University of Greenwich.
Dev Psychopathol. 2019 May;31(2):541-556. doi: 10.1017/S0954579418000081. Epub 2018 Mar 26.
The development of executive function (EF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been investigated using only "cool"-cognitive EF tasks while there is limited knowledge regarding the development of "hot"-affective EF. Although cool EF development and its links to theory of mind (ToM) have been widely examined, understanding of the influence of hot EF to ToM mechanisms is minimal. The present study introduced a longitudinal design to examine the developmental changes in cool and hot EF of children with ASD (n = 45) and matched (to age and IQ) controls (n = 37) as well as the impact of EF on ToM development over a school year. For children with ASD, although selective cool (working memory and inhibition) and hot (affective decision making) EF domains presented age-related improvements, they never reached the performance level of the control group. Early cool working memory predicted later ToM in both groups but early hot delay discounting predicted later ToM only in the ASD group. No evidence was found for the reverse pattern (early ToM predicting later EF). These findings suggest that improvements in some EF aspects are evident in school age in ASD and highlight the crucial role that both cool and hot EF play in ToM development.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中执行功能（EF）的发展仅通过“冷”认知 EF 任务进行了研究，而对于“热”情感 EF 的发展知之甚少。尽管“冷”EF 发展及其与心理理论（ToM）的联系已被广泛研究，但对“热”EF 对 ToM 机制的影响的理解很少。本研究采用纵向设计，考察了 ASD 儿童（n=45）和匹配（年龄和智商）对照组（n=37）的“冷”和“热”EF 的发展变化，以及 EF 在一学年内对 ToM 发展的影响。对于 ASD 儿童，尽管选择性“冷”（工作记忆和抑制）和“热”（情感决策）EF 领域随着年龄的增长而有所改善，但他们从未达到对照组的表现水平。早期的“冷”工作记忆预测了两组的后期 ToM，但早期的“热”延迟折扣仅预测了 ASD 组的后期 ToM。没有证据表明存在相反的模式（早期 ToM 预测后期 EF）。这些发现表明，ASD 儿童在学龄期的一些 EF 方面有所改善，并强调了“冷”和“热”EF 在 ToM 发展中的关键作用。
