Research on humans and monkeys is reviewed that supports the view that the medial temporal lobe, and, perhaps more specifically the amygdala, is the neural substrate underlying social deficits in autism. The relationship of early medial temporal lobe lesions to memory and socioemotional behavior is reviewed, as are the roles of the amygdala and…

The study of affect comprehension in 15 children with pervasive developmental disorders (ages 7-10) and normal children matched for mental age found that the disabled children were impaired on affect matching compared to the controls and were impaired on face and affect matching relative to their own performance on object matching. (Author/DB)

This case study describes a 13-year-old female with autism, mutism, hyperlexia, and spelling ability. Analysis indicated her reading and spelling abilities were dominated by visual rather than phonological processes. Most striking was an apparent social awakening during the 3.5 month period of the study, possibly related to the onset of puberty.…

Longitudinal videotape recordings of six young children with autism and six age- and language-matched children with Down syndrome in structured play with their mothers were analyzed. Findings of reduced expression of positive affect by autistic subjects suggest that their known deficits in attention and affective responsiveness persisted even in…

Research on the communication, language, social, and emotional development of people with autism is reviewed, concerning individuals who either are nonspeaking/limited speaking or use speech as their primary mode of linguistic communication. Research needs for longitudinal studies, investigation of early developmental patterns, and subgroup…

Factor analysis of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale found three factors: (1) social impairment, (2) negative emotionality, and (3) distorted sensory response. Subjects with autism were distinguished from subjects with either pervasive or nonpervasive developmental disorders by higher scores on social impairment. Negative emotionality was most…

Evaluation of 26 children (ages 24-55 months) with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) while interacting with either the mother, a familiar female teacher, and an unfamiliar male doctor. PDD subjects were most severely impaired during the mother episode. During the teacher episode, PDD subjects were twice as variable in interpersonal response…