The Association Between Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test Performance and Intelligence Quotient in Children and Adolescents With Asperger Syndrome.

Background: There has been an extensive debate about a potential association between intelligence and social cognition. In this study, we aimed to assess the association between social cognition as measured with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) and intelligence as measured with the fourth edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) in children and adolescents diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among 84 children diagnosed with AS aged 6-16 years (mean = 11.64; standard deviation = 2.75; 92.9% males). We analyzed the association between RMET performance and WISC-IV total score as well as the association between RMET performance and each of the four WISC-IV indexes (processing speed index, PSI; working memory index, WMI; perceptual reasoning index, PRI, and verbal comprehension index, VCI). Results: We found a positive correlation between RMET performance and full-scale intelligence quotient (r = 0.340; p < 0.01), VCI (r = 0.310; p < 0.01), PRI (r = 0.401; p < 0.01), and WMI (r = 0.292; p < 0.01). In the linear regression model, age was a significant predictor of RMET score (ß = 0.409; p < 0.001) as was PRI (ß = 0.309; p = 0.019). Conclusion: Our results suggest that intelligence quotient positively influences RMET performance, indicating that intelligence increases social cognition in individuals diagnosed with AS. However, weak-to-moderate size effects were found. This study contributes to understanding the mechanisms underlying the disturbance of social cognition in children and adolescents diagnosed with AS.

Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Scale - Abbreviated Screen for Patients: Description and validation.

OBJECTIVE: There is no standard method for assessing symptoms of the prodrome to bipolar disorder (BD), which has limited progress toward early identification and intervention. We aimed to validate the Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Scale-Abbreviated Screen for Patients (BPSS-AS-P), a brief self-report derived from the validated, clinician-rated Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Interview and Scale-Full Prospective (BPSS-FP), as a means to screen and identify people for whom further evaluation is indicated. METHOD: Altogether, 134 participants (aged 12-18 years) were drawn from a study of the pre-syndromal stage of mood and psychotic disorders. All participants had chart diagnoses of a mood- or psychosis-spectrum disorder. Participants were interviewed with the BPSS-FP and completed measures of mania and non-mood psychopathology. Prior to being interviewed, patients completed the BPSS-AS-P. Scores on the BPSS-AS-P were determined by summing the severity and frequency ratings for each item. RESULTS: BPSS-AS-P scores were highly reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94) and correlated with the interview-based BPSS-FP Mania Symptom Index (r = 0.55, p < .0001). BPSS-AS-P scores had good convergent validity, correlating with the General Behavior Inventory-10M (r = 0.65, p < .0001) and Young Mania Rating Scale; r = 0.48, p < .0001). The BPSS-AS-P had good discriminant validity, not being correlated with scales measuring positive and negative symptoms of psychotic disorders (p-values = 0.072-0.667). LIMITATIONS: Findings are limited by the cross-sectional nature of the study by the fact that the participants were all treatment-seeking. Future studies need to evaluate the predictive validity of the BPSS-AS-P for identifying those who develop BD in a community sample. CONCLUSION: BPSS-AS-P has promise as a screening tool for people at risk for BD. Adopting the BPSS-AS-P would support the goal of characterizing the prodrome systematically in order to facilitate research and clinical care.

The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test in Autism-Spectrum Disorders Comparison with Healthy Controls: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

We conducted a meta-analysis of 18 studies to establish whether a relation exists between Reading the Mind in the Eye Test (RMET) performance and intelligence quotient (IQ) in individuals diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) and controls, taking into account relevant characteristics such as age, gender, and autism quotient. Our findings indicate that RMET performance was better in controls compared with those diagnosed with ASD. We found that RMET performance is dependent on full and verbal IQ and age in controls. However, RMET performance is negatively correlated with performance IQ in individuals diagnosed with ASD. These results suggest that the methodology applied by ASD when taking the RMET is different from control individuals and might depend less on verbal abilities.