The Causes And Effects Of Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the most common developmental disabilities in our society today. Most commonly delineated with impairments in social and cognitive processes, specifically social interaction (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2006). Today, this disability is more prevalent than in year’s prior, and continues to complicate the lives of many individuals. Although ASD is a social disorder, some research also provides evidence of a deficit in an individual’s perception of movement, which too stems from both social and cognitive processes (Kasier & Shiffrar, 2009).

Perception of Motion
For humans, our ability to understand other people’s actions, and the intentions behind those actions, are enabled by our mirror neuron system (Cattaneo & Rizzolatti, 2009). Most crucial throughout infancy and toddler years, the mirror neuron system (MNS) allows for simple tasks such as imitation, which later becomes vital to the development of our social cognitive skills (Iacoboni & Dapretto, 2006). The MNS is located in the F5 sector of our ventral premotor cortex and is known to discharge upon sensation of movement, however not firing to simple body displacements. Cattaneo and Rizzolatti explain there are two sets of mirror neurons, parietofrontal mirror neurons and premotor mirror neurons (2009). The entire system works together, first with the parietofrontal mirror neurons learning of the action that is taking place, followed by the premotor neurons sending a signal when they understand the reason behind that particular action (Cattaneo & Rizzolatti, 2009). The MNS system is not only activated during observation, but also while listening to sounds and emotion (Iacoboni & Dapretto, 2006; Dapretto el al., 2005...

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...and colleagues create a self administered measure that allows an individual with a normal level of intelligence to see if they have traits associated to ASD. The Autism Quotient Questionnaire (AQ) was designed to measure five different areas in 50 different questions (Appendix 1). These different areas include: attention switching, attention to detail, imagination, social skill, and communication (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner, Martin, & Clubley, 2001). The AQ is not meant to serve as a diagnostic tool. However, research has shown the AQ to have reasonable construct validity in the questions pertaining to each of the five areas of measure and reasonable face validity due to the fact that it is measuring autistic traits. In addition, the AQ has shown to have exceptional test-retest reliability (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner, Martin, & Clubley, 2001).

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