Van Eylen Lien, Boets Bart, Steyaert Jean, Wagemans Johan, Noens Ilse
Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 32, Box 3765, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
Leuven Autism Research (LAuRes), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2015 Nov;24(11):1399-417. doi: 10.1007/s00787-015-0689-1. Epub 2015 Feb 20.
Impaired executive functioning (EF) has been proposed to underlie symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, insight in the EF profile of ASD individuals is hampered due to task impurity and inconsistent findings. To elucidate these inconsistencies, we investigated the influence of task and sample characteristics on EF in ASD, with an extended test battery designed to reduce task impurity. Additionally, we studied the relation between EF and ASD symptoms. EF (inhibition, cognitive flexibility, generativity, working memory and planning) was measured in open-ended versus structured assessment situations, while controlling for possible confounding EF and non-EF variables. The performance of 50 individuals with ASD was compared with that of 50 age, gender and IQ matched typically developing (TD) individuals. The effects of group (ASD versus TD), age (children versus adolescents) and gender were examined, as well as the correlation between age, IQ, ASD symptoms and EF. Individuals with ASD showed impairments in all EF domains, but deficits were more pronounced in open-ended compared to structured settings. Group differences did not depend on gender and only occasionally on participants' age. This suggests that inconsistencies between studies largely result from differences in task characteristics and less from differences in the investigated sample features. However, age and IQ strongly correlated with EF, indicating that group differences in these factors should be controlled for when studying EF. Finally, EF correlated with both social and non-social ASD symptoms, but further research is needed to clarify the nature of this relationship.
执行功能受损（EF）被认为是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）症状的潜在原因。然而，由于任务不纯和结果不一致，对ASD个体的EF概况的了解受到了阻碍。为了阐明这些不一致之处，我们使用旨在减少任务不纯的扩展测试组，研究了任务和样本特征对ASD中EF的影响。此外，我们研究了EF与ASD症状之间的关系。在开放式与结构化评估情境中测量EF（抑制、认知灵活性、生成性、工作记忆和计划），同时控制可能混淆的EF和非EF变量。将50名ASD个体的表现与50名年龄、性别和智商匹配的典型发育（TD）个体的表现进行比较。研究了组（ASD与TD）、年龄（儿童与青少年）和性别的影响，以及年龄、智商、ASD症状和EF之间的相关性。ASD个体在所有EF领域均表现出受损，但与结构化环境相比，开放式环境中的缺陷更为明显。组间差异不取决于性别，仅偶尔取决于参与者的年龄。这表明研究之间的不一致主要是由任务特征的差异导致的，而较少是由所研究样本特征的差异导致的。然而，年龄和智商与EF密切相关，这表明在研究EF时应控制这些因素的组间差异。最后，EF与社交和非社交ASD症状均相关，但需要进一步研究来阐明这种关系的性质。
