1 University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2 Research Priority Area Yield, The Netherlands.
Autism. 2018 May;22(4):440-449. doi: 10.1177/1362361316682622. Epub 2017 Mar 19.
Previously, a total of 121 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) performed an adaptive working memory (WM)-training, an adaptive flexibility-training, or a non-adaptive control (mock)-training. Despite overall improvement, there were minor differences between the adaptive and mock-training conditions. Moreover, dropout was relatively high (26%). In the current study we explored potential predicting and moderating factors to clarify these findings. The effects of intelligence, autism traits, WM, flexibility, reward sensitivity and Theory of Mind on dropout, improvement during training, and improvement in everyday executive functioning (EF), ASD-like behavior, and Quality of Life (QoL) were studied. None of the predictors influenced dropout or training improvement. However, 1) more pre-training autism traits related to less improvement in EF and QoL, and 2) higher reward sensitivity was related to more improvement in QoL and ASD-like behavior. These findings suggest that these EF-training procedures may be beneficial for children with fewer autism traits and higher reward sensitivity. However, the exploratory nature of the analyses warrant further research before applying the findings clinically.
先前，共有 121 名自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童接受了适应性工作记忆（WM）训练、适应性灵活性训练或非适应性对照（模拟）训练。尽管总体上有所改善，但适应性训练和模拟训练条件之间存在细微差异。此外，辍学率相对较高（26%）。在当前的研究中，我们探讨了潜在的预测和调节因素，以阐明这些发现。研究了智力、自闭症特征、WM、灵活性、奖励敏感性和心理理论对辍学、训练期间的改善以及日常执行功能（EF）、ASD 样行为和生活质量（QoL）的改善的影响。没有一个预测因素影响辍学或训练的改善。然而，1）更多的预训练自闭症特征与 EF 和 QoL 的改善较少相关，以及 2）更高的奖励敏感性与 QoL 和 ASD 样行为的改善更多相关。这些发现表明，这些 EF 训练程序可能对自闭症特征较少和奖励敏感性较高的儿童有益。然而，在将这些发现应用于临床之前，分析的探索性质需要进一步研究。
