Ruzich Emily, Allison Carrie, Smith Paula, Ring Howard, Auyeung Bonnie, Baron-Cohen Simon
Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Autism Res. 2017 Feb;10(2):289-297. doi: 10.1002/aur.1651. Epub 2016 Jun 22.
This study measures the distribution of autistic traits, using the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), in siblings of individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). Total AQ scores, along with AQ subscales, were collected from child, adolescent and adult controls, siblings, and volunteers with ASC using one of the three age-appropriate versions of the instrument: the AQ (adult self-report), the AQ-adolescent and AQ-child (both parent-reports). We examined the effect of Group (case, sibling and control) and AQ version (adult, adolescent and adult) on total and subscale scores. In addition, we tested for sex differences in all groups and on all versions. We found that in male and female adults, AQ scores in siblings fell between cases and controls (cases > siblings > controls). In children and adolescents, female siblings also scored higher than control females (female cases > female siblings > female controls), but there was no difference between male siblings and controls (male cases > male siblings = male controls). An investigation of subscale scores revealed that male siblings only differed from controls on the "Communication" subscale (male cases > male siblings > male controls), while female siblings differed from controls on all subscales except "Imagination" (female cases > female siblings > female controls). This study confirms the broader autism phenotype in siblings, and reveals this is modulated by sex and AQ version. Autism Res 2017, 10: 289-297. © 2016 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research.
本研究使用自闭症谱系商数（AQ）来测量自闭症谱系障碍（ASC）患者兄弟姐妹的自闭症特质分布情况。我们使用该量表三个适合不同年龄段的版本之一，即AQ（成人自评版）、AQ-青少年版和AQ-儿童版（均为家长报告版），从儿童、青少年和成人对照组、患者兄弟姐妹以及ASC志愿者中收集了AQ总分及各分量表得分。我们研究了组别（患者组、兄弟姐妹组和对照组）和AQ版本（成人版、青少年版和儿童版）对总分及分量表得分的影响。此外，我们还测试了所有组和所有版本中的性别差异。我们发现，在成年男性和女性中，兄弟姐妹的AQ得分介于患者组和对照组之间（患者组＞兄弟姐妹组＞对照组）。在儿童和青少年中，女性兄弟姐妹的得分也高于女性对照组（女性患者组＞女性兄弟姐妹组＞女性对照组），但男性兄弟姐妹与男性对照组之间没有差异（男性患者组＞男性兄弟姐妹组 = 男性对照组）。对分量表得分的调查显示，男性兄弟姐妹仅在“沟通”分量表上与对照组存在差异（男性患者组＞男性兄弟姐妹组＞男性对照组），而女性兄弟姐妹在除“想象力”之外的所有分量表上均与对照组存在差异（女性患者组＞女性兄弟姐妹组＞女性对照组）。本研究证实了兄弟姐妹中存在更广泛的自闭症表型，并表明这种表型受性别和AQ版本的调节。《自闭症研究》2017年第10卷：289 - 297页。© 2016作者。《自闭症研究》由威利期刊公司代表国际自闭症研究协会出版。
