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. 2015 Oct;45(10):3148-58.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-015-2473-y.

Stop and change: inhibition and flexibility skills are related to repetitive behavior in children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders

Mandy A L Mostert-Kerckhoffs  1   2 , Wouter G Staal  3   4 , Renske H Houben  5   6 , Maretha V de Jonge  5
Affiliations

Stop and change: inhibition and flexibility skills are related to repetitive behavior in children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders

Mandy A L Mostert-Kerckhoffs et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015 Oct.

Abstract

Cognitive control dysfunctions, like inhibitory and attentional flexibility deficits are assumed to underlie repetitive behavior in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In the present study, prepotent response inhibition and attentional flexibility were examined in 64 high-functioning individuals with ASD and 53 control participants. Performance under different task conditions were tested both in response to visual and auditory information, and requiring a motor or verbal response. Individuals with ASD showed significant more control dysfunctions than typically developing participants on the auditory computer task. Inhibitory control and attentional flexibility predicted RRB in everyday life. Specifically, response inhibition in reaction to visual information and task switching in reaction to auditory information predicted motor and sensory stereotyped behavior.

Keywords: Auditory information; Autism spectrum disorders; Flexibility; Inhibition; Repetitive behaviors.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Reaction times on the visual and auditory computer tasks in milliseconds for the ASD-group and controls with age for the baseline, inhibition and attentional flexibility conditions. a Visual computertask. b Auditory computertask
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reaction times on the color word interference test in seconds for the ASD-group and controls with age for the baseline, inhibition and attentional flexibility conditions
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Total patterns created on the design fluency test for the ASD-group and controls with age for the baseline and attentional flexibility conditions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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