SOCIAL COMPREHENSION IN INFANTILE AUTISM

广泛性发育障碍（PDD）是一系列严重的 儿童期疾病，影响到发育的各个方面， 导致严重的终身功能障碍。 最新理论 关于这些疾病的研究表明，社会缺陷可能是一个 主要特点，使其调查中心的进展， 了解病因和干预。 此外，PDD 儿童是一个异质群体，因此， 临床亚型也是理解 这些紊乱。 拟议的项目是一系列由 本研究人员试图阐明关键问题， PDD儿童的社会缺陷，目前的项目，两个 PDD儿童的亚型被确定：那些将特异性 社会认知缺陷和那些社会认知 与他们的心理年龄相一致;亚型在社会方面不同 行为，而不是心理年龄。 该项目将扩大 这个关于社会行为之间关系的研究： 和社会认知，并解决其他关键问题，如跨- 情境变异性和延迟与偏差，在PDD社会 行为 受试者为目前入组研究的40例PDD受试者， 形成纵向样品，以研究 社会认知亚型和40个新的PDD受试者，形成了一个 交叉验证样本 对照组为80名儿童， 心理年龄和智商，以及40名正常儿童的社会化匹配 年龄 受试者将接受一组标准化的 神经心理学测试，一系列社会认知测试 由研究人员开发，以及一套观察和 社会行为的访谈措施， 发育、灵长类、临床文献。 行为在 社会主动性、反应、注意力和情感意愿的领域 被研究。 数据分析将侧重于以下方面之间的关系： 社会认知和社会行为方面，在临床 PDD组内的亚型，以及社会 认知和社会行为的PDD和对照组。

Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) are a spectrum of serious disorders of childhood, affecting all areas of development and leading to severe lifelong functional impairment. Recent theory about these disorders suggests that the social deficit may be a primary feature, making its investigation central to progress in understanding etiology and intervention. Furthermore, the PDD children are a heterogeneous group, so that investigation of clinical subtypes is also a key to progress in understanding these disorders. The proposed project is one of a series by the present investigator which attempt to elucidate key questions about the social deficit in PDD children, the current project, two subtypes of PDD children are identified: those will specific social-cognative deficits and those whose social cognition is consonant with their mental age; the subtypes differed in social behavior but not in mental age. The proposed project will extend this investigation of the relationship between social behavior: and social cognition, and address other key issues, such as cross- situational variability and delay vs. deviance, in PDD social behavior. Subjects will be 40 PDD subjects currently enrolled in the study, forming a longitudinal sample, to investigate the stability of the social-cognitive subtypes, and 40 new PDD subjects, forming a cross-validation sample. Controls will be 80 children matched for mental age and IQ, and 40 normal children matched for Socialization Age. Subjects will be given a battery of standardized neuropsychological tests, a battery of social cognitive tests developed by the investigators, and a set of observational and interview measures of social behavior derived from the developmental, primate, clinical literatures. Behavior in the areas of social initiations, responses, attention, and affect will be studied. Data analysis will focus on the relationships between aspects of social cognition and social behavior, on clinical subtypes within the PDD groups, and on comparisons of social cognition and social behavior in the PDD and control groups.