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Neuropsychological Profile in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

A comprehensive investigation of the neuropsychological strengths and weaknesses of children with autism may help to better describe their cognitive abilities and to design appropriate interventions. To this end we compared the NEPSY-II profiles of 22 children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) with those of 44 healthy control (HC) children 2:1 matched by gender, age, race and education. Results showed that only Visuospatial Processing was relatively spared in HFASD, while deficits were observed in Attention and Executive Functions, Language, Learning and Memory, and Sensorimotor Processing. Theory of Mind difficulties were observed in verbal tasks but not in the understanding of emotional contexts, suggesting that appropriate contextual cues might help emotion understanding in HFASD children. These widespread neuropsychological impairments reflect alterations in multiple cognitive domains in HFASD.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health under Strategic Program ‘Inquiry into Disruption of Intersubjective Equipment in Autism Spectrum Disorder in Childhood (IDIA)’ (Principal Investigator F.M.) and partially by grant from the IRCCS “E. Medea” (Ricerca Corrente, Ministry of Health to C.U.).

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  1. Division of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Stella Maris Scientific Institute, University of Pisa, Via dei Giacinti, 2, 56018, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy

    Antonio Narzisi, Filippo Muratori & Sara Calderoni

  2. Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine and Eugenio Medea Scientific Institute, Via Margreth, 3, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Franco Fabbro & Cosimo Urgesi

  3. Division of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Stella Maris Scientific Institute, University of Pisa, Viale del Tirreno, 331, 56018, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy

    Antonio Narzisi

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Correspondence to Antonio Narzisi or Cosimo Urgesi.

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Narzisi, A., Muratori, F., Calderoni, S. et al. Neuropsychological Profile in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 1895–1909 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1736-0

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