Autism, First-Episode Psychosis, and Social Anxiety Disorder: A transdiagnostic examination of executive function cognitive circuitry and contribution to disability

E A Demetriou; C Y Song; S H Park; K L Pepper; S L Naismith; Daniel F Hermens; I B Hickie; E E Thomas; A Norton; D White; A J Guastella

doi:10.1038/s41398-018-0193-8

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Autism, First-Episode Psychosis, and Social Anxiety Disorder: A transdiagnostic examination of executive function cognitive circuitry and contribution to disability

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Autism, First-Episode Psychosis, and Social Anxiety Disorder: A transdiagnostic examination of executive function cognitive circuitry and contribution to disability

E A Demetriou, C Y Song, S H Park, K L Pepper, S L Naismith, Daniel F Hermens, I B Hickie, E E Thomas, A Norton, D White, …

Translational Psychiatry, Vol.8, 200

2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0193-8

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Abstract

Clinical Sciences

Public Health and Health Services

Psychology

The disability burden in clinical cohorts with social impairment is significant, leading to poor functional outcomes. Some of this impairment has been linked to executive dysfunction. In this study, a transdiagnostic approach was taken to identify executive function (EF) processes in young adults that may underpin social impairment and to evaluate their contribution to disability. Comparisons were made between three prominent disorders that are characterized by social impairments, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Early Psychosis (EP) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), as well as a neurotypically developing group (TYP). We examined whether overall disability could be predicted by neuropsychological and self-report assessments of EF. Our study showed that ASD participants demonstrated impaired performance on most domains of EF compared to the TYP group (mental flexibility, sustained attention and fluency) while the EP group showed impairment on sustained attention and attentional shifting. The SAD participants showed EF impairment on self-report ratings, even though their objective performance was intact. Self-reports of EF explained a significant percentage (17%) of disability in addition to the variance explained by other predictors, and this was particularly important for ASD. This is the first study to compare EF measures across clinical groups of social impairment and suggests unique cognitive-circuitry that underpins disability within groups. Impairments in EF were broad in ASD and predicted disability, EP impairments were specific to attentional processes and SAD impairments likely relate to negative self-monitoring. Self-report, as opposed to performance-based EF, provided best capacity to predict disability. These findings contribute to transdiagnostic circuitry models and intervention strategies.

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Title: Autism, First-Episode Psychosis, and Social Anxiety Disorder: A transdiagnostic examination of executive function cognitive circuitry and contribution to disability
Authors: E A Demetriou (Author) - University of Sydney
C Y Song (Author) - University of Sydney
S H Park (Author) - University of Sydney
K L Pepper (Author) - University of Sydney
S L Naismith (Author) - University of Sydney
Daniel F Hermens (Author) - University of Sydney
I B Hickie (Author) - University of Sydney
E E Thomas (Author) - University of Sydney
A Norton (Author) - University of Sydney
D White (Author) - University of Sydney
A J Guastella (Author) - University of Sydney
Publication details: Translational Psychiatry, Vol.8, 200
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Date published: 2018
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0193-8
ISSN: 2158-3188
Copyright note: Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any mediumor format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changesweremade. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Thompson Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450443602621
Output Type: Journal article

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