How Reversible are Social Dysfunctions in Autistic Spectrum Disorders?

Abstract: 

William S. Stone, PhD;* Chiara Simone Haller, PhD; Xiaolu Hsi, PhD

Deficits in social function are among the core features of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Recent conceptualizations of social cognition include multiple dimensions, including theory of mind, social perception, social knowledge, social attribution, and emotional perception and expression. Recent studies show that social cognition, like ‘standard’ cognition, is related to functional outcomes in neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism, by mediating effects of other variables (e.g. standard cognition), or by acting independently. This representative discussion reviews social cognition and focuses on its relationships with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), and with more standard measures of cognition. It then reviews attempts to improve outcomes in autism over the last 25 years. Useful treatments for ASDs focus are initiated early, have multiple treatment targets, and are comprehensive as possible. In this framework, social cognition offers a set of interrelated treatment targets that are important because they affect outcome, and are promising because they are at least partially distinct from more standard measures of cognition in their effects on outcome.

Key Words: social cognition, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental disorder social cognition, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental disorder

William S. Stone, PhD;1* Chiara Simone Haller, PhD;1,2 Xiaolu Hsi, PhD1,3

1 Massachusetts Mental Health Center Public Psychiatry Division of the Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA
2 Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
3 MIT Medical, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA
*Corresponding Author: Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 75 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115. Tel: 617-754-1235. (Email address: wstone@bidmc.harvard.edu)

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
None.

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