Nervenheilkunde 2008; 27(01/02): 61-69
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1627111
Original- und Übersichtsarbeiten - Original and Review Articles
Schattauer GmbH

Hochfunktionaler Autismus des Erwachsenenalters

High-functioning autism in adults
K. Vogeley
1   Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie des Klinikums der Universität zu Köln (Direktor: Prof. Dr. med. J. Klosterkötter)
,
F-G. Lehnhardt
1   Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie des Klinikums der Universität zu Köln (Direktor: Prof. Dr. med. J. Klosterkötter)
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Eingegangen am: 05 November 2007

angenommen am: 05 November 2007

Publication Date:
20 January 2018 (online)

Zusammenfassung

Erst in den letzten Jahren entwickelte sich ein zunehmendes Interesse am Autismus im Erwachsenenalter, während der Autismus im Kindesalter eine bekannte und bereits ausführlich untersuchte psychische Störung ist. Wesentliche diagnostische Kriterien in den operationalisierten diagnostischen Klassifikationssystemen (ICD-10) umfassen Störungen der sozialen Interaktion, Störungen der Kommunikation sowie stereotypes, repetitives Verhalten und/oder besondere Interessen oder Aktivitäten. Eine Besonderheit im Erwachsenenalter ist, dass sich Erstdiagnosen fast ausschließlich auf den sogenannten hochfunktionalen Autismus einschließlich des Asperger-Syndroms beziehen. In diesem Beitrag werden einige ausgewählte Aspekte des hochfunktionalen Autismus des Erwachsenenalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Störungen der sozialen Kognition betrachtet.

Summary

Recently an increasing interest in autism during adulthood has emerged, whereas autism during childhood is a wellknown and extensively studied psychiatric disorder. Central diagnostic criteria in the operationalised diagnostic classifications (ICD-10) comprise disorders of social interaction, communication and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests and activities. As a special feature of autism during adulthood appears that first diagnoses refer nearly exclusively to the so-called high-functioning autism including Asperger syndrome. In this article some aspects of high-functioning autism during adulthood will be presented with special reference to social cognition.

 
  • Literatur

  • 1 Adolphs R. Cognitive neuroscience of human social behavior. Nat Rev Neurosci 2003; 4: 165-178.
  • 2 Argyle M, Cook M. Gaze and mutual gaze. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1976
  • 3 Arvidsson T. et al. Autism in 3–6 year old children in a suburb of Goteborg, Sweden. Autism 1997; 2: 163-174.
  • 4 Asperger H. Die autistischen Psychopathen im Kindesalter. Arch Psych Nervenkrankh 1944; 117: 76-136.
  • 5 Baron-Cohen S. et al. The autism spectrum quotient (AQ): evidence from Asperger syndrome/ high functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. J Autism Developm Dis 2001; 31: 5-17.
  • 6 Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S. The empathy quotient (EQ). An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functional autism, and normal sex differences. J Autism Dev Dis 2004; 34: 163-175.
  • 7 Baron-Cohen S. Mindblindness: an essay on autism and theory of mind. Boston: MIT Press/Bradford Books; 1995
  • 8 Baron-Cohen S. Testing the extreme male brain (EMB) theory of autism: let the data speak for themselves. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 2005; 10: 77-81.
  • 9 Baron-Cohen S, Knickmeyer RC, Belmonte MK. Sex differences in the brain: implications for explaining autism. Science 2005; 310: 819-823.
  • 10 Baron-Cohen S. et al. The Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA): A Diagnostic Method. J Autism Dev Dis 2005; 35: 807-819.
  • 11 Begeer S. et al. Theory of Mind – based action in children from the autism spectrum. J Autism Dev Disord 2003; 33: 479-487.
  • 12 Bente G, Donaghy WF, Suwelack D. Sex differences in body movement and visual attention: an integrated analysis of movement and gaze in mixed-sex dyads. J Nonverb Behav 1998; 22: 31-58.
  • 13 Billstedt E, Gillberg C, Gillberg C. Autism after adolescence: population-based 13– to 22-year follow- up study of 120 individuals with autism diagnosed in childhood. J Autism Dev Disord 2005; 35: 351-360.
  • 14 Blakemore SJ. et al. The detection of contingency and animacy from simple animations in the human brain. Cereb Cortex 2003; 13: 837-844.
  • 15 Brent E. et al. Performance of children with autism spectrum disorder on advanced theory of mind tasks. Autism 2004; 8: 283-299.
  • 16 Castelli F. et al. Autism, Asperger syndrome and brain mechanisms for the attribution of mental states to animated shapes. Brain 2002; 125: 1839-1849.
  • 17 David N. et al. The self-other distinction in social cognition – perspective-taking and agency in a virtual ball-tossing game. J Cogn Neurosci 2006; 18: 898-910.
  • 18 David N. et al. The extrastriate body area distinguishes between the consequences of one’s own and others’ behaviour. Neuroimage 2007; 36: 1004-1014.
  • 19 David N. et al. Dissociation between key processes of social cognition in autism: impaired mentalizing but intact sense of agency. J Autism Developm Dis. 2007 ; in press.
  • 20 Ehlers S, Gillberg C. The epidemiology of Asperger syndrome: a total population study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1993; 34: 1327-1350.
  • 21 Emery NJ. The eyes have it: the neuroethology, function and evolution of social gaze. Psychol Sci 2000; 15: 598-603.
  • 22 Farrer C, Frith CD. Experiencing oneself versus another person as being the cause of an action: the neural correlates of the experience of agency. Neuroimage 2002; 15: 596-603.
  • 23 Fletcher P. et al. Other minds in the brain: a functional imaging study of ,,theory of mind“ in story comprehension. Cognition 1995; 57: 109-128.
  • 24 Frith U. Autism. Explaining the Enigma. 2. Aufl. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing; 2006
  • 25 Frith U, Frith CD. Interacting minds – a biological basis. Science 1999; 286: 1692-1695.
  • 26 Gallagher HL, Frith CD. Functional imaging of ,,theory of mind“. Trends Cogn Sci 2003; 7: 77-83.
  • 27 Garnham WA, Ruffman T. Doesn’t see, doesn’t know: is anticipatory looking really related to understanding of belief?. Developm Sci 2001; 4: 94-100.
  • 28 Gillberg C. et al. The Asperger Syndrome (and high-functioning autism) Diagnostic Interview (ASDI): a preliminary study of a new structured clinical interview. Autism 2001; 5: 57-66.
  • 29 Gillberg IC, Gillberg C. Asperger Syndrome: some epidemiological considerations. A research note. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1989; 30: 631-638.
  • 30 Happé F. et al. ,,Theory of mind“ in the brain. Evidence from a PET scan study of Asperger syndrome. Neuroreport 1996; 8: 197-201.
  • 31 Hautzinger M. et al. Beck-Depressions-Inventar (BDI). Göttingen: Hogrefe; 1995
  • 32 Heider F, Simmel M. An experimental study of apparent behavior. Am J Psychology 1944; 57: 243-259.
  • 33 Horn W. Leistungsprüfsystem. Göttingen: Hogrefe; 1983
  • 34 Johansson M. et al. Autism spectrum disorders and underlying brain pathology in CHARGE association. Dev Med Child Neurol 2006; 48: 40-50.
  • 35 Kampe KKW, Frith CD, Frith U. ,,Hey John!“: Signals conveying communicative intention towards the self activate brain regions associated with mentalizing regardless of modality. J Neurosci 2003; 23: 5258-5263.
  • 36 Kendon A. Some functions of gaze-direction in social interaction. Acta Psychologica 1967; 26: 22-63.
  • 37 Kleinke B. Gaze and eye contact: aresearch review. Psychol Bull 1986; 100: 78-100.
  • 38 Kleinman J, Marciano PL, Ault RL. Advanced theory of mind in high-functioning adults with autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2001; 31: 29-36.
  • 39 Klin A. Attributing social meaning to ambiguous visual stimuli in higher-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome: the Social Attribution Task. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2000; 41: 831-846.
  • 40 Klin A. et al. The enactive mind, or from actions to cognition: lessons from autism. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2003; 358: 345-360.
  • 41 Knapp M. Essentials of nonverbal communication. Harcourt College Publishers; 1980
  • 42 Larsen RJ, Shackelford TK. Gaze avoidance: Personality and social judgements of people who avoid direct face-to-face contact. Personality Ind Diff 1996; 21: 907-917.
  • 43 Leekam S. et al. Comparison of ICD-10 and Gillberg’s criteria for Asperger syndrome. Autism 2000; 4: 11-28.
  • 44 Lehrl S. et al. Mehrfachwahl-Wortschatz-Intelligenztest (MWT-B). Göttingen: Hogrefe; 1991
  • 45 Meltzoff AN, Decety J. What imitation tells us about social cognition: arapprochement between developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2003; 358: 491-500.
  • 46 Mundy P, Neal R. Neural plasticity, joint attention and autistic developmental pathology. In: Glidden LM. (ed). International Review of Research in Mental Retardation. New York: Academic Press; 2001. 23 139-168.
  • 47 Newcombe N. The development of spatial perspective taking. Adv Child Dev Behav 1989; 22: 203-247.
  • 48 Newen A, Vogeley K. Self representation: searching for a neural signature of self consciousness. Consc Cogn 2003; 12: 529-543.
  • 49 Ochsner KN. Current directions in social cognitive neuroscience. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2004; 14: 254-258.
  • 50 Pelphrey KA, Viola RJ, McCarthy G. When strangers pass. Processing of mutual and averted social gaze in the superior temporal sulcus. Psychol Sci 2004; 15: 589-603.
  • 51 Piaget J, Inhelder B. The coordination of perspectives. The child’s conception of space. New York: Norton & Co; 1967: 209-246.
  • 52 Piggot J. et al. Emotional attribution in highfunctioning individuals with autistic spectrum disorder: a functional imaging study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2004; 43: 473-480.
  • 53 Premack D, Woodruff G. Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?. Behav Brain Sci 1978; 4: 515-526.
  • 54 Reed T, Peterson C. A comparative study of autistic subjects’ performance at two levels of visual and cognitive perspective taking. J Autism Dev Disord 1990; 20: 555-567.
  • 55 Reitan RM. Validity of the trailmaking test as an indication of organic brain damage. Percept Mot Skills 1958; 8: 271-276.
  • 56 Remschmidt H, Kamp-Becker I. Asperger-Syndrom. Heidelberg: Springer; 2006
  • 57 Rogers SJ. et al. Imitation performance in toddlers with autism and those with other developmental disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2003; 44: 763-781.
  • 58 Ruffman T, Garnham W, Ridout P. Social understanding in autism: eye gaze as a measure of core insights. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2001; 42: 1083-1094.
  • 59 Rutter M. Diagnosis and definition. In: Rutter M, Schopler E. (eds). Autism: A reappraisal of concepts of treatment. New York: Plenum; 1978
  • 60 Santangelo SL, Tsatsanis K. What is known about autism: genes, brain, and behaviour. Am J Pharmacogenomics 2005; 5: 71-92.
  • 61 Schilbach L. et al. Being with virtual others: neural correlates of social interaction. Neuropsychologia 2006; 44: 718-730.
  • 62 Schmitz N. et al. Neural correlates of executive function in autistic spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry 2006; 59: 7-16.
  • 63 Schultz J. et al. Activation in posterior superior temporal sulcus parallels parameter inducing the percept of animacy. Neuron 2005; 45: 625-635.
  • 64 Schuster N. Ein guter Tag ist ein Tag mit Wirsing. (M)ein Leben in Extremen: Das Asperger-Syndrom aus der Sicht einer Betroffenen. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlag; 2007
  • 65 Sigman M. et al. Early detection of core deficits in autism. Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2004; 10: 221-233.
  • 66 Sinzig J, Lehmkuhl G. Autism and ADHD – are there common traits?. Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr 2007; 75: 267-274.
  • 67 Stachnik JM, Nunn-Thompson C. Use of atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of autistic disorder. Ann Pharmacother 2007; 41: 626-634.
  • 68 Tsakiris M, Haggard P. Awareness of somatic events associated with a voluntary action. Exp Brain Res 2003; 149: 439-446.
  • 69 Vogeley K. et al. Mind reading: neural mechanisms of theory of mind and self-perspective. Neuroimage 2001; 14: 170-181.
  • 70 Vogeley K. et al. Neural correlates of firstperson- perspective as one constituent of human self-consciousness. J Cogn Neurosci 2004; 16: 817-827.
  • 71 Walter H. et al. Understanding intentions in social interaction: the role of the anterior paracingulate cortex. J Cogn Neurosci 2004; 16: 1854-1863.
  • 72 Waiter GD. et al. A voxel-based investigation of brain structure in male adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder. Neuroimage 2004; 22: 619-625.
  • 73 Wang AT. et al. Neural correlates of facial affect processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2004; 43: 481-490.
  • 74 Wang AT. et al. Neural basis of irony comprehension in children with autism: the role of prosody and context. Brain 2006; 129: 932-943.
  • 75 Williams JH, Whiten A, Singh T. A systematic review of action imitation in autistic spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2004; 34: 285-299.
  • 76 Wing L. Asperger’s syndrome: a clinical account. Psychol Med 1981; 11: 115-130.
  • 77 Wing L. Early Childhood Autism. Oxford: Pergamon Press; 1976
  • 78 Wing L. The definition and prevalence of autism: a review. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1993; 2 (Suppl. 02) 61-74.
  • 79 Wing L, Gould J. Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: epidemiology and classification. J Autism Developm Dis 1979; 9: 11-29.
  • 80 Yang MS, Gill M. A review of gene linkage, association and expression studies in autism and an assessment of convergent evidence. Int J Dev Neurosci 2007; 5: 69-85.