Mentalising on the broader autism phenotype: a global or modular impairment? & Clinical research portfolio

TL;DRAbstract

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that children with a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome or High Functioning Autism (AS/HFA) have difficulty with mentalising tasks. There is also limited evidence that siblings may also have subtle deficits in ‘theory of mind’ consistent with a broader autistic phenotype model. This study aims to investigate whether deficits in mentalising about others is specific to sensory modality (modular) or mediated by a global impairment in mentalising. METHODS: Thirteen children who had a sibling with AS/HFA were compared to thirteen children who did not, matched on age, gender and verbal IQ. Children completed a range of self and other mentalising tasks. RESULTS: No significant differences in mentalising were detected between the groups. Descriptive statistics indicated a trend for male siblings to have higher AAQ scores and longer mean response times on the RME than female siblings and controls. CONCLUSIONS: Larger samples and replication wou

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