Top

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Gepubliceerd in:

02-07-2019 | Original Paper

The Empathizing–Systemizing Theory and ‘Extreme Male Brain’ (EMB) Theory in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): An Explorative, Cross-Sectional Study

Auteurs: Francesco Craig, Andrea De Giacomo, Rosa Savino, Marta Ruggiero, Luigi Russo, Isabella Fanizza, Lucia Margari, Antonio Trabacca

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 10/2019

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether empathizing and systemizing are part of the parental broad autism phenotype (BAP). Parents (N = 76) of preschool children with a diagnosis of ASD and parents (N = 48) of typically developing (TD) children completed the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R) questionnaires. The E–S discrepancy (D score) was used to test for sex differences in five “brain types”. Our results suggest that the E–S theory do not seem to be part of the BAP. However, a stronger drive to systemize than empathize (Type S brain) could be a highly inheritable cognitive endophenotype of mothers of children with ASD. This study should be repeated with a larger sample size.

vorige artikel Appropriateness of the TOBY Application, an iPad Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Thematic Approach

volgende artikel Theory of Mind Performance in Broad Autism Phenotype Groups: Between-Group Differences and Predictor Variables

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.CrossRef

Baron-Cohen, S. (2002). The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(6), 248–254.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S. (2006). The hyper-systemizing, assortative mating theory of autism. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 30(5), 865–872. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2006.01.010.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S. (2009). Autism: the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156, 68–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04467.x.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S. (2010). Empathizing, systemizing, and the extreme male brain theory of autism. Progress in Brain Research, 186, 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53630-3.00011-7.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S., Auyeung, B., Nørgaard-Pedersen, B., Hougaard, D. M., Abdallah, M. W., Melgaard, L., et al. (2015). Elevated fetal steroidogenic activity in autism. Molecular Psychiatry, 20(3), 369–376. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.48.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S., Richler, J., Bisarya, D., Gurunathan, N., & Wheelwright, S. (2003). The systemizing quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 358(1430), 361–374. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2002.1206.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2), 163–175.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J., & Clubley, E. (2001). The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31(1), 5–17.CrossRefPubMed

Billeci, L., Calderoni, S., Conti, E., Gesi, C., Carmassi, C., Dell’Osso, L., et al. (2016). The Broad Autism (Endo)Phenotype: Neurostructural and neurofunctional correlates in parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 346. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00346.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Chaste, P., & Leboyer, M. (2012). Autism risk factors: Genes, environment, and gene-environment interactions. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 14(3), 281–292.PubMedPubMedCentral

Flint, J., & Munafò, M. R. (2007). The endophenotype concept in psychiatric genetics. Psychological Medicine, 37(2), 163–180. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291706008750.CrossRefPubMed

Floris, D. L., Lai, M. C., Nath, T., Milham, M. P., & Di Martino, A. (2018). Network-specific sex differentiation of intrinsic brain function in males with autism. Mol Autism, 9, 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0192-x.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Freitag, C. M. (2007). The genetics of autistic disorders and its clinical relevance: A review of the literature. Molecular Psychiatry, 12(1), 2–22. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001896.CrossRefPubMed

Gerdts, J., & Bernier, R. (2011). The broader autism phenotype and its implications on the etiology and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. Autism Research and Treatment, 2011, 545901. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/545901.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Goldenfeld, N., Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2005). Empathizing and systemizing in males, females, and autism. Clinical Neuropsychiatry: Journal of Treatment Evaluation, 2(6), 8.

Gottesman, I. I., & Gould, T. D. (2003). The endophenotype concept in psychiatry: Etymology and strategic intentions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(4), 636–645. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.160.4.636.CrossRefPubMed

Greenberg, D. M., Warrier, V., Allison, C., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2018). Testing the Empathizing-Systemizing theory of sex differences and the Extreme Male Brain theory of autism in half a million people. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(48), 12152–12157. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1811032115.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Grove, R., Baillie, A., Allison, C., Baron-Cohen, S., & Hoekstra, R. A. (2013). Empathizing, systemizing, and autistic traits: Latent structure in individuals with autism, their parents, and general population controls. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(2), 600–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031919.CrossRefPubMed

Hasegawa, C., Kikuchi, M., Yoshimura, Y., Hiraishi, H., Munesue, T., Nakatani, H., et al. (2015). Broader autism phenotype in mothers predicts social responsiveness in young children with autism spectrum disorders. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 69(3), 136–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12210.CrossRefPubMed

Hurley, R. S., Losh, M., Parlier, M., Reznick, J. S., & Piven, J. (2007). The broad autism phenotype questionnaire. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(9), 1679–1690. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0299-3.CrossRefPubMed

Jacquemont, S., Coe, B. P., Hersch, M., Duyzend, M. H., Krumm, N., Bergmann, S., et al. (2014). A higher mutational burden in females supports a “female protective model” in neurodevelopmental disorders. American Journal of Human Genetics, 94(3), 415–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.02.001.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Jeste, S. S., & Geschwind, D. H. (2014). Disentangling the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder through genetic findings. Nature Reviews Neurology, 10(2), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2013.278.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Kidron, R., Kaganovskiy, L., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2018). Empathizing-systemizing cognitive styles: Effects of sex and academic degree. PLoS ONE, 13(3), e0194515. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194515.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Lai, M. C., Lombardo, M. V., Chakrabarti, B., Ecker, C., Sadek, S. A., Wheelwright, S. J., … Consortium, M. A. (2012). Individual differences in brain structure underpin empathizing-systemizing cognitive styles in male adults. Neuroimage, 61(4), 1347–1354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.018.

Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, P. C., Risi, S., & Gotham, K. (2012). Autism diagnostic observation schedule (2nd ed., Vol. Volume ADOS-2). Torrence, CA: Western Psychological Services.

Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam, K., & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 147B(4), 424–433. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.30612.CrossRef

Pisula, E., & Ziegart-Sadowska, K. (2015). Broader autism phenotype in siblings of children with ASD–A review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16(6), 13217–13258. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms160613217.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Rossignol, D. A., Genuis, S. J., & Frye, R. E. (2014). Environmental toxicants and autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review. Translational Psychiatry, 4, e360. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2014.4.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Rubenstein, E., & Chawla, D. (2018). Broader autism phenotype in parents of children with autism: A systematic review of percentage estimates. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(6), 1705–1720. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1026-3.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Rubenstein, E., Edmondson Pretzel, R., Windham, G. C., Schieve, L. A., Wiggins, L. D., DiGuiseppi, C.,… Daniels, J. (2017). The broader autism phenotype in mothers is associated with increased discordance between maternal-reported and clinician-observed instruments that measure child autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(10), 3253–3266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3248-4.

Takeuchi, H., Taki, Y., Sassa, Y., Hashizume, H., Sekiguchi, A., Fukushima, A., et al. (2014). Regional gray matter volume is associated with empathizing and systemizing in young adults. PLoS ONE, 9(1), e84782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084782.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Tick, B., Bolton, P., Happé, F., Rutter, M., & Rijsdijk, F. (2016). Heritability of autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis of twin studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(5), 585–595. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12499.CrossRefPubMed

Wechsler, D. (1991). WISC-III: Wechsler intelligence scale for children: Manual. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.

Wechsler, D. (2002). The Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence (3rd ed.). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation Canadian Journal of School Psychology.

Wright, D. B., & Skagerberg, E. M. (2012). Measuring empathizing and systemizing with a large US sample. PLoS ONE, 7(2), e31661. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031661.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Zhao, X., Leotta, A., Kustanovich, V., Lajonchere, C., Geschwind, D. H., Law, K.,… Wigler, M. (2007). A unified genetic theory for sporadic and inherited autism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(31), 12831–12836. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0705803104.

Titel: The Empathizing–Systemizing Theory and ‘Extreme Male Brain’ (EMB) Theory in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): An Explorative, Cross-Sectional Study
Auteurs: Francesco Craig
Andrea De Giacomo
Rosa Savino
Marta Ruggiero
Luigi Russo
Isabella Fanizza
Lucia Margari
Antonio Trabacca
Publicatiedatum: 02-07-2019
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 10/2019
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04114-w

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Log in om toegang te krijgen

Andere artikelen Uitgave 10/2019

Trait Autism is a Better Predictor of Empathy than Alexithymia

Self-compassion: A Novel Predictor of Stress and Quality of Life in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Teaching “Imaginary Objects” Symbolic Play to Young Children with Autism

Pathways Early ASD Intervention as a Moderator of Parenting Stress on Parenting Behaviors: A Randomized Control Trial

Executive Function: Cognition and Behaviour in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Auditory Attentional Disengagement in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder