Asperger syndrome, a heritable condition entailing empathy deficits together with unusually narrow interests in individuals of normal or even above-average intelligence, was recognized only recently. Here we report the first-ever prospective study of a child born to two adults with a formal diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. The child's parents are both scientists (a mathematician and a chemist). ...

Details are given of a new advanced theory of mind task, developed to approximate the demands of real-life mentalizing in able individuals with autism. Excerpts of films showing characters in social situations were presented, with participants required to answer questions on characters' mental states and on control, nonsocial questions. When compared with control participants, adults with high-...

Individuals with Asperger syndrome/High Functioning Autism fail to spontaneously attribute mental states to the self and others, a life-long phenotypic characteristic known as mindblindness. We hypothesized that mindblindness would affect the dynamics of conversational interaction. Using generative models, in particular Gaussian mixture models and observed influence models, conversations were c...

Utilizing relevance theory, this study investigated the ability of children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) to use context when answering questions and when giving explanations for their correct answers. Three groups participated in this study: younger AS/HFA group (age 7-9, n=16), older AS/HFA group (age 10-12, n=23) and a normally functioning control group (age 7...

Objetivou-se analisar produções articulares latino-americanas sobre a Síndrome de Asperger abordadas partir da Psicologia e sugerir possibilidades atuação do (a) psicólogo em contexto Educação Superior. Para isso, foi proposta uma revisão sistemática artigos datados nos últimos 10 anos indexados bases dados latino-americanas. A análise qualitativa conteúdo levantado indicou investigações que ve...

People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were used: 30 and 200 Hz. The results demonstrated sign...

OBJECTIVES To analyze cooccurring disorders and problems in a representative group of 198 preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who had had interventions at a specialized habilitation center. METHODS Parents and children were seen by a research team. Data were based on parental interviews, pediatric assessments, and tests of the child. Information on autistic symptoms, gener...