Language laterality, handedness and empathy in a sample of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder / Lateralidad del lenguaje, preferencia manual y empatía en una muestra de padres de niños con trastorno de espectro autista

BACKGROUND: First-order relatives of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit a cognitive pattern which is part of a broader autism phenotype. METHOD: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether some neuropsychological features related to the autism phenotype are present in parents of ASD children. To this end, the exploration included a dichotic listening task, handedness and the Empathy Quotient (EQ-60). RESULTS: The scores obtained by the total sample (fathers plus mothers) were similar to those of the general population, although there were differences in some parameters of the dichotic listening task depending on the gender. Contrary to expectations, only in fathers, the negative correlation between data from both ears was not statistically significant, which could be evidence of a lack of hemispheric interdependence. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the possible existence of a genetic susceptibility to an aberrant language asymmetry pattern. Moreover, possible unknown epigenetic factors could act on a vulnerable genotype in some ASD subjects. Nevertheless, due to the small sample size, the present research must be considered a pilot study

ANTECEDENTES: algunos familiares de primer orden de personas con trastornos del espectro autista (TEA) exhiben un patrón de funcionamiento cognitivo que forma parte del llamado fenotipo ampliado de autismo (FAA). MÉTODO: el objetivo de este estudio consiste en evaluar si algunos aspectos neuropsicológicos relacionados con un FAA están presentes en progenitores de niños y niñas con TEA. Para ello, se realizó una prueba de escucha dicótica libre, se detectó la preferencia manual y se obtuvo el Cociente de Empatía (CE-60). RESULTADOS: los resultados sitúan a la muestra total dentro de parámetros similares a los de la población general, aunque algunos datos de la escucha dicótica revelaron diferencias según el género. Contrariamente a lo esperado, en el subgrupo de padres los datos de ambos oídos no correlacionaron significativamente, lo que revelaría falta de interdependencia hemisférica. CONCLUSIONES: nuestros resultados apoyan la posible existencia de cierta vulnerabilidad genética a un patrón anómalo de lateralización hemisférica del lenguaje. Por tanto, factores epigenéticos por determinar podrían estar incidiendo sobre un genotipo vulnerable en las personas con TEA. No obstante, la presente investigación ha de considerarse un estudio piloto debido al tamaño de la muestra

Language laterality, handedness and empathy in a sample of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

BACKGROUND: First-order relatives of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit a cognitive pattern which is part of a broader autism phenotype. METHOD: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether some neuropsychological features related to the autism phenotype are present in parents of ASD children. To this end, the exploration included a dichotic listening task, handedness and the Empathy Quotient (EQ-60). RESULTS: The scores obtained by the total sample (fathers plus mothers) were similar to those of the general population, although there were differences in some parameters of the dichotic listening task depending on the gender. Contrary to expectations, only in fathers, the negative correlation between data from both ears was not statistically significant, which could be evidence of a lack of hemispheric interdependence. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the possible existence of a genetic susceptibility to an aberrant language asymmetry pattern. Moreover, possible unknown epigenetic factors could act on a vulnerable genotype in some ASD subjects. Nevertheless, due to the small sample size, the present research must be considered a pilot study.