Quetsch and colleagues compared 450 autistic children to 432 neurotypical controls based on caregiver reports of aggressive behavior. Their analysis of results indicated that, across development, autistic children engaged in more verbal aggressive behavior with greater intensity than neurotypical children, although the degree of difference diminished as the children grew older.
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Inflexible Behavior Control in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can engage in highly focused repetitive tasks for hours. Alvares and colleagues wondered if this persistent behavioral focus might reflect a diminished degree of flexibility in goal directed behavior such that once an individual with ASD becomes engaged with a task, they may be unable to redirect their behavior toward a different goal. To find out, they compared the behavior of individuals with ASD that of individuals in two other groups: a group of individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), and a neurotypical control group. The participants were required to perform a high-value task up to the point where the value of the task diminished and the value of a different task increased.
The optimal response when relative task values change is to switch from the task with diminished value to the task that is now of highest value. But the researchers reported that both ASD and SAD participants persisted in the first task while only neurotypical individuals switched to the new high-value task. The authors suggest that ASD individuals may be unable to reorient their goal-directed behavior even though they know they should.
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Dr Martin Fracker 