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Atypical Lexical/Semantic Processing in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders without Early Language Delay

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Abstract

Although autism is associated with impaired language functions, the nature of semantic processing in high-functioning pervasive developmental disorders (HFPDD) without a history of early language delay has been debated. In this study, we aimed to examine whether the automatic lexical/semantic aspect of language is impaired or intact in these population. Eleven individuals with Asperger’s Disorder (AS) or HFPDD-Not Otherwise Specified (NOS) and age-, IQ-, and gender-matched typically developing individuals performed a semantic decision task in four conditions using an indirect priming paradigm. Semantic priming effects were found for near-semantically related word pairs in the controls, whereas this was not the case in the AS or HFPDDNOS participants. This finding suggests similarities in the underlying semantic processing of language across PDD subtypes.

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Acknowledgments

This project is funded by The Fulbright Scholarship Program to Y. Kamio, The Monbukagakusho (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Government of Japan: MEXT) to Y. Kamio, and Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of Japan Science and Technology Agency to Y. Kamio. We thank Julie Wolf for her invaluable help with the testing. We also thank the participants and their families for their participations in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawahigashi, Kodaira, 187-8553, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoko Kamio

  2. Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Diana Robins

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Elizabeth Kelley, Brook Swainson & Deborah Fein

Authors
  1. Yoko Kamio
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  2. Diana Robins
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  3. Elizabeth Kelley
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  4. Brook Swainson
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  5. Deborah Fein
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoko Kamio.

 

 

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Kamio, Y., Robins, D., Kelley, E. et al. Atypical Lexical/Semantic Processing in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders without Early Language Delay. J Autism Dev Disord 37, 1116–1122 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0254-3

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