Department of Psychology, Fairfield University Fairfield, CT, USA.
Front Integr Neurosci. 2013 May 20;7:33. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2013.00033. eCollection 2013.
Both movement differences and disorders are common within autism spectrum disorders (ASD). These differences have wide and heterogeneous variability among different ages and sub-groups all diagnosed with ASD. Gait was studied in a more homogeneously identified group of nine teenagers and young adults who scored as "severe" in both measures of verbal communication and overall rating of Autism on the Childhood Autism Rating Scales (CARS). The ASD individuals were compared to a group of typically developing university undergraduates of similar ages. All participants walked a distance of 6-meters across a GAITRite (GR) electronic walkway for six trials. The ASD and comparison groups differed widely on many spatiotemporal aspects of gait including: step and stride length, foot positioning, cadence, velocity, step time, gait cycle time, swing time, stance time, and single and double support time. Moreover, the two groups differed in the percentage of the total gait cycle in each of these phases. The qualitative rating of "Body Use" on the CARS also indicated severe levels of unusual body movement for all of the ASD participants. These findings demonstrate that older teens and young adults with "severe" forms of Verbal Communication Impairments and Autism differ widely in their gait from typically developing individuals. The differences found in the current investigation are far more pronounced compared to previous findings with younger and/or less severely involved individuals diagnosed with ASD as compared to typically developing controls. As such, these data may be a useful anchor-point in understanding the trajectory of development of gait specifically and motor functions generally.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者的运动差异和障碍很常见。这些差异在不同年龄和亚组的 ASD 患者中具有广泛而异质的可变性。步态在一组更同质的 9 名青少年和年轻人中进行了研究，这些人在儿童自闭症评定量表（CARS）的言语交流和自闭症总体评定两项测量中均被评为“严重”。将 ASD 个体与年龄相似的一组典型发展的大学生进行了比较。所有参与者在 GAITRite（GR）电子步道上行走 6 米，进行了六次试验。ASD 和对照组在步态的许多时空方面差异很大，包括：步长和步幅、脚的位置、步频、速度、步时、步态周期时间、摆动时间、站立时间以及单支撑和双支撑时间。此外，两组在每个阶段的总步态周期中所占的百分比也存在差异。CARS 上的“身体使用”定性评分也表明，所有 ASD 参与者的身体运动都存在严重的异常。这些发现表明，具有“严重”言语交流障碍和自闭症的青少年和年轻成年人在步态上与正常发育的个体存在广泛差异。与之前的研究相比，当前研究中发现的差异在患有 ASD 的年轻人和/或病情较轻的个体与正常发育对照者之间更为明显。因此，这些数据可能是理解步态特别是运动功能发展轨迹的有用基准。
