Authors
Minshew NJ, Goldstein G, Muenz LR, Payton JB.
Institution
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, PA 15213.
Title
Neuropsychological functioning in nonmentally retarded autistic individuals.
Source
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 1992 Sep;14(5):749-61
Abstract
To investigate several neurobiological theories we evaluated the neuropsychological
functioning of 15 non-mentally retarded autistic adolescents and young adults
and 15 controls matched on age, gender, IQ, and race. The autistic subjects
were found to perform less well than controls on measures of abstraction
involving cognitive flexibility, verbal reasoning, complex memory, and complex
language comprehension in the absence of significant differences on measures
of attention, associative memory, and the rule-learning aspects of abstraction.
These findings are most consistent with a generalized abnormality in complex
information processing and would not support theories purporting fundamental
deficits in attention or information acquisition.