Developing set-shifting improvement tasks (SSIT) for children with high-functioning autism.

BACKGROUND: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience set-shifting deficit as a part of executive function, which can lead to cognitive and behavioural flexibility deficits and/or restricted behaviours. Despite the increasing body of research on this cognitive deficit, set-shifting training has not been exclusively studied in ASD. AIMS: In this study, a training condition [set-shifting improvement tasks (SSIT)] was developed to improve set-shifting ability; afterwards, the possible effects of these tasks were investigated. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: With the aim of improving set-shifting ability in children with autism, a training program (SSIT), involving a computer game (Tatka, a puzzle game produced by our research team) with some home-based tasks (for generalisation purposes), was developed. Then, in a quasi-experimental design, the effects of SSIT tasks were studied on children (n = 13, 5-7 years old) with high-functioning autism. Outcome measures (pre-training, post-training and a 6-week follow-up) were assessed using Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Bender-Gestalt Test and Behavioural Flexibility Rating Scale. RESULTS AND OUTCOMES: A significant change was observed in both cognitive (Bender Gestalt, ηp2=0.84 ; WCST; =p20.87 ) and behavioural flexibilities ( ηp2=0.79 ) and also in repetitive behaviours ( ηp2=0.45 ). Furthermore, the result remained stable to some extent for about 1 month after the training condition. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Developing the SSIT is just an initial step in the major target of creating cognitive rehabilitation tools to be used by clinicians and parents for children diagnosed with ASD and should be understood as a supplement, rather than an alternative, to the main treatments such as applied behaviour analysis. Future research with larger samples are needed to confirm whether this intervention is effective for children with ASD.

Autobiographical memory in progressive supranuclear palsy.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate recall of autobiographical memories across lifetime periods in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). METHOD: Patients with PSP (n = 10) were given a test of autobiographical and personal semantic information and the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE). The result was compared to 30 matched neurologically intact participants. RESULT: A mild autobiographical memory impairment was observed in PSP without a temporal gradient for the recall of autobiographical or personal semantic information. Performance correlated with verbal fluency in ACE. CONCLUSION: Patients with PSP show mild deficits in autobiographical memory, which is likely to reflect a frontal retrieval deficit.

Impaired sensorimotor gating in patients with non-epileptic seizures.

The aim of the study was to identify possible disturbances of sensorimotor gating and habituation of the eye blink startle response, in patients with non-epileptic seizures (NES). Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex, as an operational measure of sensorimotor gating and habituation was studied in 21 patients with NES and in 22 healthy control subjects. Six NES patients were taking antiepileptic drugs at the time of testing. PPI was significantly impaired in the NES group compared to the control group, with deficits being greater in unmedicated patients. There was a trend for medicated NES patients to show higher PPI than unmedicated patients, but this was not significant. Habituation was intact in both medicated and unmedicated NES patients. It is proposed that deficits of information processing related to sensorimotor gating in patients with NES may be associated with abnormalities within the limbic system-basal ganglia circuitry which has been shown to be the substrate of 'gating' assessed by PPI. It was also found that NES patients had greater psychopathology than the control group when rated by the Traumatic Symptom Checklist (TSC-40). Overall, the anxiety subscale was the only element that was negatively correlated with PPI. It is suggested that anxiety may contribute to impairment of PPI in patients with NES.