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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Champagne Terrace/Bordeaux (Novotel London West)
Background: Although imitation deficits have been widely-reported in autism, the cognitive mechanisms affecting the processing of meaningful gestures are not well established. We investigated the role of visuomotor integration (VMI), working memory (WM), and visuoperceptual processing (VP) in praxis processing in a group of individuals with in HFA/AS.
Objectives: To investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms recruited in performing meaningful gesture imitation in autism, specifically, in tasks of elicited imitation; and to analyze the error types and explore the relationship between imitation performance and dyspraxia in meaningful gesture imitation.
Methods: 19 individuals with HFA/AS and 23 TD controls (mean age of 12.0 and 12.1 respectively) were tested in 3 tasks of meaningful gesture imitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The study included tasks for both recognition and imitation of meaningful gestures. Productions were videotaped, coded, and analyzed.
Results: A significant between-group difference was found in all 3 tasks: transitive gestures [F (1, 40) = 51.06, p<.001]; intransitive gestures [F (1, 40) = 65.21, p<.001]; and pantomimes [F(1,40) = 72.82, p<.001]. A significant interaction revealed that although the AS/HFA group performed all of the imitation tasks poorly compared to the controls, they appeared to demonstrate the greatest impairment in pantomime imitation. The HFA/AS group made more errors of hand postures in pantomime imitation than they did during transitive and intransitive gesture imitation and associations between recognition and production of pantomimes were revealed that were similar to patterns observed in adults with limb apraxia.
Conclusions: Our findings revealed imitation deficits in all 3 tasks of meaningful gestures in the AS/HFA group, but this was more pronounced in pantomime imitation. Analyses of the errors suggest that individuals with AS/HFA not only demonstrate imitation deficits but also present with deficits in praxis processing.
Objectives: To investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms recruited in performing meaningful gesture imitation in autism, specifically, in tasks of elicited imitation; and to analyze the error types and explore the relationship between imitation performance and dyspraxia in meaningful gesture imitation.
Methods: 19 individuals with HFA/AS and 23 TD controls (mean age of 12.0 and 12.1 respectively) were tested in 3 tasks of meaningful gesture imitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The study included tasks for both recognition and imitation of meaningful gestures. Productions were videotaped, coded, and analyzed.
Results: A significant between-group difference was found in all 3 tasks: transitive gestures [F (1, 40) = 51.06, p<.001]; intransitive gestures [F (1, 40) = 65.21, p<.001]; and pantomimes [F(1,40) = 72.82, p<.001]. A significant interaction revealed that although the AS/HFA group performed all of the imitation tasks poorly compared to the controls, they appeared to demonstrate the greatest impairment in pantomime imitation. The HFA/AS group made more errors of hand postures in pantomime imitation than they did during transitive and intransitive gesture imitation and associations between recognition and production of pantomimes were revealed that were similar to patterns observed in adults with limb apraxia.
Conclusions: Our findings revealed imitation deficits in all 3 tasks of meaningful gestures in the AS/HFA group, but this was more pronounced in pantomime imitation. Analyses of the errors suggest that individuals with AS/HFA not only demonstrate imitation deficits but also present with deficits in praxis processing.