Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Notting Hill, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
Cerebellum. 2011 Mar;10(1):70-80. doi: 10.1007/s12311-010-0229-y.
It remains unclear whether autism and Asperger's disorder (AD) exist on a symptom continuum or are separate disorders with discrete neurobiological underpinnings. In addition to impairments in communication and social cognition, motor deficits constitute a significant clinical feature in both disorders. It has been suggested that motor deficits and in particular the integrity of cerebellar modulation of movement may differentiate these disorders. We used a simple volitional saccade task to comprehensively profile the integrity of voluntary ocular motor behaviour in individuals with high functioning autism (HFA) or AD, and included measures sensitive to cerebellar dysfunction. We tested three groups of age-matched young males with normal intelligence (full scale, verbal, and performance IQ estimates >70) aged between 11 and 19 years; nine with AD, eight with HFA, and ten normally developing males as the comparison group. Overall, the metrics and dynamics of the voluntary saccades produced in this task were preserved in the AD group. In contrast, the HFA group demonstrated relatively preserved mean measures of ocular motricity with cerebellar-like deficits demonstrated in increased variability on measures of response time, final eye position, and movement dynamics. These deficits were considered to be consistent with reduced cerebellar online adaptation of movement. The results support the notion that the integrity of cerebellar modulation of movement may be different in AD and HFA, suggesting potentially differential neurobiological substrates may underpin these complex disorders.
自闭症和阿斯伯格综合征(AD)是否存在于症状连续体上,或者是具有不同神经生物学基础的两种独立疾病,目前仍不清楚。除了在沟通和社会认知方面的障碍外,运动缺陷也是这两种疾病的一个显著临床特征。有人认为,运动缺陷,尤其是小脑对运动的调节的完整性,可以区分这些疾病。我们使用了一个简单的自愿眼跳任务,全面分析了高功能自闭症(HFA)或 AD 患者自主眼球运动行为的完整性,并包括了对小脑功能障碍敏感的测量。我们测试了三组年龄匹配的智力正常(全量表、言语和操作智商估计值>70)的年轻男性,年龄在 11 到 19 岁之间;9 名 AD 患者,8 名 HFA 患者,10 名正常发育的男性作为对照组。总的来说,AD 组在这个任务中产生的自愿眼跳的度量和动力学都得到了保留。相比之下,HFA 组表现出相对保留的眼动度量均值,但在反应时间、最终眼位和运动动力学的测量上表现出小脑样的缺陷,表现为变异性增加。这些缺陷被认为与运动的小脑在线适应能力降低有关。这些结果支持了这样一种观点,即小脑对运动的调节的完整性在 AD 和 HFA 中可能不同,这表明潜在的不同神经生物学基础可能是这些复杂疾病的基础。