
The Cognitive Profile of People with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders - lainon
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406692/
======
afpx
I’ve not been diagnosed with ASD, but I did have to take parts of the Wechsler
a few years ago. My results were lopsided, as this paper describes. My doctor
was surprised at how fast I completed the block design and matrix reasoning
parts. He said he had never seen them completed so quickly. Yet, my verbal
scores were relatively low. I did similarly on the SATs - I perfected the math
section but did horribly on the verbal parts.

I have challenges processing words. I strain to use them. It feels like I’m
translating from one language to another over a couple layers. Then again, I
didn't begin speaking until I was 3. So, maybe I missed some developmental
stages.

But, I often wonder if I have ASD. Reading this paper reminded me of it. Is
there any benefit in getting a diagnosis?

~~~
DanBC
> Is there any benefit in getting a diagnosis?

A dx can help explain your life and things that happened to you and how you
respond to stuff.

It can be useful if you need to ask people for reasonable adjustments.

~~~
teddyc
Very good to have on the job. Employers will take advantage of autistic work
habits, attention to detail, lack of time wasted with water cooler talk, etc.
But you need to have a diagnosis in hand to get an accommodation or a free
pass when you say something stupid that you are not supposed to say.

------
zeristor
This seems to be quite a dense paper, I’ve just scrolled through thid study of
Iranian children, although the sample size of 30 seems quite low.

However since I’m learning statistics this is the first time I’ve noticed the
use of the Kolmgorov-Smirnov test in the wild, so I’ll be trying to go through
it in more detail to see how K-S is used from a different angle.

~~~
ktaylora
The statistics for this paper are pretty straight forward. The sample size is
small, so recovering a significant effect with frequentist hypothesis tests
like MANOVA with 30 samples is challenging. However, the authors went to great
lengths to filter out subjects with confounding factors. So even though the
final sample size is small, it's intentionlly focused on the main effects of
the study.

~~~
thedudeabides5
Ok, so can you say the results? Spent a couple minutes reading and still have
no idea what they are trying to say.

~~~
ktaylora
I think the most interesting conclusion is that ASD (particularly "High
Functioning" ASD) may actually be ADHD. Clinicians should do more rigorous
testing to differentiate ASD and ADHD in their patients. Also, they add that
"High Functioning" may not be a useful label. ASD is ASD. They demonstrate
that IQ tests alone aren't that great a tool for comparing intelligence for
people with high-functioning ASD vs typically ASD. But that some differences
in subjects emerge when you use other measures of intelligence. They add that
"subjects with high-functioning ASD showed a good competence in Matrix
Reasoning and weaknesses in Comprehension." This means that people with a
high-functioning ASD may be better at reasoning through complex spatial
problems (like puzzles, mazes, matrix operations and linear algebra, solving
rubix cubes :P) than a typical person with ASD.

They also note that the prevalence of ADHD symptoms and diagnoses are
unusually high in ASD populations (37-85%). You can see the how strongly
correlated ADHD symptoms are with ASD in their indices in their Tables 1 & 5
-- look at the negative effect with comprehension that's shared with typical
symptoms in people with ASD's in table 5.

So, if you are a high functioning Aspie -- you may actually just be ADHD. And
in other cultures, your profile may look very different than what is
manifested in the West. Maybe shedding that label is important to you. It
isn't to me.

~~~
jaggederest
It might be useful to you to know that your post was dead. I vouched for it,
but you might have triggered some screening criteria.

~~~
ktaylora
Thx, mate. I'm a TOR user. Happens all the time.

------
stared
Line plots to compare categorical variables? Please don't. (Scatter plot with
text labels or bar plots would work so much better!) The only worse way is to
use radar plots.

------
omgwtfbyobbq
Based on what I've read and personal experience, there seems to be a
significant amount of overlap between ASDs, ADHD, OCDs, and bi-polar. I
wouldn't be surprised if there's a significant amount of underlying complexity
we're missing that ties these disorders together.

~~~
rubinelli
The common characteristic seems to be a deficit in executive functions and
cognitive control. Individuals have a lower ability to autoregulate their
emotional state, making them less able to deal with frustration, and more
vulnerable to compulsive behaviors, addiction, anxiety, and depression.

~~~
diydsp
i believe this, too. essentially: paying attention to things and trying to
make sense of them drives you crazy. the world only has pockets of order. you
have to act crazy/stupid in many cases. it's hard to align strategy with
situation. society is a mechanism for cataloging these strategies, but demands
equal payment. you have to help them to get them to teach you which mode to be
in. and they're still wrong often. just knowing this can drive you crazy.

