Social Communication

From Pheno Wiki
Revision as of 12:18, 15 July 2009 by Deanna (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search


Papers List | Variables List

Social Communication

Basic Characteristics

  • Description

Social Communication is extremely impaired in people with ASD. People with ASD may display poor eye contact, difficulty understanding and using appropriate social gestures, difficulty in interpreting facial expressions, or inappropriate facial expressions. Additionally, many have poorly developed empathy and a lack of reciprocity. Often, those with ASD withdraw socially, which is largely thought to be caused by deficits in the superior temporal sulcus voice selective regions.2 However, many people with ASD express that they would like to have friends, but do not know how to make friends and retain them. Additionally, nonverbal and verbal communication is usually impaired at least slightly in those with ASD. There is large variability in language abilities in those with ASD. Some may have some language capabilities, and some may never have the ability to communicate verbally. Others may have completely normal vocabularies. Those with verbal skills could still have trouble initiating and sustaining conversations outside of their own interests. Additionally, children with autism usually have trouble understanding and integrating abstract ideas.1

Many scientists believe that genes interact with environmental triggers to create the phenotype observed in individuals. Certain genes are particularly susceptible to environmental triggers. Some scientists suggest that language development can be influenced by the presence of environmental triggers such as how many opportunities the child is given to interact with adults and learn language models.2

Potential Environmental factors can include the parents socioeconomic status, as those with higher socioeconomic status tend to talk more to their children, use a more varied vocabulary, and read bookds to their children more readily, allowing for a richness in communication experiences.5

Neural Correlates

Impairment in pragmatic language, the ability to use and comprehend language in context, is seen universally across individuals with ASD regardless of level of functioning. Individuals with ASD employ an overly literal interpretation of utterances, causing problems in understanding humor, irony, metaphors, and comprehending indirect requests. Given that the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) is particularly associated with integration of knowledge about the world and contextual information, a study investigated LIFG activation in high functioning adults that met criteria for ASD versus controls. The study targeted pragmatic language comprehension that is relevant for social interactions in daily life, specifically, the integration of speaker characteristics: age, gender, and social background. The fMRI study measured this activation for pragmatic language comprehension using speaker-congruent and speaker-incongruent sentences. The study found bilateral activation in the inferior frontal gyrus in both groups, but significant increased activation of the RIFG in the ASD group for speaker-incongruent sentences than for speaker-congruent sentences. Increased activation in the LIFG for speaker-incongruent sentences supports the idea of the LIFG being involved in the unification of conflicting incoming information.The increased neural activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus seen in adults with ASD is suggested to be compensatory in nature. The increased activity of the RIFG in the ASD group, points to greater effort in forming and revising the situation model.6

vMPFC and its possible role in Autism: In one study, the right ventral MPFC showed decreased activation, but not a true deactivation, to speaker-incongruent sentences relative to speaker-congruent sentences in controls, but not adults with ASD. Furthermore, manipulating the congruency of the speaker characteristics altered activity in the right ventral MPFC, including anterior cingulated cortex.6 The vMPFC, including the ACC may be implicated in fundamental aspects of social cognitive functioning, such as mentalizing and theory of mind, person perception, and self-reference. The ventral part of the MPFC, including the ACC seems to be particularly associated in both self-referential judgments and inferences about perceived similarity of others to oneself.

Reward Systems in ASD

One fMRI study found decreased neural activation in the striatal reward systems in those with autism associated with abnormal social reward processing. The lack of reward from social stimuli is consistent with the hypothesis of impaired social reward processing in individuals with ASD, and potentially explains the impairments in social communication observed in those with ASD due to lack of social motivation. 7


Tests to Assess Social Communication

Concerns

Intervention

Studies provide support that group-based interventions that specifically work to improve social deficiencies in children with ASD and focus on process-oriented variables combined with skill-based instruction can be effective by reducing social anxiety, increasing flexibility, and increasing the number of positive peer interactions.3

Additionally, Peer Play interventions where children with ASD are playing with typically developing children are effective. Peer Play interventions where there are peer models and reinforcement of target social behaviors have been successful in increasing engagement and sustaining interaction during play.5


References

1. Bertoglio, Kiah and Robert L. Hendren. New Developments in Autism. PMID 19248913

2. Grandgeorge, Marine et. al. Environmental Factors Influence Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. PLoS ONE. 2009;4(4):e4683. Epub 2009 Apr 9 PMID 19357766

3. Cotugno, A.J. Social Competence and Social Skills Training and Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord. 2009 Apr 14. PMID 19365716

4. Prendeville, J.A. et. al. Peer Play Interventions to Support the Social Competence of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Semin Speech Lang. 2006 Feb;27(1):32-46 PMID 16440243

5. Grandgeorge, M. et. al. Environmental Factors Influence Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. PLoS ONE. 2009;4(4):e4683. Epub 2009 Apr 9. PMID 19357766

6. Tesink, CM et. al. Neural correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in autism spectrum disorders.Brain. 2009 May 7 PMID 19423680

7. Piggot, J. Neural systems approaches to the neurogenetics of autism spectrum disorders.Neuroscience. 2009 May 29 PMID 19482063

Related Information

  • Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this construct (vote or nominate by editing this page):
  • Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):

External Resources

  • Database links

Other Details