study involved 219 participants, with 115 diagnosed with autism and 92 without. Twelve children undergoing diagnosis were excluded from the analyses. The findings revealed that food selectivity traits are more common in individuals with ASD, with differences in preferences mainly involving structure, color, taste, and serving method. Children with ASD had more food selectivity traits than those without, and the intake of certain food characteristics could be altered as they grow. Selectivity occurred for both sensory and stereotypical reasons, but stereotypical features significantly differentiated neurotypical individuals from those with ASD.

Seeking contexts that promote neurodiverse social success: Patterns of behavior during minimally-structured interaction settings in autistic and non-autistic youth

While peer interaction differences are considered a central feature of autism, little is known regarding the nature of these interactions via directly-observed measurement of naturalistic (i.e., minimally-structured) groups of autistic and non-autistic adolescent peers. 148 autistic and non-autistic adolescents (111 male, Mage = 14.22, SDage = 1.90; MIQ = 103.22, SDIQ = 15.80) participated in a 50-minute, minimally-structured, naturalistic peer interaction paradigm with activities of varying social demands: an incidental social demand (eating in a room with peers), a physical social demand (playing a physically-interactive game), and a verbal social demand (playing a verbal game). While autistic youth exhibited fewer overall interaction behaviors than non-autistic youth, the two groups did not differ in amount of positive, negative, and low-level interaction behaviors. Within activities, autistic and non-autistic youth only differed in positive interaction behaviors during the context of a verbal social demand. Youth who displayed more positive interaction behaviors during this same activity had less autism spectrum disorder symptomatology, controlling for nested group effects and relevant covariates. These results point toward subtle differences in social demands across naturalistic settings that can either support or impede prosocial interaction for autistic youth, providing a guidepost for identifying settings that best promote social success for neurodiverse populations.

Cognitive control in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: a study with event-related potentials

Introduction

Little is known about cognitive control in adults with high-functioning forms of autism spectrum disorder because previous research focused on children and adolescents. Cognitive control is crucial to monitor and readjust behavior after errors to select contextually appropriate reactions. The congruency effect and conflict adaptation are measures of cognitive control. Post-error slowing, error-related negativity and error positivity provide insight into behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of error processing. In children and adolescent with autism spectrum disorder deficits in cognitive control and error processing have been shown by changes in post-error slowing, error-related negativity and error positivity in the flanker task.

Methods

We performed a modified Eriksen flanker task in 17 adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and 17 healthy controls. As behavioral measures of cognitive control and error processing, we included reaction times and error rates to calculate congruency effects, conflict adaptation, and post-error slowing. Event-related potentials namely error-related negativity and error positivity were measured to assess error-related brain activity.

Results

Both groups of participants showed the expected congruency effects demonstrated by faster and more accurate responses in congruent compared to incongruent trials. Healthy controls exhibited conflict adaptation as they obtained performance benefits after incongruent trials whereas patients with autism spectrum disorder did not. The expected slowing in reaction times after errors was observed in both groups of participants. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated enhanced electrophysiological error-processing compared to healthy controls indicated by increased error-related negativity and error positivity difference amplitudes.

Discussion

Our findings show that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder do not show the expected upregulation of cognitive control in response to conflicts. This finding implies that previous experiences may have a reduced influence on current behavior in these patients which possibly contributes to less flexible behavior. Nevertheless, we observed intact behavioral reactions after errors indicating that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder can flexibly adjust behavior in response to changed environmental demands when necessary. The enhancement of electrophysiological error-processing indicates that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder demonstrate an extraordinary reactivity toward errors reflecting increased performance monitoring in this subpopulation of autism spectrum disorder patients.

Deletion of the Autism-Associated Protein SHANK3 Abolishes Structural Synaptic Plasticity after Brain Trauma

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by repetitive behaviors and impairments of sociability and communication. About 1% of ASD cases are caused by mutations of SHANK3, a major scaffolding protein of the postsynaptic density. We studied the role of SHANK3 in plastic changes of excitatory synapses within the central nervous system by employing mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in WT and Shank3 knockout mice. In WT mice, mTBI triggered ipsi- and contralateral loss of hippocampal dendritic spines and excitatory synapses with a partial recovery over time. In contrast, no significant synaptic alterations were detected in Shank3∆11−/− mice, which showed fewer dendritic spines and excitatory synapses at baseline. In line, mTBI induced the upregulation of synaptic plasticity-related proteins Arc and p-cofilin only in WT mice. Interestingly, microglia proliferation was observed in WT mice after mTBI but not in Shank3∆11−/− mice. Finally, we detected TBI-induced increased fear memory at the behavioral level, whereas in Shank3∆11−/− animals, the already-enhanced fear memory levels increased only slightly after mTBI. Our data show the lack of structural synaptic plasticity in Shank3 knockout mice that might explain at least in part the rigidity of behaviors, problems in adjusting to new situations and cognitive deficits seen in ASDs.

The subjective evaluation of task switch cues is related to voluntary task switching

Task switching refers to the effortful mental process of shifting attention between different tasks. While it is well-established that task switching usually comes with an objective performance cost, recent studies have shown that people also subjectively evaluate task switching as negative. An open question is whether this affective evaluation of task switching is also related to actual decision making. In this pre-registered study, we therefore examined whether individual differences in the negative evaluation of task switch cues are related to less voluntary task switching. To this end, participants first performed a cued task switching paradigm where abstract cues signaled task transitions (repetition or alternation). In a second phase, these transition cues were used as prime stimuli in an affective priming procedure to assess participants' affective evaluation of task switching. In a third phase, participants were allowed to freely choose whether to switch or repeat tasks. We found that a more negative evaluation of task switching cues was related to lower switch rates in the voluntary task switching phase. This finding supports neuroeconomic theories of value-based decision making which suggest that people use their subjective value of control to decide whether to engage in (different) tasks.

Effects of the Early Phase of COVID-19 on the Autistic Community in Sweden: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study Linking to ICF

While the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, early outcome studies indicate severe and pervasive global effects of the pandemic and associated measures to prevent the spread of the virus. General population studies, as well as insight into the outcomes for particular groups, will be necessary in order to mitigate potentially long-term effects as well as to prepare for future epidemics or pandemics. The pandemic conditions have been marked by rapid and abrupt changes and unpredictability which are circumstances that leave the autistic population particularly vulnerable to adverse outcomes following the distinctive features of the diagnosis. Studies are only beginning to delineate the outcomes of the global autism community and the present study adds to these findings by providing a local, multi-perspective, qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of the Swedish autism community. In this study, autistic youth and adults, caregivers of autistic individuals, as well as representatives of Swedish interest organizations were interviewed. Thematic analysis was performed on the population as a whole and patterns of results were formalized according to the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF-CY). Participants report wide-ranging adverse outcomes of the pandemic relating to mental health and access to support, participation in daily activities and socialization, education, and work as well as parental resources. However, participants also report positive outcomes relating to a reduction in specific social and everyday demands, and normalization of lived experiences. Additionally, interviews outlined some strategies used to cope during pandemic conditions. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Dopamine, Cognitive Flexibility, and IQ: Epistatic Catechol-O-MethylTransferase:DRD2 Gene-Gene Interactions Modulate Mental Rigidity

Cognitive flexibility has been hypothesized to be neurochemically rooted in dopamine neurotransmission. Nonetheless, underpowered sample sizes and contradictory meta-analytic findings have obscured the role of dopamine genes in cognitive flexibility and neglected potential gene-gene interactions. In this largest neurocognitive-genetic study to date (n = 1400), single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with elevated prefrontal dopamine levels (catechol-O-methyltransferase; rs4680) and diminished striatal dopamine (C957T; rs6277) were both implicated in Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance. Crucially, however, these genetic effects were only evident in low-IQ participants, suggesting high intelligence compensates for, and eliminates, the effect of dispositional dopamine functioning on flexibility. This interaction between cognitive systems may explain and resolve previous empirical inconsistencies in highly educated participant samples. Moreover, compensatory gene-gene interactions were discovered between catechol-O-methyltransferase and DRD2, such that genotypes conferring either elevated prefrontal dopamine or diminished striatal dopamine-via heightened striatally concentrated D2 dopamine receptor availability-are sufficient for cognitive flexibility, but neither is necessary. The study has therefore revealed a form of epistatic redundancy or substitutability among dopamine systems in shaping adaptable thought and action, thus defining boundary conditions for dopaminergic effects on flexible behavior. These results inform theories of clinical disorders and psychopharmacological interventions and uncover complex fronto-striatal synergies in human flexible cognition.

Neural correlates of schema-dependent episodic memory and association with behavioral flexibility in autism spectrum disorders and typical development

BACKGROUND

Conceptual knowledge frameworks termed schemas facilitate memory formation and are posited to support flexible behavior. In adults, the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) trade-off in supporting schema-based memory formation, such that encoding of subsequently remembered schema-congruent information relies on mPFC, whereas schema-incongruent information relies on MTL. Whether this is true in the immature brain and relates to behavioral flexibility is unknown. In this preliminary investigation, we aimed to replicate the adult findings in typically developing (TD) children and to investigate the relevance to behavioral flexibility by examining a disorder with pathognomonic behavioral rigidity, autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

METHODS

Children completed an associative subsequent memory paradigm, encoding object-scene pairs in an MRI scanner and subsequently completing a recognition test outside the scanner after a delay. Recognition performance was back sorted to construct remembered vs forgotten contrasts. One-way ANOVAS were conducted in MTL and mPFC masks for schema-congruency, followed by congruency by flexibility scores. Exploratory analyses were then conducted within the whole brain.

RESULTS

As reported in adults, episodic memory was strongest for schema-congruent object-scene pairs, followed by intermediate pairs, and lowest for schema-incongruent pairs in both TD and ASD groups. However, the trade-off between mPFC and MTL in TD children differed from adult reports such that mPFC supported memory for intermediate schema-congruency and left anterior MTL supported memory for schema-congruent pairs. In ASD, mPFC engagement interacted with flexibility such that activation supporting memory for intermediate schema-congruency varied with parent-reported flexibility and was higher in those with more flexible behavior. A similar interaction was also observed in both the left dorsolateral and rostrolateral PFC in whole-brain analysis.

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide the first preliminary evidence for the association of schema-based episodic memory formation and behavioral flexibility, an executive function impaired in multiple developmental disorders. Upon replication, this line of research holds promise for memory-based interventions addressing executive problems of behavioral rigidity.

A review of executive functioning challenges and strengths in autistic adults

Objective: There has been a steady rise in research characterizing executive functioning (EF) impairments in autistic individuals but limited research investigating EF strengths. This review provides a summary of current EF research in autistic adults with a focus on EF challenges and strengths and potential sources of heterogeneity in research findings. New avenues for addressing gaps in our understanding of EF strengths are proposed.Method: A review of the EF literature was conducted. One hundred twenty-four studies of inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, fluency, planning, decision-making, and subjective measures of EF in autistic adults were included.Results: Autistic adults with average intellectual functioning demonstrate difficulties with cognitive flexibility, phonemic fluency, and working memory. Strengths in planning, decision-making, and semantic verbal fluency were evident in some but not all studies. Findings regarding inhibition are inconclusive. Key findings across each EF domain are discussed and sources of potential heterogeneity across studies were evaluated. The type of measure used appears to contribute to heterogeneous findings. Subjective EF measures revealed more consistent findings of deficits in autistic adults than objective EF measures.Conclusions: Research reveals areas of EF weaknesses as well as strengths in autistic adults. Unlike EF challenges, EF strengths are not well understood. Future research identifying EF strengths is needed to improve services and supports for autistic adults. Further investigation of potential factors that interact with or constrain EF such as comorbid disorders, verbal ability, sensory processing, and other factors specific to autism will be critical to move the field forward and increase understanding of how EF is related to everyday functioning in autistic adults.

Using the NIH Toolbox to Assess Cognition in Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Despite the clinically significant impact of executive dysfunction on the outcomes of adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), we lack a clear understanding of its prevalence, profile, and development. To address this gap, we administered the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery to a cross-sectional Intelligence Quotient (IQ) case-matched cohort with ASD (n = 66) and typical development (TD; n = 66) ages 12-22. We used a general linear model framework to examine group differences in task performance and their associations with age. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify subgroups of individuals with similar cognitive profiles. Compared to IQ case-matched controls, ASD demonstrated poorer performance on inhibitory control (P < 0.001), cognitive flexibility (P < 0.001), episodic memory (P < 0.02), and processing speed (P < 0.001) (components of Fluid Cognition), but not on vocabulary or word reading (components of Crystallized Cognition). There was a significant positive association between age and Crystallized and Fluid Cognition in both groups. For Fluid (but not Crystallized) Cognition, ASD performed more poorly than TD at all ages. A four-group LPA model based on subtest scores best fit the data. Eighty percent of ASD belonged to two groups that exhibited relatively stronger Crystallized versus Fluid Cognition. Attention deficits were not associated with Toolbox subtest scores, but were lowest in the group with the lowest proportion of autistic participants. Adaptive functioning was poorer in the groups with the greatest proportion of autistic participants. Autistic persons are especially impaired on Fluid Cognition, and this more flexible form of thinking remains poorer in the ASD group through adolescence. LAY SUMMARY: A set of brief tests of cognitive functioning called the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery was administered to adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD; n = 66) and typical development (TD; n = 66) ages 12-22 years. Compared to TD, ASD showed poorer performance in inhibiting responses, acting flexibly, memorizing events, and processing information quickly (Fluid Cognition). Groups did not differ on vocabulary or word reading (Crystallized Cognition). Crystallized and Fluid Cognition increased with age in both groups, but the ASD group showed lower Fluid, but not Crystallized, Cognition than TD at all ages. A categorization analysis including all participants showed that most participants with ASD fell into one of two categories: a group characterized by poor performance across all tasks, or a group characterized by relatively stronger Crystallized compared to Fluid Cognition. Adaptive functioning was poorer for participants in these groups, which consisted of mostly individuals with ASD, while ADHD symptoms were lowest in the group with the greatest proportion of TD participants.

The Potential of a Relational Training Intervention to Improve Older Adults' Cognition

Behavioral gerontology rarely focuses on improving older adults' cognitive function. This gap in the literature should be addressed, as our aging population means that greater numbers of older adults are experiencing cognitive decline and reduced functional independence. If cognitive training interventions are to be socially significant, they should target improvements in core executive functions (EFs) that are critical for everyday cognition and functioning independence. Evidence from the cognitive sciences suggests that a cognitive training intervention targeting "relational knowledge" and "cognitive flexibility," which are core EFs, could translate to improvements in cognition and functioning for older adults. Behavioral researchers, interested in the effects of relational training on cognition, have shown a relationship between complex and flexible arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARRing) and improved performance on measures of intelligence in children and young adults. However, data examining the impact of AARRing on the cognition of older adults are lacking. This article suggests that complex and flexible AARRing may be synonymous with the aforementioned EFs of relational knowledge and cognitive flexibility, and that a behaviorally oriented relational training intervention might improve cognition and functioning for healthy older adults or those experiencing cognitive decline. The article initially presents a brief overview of research in behavioral gerontology and older adult cognition, followed by a detailed explanation of how training complexity and flexibility in AARRing could result in improvements in core EFs. Specific suggestions for designing a relational training intervention and assessing relevant outcomes are provided.

Rigidity coincides with reduced cognitive control to affective cues in children with autism

The present study tested whether salient affective cues would negatively influence cognitive control in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One hundred children aged 6-12 years who were either typically developing or had ASD performed a novel go/no-go task to cues of their interest versus cues of noninterest. Linear mixed-effects (LME) models for hit rate, false alarms, and the sensitivity index d' were used to test for group differences. Caregivers completed the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised to test associations between repetitive behaviors and task performance. Children with ASD had reduced cognitive control toward their interests compared with typically developing children. Further, children with ASD showed reduced cognitive control to interests compared with noninterests, a pattern not observed in typically developing children. Decreased cognitive control toward interests was associated with higher insistence on sameness behavior in ASD, but there was no association between sameness behavior and cognitive control for noninterests. Together, children with ASD demonstrated decreased cognitive flexibility in the context of increased affective salience related to interests. These results provide a mechanism for how salient affective cues, such as interests, interfere with daily functioning and social communication in ASD. Further, the findings have broader clinical implications for understanding how affective cues can drive interactions between restricted patterns of behavior and cognitive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Impact of Different Movement Types on Motor Planning and Execution in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Although there are consistent reports that motor skills are affected in individuals with autism, the details are still debated; specifically, why individuals spend more time preparing movements and whether or not movement execution takes longer. The present study investigated if the conflicting reports were related to: (a) differences in movement type and (b) if longer reaction times were related to the time for motor planning or for force-generation processes. Participants performed three different movement types. People with autism had longer premotor reaction times and movement times for the three-dimensional movements only. We suggest individuals with autism have difficulty planning and executing unconstrained reaching movements specifically. The present results are consistent with evidence that autistic individuals have more difficulty effectively using visual feedback but can use tactile feedback to execute reaching movements efficiently and accurately.

A Neurorobotics Simulation of Autistic Behavior Induced by Unusual Sensory Precision

Recently, applying computational models developed in cognitive science to psychiatric disorders has been recognized as an essential approach for understanding cognitive mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms. Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is hypothesized to affect information processes in the brain involving the estimation of sensory precision (uncertainty), but the mechanism by which observed symptoms are generated from such abnormalities has not been thoroughly investigated. Using a humanoid robot controlled by a neural network using a precision-weighted prediction error minimization mechanism, it is suggested that both increased and decreased sensory precision could induce the behavioral rigidity characterized by resistance to change that is characteristic of autistic behavior. Specifically, decreased sensory precision caused any error signals to be disregarded, leading to invariability of the robot's intention, while increased sensory precision caused an excessive response to error signals, leading to fluctuations and subsequent fixation of intention. The results may provide a system-level explanation of mechanisms underlying different types of behavioral rigidity in autism spectrum and other psychiatric disorders. In addition, our findings suggest that symptoms caused by decreased and increased sensory precision could be distinguishable by examining the internal experience of patients and neural activity coding prediction error signals in the biological brain.

Parent and professional perspectives on behavioral inflexibility in autism spectrum disorders: A qualitative study

Restricted and repetitive behaviors are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder; however, research on the functional impact of these behaviors on the quality of life for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their families remains scarce. We conducted focus groups with parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and clinicians in order to better characterize the functional impact of behavioral inflexibility, which represents one potential dimensional construct that could account for the breadth of behaviors comprising the restricted and repetitive behavior domain. Transcripts of the focus groups were analyzed using qualitative analysis coding methods to determine parent and clinician beliefs on a range of issues related to behavioral inflexibility including overall impact, types of child behaviors, and strategies for managing behavioral inflexibility. Thematic analysis revealed that parents and clinicians view behavioral inflexibility as an important behavior that impacts multiple areas of functioning, relates to other restricted and repetitive behaviors as well as social communication behaviors, and warrants targeted treatment. Notably, many parents and clinicians emphasized some positive consequences of behavioral inflexibility as well. These findings add crucial insights into the functional impact of behavioral inflexibility and restricted and repetitive behaviors as a whole and suggest that behavioral inflexibility represents an important avenue for future research.

An altered scaffold for information processing: Cognitive control development in adolescents with autism

We investigated how cognitive neuroscientific studies during the last decade have advanced understanding of cognitive control from adolescence to young adulthood in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To do so, we conducted a selective review of the larger structural, resting state, and diffusion imaging studies of brain regions and networks related to cognitive control that have been conducted since 2007 in individuals with ASD and typical development (TYP) ages 10 to 30 years that examined how these regions and networks support behavioral and task-based fMRI performance on tasks assessing cognitive control during this period. Longitudinal structural studies reveal overgrowth of the anterior cingulate (ACC) and slower white matter development in the parietal cortex in adolescents with ASD versus TYP. Cross-sectional studies of the salience, executive control and default mode resting state functional connectivity networks, which mediate cognitive control, demonstrate patterns of connectivity that differ from TYP through adolescence. Finally, white matter tracts underlying these control-related brain regions continue to show reduced diffusion properties compared to TYP. It is thus not surprising that cognitive control tasks performance improves less during adolescence in ASD versus TYP. This review illustrates that a cognitive neuroscientific approach produces insights about the mechanisms of persistent cognitive control deficits in individuals with ASD from adolescence into young adulthood not apparent with neuropsychological methods alone, and draws attention to the great need for longitudinal studies of this period in those with ASD. Further investigation of ACC and fronto-parietal neural circuits may help specify pathophysiology and treatment options.