Autism Spectrum Disorder Categories and Social Responsiveness among Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder usually have problems with social responsiveness which in turns effects their social communication and results in confined repetitive pattern of behaviour and interests. However the existing literature is limited in demonstrating the importance of social responsiveness and its impact on gender and ASD categories. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of ASD categories on social responsiveness in adults with ASD and investigate social responsiveness among male and female adults with ASD. Methodology: The study utilized data from 60 adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder with categories mainly, mild, moderate and high functioning. Adults of both genders (male and female) participated in this study with Social Responsiveness (SR) as a variable over 7 months from October 2021 to February 2022, using the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2 Adult Relative/Other online form). Results and Conclusion: One-way ANOVA test showed significant difference (p<0.001, df=2) between ASD categories. Tukey's Post Hoc Analysis revealed significant (p<0.001) difference between ASD categories from each other. Gender had no significant impact on ASD, and the severity of ASD varies between groups. Thus, this study fills a large knowledge gap on the influence of gender, categories and social responsiveness on adults with ASD.

Relationship between Autistic Spectrum Trait and Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Healthy Male Subjects

OBJECTIVE: Autistic spectrum traits are postulated to lie on a continuum that extends between individuals with autism and individuals with typical development. The present study was carried out to investigate functional and network abnormalities associated with autistic spectrum trait in healthy male subjects. METHODS: Subjects were 41 healthy male subjects who underwent the social responsiveness scale-adult (SRS-A) and magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: There was significant positive correlation between the total score of SRS-A and the regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Also, there were changes in functional network such as in cingulate corti, insula and fusiform cortex. Further, we also found the significant difference of functional networks between the healthy male subjects with high or low autistic spectrum trait, and these points were congruent with the previous perceptions derived from autistic-spectrum disorders. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a biological basis for the autistic spectrum trait and may be useful for the imaging marker of autism symptomatology.

Performance of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scale and Social Responsiveness Scale in Identifying Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Cases of Intellectual Disability / 神经科学通报·英文版

The Autism Spectrum Rating Scale (ASRS) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) have been widely used for screening autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the general population during epidemiological studies, but studies of individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are quite limited. Therefore, we recruited the parents/caregivers of 204 ASD cases, 71 ID cases aged 6-18 years from special education schools, and 402 typically developing (TD) children in the same age span from a community-based population to complete the ASRS and SRS. The results showed that the ID group scored significantly lower on total and subscale scores than the ASD group on both scales (P < 0.05) but higher than TD children (P < 0.05). Receiver operating characteristic analyses demonstrated a similar fair performance in discriminating ASD from ID with the ASRS (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.709, sensitivity = 77.0%, specificity = 52.1%, positive predictive value (PPV) = 82.2%) and the SRS (AUC = 0.742, sensitivity = 59.8%, specificity = 77.5%, PPV = 88.4%). The results showed that individuals with ID had clear autistic traits and discriminating ASD from ID cases was quite challenging, while assessment tools such as ASRS and SRS, help to some degree.

Investigating the autistic traits in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the autistic symptoms or autistic trait in the children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) for facilitating the development of appropriate interventions.Methods Sixty-two 6-12-year-old high-functioned autism spectrum disorder (ASD),ADHD and typically developing (TD) children were assessed respectively using Chinese-version social responsiveness scale (SRS),and ADHD core symptoms were assessed in the ADHD children at the same time.Results ASD group＞ADHD group＞ TD group on the SRS total raw score and the five dimensions scores as well(P＜0.01).ASD,ADHD and TD group scored respectively 92.43±19.17,65.66±19.86 and 38.40±10.68 on the SRS total scale.The SRS total raw score of ADHD group exceeded the TD group for 2.55 standard deviant (SD) and with social communication (2.00 SD) and autistic mannerism (2.71 SD) deviating the most.22.58％ (14 out of 62) children with ADHD scored above the threshold on the SRS total raw score which was significantly higher than that in the TD group(P＜0.01).There were nonsignificant differences in the ADHD core symptoms between ADHD± children (with the SRS total raw score ≥85)and ADHD-children(with the SRS total raw score＜85) (P＞0.01).Conclusion Children with ADHD appear more ASD symptoms than the TD children and a considerable proportion of them reach the SRS diagnostic cut-off point.