Emotion Perception Mediates the Predictive Relationship Between Verbal Ability and Functional Outcome in High-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Sadao Otsuka, Shota Uono, Sayaka Yoshimura and 2 others
PMID 28194554WHAT IT FOUND
In high-functioning adults with autism, better emotion perception and verbal fluency were linked with better adaptive functioning.
Emotion perception was part of the link between verbal ability and everyday functioning.
Key findings
01Facial emotion recognition, verbal fluency, and detail-focused processing were significant predictors of adaptive functioning in adults with ASD.
02Emotion perception carried part of the link between verbal fluency and adaptive functioning, but it did not carry part of the link between detail-focused processing and adaptive functioning.
03In the 30 participants with adaptive behavior data, the Vineland-II composite score was the only significant predictor of social functioning and accounted for 64% of its variance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that cognitive abilities caused later functional outcomes or that improving them will improve outcomes. Only 30 of the 41 ASD participants had Vineland-II adaptive behavior scores, so the main predictor analyses used a smaller subset. The sample was limited to adults with ASD and average or higher IQ, so findings may not apply to adults with lower IQ or more severe language disability. The sample was small, with 41 ASD participants and 21 controls, which limits confidence in group differences and predictor estimates. Only a few tests were used for each cognitive domain, and the adaptive behavior analysis used only the composite score, not subdomains or more complex outcome relationships.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that training emotion perception or verbal fluency will improve everyday functioning. The study was cross-sectional, involved only 30 participants in the adaptive behavior analyses, and tested no intervention.