Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interactions, reduced verbal communication abilities, stereotyped repetitive behaviors, and restricted interests. It is a complex condition caused by genetic and environmental factors; the high heritability of this disorder supports the presence of a significant genetic contribution. Many studies ha...

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have deficits in working memory, but little is known about the everyday memory of these children in real-life situations. We investigated the everyday memory function in children with DCD, and explored the specific profile of everyday memory across different domains. Nineteen children with DCD and 19 typically developing (TD) children part...

We investigated whether a relationship exists between frontal lobe volume and fluid intelligence as measured by both Cattell's Culture Fair test and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) Performance scale, but not with crystallized intelligence as measured by the WAIS-R Verbal scale, in healthy adults, using two well-established image analysis techniques applied to high-resolut...

Autistic individuals typically excel on spatial tests that measure abstract reasoning, such as the Block Design subtest on intelligence test batteries and the Raven's Progressive Matrices nonverbal test of intelligence. Such well-replicated findings suggest that abstract spatial processing is a relative and perhaps absolute strength of autistic individuals. However, previous studies have not sy...

Twenty-four members of a family with benign familial chorea underwent testing for evidence of intellectual impairment. Lower verbal intelligence was found in affected individuals compared to unaffected family members, as were deficits in verbal abstract concept formation. These results challenge the notion that benign familial chorea uniformly spares the intellect in all kindreds.

The Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a muscular dystrophy with cognitive impairment present in 20-30% of the cases. In the present study, in order to study the relationship between the alpha-dystroglycan (alpha-DG) immunostaining in skeletal muscle and cognitive performance in DMD patients, 19 were assessed. Twelve patients performed the intelligence quotient (IQ) below the average. Among t...

This study examined whether rapid temporal auditory processing, verbal working memory capacity, non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, musical ability and prior foreign language experience predicted how well native English speakers (N=120) discriminated Norwegian tonal and vowel contrasts as well as a non-speech analogue of the tonal contrast and a native vowel contrast presented over ...

The condition of hydrocephalus (HCP) and its secondary sequelae have been well documented. Previous reports have documented the impact of an enlarging ventricular system on the developing brain and neuropsychological consequences in HCP children. Furthermore, most children with shunted HCP have been reported to demonstrate poorer non-verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) scores relative to verbal I...

Despite the importance of executive function (EF) in both clinical and educational contexts, the aetiology of individual differences in early childhood EF remains poorly understood. This study provides the first longitudinal intergenerational analysis of mother-child EF associations during early childhood. A group of children and their mothers (n = 62) completed age-appropriate EF tasks. Mother...