Outline of Autism - Conditions and Research Areas

Conditions and Research Areas

• Asperger syndrome (AS) – an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.
• Autism – limited in focus, interest, or activity, such as preoccupation with a single television program, toy, or game.
• Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – an instrument for diagnosing and assessing Autism.
• Autism spectrum – a range of conditions classified as pervasive developmental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
• Autism Spectrum Quotient – AQ, is a questionnaire published in 2001 by Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, UK.
• Causes of autism – have been proposed, but understanding of the theory of causation of autism and the other autism spectrum disorders is incomplete.
• Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) –
• Conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders – such as fragile X syndrome and epilepsy.
• Developmental disability – lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18.
• Epidemiology of autism – the study of factors affecting autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
• Epigenetics of autism – the study of epigenetic effects in ASD.
• Fragile X syndrome (FXS) – Martin-Bell syndrome, or Escalante's syndrome (more commonly used in South American countries), is a genetic syndrome that is the most common known single-gene cause of autism and the most common inherited cause of mental retardation among boys.
• Genetic disorder – an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes, especially a condition that is present from before birth.
• Heritability of autism – the proportion of autism that can be explained by genetic variation; if the heritability of a condition is high, then the condition is considered to be primarily genetic.
• High-functioning autism – an informal term applied to autistic people who are deemed to be "higher functioning" than other autistic people, by one or more metrics.
• Isodicentric 15 –
• Language delay – a failure to develop language abilities on the usual developmental timetable.
• Learning disability – a classification including several areas of functioning in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors.
• List of further reading on Asperger syndrome –
• Mirror neuron – a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.
• Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) – as opposed to specific developmental disorders (SDD), refers to a group of five disorders characterized by delays in the development of multiple basic functions including socialization and communication.
• PDD-NOS – (PDD-NOS) is a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), and is also considered one of the three autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
• 22q13 deletion syndrome – ), also known as Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, is a genetic disorder caused by a microdeletion on chromosome 22.
• Rett syndrome – a neurodevelopmental disorder of the grey matter of the brain that almost exclusively affects females.
• Spindle neuron – also called von Economo neurons (VENs), are a specific class of neurons that are characterized by a large spindle-shaped soma, gradually tapering into a single apical axon in one direction, with only a single dendrite facing opposite.
• Weak central coherence theory (WCC) – also called the central coherence theory (CC), suggests that a specific perceptual-cognitive style, loosely described as a limited ability to understand context or to "see the big picture", underlies the central disturbance in autism and related autism spectrum disorders.
• Mental retardation (MR) – a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors.