Research Highlights

Research Highlights

For the past three decades, we have been investigating language, communication and social cognition in children, adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder.  Our studies have highlighted the different subtypes of the language phenotypes in both behavioral and brain imaging studies that are associated with ASD, reflecting the enormous variability found in this population.  We have also shown some of the interconnections between language, cognition and social impairment that go some way to explaining the complexity of this disorder.

• Impairments in the social uses of language, or pragmatics, are found universally in children and adults with ASD.  The impairments are seen in both conversational discourse and in story telling contexts.  These impairments are closely tied to deficits in theory of mind abilities.
• Longitudinal studies of theory of mind skills (understanding intentions, emotions, beliefs etc.) demonstrate that as they get older some children with ASD do develop these skills, though they remain delayed relative to their peers.  Language itself, specifically knowledge of complex grammar, is an important factor that predicts which children will acquire theory of mind understanding.
• There are close developmental connections in school-aged children with ASD between language, theory of mind and executive functions, which are important for flexible goal directed behavior and planning.
• Language skills (vocabulary, grammar, speech sound processing) are much more variable in ASD:  some children show no impairments in these aspects of language, while others (the majority of verbal children) do show delays and continuing impairments in language, relative to their peers.  These children (ASD + language impairment) show the same pattern of language difficulties as children with other language disorders, particularly SLI (specific language impairment).
• The volumes of language-related brain regions are different in children and adolescents with ASD and language impairment.  These children do not show the same left hemisphere asymmetry as seen in typically developing children in the frontal areas of the brain.  Functional imaging studies (fMRI) also show differences in the processing of language in these brain regions in adolescents and adults with ASD.
• While some studies have shown that adults with ASD show an atypical brain response to faces in the visual cortex, in our studies, which ensured that the participants were looking directly at the face, including the eyes, the ASD participants showed the same brain responses to faces.  In contrast, these ASD participants did not show the same pattern of brain activation in other areas of the cortex or in the amygdale that are part of the more complex network of the social brain, that was seen in the non-autistic participants.
• The most important factors predicting language development in toddlers with ASD include gestural communication and nonverbal cognitive ability.

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