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. 2013 Aug 25:2013:751516.
doi: 10.1155/2013/751516. eCollection 2013.

Preserved imitation of known gestures in children with high-functioning autism

Joana C Carmo  1 , Raffaella I Rumiati, Roma Siugzdaite, Paolo Brambilla
Affiliations

Preserved imitation of known gestures in children with high-functioning autism

Joana C Carmo et al. ISRN Neurol. .

Abstract

It has been suggested that children with autism are particularly deficient at imitating novel gestures or gestures without goals. In the present study, we asked high-functioning autistic children and age-matched typically developing children to imitate several types of gestures that could be either already known or novel to them. Known gestures either conveyed a communicative meaning (i.e., intransitive) or involved the use of objects (i.e., transitive). We observed a significant interaction between gesture type and group of participants, with children with autism performing known gestures better than novel gestures. However, imitation of intransitive and transitive gestures did not differ across groups. These findings are discussed in light of a dual-route model for action imitation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Accuracy on the imitative tasks of the experimental HFA group (in black) and control group (in grey). The bars represent standard deviations from the mean. Upper plot depicts correct imitation of meaningless (ML) and meaningful (MF) according to whether they are transitive or intransitive.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall imitation of ML and MF actions correlated with age of subjects in (a) the control group and (b) the HFA group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percentage of specular and anatomical imitations for each type of imitative tasks.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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