Student’s name: Kosma Chałas

Volkmar, F.R., & Wiesner, L. (2009) Chapter 2: What causes autism? In A Practical Guide to Autism. Wiley, pp. 25-44.

SG 2

1. When it relates to the etiology, according to Kanner autism was a congenital disorder

2. Give at least three reasons for why we now know that autism is a biologically based disorder, not a psychologically based one.

   1. Strong role for genetic factors suggested by: High rates of concordance in identical twins (if one twin has it, the other one is very likely to have it) and increased risk for autism in siblings (2–10%) (this is significantly greater than the population rate).

   2. awareness of the higher-than-expected risk autistic children had for developing seizures

   3. A number of other neurological problems are observed in autism (e.g. delays in hand dominance development)

3. We know now that there is a genetic component to the etiology of autism. Several (well known genes) interact and result in the same clinical portrait of individuals with autism.

   1. False

4. What is the percentage of individuals with autism that have abnormalities in their EEGs?

   1. 50

5. Briefly describe results of: A. Klin, W. Jones, R. Schultz, F. Volkmar, & D. Cohen. (2002). Visual fixation patterns during viewing naturalistic social situations as predictors of social competence in individuals with autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39(9), 809–816.

   1. This study has shown, that autistics use the object processing areas when processing the information in faces. They also identify people face as well upside down, as normal. Beside that, the study has also shown that autistics tend to focus on mouth parts of human face and on objects, while looking at another person.

6. What are the two medical conditions that are most strongly associated with autism?

   1. tuberous sclerosis

   2. Fragile X syndrome

7. Understanding another person’s feelings and intentions relates to:

   1. Theory of mind