Impaired inhibitory control is associated with higher-order repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders
- 21 January 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Psychological Medicine
- Vol. 39 (9), 1559-1566
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291708004984
Abstract
Background: Impairments in executive cognitive control, including a reduced ability to inhibit prepotent responses, have been reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). These deficits may underlie patterns of repetitive behaviors associated with the disorder.Method: Eighteen individuals with ASD and 15 age- and IQ-matched healthy individuals performed an antisaccade task and a visually guided saccade control task, each with gap and overlap conditions. Measures of repetitive behaviors were obtained using the Autism Diagnostic Inventory – Revised (ADI-R) and examined in relation to neurocognitive task performance.Results: Individuals with an ASD showed increased rates of prosaccade errors (failures to inhibit prepotent responses) on the antisaccade task regardless of task condition (gap/overlap). Prosaccade error rates were associated with the level of higher-order (e.g. compulsions, preoccupations) but not sensorimotor repetitive behaviors in ASD.Conclusions: Neurocognitive disturbances in voluntary behavioral control suggest that alterations in frontostriatal systems contribute to higher-order repetitive behaviors in ASD.This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Response monitoring, repetitive behaviour and anterior cingulate abnormalities in autism spectrum disorders (ASD)Brain, 2008
- Reduced error-related activation in two anterior cingulate circuits is related to impaired performance in schizophreniaBrain, 2007
- Atypical involvement of frontostriatal systems during sensorimotor control in autismPsychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2007
- Modeling early cortical serotonergic deficits in autismBehavioural Brain Research, 2007
- Neural Activity in Monkey Prefrontal Cortex Is Modulated by Task Context and Behavioral Instruction during Delayed-match-to-sample and Conditional Prosaccade—Antisaccade TasksJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006
- Deficient saccadic inhibition in Asperger's disorder and the social-emotional processing disorderJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2004
- Oculomotor abnormalities parallel cerebellar histopathology in autismJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2004
- Prefrontal‐subcortical dissociations underlying inhibitory control revealed by event‐related fMRIEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2004
- What Do Executive Factors Contribute to the Failure on False Belief Tasks by Children with Autism?Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1999
- Abnormalities of internally generated saccades in obsessive–compulsive disorderPsychological Medicine, 1999