Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Aug;38(7):1241-9.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-007-0502-1. Epub 2007 Dec 7.

Autistic traits and cognitive performance in young people with mild intellectual impairment

Jonathan M Harris  1 , Catherine S Best, Vivien J Moffat, Michael D Spencer, Ruth C M Philip, Michael J Power, Eve C Johnstone
Affiliations

Autistic traits and cognitive performance in young people with mild intellectual impairment

Jonathan M Harris et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2008 Aug.

Abstract

Cognitive performance and the relationship between theory of mind (TOM), weak central coherence and executive function were investigated in a cohort of young people with additional learning needs. Participants were categorized by social communication questionnaire score into groups of 10 individuals within the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) range, 14 within the pervasive developmental disorder range and 18 with few autistic traits. The ASD group were significantly poorer than the other groups on a test of cognitive flexibility. In the ASD group only, there was a strong relationship between executive performance and TOM which remained after controlling for IQ. Our findings suggest that the relationship between cognitive traits may more reliably distinguish autism than the presence of individual deficits alone.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. J Autism Dev Disord. 2006 Jan;36(1):117-29 - PubMed
    1. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1999 Sep;40(6):859-68 - PubMed
    1. Cognition. 1993 Aug;48(2):101-19 - PubMed
    1. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2003 Sep;44(6):904-13 - PubMed
    1. Nat Neurosci. 2006 Oct;9(10):1218-20 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources