Brief report: imitation of meaningless gestures in individuals with Asperger syndrome and High-Functioning Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2008 Mar;38(3):569-73
Date
08/01/2007Pubmed ID
17665296DOI
10.1007/s10803-007-0417-xScopus ID
2-s2.0-40049109804 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 30 CitationsAbstract
Nineteen people with Asperger syndrome (AS)/High-Functioning Autism (HFA) (ages 7-15) were tested on imitation of two types of meaningless gesture: hand postures and finger positions. The individuals with AS/HFA achieved lower scores in the imitation of both hand and finger positions relative to a matched neurotypical group. The between-group difference was primarily accounted for by performance on a test of visual motor integration, together with a hand imitation deficit which was specifically due to errors in body part orientation. Our findings implicate both visuomotor processes (Damasio and Maurer, 1978) and self-other mapping (Rogers and Pennington, 1991) in ASD imitation deficits. Following Goldenberg (1999), we propose that difficulties with body part orientation may underlie problems in meaningless gesture imitation.
Author List
Stieglitz Ham H, Corley M, Rajendran G, Carletta J, Swanson SAuthor
Sara J. Swanson PhD Chief, Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAsperger Syndrome
Autistic Disorder
Child
Female
Gestures
Humans
Imitative Behavior
Male
Semantics
Severity of Illness Index
