We examined the relationship between metaphor comprehension and verbal analogical reasoning in young adults who were either typically developing (TD) or diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The ASD sample was highly educated and high in verbal ability, and closely matched to a subset of TD participants on age, gender, educational background, and verbal ability. Additional TD participants with a broader range of abilities were also tested. Each participant solved sets of verbal analogies and metaphors in verification formats, allowing measurement of both accuracy and reaction times. Measures of individual differences in vocabulary, verbal working memory, and autistic traits were also obtained. Accuracy for both the verbal analogy and the metaphor task was very similar across the ASD and matched TD groups. However, reaction times on both tasks were longer for the ASD group. Additionally, stronger correlations between verbal analogical reasoning and working memory capacity in the ASD group indicated that processing verbal analogies was more effortful for them. In the case of both groups, accuracy on the metaphor and analogy tasks was correlated. A mediation analysis revealed that after controlling for working memory capacity, the inter‐task correlation could be accounted for by the mediating variable of vocabulary knowledge, suggesting that the primary common mechanisms linking the two tasks involve language skills.
- Award ID(s):
- 1827374
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10231821
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Developmental review
- Volume:
- 57
- ISSN:
- 1090-2406
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The common display of atypical behavioral responses to sounds by individuals with autism (ASD) suggests that they process sounds differently. Within ASD, individuals who are minimally or low verbal (ASD‐MLV) are suspected to have greater auditory processing impairments. However, it is unknown whether atypical auditory behaviors are related to receptive language and/or neural processing of sounds in ASD‐MLV. In Experiment 1, we compared the percentage of time 47 ASD‐MLV and 36 verbally fluent (ASD‐V) participants, aged 5–21, displayed atypical auditory or visual sensory behaviors during the administration of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). In Experiment 2, we tested whether atypical auditory behaviors were more frequent in ASD‐MLV participants with receptive language deficits. In Experiment 3, we tested whether atypical auditory behaviors correlated with neural indices of sensitivity to perceptual sound differences as measured by the amplitude of neural responses to nonspeech intensity deviants. We found that ASD‐MLV participants engaged in atypical auditory behaviors more often than ASD‐V participants; in contrast, the incidence of atypical visual behaviors did not differ between the groups. Lower receptive language skills in the ASD‐MLV group were predicted by greater incidence of atypical auditory behaviors. Exploratory analyses revealed a significant negative correlation between the amount of atypical auditory behaviors and the amplitude of neural response to deviants. Future work is needed to elucidate whether the relationship between atypical auditory behaviors and receptive language impairments in ASD‐MLV individuals results from disruptions in the brain mechanisms involved in auditory processing.
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Autism Res 2020, 13: 1718–1729. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC -
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently viewed as a disorder of cortical systems connectivity, with a heavy emphasis being on the structural integrity of white matter tracts. However, the majority of the literature to date has focused on children with ASD. Understanding the integrity of white matter tracts in adults may help reveal the nature of ASD pathology in adulthood and the potential contributors to cognitive impairment. This study examined white matter water diffusion using diffusion tensor imaging in relation to neuropsychological measures of cognition in a sample of 45 adults with ASD compared to 20 age, gender, and full‐scale‐IQ‐matched healthy volunteers. Tract‐based spatial statistics were used to assess differences in diffusion along white matter tracts between groups using permutation testing. The following neuropsychological measures of cognition were assessed: processing speed, attention vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition. Results indicated that fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly reduced in adults with ASD in the anterior thalamic radiation (
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