The 69-year-old billionaire Microsoft co-founder has never publicly shared his diagnosis I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Phoebe Gates appears to have revealed that her father, Bill Gates, has “Asperger’s syndrome.” During this week’s episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, host Alex Cooper asked the 22-year-old daughter of the billionaire Microsoft co-founder what her experience has been with bringing men home to her dad it’s hilarious because my dad’s pretty socially awkward The Independent has contacted Bill’s representatives for comment The 69-year-old software engineer has never spoken publicly about having Asperger’s syndrome a diagnosis previously given to some autistic people The term has since been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) People with ASD may experience social and communication difficulties In his 2025 memoir, Source Code, Gates said he believed he would have been diagnosed with a form of ASD if he were a child being raised today. “If I were growing up today, I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. During my childhood, the fact that some people’s brains process information differently from others wasn’t widely understood,” he wrote. “My parents had no guideposts or textbooks to help them grasp why their son became so obsessed with certain projects, missed social cues, and could be rude and inappropriate without seeming to notice his effect on others.” Bill also noted that the term “neurodivergent,” used to describe people whose brains form or work differently, wasn’t coined until the 1990s. Formal testing for ASD wasn’t introduced until the 1980s, and by that time, Bill was already in his late 20s and early 30s. Bill further opened up about realizing he was different from his peers growing up in a February interview with Axios. “I always knew I was different in ways that confused people in terms of my energy level and intensity, and going off and just studying things,” he said. “And it's a little confusing when you're a kid, that you're different, or people react to you in some ways, or your social skills — you're miscuing on various things. “I definitely think my parents, maybe somewhat unintentionally, because there was no diagnosis, but the way they would explain things to me or push me to socialize was very helpful,” he continued. Bill also reflected on the first time someone suggested he had ASD: “Somebody said to me, ‘Are you on the spectrum?’ It was like 25 years ago, I remember thinking, ‘What the hell? What the hell? I run a goddamn company.’ And then I realized, well, actually, it’s probably true. I mean, the spectrum thing is confusing.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies the billionaire founder of Facebook (now Meta) has often been the subject of public curiosity—not just for his role in shaping social media but also for his personality and unique traits Zuckerberg made a public statement revealing that he has a mild form of autism His revelation has sparked discussions about autism in the workplace and highlighting how neurodiverse individuals can achieve remarkable success and how his traits may have contributed to his success Mark Zuckerberg has disclosed that he has a mild form of autism previously classified as Asperger’s syndrome (now part of Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD) While he has never elaborated much on the subject his admission has led to wider conversations about autism People with Asperger’s often have above-average intelligence While they may struggle with social interactions they excel in analytical thinking and problem-solving—traits that align well with Zuckerberg’s career Many who have worked with him describe him as hyper-focused qualities that have contributed to his success in building Facebook into a global empire Asperger’s syndrome was once considered a distinct diagnosis but is now classified under Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) It is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how individuals interact socially Related: Inside the Daily Routine of Google CEO Sundar Pichai: How He Starts His Day and Stays Productive technology)Difficulty with social cues and small talkPreference for routine and predictabilityHigh intelligence and problem-solving skillsLiteral thinking and difficulty understanding sarcasm people with Asperger’s typically do not have language delays but may struggle with social interactions and emotional expression and straightforward communication style have often been noted as characteristics associated with Asperger’s Related: Priscilla Chan: The Woman Behind the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Related: Mark Zuckerberg: A Glimpse into the Daily Life of Meta's Visionary Leader many traits associated with the condition have likely helped Zuckerberg achieve massive success in the tech industry Zuckerberg showed a deep passion for computers and programming He created his first software at age 12 and later built Facebook while studying at Harvard University His ability to hyper-focus on a single goal helped him refine and scale Facebook into what it is today Zuckerberg is known for his logical and methodical decision-making His approach to business is data-driven rather than emotional allowing him to navigate the fast-changing tech industry with precision Many people with Asperger’s excel at finding solutions to complex problems—a skill that Zuckerberg has used to develop and expand Facebook and innovate within the social media space Unlike many CEOs who rely on charisma and public speaking Zuckerberg has always been more reserved and unconcerned with public perception This has allowed him to make bold business decisions without being overly influenced by outside opinions Related: Inside Tim Cook’s Daily Routine: How the Apple CEO Stays on Top Related: The Bad Habits Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Cuban Had to Ditch to Succeed While Zuckerberg’s traits have helped him succeed Many people have described Zuckerberg’s communication style as robotic or awkward His monotone speech and lack of emotional expression in public speaking engagements have been widely noted Zuckerberg has struggled to convey warmth or connect emotionally with his audience His hyper-focus has made him a relentless worker often prioritizing Facebook’s success over personal or ethical concerns—something critics have pointed out in privacy scandals and controversies surrounding the platform Zuckerberg’s disclosure of his autism has helped reduce stigma and inspired many neurodiverse individuals to pursue careers in tech it is essential to remember that:Not all successful people are on the autism spectrum.Not all individuals with autism achieve billionaire-level success.Autism affects everyone differently Zuckerberg’s story shows that neurodiversity should not be seen as a limitation but rather as a unique perspective that can lead to innovation and success Mark Zuckerberg’s Asperger’s traits have shaped his leadership contributing to Facebook’s rise to global dominance His journey highlights an important message:Autism is not a barrier to success.People with neurodiverse minds bring valuable strengths to the world While Zuckerberg’s communication style and personality may seem different from traditional CEOs and obsessive focus have made him one of the most influential figures in technology As awareness of autism and neurodiversity grows his story serves as a powerful reminder that success comes in many different forms One of the Czech Republic's greatest players of all time, GM David Navara and his experiences living with Asperger's syndrome IM Sagar Shah continues to deliver compelling stories to the chess world on ChessBase India's YouTube channel In an 80-minute video with Navara released on Wednesday he interviewed the 13-time Czech champion at his home outside Prague The conversation provided a fascinating glimpse into Navara widely regarded as one of the most exceptional and well-liked grandmasters in the chess world today due to his friendly and authentic personality Navara learned chess at the age of six by discovering a chess book with the rules. He quickly started winning junior titles after working with Czech GMs Ludek Pachman and Vlastimil Jansa once said that Navara’s devotion and love for chess was rivaled only by Bobby Fischer After becoming an international master at 14 it only took another five years until he had broken the 2700 barrier for the first time in 2006 While being ranked among the world's top 15 with a peak rating is 2751 from May 2015 he has never been close to making it into the world’s top five He addressed this candidly in the interview "I think I had the potential to reach top 10 "I think I was never good enough to reach the top five in the world,” he added. He noted players close to his generation such as GMs Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian I think I was never good enough to reach the top five in the world Navara talked about how six years of studying math "I was much more talented as a chess player than in mathematics," he said I was not as enthusiastic or spending as much time on it He also noted how he felt intense pressure while being in the top 15 at a young age I wasn’t as mentally stable." His health also played a negative role but small problems that could occasionally cost me points.” Navara was never particularly eager to break into the world's top 20 while being ranked in the top 30s but I was not obsessed with climbing significantly higher." Navara is ranked 60th in the world with a rating of 2663 While he acknowledges that a different focus on chess might have propelled him higher "I’m glad I studied and met other intelligent people I’m glad I studied and met other intelligent people Navara has played some truly spectacular games in his career. One memorable game was against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in Biel 2015 He describes it as "special and interesting" Another masterpiece, is his queen sacrifice against GM Ivan Cheparinov in 2007 and not completely clear and there were some mistakes but it was quite an attractive game," he said The Czech grandmaster also shared his passion for books a language he decided to learn at the age of 15 when the German class was full Navara has now added "book writer" to his CV, co-authoring The Secret Ingredient: To Winning at Chess with GM Jan Markos a game-collection preceded by accompanying texts a book about mastering strategies for winning In the end, Shah asked Navara about being "on the spectrum," a form or degree of autism which is a condition related to brain development that "impacts how a person perceives and socializes with others, causing problems in social interaction and communication," according to Mayo Clinic The 39-year-old was quick to respond: “I probably have Asperger’s Syndrome which is typical for slightly eccentric geniuses,” he said which is typical for slightly eccentric geniuses He went on to explain: "They often have difficulties in understanding other people there were many people similar to me in this respect He described his younger self as “a small asocial child,” albeit with some exaggeration he made a conscious effort to develop social skills “I had to learn a lot to understand others better I wanted to have good relationships with people because it’s simply better to be friendly than not to be friendly.” Grandmaster David Navara:"I probably have Asperger's Syndrome, which is typical for slightly eccentric geniuses. Not that everybody would be very clever - I am not a genius. Those are people who are very much focused and concentrated on one thing. They often have some unusual… pic.twitter.com/4BZx6c6VvK Although he has never received a formal diagnosis Navara discovered Asperger’s syndrome much later in life but there are people who have more symptoms than me My fascination with chess—while unusual—helped me reach where I am today Navara said he had difficulties dealing with online trolling at first He summed up what chess means for him: "It's my profession and my hobby Navara said that while he intends to do more coaching, he wants to continue playing chess actively. The grandmaster is among the top seeds in the European Championship, which begins in Romania on Saturday. Volume 7 - 2013 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00847 This article is part of the Research TopicDeveloping synaesthesiaView all 18 articles There is increasing evidence from case reports that synesthesia is more common in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) genes related to synesthesia have also been found to be linked to ASC and individuals with ASC show altered brain connectivity and unusual brain activation during sensory processing up to now a systematic investigation of whether synesthesia is more common in ASC patients is missing The aim of the current pilot study was to test this hypothesis by investigating a group of patients diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS) using questionnaires and standard consistency tests in order to classify them as grapheme-color synaesthetes The results indicate that there are indeed many more grapheme-color synaesthetes among AS patients This finding is discussed in relation to different theories regarding the development of synesthesia as well as altered sensory processing in autism synaesthetes should be able to quickly distinguish synaesthetically congruent from incongruent trials synaesthetes have been shown to respond much more accurately in this test than controls The neuronal mechanisms underlying synesthesia still remain to be clarified. In GCS, there is evidence of the involvement of visual, parietal, and frontal brain areas (Rouw et al., 2011), whereas involvement of the parietal cortex has also been found in sequence-space (Tang et al., 2008) and (language-unrelated) auditory-visual synesthesia (Neufeld et al., 2012a) Finally, there is some anecdotal evidence for synesthesia in ASC patients (Harrison and Hare, 2004) and preliminary data based on self-report suggest that synesthesia is more common in individuals with AS (Johnson et al., 2011) a systematic investigation into the relationship between AS and synesthesia using standardized tests is missing up to now Here we tested a group of individuals diagnosed with ASC for GCS We hypothesized that this type of synesthesia is more common in individuals with ASC DSM-IV criteria for AS in child- and adulthood (A.P.A., 1994) were thoroughly explored by a self-developed semi-structured interview (“Diagnostic interview: AS in adulthood”) After a general medical anamnesis (somatic including childhood development) the second part specifically explored symptoms related to AS This part contained the sections: social interaction and communication (e.g. friendships and interest in peers); special interests (e.g. in specific objects/topics); stereotype behavior (e.g. reaction to disturbance of rituals); and other characteristics (e.g. increased sensitivity toward sensory stimuli) Each section addressed child- and adulthood separately and clumsiness were observed during the interview The duration of the interview was about 90 min Diagnosis was completed with information from personal interviews All patients were interviewed by the same experienced investigator Diagnosis was only confirmed if all DSM-IV criteria were clearly fulfilled Retrospective data on the development of speech were assessed Two male patients were excluded from the study retrospectively as the possibility of delayed speech onset could not be reliably excluded in these cases Additionally we used two self-rating scales to complement diagnosis: the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) and the empathy quotient (EQ) (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004) The AQ is an instrument for quantifying where an individual is placed on the continuum from typical to autistic a high score indicating more pronounced autistic traits The AQ consists of 50 items which are divided into five subscales: social skill The EQ is an instrument for estimating the empathic abilities of an individual and a high score indicates greater empathy It consists of 40 items on empathy and 20 filler items Baron-Cohen suggested a cut-off score of ≥32 points for the AQ (80% of patients with AS scored more than 32 points) and a cut-off score of ≤30 points for the EQ (81% of patients with AS scored less than 30 points) the score for 20% of Baron-Cohen's patients was outside these cut-offs Therefore those patients whose score was outside the autistic range were also included as long as they fulfilled the DSM-IV criteria for AS Every patient was examined for axis-I co-morbidity by using the German version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) (Wittchen et al., 1997) All patients diagnosed with AS between February 2008 and June 2011 in the Clinic for Psychiatry of the Hannover Medical School (n = 29 8 women) received a written or oral invitation to participate in the study for which a small amount of monetary compensation was offered The study was described as involving computer tests and questionnaires Nothing was mentioned about synesthesia before participation to avoid a recruiting bias mean age = 37.9 ± 11.3 years) gave informed consent to participate in the study and completed the tests The study was approved by the local ethics committee As there was no time pressure to choose the colors in this test the completion time varied (from about 20 min to 1 h) Graphical surface of the consistency test and examples of consistency test results for different patients (A) Participants selected a color for each item presented on the screen by moving a cross-hair cursor over a color matrix The majority of patients reported not perceiving colors when seeing numbers or letters and made inconsistent color choices as in (B) those patients have rather high scores in the consistency test (>1.0) This is consistent with their reports and their low scores in the six-point questionnaire (<17) Three patients made consistent color choices (score <1.0) for letters and numbers (C) or numbers only (D) which was consistent with their reports and six-point questionnaire scores (those patients claiming to perceive synesthesia differently for numbers and letters completed the questionnaire twice In order to prevent false classification of participants using memorizing strategies to give consistent responses like synaesthetes, the consistency test was followed by a speeded consistency test. The latter is designed to test for the criterion of automaticity and is based on the assumption that the possibility of giving correct responses from memory is ruled out if the response has to be given quickly. (Eagleman et al., 2007) participants see a colored grapheme presented on the screen for 1 s the color is congruent with the synaesthetic color reported by the participant in the other 50% of trials the color is incongruent participants are instructed to report as quickly as possible by pressing a button whether the color of the letter is congruent with their synaesthetic color or not The test consists of 108 trials and takes approximately 10 min Participants were only classified as synaesthetes if they fulfilled all three criteria: (1) subjective experience of synesthesia (assessed by self-report and short questionnaire) (2) consistency (indicated by a consistency score lower than 1.0 for those items for which synesthesia was reported) and (3) automaticity of synaesthetic sensations (indicated by an accuracy level of at least 80% in the speeded consistency test) At the end, an extensive interview, based on a synesthesia questionnaire, was conducted to obtain additional information about the subjective experience of GCS, as well as other synesthesia types, and to collect some data on the patients (age, sex, education, etc.). One part of the synesthesia questionnaire was a list of possible possible inducers and concurrents, as in the questionnaire by Simner et al. (2006) Participants were asked to indicate any of synesthesia they thought they may have by drawing lines on the questionnaire between listed inducers and concurrents They were further asked to name any additional type of synesthesia involving inducers or concurrents which were not on the list or to modify items to describe the sensation in a better way the whole investigation took approximately 2 h per subject As GCS is characterized by stable grapheme-color mapping, color consistency was calculated for the color choices per grapheme made during the three runs. The color variation was calculated from the geometric distance of the RGB (red green blue) values chosen for each item within the three trials. A consistency score was then calculated as the mean geometric distance per item over all N items (Eagleman et al., 2007) N was 36 – X (X = the number of items for which the “no color” button was chosen) Synaesthetes usually achieve scores smaller than 1.0 while controls usually achieve higher scores (on average 2.0) indicating less consistent color choices The percentage of correct responses in all 108 trials, as well as the mean response time, was then calculated. Synaesthetes have been shown to give 94% correct responses on average, while control subjects have an average of 67% correct responses (Eagleman et al., 2007) Therefore synaesthetes can be expected to respond correctly to at least 80% of the trials in this test percentage of correct responses and reaction times in the speeded consistency test were calculated Patients were classified as synaesthetes if they (1) reported experiencing synesthesia before testing (2) reached a consistency score <1.0 and an accuracy of >80% in the speeded consistency test reaction times of participants classified as synaesthetes and those classified as non-synaesthetes were compared to make sure that the former did not achieve higher accuracy by taking more time for their responses For synaesthetes reporting synesthesia for both letters and numbers mean reaction time for all graphemes was used while for those reporting synesthesia for numbers only mean reaction time for numbers only was used These reaction times were compared to (1) mean reaction times for all graphemes and (2) mean reaction times for numbers only in classified non-synaesthetes using two-sample t-tests The same comparisons were made for consistency scores and percentage of correct responses in the speeded consistency test The percentage of patients classified as synaesthetes in the whole group included in the study as well as in the group of patients tested To exclude the possibility that the percentage of synaesthetes found in the current study might be influenced by a recruiting bias (patients with synesthesia might be more likely to participate in a study) we used the percentage of synaesthetes found in the total sample of patients included conservatively assuming that the eight patients who could not be tested would have been classified as non-synaesthetes A two-sided 95% Wald confidence interval was calculated for the percentage of synaesthetes in the whole sample which was then compared with prevalence calculations of GCS in the general population The prevalence of grapheme-color synaesthetes has been found to be 1.1% in museum visitors and 1.4% in students when only those synaesthetes who perceived colors for both numbers and letters were counted When those participants who perceived colors for numbers only were also counted as synaesthetes found 2.0% grapheme-color synaesthetes in the university sample As we also included both types of grapheme-color synaesthetes here those who perceive colors for letters and numbers and those perceiving colors for numbers only we used the 2.0% as reference for our study we would expect the 95% Wald confidence interval of our estimated percentage to range above 2.0% Furthermore a power calculation with nQuery7.0 based on the exact test for a single proportion was performed to investigate whether the sample size was appropriate for the comparison questionnaire score and consistency test results of all participants Additional synesthesia types reported by patients classified as grapheme-color synaesthetes For the 16 patients who were classified as non-synaesthetes the consistency score was between 1.19 and 2.59 (mean = 1.99; SD = 0.44) and the accuracy in the speeded consistency test was between 28.70and 79.63% (mean = 63.52%; SD = 13.90%) The mean questionnaire score was 8.44 ± 4.99 When looking at RGB values for numbers only the 16 patients classified as non-synaesthetes reached consistency scores between 0.92 and 3.29 (mean = 1.73; SD = 0.43) and an accuracy in the speeded consistency test between 33.33 and 83.33% (mean = 67,35%; SD = 15.03%) The consistency scores, percentages of correct responses and reaction times in the speeded consistency test (both for all graphemes and numbers only) for the two groups were compared (see Figure 2) The distributions of all metrics were found to be not significantly different from normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Test) and therefore independent-sample t-tests were used for comparisons Patients classified as synaesthetes were significantly more consistent in their color choices in the consistency test [t(20) = 5.79; p < 0.001] and in the speeded consistency test regardless of whether the percentages of correct responses for the synaesthetes (letters and numbers or numbers only depending on synesthesia type) were compared to the values for all graphemes [t(19) = 4.19; p < 0.001) or numbers only [t(19) = 3.47; p < 0.001) in the non-synaesthete group However the reaction times in the speeded consistency test were not significantly different between groups when comparing the synaesthetes' values to non-synaesthetes' values for all graphemes [t(19) = 0.44; p = 0.67) or numbers only [t(19) = 0.24; p = 0.81) There was no significant correlation between response time and accuracy (R = 0.23 p = 0.31).This strongly suggests that those patients classified as synaesthetes did not achieve higher consistency by memorizing responses Comparison of consistency and reaction times for patients identified as synaesthetes with those for patients identified as non-synaesthetes Participants were divided into two groups: those identified as synaesthetes (N = 5 dark gray bars) and those identified as non-synaesthetes (N = 16 (A) Mean consistency scores (GC-synaesthetes: mean =; SD = (B) mean percentage of correct responses in the speeded consistency test and (C) mean reaction times in the speeded consistency test are shown Note that for the two synaesthetes who reported synesthesia for numbers only the scores and reaction times for numbers only were used Error bars represent between-subject standard errors Therefore the rate of synaesthetes was significantly higher in the patient group than in the general population For the sample of tested patients the 95% Wald confidence interval extends from 5.6% to 42.0% Figure 3. Comparison of the percentage of patients who were identified as grapheme-color synaesthetes with the prevalence estimations in the general population. Even when assuming that the patients who could not be tested would be classified as non-synaesthetes, the associated 95% Wald confidence interval (3.5–31.0%) still exceeds the prevalence reported by Simner et al. (2006) The power calculation for the exact test for a single proportion with a two-sided type I error of 5% demonstrated that the sample size was large enough for the observed effect The probability of proving a difference between 2 and 17.2% (the most conservative scenario) with 29 patients is 89% Overall, 36 types of synesthesia other than GCS were reported by patients, regardless of whether they were classified as grapheme-color synaesthetes or not (see Table 3) List of reported synesthesia types apart from GCS: The possible reasons for such a linkage will be discussed below Therefore both phenomena are likely to be related to altered low-level perception synesthesia can be regarded as resulting from associations between corresponding members of two homologous series and this would explain the greater tendency of those individuals to develop synesthesia shared genetic components leading to differences in brain anatomy (including local connectivity) and altered cognitive mechanisms like increased veridical mapping and a greater tendency to concretize abstract information might make individuals with ASC more likely to develop synesthesia The main weakness of this study is the relatively small subject number – especially compared to other prevalence investigations we tried to avoid response biases (1) by including all patients diagnosed by a single institution in a certain time period and (2) by not mentioning synesthesia before commencing testing in order to avoid response bias driven by motivation to participate (which might be enhanced in individuals who believe that they are synaesthetes) the aim of the current study was not to evaluate the specific prevalence of synesthesia in AS patients but to test the hypothesis that synesthesia is more common in this group than in the general population Our results clearly support this hypothesis they do not clarify whether AS is more common among synaesthetes The question of the prevalence of AS in synaesthetes will have to be investigated in future studies Another critical point of this investigation is the diagnostic procedure There is no standard for diagnosing AS according to the DSM-IV criteria in adulthood The “Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised” is often used but this interview is based purely on information from the parents with many questions concerning the patient's childhood as patients do not wish to involve their parents in the diagnostic process or they are not available the retrospective recall of the childhood period may be imprecise Therefore the diagnostic process for autism in adulthood is currently problematic especially if no diagnosis has been made in childhood We tried to minimize this problem by a thorough exploration of the DSM-IV criteria for child- and adulthood by interviewing and observing the patients and by supplementing this with information from third parties or If the unbalanced sex ratio in our study affected the results be expected that an even higher percentage of synaesthetes would be found in a sample with a balanced sex ratio two of the five patients classified as synaesthetes were women although only five women were tested in total Given that AS is believed to be far more common in boys than in girls (8:1) (Remschmidt and Kamp-Becker, 2007) one might find the male/female ratio of 3.5:1 (2.75:1 in the whole sample) in this study surprising there is more recent evidence that the proportion of AS actually varies less between males and females (on average 4.6:1 but varying in different states of the U.S.A from 2.7:1 to 7.2:1) (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Lying within the range found in the United States the male/female ratio in this study is therefore quite representative Further work is needed to examine the relationship between AS and synesthesia by investigating a larger group of Asperger patients and the possible reasons for the linkage or similarities between the two conditions it would also be of great interest to learn whether the prevalence of ASC or the occurrence of autistic traits (e.g. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest Christopher Sinke has been supported by the DFG (SFB 936/A4) American Psychiatric Association. 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enhance spatial localization in adults with autism Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The genetics of colored sequence synesthesia: suggestive evidence of linkage to 16q and genetic heterogeneity for the condition Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Atypically diffuse functional connectivity between caudate nuclei and cerebral cortex in autism Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Effective connectivity determines the nature of subjective experience in grapheme-color synesthesia Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Dillo W and Zedler M (2013) Is synesthesia more common in patients with Asperger syndrome Received: 30 July 2013; Accepted: 21 November 2013; Published online: 09 December 2013 Copyright © 2013 Neufeld, Roy, Zapf, Sinke, Emrich, Prox-Vagedes, Dillo and Zedler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Markus Zedler, Department Clinical Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str., 1 (OE 7110), 30625 Hannover, Germany e-mail:emVkbGVyLm1hcmt1c0BtaC1oYW5ub3Zlci5kZQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Bullied as a child: Musk is “bad at picking up social cues" Famous multi-millionaire stars who live in modest homes That's after he playfully brought a sink into the Twitter headquarters His detractors have berated the world’s richest man as someone who “lacks empathy” currently the world’s most successful corporate icon (net worth: $251.3 billion) is a living testimony of the “savant syndrome” Musk had admitted having a hidden disability — Asperger’s Syndrome — generally known as “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD) Savant syndrome is an unusual yet remarkable condition where individuals with significant mental disabilities exhibit a distinct "island of genius" that sharply contrasts with their overall limitations.  Regardless of the specific savant skill it consistently correlates with an extraordinary memory capacity When asked about Asperger's on stage at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver which makes him “bad at picking up social cues.” that while growing up, “the social cues were not intuitive I would just tend to take things very literally … but then that turned out to be wrong — [people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean there's all sorts of other things that are meant and [it] took me a while to figure that out,” he recalled he casually admitted: “I’m actually making history now as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL… or at least the first to admit it.” I just want to say I reinvented electric cars and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship Did you think I was also going to be a chill How the condition has impacted Musk’s life and projects has been also tackled in the just-released book “Elon Musk” penned by writer-journalist Walter Isaacson where the book was translated into Chinese Publisher Citic Press Group had raised the book’s selling price to 79 yuan ($10.84) on Monday Online retailer JD.com’s app Tuesday shows that versions of Musk's biography in Chinese held the top three spots in the category of most popular finance and economics biographies Musk runs some of the most disruptive corporate entities like AI-driven robots on four wheels (Tesla) also a cultural and social media icon (with Twitter/X) When asked about a potential link between his companies and Asperger’s, Musk said it’s “certainly possible” that it was valuable from a technology standpoint “I found it rewarding to spend all night programming computers He said he also became “obsessed” with physics and trying to figure out the meaning of life “My driving philosophy is to expand the scope and scale of consciousness so that we may better understand the nature of the universe.” “The Code Breaker” (Jennifer Doudna) and other bestselling biographies offers deep insights into Musk’s childhood in this inside story that brims with fascinating vignettes of both victories and challenges Isaacson portrays Musk as a “man-child” who until he reached a point where he could stand up to his tormentors a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father and charismatic fantasist,” Isaacson writes The people closest to him will attest that Musk lacks empathy — something that Isaacson describes as a “gene” that’s “hard-wired.” The book is a product of Isaacson's shadowing of Musk for two years He was even given a peek at emails and texts and engaged in “scores of interviews and late-night conversations” with him “His father’s impact on his psyche would linger,” Isaacson writes “He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.” “At the beginning of 2022 — after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit and him becoming the richest man on earth — Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas ‘I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode which it has been for about fourteen years now he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter his mind went back to being bullied on the playground Now he had the chance to own the playground," Isaacson writes acknowledging the influence of Asperger's — given the relatively few known examples of successful business leaders with the condition — Musk's revelation and his latest biography may inspire the next generation of young adults with Asperger’s syndrome Isaacson then poses the question: Do the inner demons propelling Musk also serve as the driving force behind the innovation and advancement he has unleashed so far was "insane." The reason: Because Musk "doesn't have empathy." The author believes it arises from a fundamental mistake: Musk wrongly thought Twitter was a tech company when in reality it's primarily an ad business based on human emotions WeChat generates significant revenue through its integrated services, including advertising, payments, and e-commerce. By turning X into a similar platform, Musk could tap into a variety of revenue streams beyond traditional advertising. It’s one thing for X, upgraded as a super-social-payments tool, to get past regulatory hurdles (it has already secured money transmission licence in multiple US states); it’s quite another whether or not users would embrace it by the hundreds of millions everywhere. X has a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino. Musk, whose core competence is that of a coder, continues to work on product design and new tech. His arrival has resulted in blue checks, scrubbing of tonnes of bot accounts, significantly reducing child sexual abuse content, allowing "long-form" tweets, while also bumping the number of active X users to 550+ million. If the legions on X do embrace it for payments, the platform has immense potential to become a huge money-spinner; in which case, Musk's $44-billion Twitter buyout would prove a great bargain, and its transition to X an insanely brilliant move. Get the latest news and updates straight to your inbox New financial report from X debt sale shows change X rival Bluesky adds blue checks for trusted accounts Elon vs Ashley: Paternity feud takes a dramatic turn Musk’s X sues Indian government over content regulation Volume 6 - 2012 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00302 Part of this article's content has been mentioned in: The effects of context processing on social cognition impairments in adults with Asperger's syndrome Deficits in social cognition are an evident clinical feature of the Asperger syndrome (AS) Although many daily life problems of adults with AS are related to social cognition impairments few studies have conducted comprehensive research in this area The current study examined multiple domains of social cognition in adults with AS assessing the executive functions (EF) and exploring the intra and inter-individual variability Fifteen adult's diagnosed with AS and 15 matched healthy controls completed a battery of social cognition tasks This battery included measures of emotion recognition and self-monitoring behavior in social settings We controlled for the effect of EF and explored the individual variability The results indicated that adults with AS had a fundamental deficit in several domains of social cognition We also found high variability in the social cognition tasks AS participants obtained mostly subnormal performance EF did not seem to play a major role in the social cognition impairments Our results suggest that adults with AS present a pattern of social cognition deficits characterized by the decreased ability to implicitly encode and integrate contextual information in order to access to the social meaning when social information is explicitly presented or the situation can be navigated with abstract rules Our findings have implications for the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with AS as well as for the neurocognitive models of this syndrome emotional recognition of a face usually occurs within a background that includes emotional body language and other convergent information such as prosody other processes may require the use of explicit and abstract rules about the general social setting in terms of conventions or expected behaviors (e.g. explicit social norms during specific social interactions) different strategies underlie the different social cognition domains we investigate different aspects of social cognition in adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) Recent reports suggest that adults with AS exhibit deficits in multiple social cognition domains including face recognition previous studies have not taken into account several factors that should be considered simultaneously in the social cognition research of these individuals These factors include: (1) the simultaneous assessment of multiple social cognition domains (3) the assessment of executive functions (EF) and (4) the cognitive heterogeneity of the AS which are essential for establishing the underlying factors that contribute to the social cognition deficits of adults with AS evidence suggests that emotional processing is affected in AS and other autism spectrum disorders These studies show that these patients are impaired in cognitive empathy but do not differ from controls in emotional empathy Finally, one study recently reported that participants with AS and HFA participants exhibit specific impairments in moral judgment. Participants made atypical moral judgments when they needed to consider the intention of harm (accidental vs. intentional) and the outcome (neutral vs. negative) of a person's actions (Moran et al., 2011) These participants were unable to judge the moral difference between accidental and attempted harms to assess several social cognition domains with different contextual clues involvement allows for a more comprehensive evaluation and it makes it possible to establish whether there is a common factor that explains the adults with AS social cognition deficits only a few studies have simultaneously tested more than one social cognition domain no studies on adults with AS have controlled for the effect of EF on social cognition performance we predicted that adults with AS will have deficits in several social cognition domains We hypothesized that the social cognition deficits of adults with AS would be more related to impairments in the capacity to implicitly integrate action intentions with contextual clues than to the inability to apply explicit social rules We also hypothesized that the social cognition difficulties would not be explained by EF profiles This hypothesis was based on the fact that deficits in social cognition seem to be a fundamental characteristic that is less affected by AS heterogeneity while patterns of EF have shown high variability between individuals we predicted that the MCSA should demonstrate that patterns of cognitive strengths and weaknesses vary within individuals The psychiatrist then sought to validate the symptom examples provided by the AQ and EQ and checked the other AS symptoms and criteria Healthy control participants matched with the adults with AS were recruited from a large pool of volunteers p = 1.00] or years of formal education [F(1 p = 0.25] were observed between adults with AS and controls The following exclusion criteria were applied: (1) AS participants who met DSM-IV criteria for any axis-I diagnosis were excluded; (2) control subjects with a history of mental retardation or any clinical condition that may affect cognitive performance were excluded; (3) adults with AS and controls with a history of drug or alcohol abuse were also excluded All participants provided written informed consent in agreement with the Helsinki declaration The study was approved by the ethics committee of Institute of Cognitive Neurology A battery of neuropsychological tests was used to assess EF and social cognition (see below). Patients were also evaluated with the Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence (WASI). This scale includes vocabulary and matrix reasoning subtests and provides an estimated IQ (Weschler, 1999) All participants were individually evaluated in a quiet office of the Institute of Cognitive Neurology A complete evaluation was administrated in one session that lasted approximately 2 h Subjects were initially assessed with the social cognition tasks and then with the EF and intellectual level tests The order of administration of the tasks was the same for each participant A detailed description of the social cognition tasks is provided in supplementary data Social cognition domain assessed and tasks employed and experimental data were compared between the groups using ANOVA and Tukey's HSD post-hoc test (when appropriate) The ANOVA results were also corrected for multiple comparisons using the Tukey's test When analyzing categorical variables (e.g. To control for the influence of EF on the performance on social cognition tasks we applied an ANCOVA test that was adjusted for the cognitive flexibility score The α value for all statistical tests was set at 0.05 To assess individual differences, we conducted a MCSA and compared each participant with the control group on every performance measure. We followed the method of Towgood et al. (2009) and used a threshold of 2 standard deviations (SD) from the mean of the control group to define the normal range we identified control subjects who displayed abnormal performance in each sub-measure we recomputed the control means and SD excluding these subjects and identified adults with AS and control participants who were below (minus 2 SD) or above (plus 2 SD) the controls mean We carried out frequency analyses in order to record the instances in which the performance of each subject was subnormal or supranormal We then used non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney tests) to compare the number of measures of impaired and supra-normal performance Pearson's correlations were performed to examine the association between the EF measures with the greatest variability and the total scores on the social cognition tasks that were significantly different between groups Table 2 shows the overall results from the demographic and EF assessment Demographic and executive functions assessment The results showed that our groups have similar EF performance. No differences in verbal fluency, inhibitory control, interference control, or working memory were observed (Table 2) the adults with AS performed significantly lower than controls on the switching design fluency task [F(1 suggesting subtle cognitive flexibility impairments we considered this measure as a covariate in the social cognition performance analysis Figure 1 summarizes the significant differences between groups Significant differences between groups in social cognition tasks sensitivity for expression behavior of others; AMSP No significant differences in the TASIT total score were observed [F(1 The per category analysis showed significant differences between groups [F(4 df = 134.13) revealed that adults with AS had difficulty with disgust categorization (p < 0.01) This effect was preserved (p < 0.01) after co-varying for cognitive flexibility (p = 0.35) No significant differences were observed for anger (p = 1) sadness (p = 0.11) or surprise (p = 0.74) categorization the adults with AS scored significantly lower than controls on the FPT total score [F(1 This result did not change (p < 0.01) after adjusting for cognitive flexibility (p = 0.15) Significant differences were also observed on the hits [F(1 Differences were preserved (p < 0.01) after co-varying for cognitive flexibility (p = 0.13) The AS group also showed lower intentionality scores [F(1 This effect was preserved (p < 0.01) in the covariate analysis (p = 0.41) adults with AS scored lower on emotional attribution [F(1 This effect was maintained (p < 0.01) after adjusting for the covariate (p = 0.43) No significant differences were observed on the reject scores [F(1 No differences between the groups were observed on the RMET [F(1 The ratings of empathic concern were significantly different between groups [F(2 df = 55.08) revealed that the adults with as rated the intentional pain situations with lower scores (p < 0.01) even controlling for cognitive flexibility (p = 0.65) the controls rated greater empathic concern for intentional harm situations than accidental harm situations (p < 0.01) this difference was not observed in the adults with as significant group differences were observed in the punishment ratings [F(2 df = 66.7) showed that the adults with as tended to rate intentional harm situations with lower scores than controls (p = 0.06) This tendency did not change (p = 0.06) in the covariate analysis (p = 0.93) No differences were observed in the judgments of discomfort the RTs of the discomfort judgments were different between groups [F(2 The RTs of the discomfort judgments were longer for the intentional harm than the neutral (p < 0.01) and accidental (p < 0.05) harm situations These differences were preserved (p < 0.05) in the covariate analysis (p = 0.17) Adults with as scored higher on pd subscale [F(1 This effect was preserved (p < 0.05) after adjusting for the covariate (p = 0.60) p = 0.17] were observed on the ec subscale the as group tended to have lower scores than controls [F(1 This tendency was true (p < 0.01) after controlling for cognitive flexibility (p = 0.09) No difference between the groups was observed [F(1 p < 0.01] and neutral outcomes [F(1 p < 0.01] were judged to be more permissible than actions with negative intentions and negative outcomes Accidental harm was judged as being more permissible than intentional harm (Intention × Outcome Interaction) [F(1 The group × intention × outcome interaction [F(1 p = 0.21] was not statistically significant the adults with AS and controls did not differ in their judgments of morality the judgments of the neutral (neutral outcome harmful intent) vignettes did not differ between groups No differences between groups were observed in the break [F(1 Adults with AS obtained lower scores in the sensitivity for expression behavior of others compared to controls [F(1 Adults with AS also received lower scores on the ability to modify self-presentation [F(1 This effect remained true after the covariate analysis (p < 0.01) even though a significant effect of cognitive flexibility (p < 0.05) on self-presentation was observed adults with AS showed impairments on measures of disgust recognition (TASIT) and empathic concern and punishment ratings for the intentional harm situations (EPT) the adults with AS showed higher scores on the PD subscale They also showed lower scores on subscales of the sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others and the ability to modify self-presentation (RSMS) All differences were preserved after covarying for cognitive flexibility adults with AS seem to perform less well in tasks that require an implicit encoding of socially relevant information and automatic context integration they performed as well as controls in tasks in which the social information was explicitly presented and when the task could be solved with abstract rules the difficulties experienced by the adults with AS were not explained by abnormalities in EF To explore the intra-individual variability in tasks performance of the AS group, we examined the ranges of z-scores based on the performance of the control group (Towgood et al., 2009) The maximum range of performance on each of the 78 measures in controls was 4.60 more than 43% of the measures (34/78 sub-measures) showed a z-score range exceeding the maximum threshold observed in controls 27.78% (5/18) of the EF measures exceeded the maximum range of the control group whereas 48.33% (29/60) of the social cognition measures exceeded this range A greater number of adults with AS performed atypically compared with the control group. The individual performance profiles of each AS and control participants are provided in Appendix (see Tables A1a, A1b, A2a and A2b). The measures that were the most variable are detailed in Table 3 Most of the adults with AS performed below normal (<2SD below control group mean) in both supra-normal (>2SD above control group mean) performance was observed only in the phonological fluency task They also obtained supra-normal performance on several EPT measures the adults with AS showed supra-normal ratings in tasks involving neutral situations (e.g. In neutral scenarios in which the actions do not involve the intention to hurting someone one would expect lower discomfort or intention to hurt ratings the results suggest that the adults with AS are unable to discriminate between the neutral accidental and intentional pain situations The measures of executive functions and social cognition reveal variable performance in the AS group the MCSA revealed that the adults with AS performed less well than the controls Inter-individual variability (subnormal performance) was observed on: FPT (60%) empathic concern rating of intentional pain (33.33%) sensitivity of expression behavior of others (33.33%) and ability to modify self-presentation (53.33%) To explore the inter-individual variability, we analyzed the performance of each participant and recorded instances in which the performance was 2 SDs below or above of the control mean. A non-parametric test was applied to compare the number of measures for subnormal and supra-normal performance (see Table 4) the adults with AS showed a greater number of abnormal measures than controls (Mann–Whitney U = 19.00 The AS participants also showed a greater number of measures in which they performed below control performance (Mann–Whitney U = 14.00 no significant differences were observed in the number of measures with supra-normal performance (Mann–Whitney U = 82.00 Comparison of the number of measures in which each individual exhibited abnormal performance the MCSA showed higher variability in the performance of the adults with AS compared with controls A larger proportion of the social cognition measures compared to the EF measures exceeded the maximum range of the z-scores calculated based on the control group performance In the AS group subnormal performance was higher than supra-normal we explored the influence of EF on social cognition performance We examined the correlation between the EF measures with the greatest variability The primary goal of this study was to examine the performance of adults with AS on tasks of multiple domains of social cognition The secondary goal was to explore individual variability in adults with AS performance on both the social cognition and EF tasks Our results suggest that participants with AS have a fundamental deficit in several domains of social cognition We also found that the AS participants showed a greater number of social cognition measures in which they performed below controls' performance These deficits were not explained by abnormalities in EF our data suggest that a common mechanism underlies the deficits in multiple social cognition domains in the adults with AS these participants performed poorly on tasks (TASIT EPT) that imply the ability to implicitly infer the intentionality of actions and those that require the integration of mental states (intentions we consider that the failure to find significant correlations could not be explained by the lack of the sensitivity of the executive measures the lack of significant correlations may be explained by the low variability observed in the EF performance since both groups had a similar executive functioning and low variability these results indicate that EF do not seem to play a major role in the social cognition impairments of adults with AS the deficits in disgust recognition may be associated with abnormalities in the basal ganglia and the insula an adequate performance in the FPT involves the capacity to implicitly integrate cognitive inferences about mental states with empathic understanding This capacity is mediated by the appraisal of contextual clues and relevant social elements provided in the scene information the RMET can be solved using basic and general matching strategies to correctly pair the depicted eyes and emotions the ToM results suggest that adults with AS have difficulty integrating implicit information from the context and using this information to infer the intentionality and the emotional impact of the others' actions We employed a more ecologically valid measure of empathy (EPT) than the self-report questionnaires. In this task, the adults with AS showed abnormal empathic concern ratings, punishment ratings, and RTs of discomfort judgments for the intentional pain situations. Consistent with previous findings (Klin, 2000; Zalla et al., 2009) our results indicate that these individuals have difficulty with inferring the intentionality of actions Information about intentionality allows us to decide how bad or good an action is The deficit in intention inference may have affected the empathic concern ratings and therefore the punishment ratings of the adults with AS The lower scores on the PT subscale suggest that individuals with AS have difficulty understanding the feelings and perspectives of others the pattern of performance on the empathy measures indicated that adults with AS are impaired when using contextual information to infer the intentions of others These deficits are reflected by lower ratings of empathic concern and punishment these individuals show higher levels of discomfort in stressful interpersonal situations These difficulties can affect their performance on the task moral judgment in adults with AS needs to be further studied using naturalistic social situations without explicit rules Moreover, our results revealed no differences between the AS participants and controls on the SNQ. This finding indicates that social rules knowledge is preserved in adults with AS. In accordance with our data, a study (Zalla et al., 2011) reported that AS and high-functioning individuals with autism are able to detect social rule violations social norms can be learned in an explicit way This explicit knowledge can be used by adults with AS to guide their behavior and can act as a compensatory strategy for their social cognition deficits this factor seems to be the implicit encoding and the integration of contextual information in order to access to the social meaning our results suggest that adults with AS may benefit from the use of explicit information the social demands are not explicitly formulated Social situations involve implicitly inferring the meaning of the circumstance by integrating contextual cues the pattern of deficits presented here may partially explain the difficulties with social interaction that individuals with AS experience in their daily lives Adults with AS may use abstract rules to compensate for their impairments in social cognition. Previous reports have shown that individuals with AS have superior abstract reasoning abilities (Hayashi et al., 2008; Soulieres et al., 2011) This strength may contribute to the performance on social cognition tasks that require the use of abstract rules and the integration of explicit information this superiority in abstract reasoning may not help in social situations that involve implicit social rules and the integration of contextual cues the meaning of social information is less predictable and relies heavily on context which reduces the chances of inferring the meaning by applying explicit abstract rules the social cognition patterns of individuals with AS is characterized by sub-normal performance suggesting that these deficits are probably the core of the disorder Our study documents multiple social cognition deficits as fundamental features of the AS diagnosis Our results showed that adults with AS present deficits in the implicit integration of contextual information in order to access to the social meaning when social information is explicitly presented and the situation can be solved with abstract rules the individuals with AS usually perform as well as controls We also found that individual profiles of adults with AS showed subnormal performance in social cognition measures we only included individuals diagnosed with AS given the ongoing debate about the differentiation among autistic subtypes future studies should compare social cognition profiles of both conditions Further research should also explore the variability patterns of adults with AS compared with HFA although AS will probably be formally excluded as a diagnostic category in the DSM-V our findings are still relevant for studying individual differences within autism spectrum disorders and the subset of people who show a particular profile (previously diagnosed as individuals with AS) detailed scientific assessments on cognitive domains may help to identify subcategories of autism spectrum disorders From a theoretical perspective, our findings are relevant for discussions on social cognition domain specificity in adults with AS. As previously proposed (Stone and Gerrans, 2006a,b) our results support a social cognition profile involving different degrees of affectation and a heterogeneous profile These results do not support a modular or the “all or nothing” structure of social cognition Contextual processing seems to affect the social cognition profile of adults with AS in a dissimilar way their performance on social cognition tasks may be partially explained by the interaction of low-level mechanisms with the general capacity to integrate contextual information Although implementation would be challenging intervention programs should be based on teaching implicit rules for interpreting unpredictable social contexts Learning to assess implicit contextual clues may improve the social skills of adults with AS The authors thank Ralph Adolphs and Phil Baker for their helpful and insightful comments in an earlier version of the paper This research was partially supported by CONICET FONDECYT (1130920) and INECO 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Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Faux pas detection and intentional action in Asperger Syndrome Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The awareness of social inference test (TASIT). The TASIT is a test of social perception that involves videotaped vignettes of everyday social interactions (Kipps et al., 2009; McDonald et al., 2003, 2006) This task introduces contextual cues (e.g. and gestures) and additional processing demands (e.g. and social reasoning) that are not taxed when viewing static displays which assesses recognition of emotional expression (fearful and gesture) together with the social situation indicate the emotional meaning who is either on the telephone or talking directly to the camera Other scenes depict two actors and instructions are given to focus on one of them All scripts are neutral in content and do not lend themselves to any particular emotion The brief EET comprises a series of 20 short (15–60 s) videotaped vignettes of trained professional actors interacting in everyday situations the test participant is instructed to choose from a forced-choice list the emotion expressed by the focused actor This test (Baron-Cohen et al., 1997) assesses the emotional inference aspect of the ToM (or empathic accuracy) This is a computerized and validated test in which consist of 17 pictures of the eye region of a face Participants are asked to choose which of four words best describes what the person in each photograph is thinking or feeling The FPT assesses the emotional and cognitive inference aspects of the ToM. In this task, the participants read stories that may contain a social faux pas (Stone et al., 1998) the subject is asked whether someone said something awkward (in order to identify stories containing a faux pas) Each story was presented in front of the patient in order to decrease working memory load Performance was scored regarding the adequate identification of the faux pas (hits) and the adequate rejection of those stories which did not contain a faux pas (rejects) The score was 1 point for each faux pas correctly identified (maximum: 10) or non-faux pas correctly rejected (maximum: 10) A total score was computed (out of 20 total points) by adding the number of hits and rejects subjects were also asked 2 additional questions to measure intentionality—that is recognizing that the person committing the faux pas was unaware that they had said something inappropriate (maximum 10)—and emotional attribution in which participants should recognize that the person hearing the faux pas might have felt hurt or insulted (maximum 10) The EPT evaluates the empathy in the context of intentional and accidental harms. The task consists of 25 animated situations involving two individuals that are presented successively (Decety et al., 2011) The three following kinds of situations were depicted: intentional pain in which one person (passive performer) is in a painful situation caused intentionally by another (active performer) stepping purposely on someone's toe (pain caused by other); accidental pain where one person is in a painful situation accidentally caused by another; and control or neutral situations (e.g. one person receiving a flower given by another) the faces of the protagonists are not visible and there was no emotional reaction visible to the participants We measured the ratings and reaction times (RTs) to situation comprehension (e.g. “press the button as soon as you understand the situation”) we assessed 7 questions about the following aspects of the scenarios: intentionality the accidental or deliberate nature of the action; emphatic concern (how sad you feel for the victim); degree of discomfort (for the victim); harmful behavior (how bad was the purpose of the perpetrator); the valence behavior of the active perpetrator (how much positive emotion he/she felt in performing the action); the correctness of the action (moral judgment); and finally punishment (how much penalty this action deserves) Each question was answered using a computer-based visual analogue scale giving 7 different ratings by trial Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1983) The IRI is a 28-item self-report questionnaire that separately measures both the cognitive and affective components of empathy The instrument contains four scales: Perspective Taking (PT) Following the protocol reported elsewhere (Young et al., 2010) we presented participants with 24 scenarios The four variations of each scenario followed a 2 × 2 design: (1) the protagonists either harmed another person (negative outcome) or did no harm (neutral outcome); (2) the protagonists either believed that they would cause harm (negative intent) or believed that they would cause no harm (neutral intent) Each possible belief was true for one outcome and false for the other outcome The agent held true beliefs in the all-neutral and all-negative conditions and false beliefs in the accidental harm and attempted harm conditions The participants saw one version of each scenario eight possible versions of the 24 scenarios with six trials of each of the four conditions were presented The stimuli were presented in a pseudorandom order and the conditions were counterbalanced across participants Each participant read six stories in each of the four conditions the participants were asked to rate the scenario on a Likert-scale ranging from totally permissible (7) to totally forbidden (1) Individual profiles of executive functions tasks performance for each adult with the AS Individual profiles of executive functions tasks performance for each control adult Individual profiles of social cognition tasks performance for each adult with the AS Individual profiles of social cognition tasks performance for each control adult The SNQ questionnaire consisting of 20 yes–no questions was used (Rankin et al., 2009) The participants were asked to determine whether a behavior would be appropriate in the presence of an acquaintance (not a close friend or family member) according to the mainstream culture The break score was defined as the total number of errors made in the direction of breaking a social norm and the over-adhere score was defined as the total number of errors made in the direction of over adherence to a perceived social norm The RSMS is a 13-item instrument and assesses the tendency to regulate one's behavior to present a particular self in a social context (Lennox and Wolfe, 1984) The scale involves two styles of self-monitoring behavior: the ability to modify self-presentation (e.g. I have the ability to alter my behavior if I feel that something else is called for”) and the sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others (e.g. “I am often able to read people's true emotions correctly through their eyes”) The participants responded using a 6-point Likert-scale The ratings ranged from 0 = “strongly disagree” to 5 = “strongly agree.” The contribution of emotion and cognition to moral sensitivity: a neurodevelopmental study Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Detecting sarcasm from paralinguistic cues: anatomic and cognitive correlates in neurodegenerative disease Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Manes F and Ibanez A (2012) Integrating intention and context: assessing social cognition in adults with Asperger syndrome Received: 27 July 2012; Accepted: 19 October 2012; Published online: 08 November 2012 Copyright © 2012 Baez, Rattazzi, Gonzalez-Gadea, Torralva, Vigliecca, Decety, Manes and Ibanez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License distribution and reproduction in other forums provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc *Correspondence: Agustin Ibanez, Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology and National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Pacheco de Melo 1860, Buenos Aires, Argentina. e-mail:YWliYW5lekBpbmVjby5vcmcuYXI= †This work is part of the master dissertation (Baez S) ongoing by the author on the Italian Hospital at Buenos Aires E-mail: ketil.slagstad@medisin.uio.no Hans Asperger has been portrayed as an opponent of the Nazi regime under which he served Historical research has now shown that he was instead a well-adapted cog in the machine of a deadly regime He deliberately referred disabled children to the clinic Am Spiegelgrund where he knew that they were at risk of being killed The eponym Asperger's syndrome ought to be used with awareness of its historical origin Herta Schreiber was examined by the Austrian child psychiatrist Hans Asperger (1906–80) at the Universitäts-Kinderklinik in Vienna The two-year-old girl had sustained a brain injury after falling acutely ill with diphtheria and encephalitis a few months earlier Asperger noted: 'Serious personality disorder (post-encephalitic?): major motoric retardation; erethic idiocy; seizures The child must be an unbearable burden for her mother Permanent placement in Am Spiegelgrund appears absolutely necessary.' the children's clinic at the large psychiatric hospital Am Steinhof in Vienna The hospital consisted of 60 pavilions in the art nouveau style designed by the famous architect Otto Wagner the senior medical officer at Am Spiegelgrund reported to the National Committee for Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Diseases in Berlin that Herta suffered from 'idiocy The National Committee was responsible for the secret Nazi child euthanasia programme 'euthanasia' was a euphemism for the Nazis' racial hygiene Jekelius ticked the boxes on the form indicating that Herta's condition was incurable and that it would have no effect on her life expectancy Jekelius was in fact asking for permission to kill Herta The doctors registered 'pneumonia' as the cause of death Herta was one of at least 789 children who died in Am Spiegelgrund from July 1940 The most common method was to administer a barbiturate a drug which is now used to induce narcosis caused many of the children to die quickly Those who survived were given repeated doses of the drug and denied food and died slowly from starvation or infections such as pneumonia The history of the role of Nazi doctors in the forced sterilisation and murder of adults and children with various somatic and mental disorders and disabilities is well known Less well known so far is the role played by Hans Asperger who later would lend his name to a diagnosis Asperger largely constructed the image of himself as an opponent of Nazism and as the children's saviour an image that was uncritically disseminated in the ensuing period Two major research works that have examined the same archive material take issue with the embellishment of Asperger's role during the Nazi era: Edith Scheffer's book Asperger's Children: the Origin of Autism in Nazi Vienna (1) and an article by Herwig Czech (2) Hans Asperger grew up in a peasant family in Hausbrunn in the north-eastern corner of Austria near the border with Slovakia in the east and the Czech lands in the north who was never able to realise his dream of becoming a bookkeeper Asperger said later in life that he would never have exposed his family or patients to a similarly rigorous upbringing a fact which has been cited as an argument for his innocence (2) Although Asperger never joined the Nazi party he was a member of several Nazi organisations he was a member of the Catholic youth organisation Bund Neuland which embodied fascist ideas and pan-Germanic ideology the doctrine of how to improve the 'biological quality' of the population was a legitimate ideology dressed up in scientific garb and promoted by a broad political stratum in many European countries Social hygiene held sway in many European countries leading to arguments for improvement of public health through social initiatives such as house-building The social hygiene project could also involve recommendations and incentives for population groups with desirable genetic material to continue reproducing argued for purging of undesirable genetic material for example through sterilisations (negative eugenics) although there was tension between the proponents of racial hygiene on the one hand and more general eugenics on the other (3–5) which allowed for sterilisation with and without consent on social and eugenic grounds was adopted in the Storting with only a single dissenting vote (6) the Austrian population suffered great losses a fear arose that the physical health of the population might be at risk: the politicians saw it as their essential task to help build a solid and healthy population The social context paved the way for proactive a Jewish doctor and social democrat who was the director of Vienna's Public Welfare Office favoured extensive sterilisation of people with 'unworthy lives' such as persons with hereditary diseases and physical or cognitive impairments When Asperger came to Vienna to study medicine in the 1920s eugenics was well established and accepted in the medical community a new series of experts on children's physical and mental health emerged Among them was Erwin Lazar (1877–1932) paediatrician and founder of the Heilpädagogische Station at the University of Vienna The philosophy here was to combine the trinity of educational science psychology and modern medicine to help vulnerable children Lazar opened the roof of the children's hospital to let the children play in the open air and have contact with the elements The distinction between social and medical assessments gradually eroded new attention was devoted to learning disorders and new words such as neglect and asociality entered the child psychiatrists' vocabulary The genealogy of concepts that continue to circulate in child psychiatry and psychology can be traced back to this period In the city where Sigmund Freud was working Psychoanalytic theories of normal human psychology and psychopathology differed from contemporary psychiatry which relied on physiological experiments and neurology many readers will be surprised by the strong social engagement shown by the psychoanalysts of the time seen in light of psychoanalytic practice of the day especially in the United States) has been criticised as representing a therapy for the upper classes twelve psychoanalytically inspired clinics opened across Europe to provide treatment to patients free of charge which offered both training of students and treatment of patients psychoanalysts worked as volunteers; among them were Anna Freud Although there was sometimes a rigid standoff between psychiatry and psychoanalysis the development of these disciplines cannot be regarded in isolation In Vienna there was a widespread exchange of perspectives between them throughout the 1920s this mutually beneficial exchange came to an abrupt end when in 1930 the paediatric hospital appointed a new director who identified with racial hygiene and became a key spokesman for the budding Nazism at the age of 25 and as a recently graduated doctor Hans Asperger was employed by the children's clinic with Hamburger as his superior Medicine and psychiatry came to play a decisive role in the Third Reich but in many ways Nazism was also medicalised the Nazi and anatomist Eduard Pernkopf (1888–1955) was appointed new dean of the medical faculty of the University of Vienna He fired nearly 80 % of the faculty's staff More than two-thirds of Vienna's 4 900 doctors and 70 % of the city paediatricians lost their jobs ((1) This nazification caused a total transformation of Austrian psychiatry: more than 80 % of the members of the Viennese psychoanalytical society were Jews and the majority succeeded in fleeing from the country Psychiatrists and child psychiatrists played a key role in the Nazi regime and implemented the ideology of racial purity of the Reich Motorised maternal health care (Gesundheitswagen) was one of the instruments that were used to provide healthcare services to the rural population While this service was in line with the notions of social hygiene to foster a healthy population it also functioned as the Nazi regime's surveillance instrument Nazi doctors registered and prepared statistics of illness in the population such as people with alcoholism and congenital defects Am Spiegelgrund therefore received not only patients from other clinics but also unwanted children whom the doctors had indexed in the villages her father signed a warrant for her transfer to an institution Marie was diagnosed with 'profound idiocy' Chief medical officer Heinrich Gross sent an application to the National Committee for permission to put her to death Asperger was a fierce critic of psychoanalysis and the belief that upbringing and traumas were formative for children's development and tended to emphasise biological and constitutional explanations Anomalies were explained in terms of a 'general inferiority of the nervous system' an idea that shows through in the texts he published after the war (2) His opposition to psychoanalysis and the role of trauma in development of psychopathology is especially evident in his explanation of sexual abuse of children He claimed that children who were exposed to abuse needed to have an innate disposition a 'shamelessness' that made them attract such incidents children with a 'healthy personality' would outgrow even serious sexual traumas (2) There was no conflict between the tradition of which Asperger was a part and a biological understanding of illness A key concept in this context was Gemüt whose dictionary translation is 'disposition' or 'temperament' but in German this term dates back to the eras of German Enlightenment and Romanticism Gemüt changed from being a descriptive concept and an ideal to becoming an instrument that child psychiatrists could use to socialise and mould the individual to the needs of the collective Gemüt was quantifiable (gemütskalt Gemütsbegabung and Gemütsreichtum) for example through community organisations such as the Hitler Youth It was believed that in autistic children it was exactly this lack of Gemüt that was prominent a differentness in the ability to make contact with the community untreatable children represented a threat to the Reich Gemüt was a key characteristic of German-ness and these children therefore represented a violation of the ideology of purity ((1) Asperger took a special interest in children who today might be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders In his inauguration thesis Die «Autistischen Psychopathen» im Kindesalter he described a small group of 'autistic psychopaths' whose traits of character were more commendable than those of other children Their faculty for abstract thinking was so well developed that 'their relationship to the concrete Such children with special abilities were especially valuable since they would often end up as highly educated in leading positions in society Asperger believed that this only applied to boys: 'the autistic personality is an extreme variant of male intelligence' and 'male character' ((1) Scheffer here points to a clear gender ideology in Asperger's thinking Asperger and his colleagues separated out the children they believed to be curable with the aid of heilpädagogische principles and thus socialised back into the community By removing them from their families and strengthening their ties to the community who were so badly damaged in their social contact with their environment that their prognosis for being able to fulfil a function in Nazi society was poor; they were without value and thus undesirable but starting from 1939 they were put to death by the child euthanasia programme T4 Thirty per cent of those who were killed suffered from physical disabilities cerebral palsy and other brain injuries or disorders Socially related 'coexisting indications' in the parents were often added to the applications for permission to kill the children ((1) Scheffer points to a radical change in Asperger's writing about the children before and after the Nazis came to power: in 1937 he wrote that 'it is impossible to establish a rigid set of criteria for a diagnosis' but in the following year he claimed to be able to identify a 'well-characterized group of children who we name "autistic psychopaths"' the 'autistic psychopaths' were said to 'live their own lives without an emotional relationship with the environment' the child is defined in terms of the community: 'The autist is only himself (autos) and is not an active member of the greater organism which he is influenced by and which he influences constantly' ((1) Scheffer chooses to interpret Asperger's formulations as expressions of a real change in his views of these children An alternative interpretation is that he adapted his texts to Nazi ideology and language to protect his own career Asperger nevertheless remains responsible for his writings Although he never explicitly wrote that the children with the most severe pathologies ought to be put to death he referred many of them to Am Spiegelgrund in the full knowledge that children were killed there Euthanasia of the mentally ill was never referred to explicitly in official documents perhaps with the exception of those classified as top secret mere mention of the possibility of killing patients would constitute a serious violation of state secrecy (2) there is no direct evidence that Asperger referred patients to their deaths Czech notes a number of examples showing that there was a general awareness of the euthanasia programme among the citizens of Vienna He concludes that it is 'extremely unlikely' that Asperger with his unique position and various tasks and contacts was unaware of what was going on at Am Spiegelgrund Asperger was free to refer the children to places other than the clinic that was highly likely to put them to death Czech concludes that Asperger must have seen euthanasia as an acceptable last resort for children with severe disabilities (2) for example by being forced to do push-ups for not having cut their nails or made their bed properly Survivors have reported that they were constantly hungry so there was no real solidarity between them bedwetters were lined up in front of the entire dormitory Many parents wrote letters in despair (and in vain) to the doctors pleading to have their children returned to them some wrote thank-you letters to the doctors after the death of their children Herta Schreiber's patient records note that the mother had tearfully said that 'if she [Herta] cannot be helped As the mother of so many other children she would not want that for her The statement testifies to the widespread acceptance of racial hygiene and eugenics in the population in addition to the lack of institutional places and help for children such as Herta under the Nazi regime (2) Parents of children with functional impairments were not unaffected by the culture and society of which they were part Herta's mother was afraid that her daughter would fail to fit into a society where deviations from the norm were unwanted It reminds us that it is our shared responsibility – as a society – to defend a concept of normality that encompasses the entire spectrum of human nature The doctors in the child euthanasia programme claimed to be driven by compassion: 'With the cases that we had by the dozens in the institution putting an end to this human wretchedness was an automatic thought' During the court proceedings she admitted to having given children lethal injections She was sentenced to ten years in prison and lost her right to practice medicine a committee of professors at the University of Vienna decided to restore her doctoral title to her After the war Asperger returned to the Vienna university clinic He was allowed to keep the academic merit he had earned during the Nazi years and in 1962 he was appointed chief medical officer at the children's clinic in Vienna (2) Senior medical officer Heinrich Gross kept the brains of more than 400 children in jars in the basement and used them for research purposes well into the 1980s the historian will invariably have to choose what kind of source material to highlight how to weigh the sources against each other and what kind of narrative will finally emerge Scheffer's and Czech's studies are both extremely thorough Scheffer's book has a momentum that makes it hard to put down I nevertheless feel that there is an underlying current of anger in her writing and I occasionally feel that the picture she draws of Asperger is somewhat monotonous The fact that Scheffer herself is the mother of a child who has suffered because of the categorising effect of diagnoses is an item of information that I would have liked to see in the preface This does not diminish the credibility of the book although it makes her engagement more understandable that Czech presents a story which is more nuanced and more honest regarding what we can or cannot tell based on the sources Although he concludes that Asperger obviously knew that children were put to death and that he could have prevented many of them from being sent to Am Spiegelgrund Czech also makes it clear that Asperger also helped save a number of children Space is provided for a more complex picture of the Austrian doctor Scheffer argues that the story of Asperger Nazism and the children indicates that we ought to be critical of the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder The new knowledge of Asperger's relationship with Nazism should be added to the curriculum for medical and psychology degrees and the eponym should be used with awareness of its historical origin The relevance of Asperger's relationship to the Nazi regime when it comes to understanding today's discussions on autism spectrum disorders which include questions of human normality the reliability of diagnostic criteria and the stigmatising effect of diagnoses Another point is that Leo Kanner's study of 11 children from 1943 in which he claimed to have identified 'a unique "syndrome" characterised by an 'extreme autistic aloneness' gained a far greater importance in English-language medicine than Asperger's study (8) Asperger's research gained a new lease of life through an article by Lorna Wing who proposed the term Asperger's syndrome (9) which differs considerably from Asperger's was the start of the syndrome's expansion as a diagnosis Asperger's syndrome first appeared in the diagnostic manuals in 1992 (ICD-10) and 1994 (DSM-IV) but in the DSM-V the diagnosis has been removed and collapsed into the far broader diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder which is currently out on a consultation round The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has increased considerably over many decades one in every 40 American children has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (10) there has been an explosive increase in references to them in popular-science books and the media (an n-gram in Google Books and the National Library showing how often a word occurs in publications in these databases shows an exponential growth for the terms 'Asperger's syndrome' and 'autism spectrum' through the 1990s and 2000s) the gradual expansion of the diagnostic criteria and the huge recent interest in autism spectrum disorders exemplify the historical and volatile nature of diagnoses: they are historic constructs that reflect the times and societies where they exert their effect (11) The story of Asperger and Nazism reminds us that the psychiatric notion of illness ought to be kept narrow and defended against medicalisation of ever more areas of human life This is an endeavour that German academic psychiatry has addressed with the utmost seriousness (12) in awareness of the lessons that history has taught us of how porous the distinction is between medicine and politics The author wishes to thank Peter Schwarz at the University of Vienna for his generous assistance in finding illustrations for the article Asperger's children: The origins of autism in Nazi Vienna Medisin- og helsehistorie frå antikken til vår tid Den norske debatten om rasehygienen Hist Tidsskr 1980; 59: 259–83 En historisk undersøkelse av lov og praksis Danto EA. The Ambulatorium: Freud's free clinic in Vienna. Int J Psychoanal 1998; 79: 287–300. [PubMed] Autistic disturbances of affective contact När jag läser Aspergers beskrivningar av sina begåvade patienter som inte passade in i skolan då är det lätt att känna igen barn och ungdomar som man själv har mött Det var därför Lorna Wing myntade Aspergers syndrom det var en bra beskrivning på ett ännu idag igenkännbart kliniskt symtomkomplex Hade Aspergers texter inte existerat hade hon kanske beskrivit syndromet och gett det ett annat namn Språket och termerna präglar i viss mån vår tolkning av verkligheten men det finns en verklighet som termerna beskriver Att Asperger ses som en "manlig" form av autism är nog helt rimligt En hypotes om bakgrunden till (vissa former av) autism är att testosteron påverkar fostrets hjärna att utvecklas i en mer "systematiserande" och mindre "empatiserande" riktning (1) 1: Baron-Cohen, Simon. The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends Cogn Sci; 2002 Jun;6(6):248-254. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661302019046 Undertegnede har en diagnose på Aspergers syndrom selv og opplever gjennomgående at svært mange leger oppfatter denne diagnosen nettopp etter den biologiske "sykdoms"forklaring Asperger skal ha hatt Håndteringen virker overhodet så lemfeldig at jeg har begynt å lure på om en slik atferdssymptombeskrivende diagnose har livets rett i moderne medisin 30-tallets medisin virker i hvert fall utdatert som grunnlag for noen diagnosesetting pr i dag Særlig når barn og voksne med potensiell diagnose ikke utredes etter samme retningslinjer Det virker faktisk meningsløst som voksen å bli låst fast i en diagnose etter atferdssymptomer bygget på beskrivelser fra tre tiår før jeg ble født - beskrivelser som antakelig sier minst like mye om Hans Asperger selv Nyeste ledige stillinger fra legejobber.no Hold deg oppdatert om ny forskning og medisinske nyheter Sjefredaktør Are Brean • Tidsskriftet er et medisinskvitenskapelig tidsskrift med åpen tilgang Tidsskriftet redigeres etter redaktørplakaten ISSN 0029-2001 (papir) ISSN 0807-7096 (nett) wrote a doctoral thesis in which he described four patients with rather severe but characteristic psychiatric and social impairments who showed exceptional skill or talent disproportionate to very uneven intellectual ability Usually the skill included extraordinary memory He applied the term “autistic psychopathy” to these four patients Kanner independently applied the term Early Infantile Autism to a group of 11 patients he had seen with also very unique Kanner independently latched onto and included the word autism to describe the syndromes they separately witnessed But both were apparently drawn to the word “Autism” as a clinical term originally coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1919; Bleuler had also coined the word “schizophrenia.” Asperger used the term “autism” by itself frequently in his paper and his use of the word “psychopathy” could have as easily been “personality,” as he himself pointed out Thus the term “autistic personality” might have better characterized the condition he so carefully described and would have captured better the overall tone of his patients and would be better understood and better accepted than “psychopathy.” Actually Asperger did not name the condition after himself The condition we now know as Asperger’s Syndrome was given that name by Dr in a paper entitled “Asperger’s Syndrome: A clinical account,” 37 years after Asperger’s original paper often accompanied by happy though monotonous humming and singing In that original group the male:female ratio was 4:1 Asperger described in his group of Asperger’s patients were similar in many respects to Autistic Disorder but included some unique characteristics as well with learning to talk before learning to walk; the ability to express himself in complete sentences soon “talking like an adult;” the absence of normal speech “melody” or tone such that the natural flow of speech was impaired producing instead a very monotone conversation; stereotypical movements and habits; highly intellectual family history in this case on the mother’s side; little eye contact with a “gaze directed into the void” rather than directly at people; social relations that were very limited; clumsiness; intellectual abilities which were very scattered and “highly contradictory;” exceptional memory; and a remarkable calculating ability mastery of negative numbers and fractions as a “special interest.” While Asperger described only four patients in detail in this original paper by the time he wrote his thesis he had observed over 200 such patients over a ten year period of time these findings and characteristics: a lack of eye contact not being sure whether the child is looking into the far distance or inward; paucity of facial and gestural expression; flat emotionally toneless language not directed to the addressee but often as if spoken into empty space; special abilities interwoven with disabilities; unusual interest in natural sciences complex calculations or calendar calculating; exceptional rote memory; limitations in social relationships; intellect generally above average but very scattered in distribution and lacking harmony between intellect and affect; pronounced likes and dislikes with respect to taste; hypersensitivity to tactile sensation and/or to sound although hyposensitivity to sound can be seen as well; intense interest in collecting things with strong attachment to those objects compared to attachment to persons; absence of a sense of humor; marked predominance of boys to girls with this disorder; predilection for only children; a marked genetic component with related family traits in every single case where it was possible to trace such; many fathers who occupied high positions and ancestors of intellectuals for several generations; a high proportion of such autistic persons in whom work performance can be excellent and which can provide some social integration Asperger describes one case he observed over three decades who in college discovered an error in Newton’s work made that the subject of his doctoral dissertation and went on to become a faculty member in a University Department of Astronomy As Autistic Disorder and Asperger’s Disorder have been compared and contrasted through the years males outnumber females approximately 6:1 in Asperger’s Disorder in Asperger’s Disorder onset of speech is usually not delayed; but like autism with monotone intonation and absence of first person pronouns In both Autistic Disorder and Asperger’s nonverbal communication is flat with staring through at persons and repetitive activities are preferred with resistance to change and intense attachments to particular possessions Often commented upon as a special trait of Asperger’s is poor motor coordination with clumsy Memory is often prodigious in Asperger patients with extraordinary preoccupation and mastery of one or two subjects such as bus schedules sometimes to the exclusion of learning in all other areas Language overall is rather limited in Asperger’s Disorder pedantic and seemingly scholarly but shows little grasp of the meaning of words put forth so liberally Even those dissertations tend to be carried out by rote memory Kanner’s work received wide distribution but Asperger’s work was largely ignored until 1981 when Asperger’s work was translated into English for the first time Since then there has been continuous debate as to whether Asperger’s Disorder and Autistic Disorder are simply different points on a spectrum of the same disorder or whether they are in fact two different conditions that happen to share a number of symptoms in common there is a general consensus emerging these days that Autistic Disorder and Asperger’s Disorder are similar if not the same conditions differing only as to where they sit on a spectrum of disability encompassed in the overall term of Pervasive Developmental Disability (PDD) Asperger’s Disorder is at the higher end of that spectrum in fact sometimes being referred to as High Functioning Autism (Children with autism: diagnosis and interventions to meet their needs) concluded that autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder are better viewed as differing in level of impairment on a continuing spectrum of severity rather than being viewed as two separate conditions In a 1991 book edited by Uta Frith entitled Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome the links between autism and Asperger’s syndrome are explored Several distinctive features of Asperger’s are generally described: (1) clumsiness and poor motor coordination not regularly seen in autism; (2) a higher level of social functioning than seen in autistic persons but containing unusual peculiar and naïve social interactions; (3) the use of facile expansive language in several favorite subject areas but with no grasp of the meaning of words used in contrast to mutism or globally impaired speech so often characteristic of autism; and (4) an average or above average measured IQ Asperger believed his patients to be of high intelligence but provided no IQ scores to confirm that impression Later studies have shown average or above average intelligence in 80% of cases While Asperger’s Disorder is generally viewed as belonging on the high-functioning end of the Autistic Disorder spectrum it may well be that it exists there as a distinct subgroup should more properly be called the “group of Autistic Disorders” rather than be viewed as if Autistic Disorder is a single entity with a single cause Just as “mental retardation” is not a single entity—there are many subgroups with differing causes—Autistic Disorder likewise is not a single disorder with a single cause in all cases Autistic Disorder is not a form of mental retardation But just as the broad term “mental retardation” encompasses a whole number of subgroups such as Down’s Syndrome or phenylketonuria so the term “autism” or “Autistic Disorder,” likewise encompasses a number of subgroups which share similar symptoms as a final common path but those subgroups have widely differing causes—some genetic In my view Asperger’s Disorder exists as a separate subgroup on the Autistic Disorder or PDD spectrum with some unique and fairly characteristic traits and symptoms A Swedish study in 1989 suggested that Asperger’s Disorder may occur in as many as 26 of 10,000 children There appears to be an increased incidence of Asperger’s Disorder among relatives of those who have the disorder suggesting a genetic component to the condition; a case of Asperger’s in triplets fortifies the evidence for some genetic factors While clumsiness is sometimes noted as a differentiating feature between Asperger’s and Autism some studies have shown no support for that observation have commented on face blindness (prosopagnosia) as being present perhaps denoting a subgroup of the disorder while not universally present in Asperger’s persons those special abilities in Asperger’s tend to involve numbers Some such skills lead to PhDs in mathematics or other sciences and a goodly number of Asperger persons are gainfully employed in computer or related industries because of the natural affinity of Asperger persons to organization Steven Silverman examines the concentration and increasing numbers of Asperger’s and Autistic persons in the Silicon Valley in an in-depth article on this phenomenon in the magazine Wired That article points up the natural affinity of high functioning autistic persons for computer and related occupations and examines genetic and environmental reasons why there might be such a startling increase of Autism and Asperger’s disorders as has been reported in California generally Beyond merely describing the disorder that bears his name Asperger was passionately involved in the teaching and training of his “autistic” patients and overall he was very optimistic about outcome using proper methods and techniques While there are other “how to” books tips and pearls for dealing with these special people cannot be improved upon I refer specifically in his original paper to a very detailed “how-to” section for teachers involved with these autistic persons with many specific hands on illustrations for approaching these special people He points out forcefully that “exceptional human beings must be given exceptional educational treatment treatment which takes into account their special difficulties human beings can fulfill their social role within the community love and guidance.” He goes on to state that even though in many cases social problems can be so profound that they overshadow everything else “in some cases the problems are compensated by a high level of original thought and experience that can often lead to exceptional achievements in later life.” in attempting to tie specific causes to specific disorders the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names whether Asperger’s Syndrome is the same as Autistic Disorder really doesn’t matter a great deal labels and diagnostic categories can often be too stereotyping is as staunch an advocate for the persons who have the disorder that bear his name as any I have seen along the way alongside some scientific and medical terms and astute observations are the words and actions that Dr Asperger felt make a difference in the lives of these extraordinary people whatever the cause of the condition: “true understanding; acceptance; love; guidance; exceptional human beings; special difficulties; genuine care; kindness; sensitivity; humour; outstanding achievements; dedicated and loving educators; determination; absolutely dedicated; and a right and a duty to speak out for these children with the whole force of our personality.” has an in-depth section entitled “The Secrets of Autism.” One portion of that article examines Asperger’s disorder — “a.k.a the ‘little professor’ or ‘geek’ syndrome.” It examines the apparent “explosion” in Autism and Asperger’s cases especially in the Silicon Valley in California raising the question of whether the reported increase in cases represents an actual rise in the number of new cases or rather simply a broadening of diagnosis The article also presents a fairly comprehensive review of some of the newer research findings Much more additional, useful information about Asperger’s Syndrome can be found at http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/ Another very useful resource on Asperger’s Disorder is a 1998 book by psychologist Tony Atwood entitled Asperger’s Syndrome:A Guide for Parents and Professionals. The Frequently Asked Questions section of that book is particularly helpful for parents and other caretakers or teachers with respect to specific interventions and techniques for helping Asperger persons deal with specific behaviors __________________________________________________________________ Often Autistic Spectrum Disorders are divided into three categories: Low Functioning Autism (IQ less than 70); High Functioning Autism (IQ greater than 70); and Asperger’s syndrome Lotspeich and co-workers at Stanford and other facilities attempted to see if there were differences in total brain volume high functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome groups From prior studies a consensus generally seems to be developing that abnormalities in gray matter development seem to be the defining feature of autism compared to control groups This study is the first neuroimaging work to investigate differences in brain volume specifically between autism and Asperger’s patients There were no differences between high functioning autism and Asperger’s Syndrome on measurements of total cerebral volume (total nor were there any differences between the Asperger’s patients and the matched control group of non-disabled individuals in this regard But mean cerebral gray matter volume for the Asperger’s group was intermediate between the high functioning autistic group and the control group suggesting “a continuum in which cerebral gray matter volume increases with the severity of the PDD condition.” However when specific neuropsychological testing including verbal IQ and performance IQ discrepancies were analyzed there was a suggestion that high functioning autism and Asperger’s Syndrome were different disorders The author’s of the study summarize it in this way: “Our attempt to determine whether high functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder are conditions on a continuum or are distinct biological entities was only partially successful On the single measure of cerebral gray tissue volume these conditions appear to represent a continuum of severity with autism exhibiting the greatest aberrant neurodevelopment brain-behavior correlations of IQ with specific cerebral volumes) there is preliminary evidence of fundamentally different patterns of neurodevelopment between high functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome subjects.” The authors point out that other behavioral and cognitive studies have suggested autism and Asperger’s may be clinically and neurobiologically different from each other and family studies have suggested that Asperger’s syndrome may be genetically different from autism as well Their work suggests “that when high functioning autism and Asperper’s syndrome are differentiated by history of language development qualitative differences may surface when patterns of multiple measurements are examined So this study does not settle the question but it does point in the direction that there are some basic qualitative neurodevelopmental and neurobiological differences between high functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome and that they are not merely the same condition on spectrum that separates them only quantitatively The study appears in Archives of General Psychiatry Not feeling well and need to be seen today Among the underserved minority of gifted children with disabilities are a group of children referred to as autistic savants Most persons with savant syndrome have impoverished language skills as part of their basic disability mathematical or mechanical skills flourish as particular islands of genius Questions are raised continually as to what are the differences in brain mechanisms between (a) prodigies with certain musical or mathematical skills for example; (b) persons with savant syndrome with similar skills and abilities and (c) the rest of us who function quite normally overall but lack some spectacular area of expertise Connect with us: About Treffert Center Dr. Treffert's Legacy Read Our Blog The Treffert Approach Pay My Bill Consultation & Diagnosis E-Newsletter Sign Up Order Treffert Publications Research Studies & Surveys Speaker Request Treffert Studios Treffert Way Call Us: 920-907-3967 Write Us Interested in working for SSM Health? Explore our career paths cardinalglennon.com givetossmhealth.org Resources for Health Professionals Resources for Employees SSM Health uses your location to provide you with relevant content like doctor suggestions and local services You are now leaving the Treffert Center section of our website Hope Gillette is a freelance writer and published novelist She’s passionate about providing accurate empathetic mental health content for readers and believes writing can help combat stigma and improve wellness outcomes Hope’s early career focused on health disparities affecting marginalized groups and she remains a firm advocate for health equity with a special expertise in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) She is currently a nurse in a pediatric intensive care unit at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas Significant symptom overlap with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the main reasons why many people no longer use the term “Asperger’s” as a diagnosis Asperger’s syndrome was once a diagnosis that experts used for a neurodevelopmental condition featuring mild symptoms of difficulty with social communication and interaction, restricted or repetitive behaviors, but no significant language or cognitive delays They considered it a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), one of five PDD subtypes All of these conditions featured similar social and behavioral symptoms Asperger’s syndrome is no longer an official diagnosis but some people still prefer this terminology or self-identify as “Aspies” over the latest diagnostic language The main reason Asperger’s is no longer a diagnosis is because it’s difficult to clearly differentiate it from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reliably or with certainty The symptoms of Asperger’s were often indistinguishable from ASD, requiring minimal support Dolly Ferraiuolo a licensed clinical social worker from Clearwater “The decision to remove the term ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ was based on research suggesting that there was significant overlap between Asperger’s and other forms of autism.” While diagnostic clarity was the driving factor for change the switch in diagnostic language also considered social sensitivities related to how experts originally named Asperger’s a psychologist and director at the Help and Healing Center Now that Asperger’s is formally under the ASD banner, many people also feel it helps promote inclusion, rather than division, among the neurodiversity community. This unification of diagnoses helps eliminate the stigma that ASD is synonymous with low intelligence “Some believe that by keeping Asperger’s or ‘Aspie,’ we continued that divide, keeping autism as associated with low intellect,” says Lacey Cottingham a licensed clinical social worker from Raleigh In 2013, experts officially removed Asperger’s as a diagnosis when they released the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which provides diagnostic guidelines for mental health and medical professionals eliminated PDD and its subtypes in the 5th edition merging most of them under a new category called autism spectrum disorders (ASD) the DSM authors gave ASD three levels of severity to show how much support might be necessary to assist with social and behavioral difficulties: The DSM authors didn’t move Rett syndrome under the ASD banner due to unique defining genetic factors researchers discovered at the time Under the DSM-5 diagnostic guidelines, Asperger’s syndrome meets the criteria of ASD level 1, but that doesn’t mean that’s the preferred language in casual conversation “What was diagnosed as Asperger’s in the past is now part of autism spectrum disorder and many people who have been diagnosed with autism prefer to be called autistic,” Myszak says “Along with the change in diagnostic language there has also been a shift from person-first language [saying ‘a person with autism’] to identity-based language [saying ‘an autistic person’].” especially among people who formerly received Asperger’s syndrome diagnoses Myszak explains that many people strongly identify with the term and resist changing it While some of this may relate to the ongoing stigma surrounding ASD and intelligence Cottingham explains it likely has more to do with how the brain functions in ASD “People online like to accuse people of having ‘Aspie supremacy,’” she says “I’m not going to dismiss their lived experiences because rude people come from every corner of the planet and internet My personal opinion is that it boils down to the autistic need to speak in a very specific way It feels more comfortable to have every word have exactly one meaning.” is often criticized for its lack of specificity Severity scales can show the significance of certain symptoms but they don’t encompass all the possible experiences within ASD Experts consider ASD a spectrum disorder because it can present with various symptoms that range in frequency It’s a diagnosis that can mean something different for each person “The term ‘autism spectrum’ emphasizes the diversity and range of experiences within the condition,” Ferraiuolo says “The diagnosis of ASD includes a range of characteristics from social difficulties and communication challenges to restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.” “Asperger’s syndrome” is an outdated diagnostic term used to describe what’s known today as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) level 1 conditions sharing symptoms related to difficulty with social skills and restricted repetitive behaviors The lack of diagnostic differentiation between Asperger’s and certain types of ASD eventually led to its elimination from the DSM and inclusion under the banner of ASD Some people who previously received an Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis continue to prefer the term and it likely has more to do with familiarity and clarity than an avoidance of being associated with autism In the new diagnostic manual for psychiatric disorders Asperger syndrome will be folded into autism spectrum disorder a member of the committee that made the recommendation explains the rationale behind the decision Draft criteria for the new edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) particularly in the case of Asperger syndrome the association first introduced ‘Asperger disorder’ as a diagnostic category in the DSM-IV and distinguished it from ‘autistic disorder’ by a lack of significant delay in language and general cognition The term Asperger syndrome has become popular and there has been a great deal of research comparing those with this diagnosis to those with autism Why then do we in the DSM-5 Neurodevelopmental Disorders Workgroup suggest folding Asperger syndrome — along with pervasive developmental disorder — not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) — into a new category of ‘autism spectrum disorder?’ Our aim is to acknowledge the widespread consensus that Asperger syndrome is part of the autism spectrum to clean up a currently hard-to-implement and contradictory diagnostic schema and to do away with distinctions that are made idiosyncratically and unreliably across different diagnostic centers and clinicians we propose the term autism spectrum disorder because there is widespread agreement that autism is a spectrum that varies among different individuals and even within individuals during their lifetime It is particularly variable among individuals with different intellectual levels or language abilities There have been many attempts to define subgroups within this heterogeneous spectrum But a key question is whether there are meaningful differences between Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism loosely used to describe individuals with good current language and IQ in the average range despite earlier delays There has been no shortage of studies on this topic, along with some helpful recent reviews1 replicated body of evidence to support the diagnostic distinction Individuals on the autism spectrum who meet expected language milestones in the first three years of life have the same outcome in adolescence and adulthood as those who are significantly delayed in early language — if one compares groups of the same developmental level or IQ2,3 There is also no evidence of different response to treatment or of a distinct cause in Asperger syndrome versus high-functioning autism What is well established is that an individual’s current levels of intellectual ability and language have an enormous impact on his or her ability to function and dictate the types of intervention that may be appropriate Should Asperger syndrome be re-defined as “autism without accompanying intellectual or language deficits” This is fine descriptively but makes no sense in terms of diagnosis; neither intellectual disability nor language impairment are part of the definition of autism so people with autism can vary freely on these two dimensions Second, the criteria for Asperger syndrome in the DSM-IV are flawed and hard to implement in practice, as highlighted by a number of researchers10,11,12 At least two problems exist: It is often difficult to establish whether single words were spoken before age 2 and phrases by age 3 Individuals receiving this diagnosis typically come into the clinic in middle childhood or later and parental memory may be understandably vague For the increasing number of people diagnosed in adulthood The other major problem with applying the current DSM Asperger criteria comes from the precedence rule: diagnose Asperger disorder only if the individual doesn’t meet criteria for autistic disorder The Asperger diagnosis is distinguished from autism by a lack of language and cognitive delay language and cognitive delay are not diagnostic criteria for autism a person with Asperger syndrome must not show the communication impairments specified for autism Since these include “marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation,” most — if not all — people with Asperger syndrome do meet diagnostic criteria for autism As a result of these problems, the Asperger diagnosis is often given when, according to DSM-IV criteria, the diagnosis should be autism. A study that examined more than 300 pervasive developmental diagnoses from a survey of more than 400 clinicians shows that almost half the young people receiving Asperger or PDD-NOS labels in fact met DSM-IV criteria for autistic disorder13 Because the current criteria are hard to apply, different places use the term Asperger disorder differently, and inconsistently. A forthcoming study shows that the best predictor of whether someone receives the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, PDD-NOS or autism, is which clinic they go to — rather than any characteristics of the individuals themselves14 PDD-NOS and autism are not well distinguished in clinical practice the same study suggests that the broader distinction between autism spectrum versus not is made with good agreement and reliability This is an important factor in the workgroup’s proposal to subsume Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS into the new category of autism spectrum disorder The plan is to stop trying to ‘carve meatloaf at the joints’ and instead attempt to individualize diagnosis while also recognizing the essential shared features of the autism spectrum the intention of the DSM-5 is not to blur important boundaries among groups but to ensure that individuals are described in terms of their specific pattern of needs rather than fitting them into narrow categories that they do not really match The difficulty clinicians currently experience with trying to squeeze individuals on the autism spectrum into exact categories is perhaps reflected in the fact that the diagnosis of PDD-NOS is far more commonly given than autistic disorder15 So accompanying a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder will be a complementary and comprehensive description of the individual’s symptoms and strengths or impairments a doctor might describe a young person as showing social and communication difficulties requiring very substantial support but restricted or repetitive behavior that requires much less support dimensional approach should ensure that the individual’s level of impairment — including accompanying intellectual or language difficulties and so on — is identified and well documented A major concern for the workgroup is that no individual currently diagnosed with Asperger syndrome or PDD-NOS who needs support should lose that support because of this change We are striving to ensure that the new criteria for autism spectrum disorder — and the examples in the accompanying text — are thoughtful and thorough taking into account the full range of manifestations across all ages and developmental or intellectual levels It is our intention that all individuals with clinical levels of social-communicative impairment and restricted repetitive behaviour will meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder and their individual levels of intellectual and language functioning will be noted alongside this diagnosis We hope that the DSM-5 will be a clearer and simpler diagnostic system for those with autism spectrum disorders The Asperger disorder category in the DSM-IV did a great service in raising awareness that some people on the autism spectrum have high IQ and good language It is time to reintegrate Asperger syndrome with the rest of the spectrum and to demand the same level of respect and lack of stigma for individuals across the full range of the spectrum Francesca Happé is professor of cognitive neuroscience at the MRC Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre King’s College London and a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Neurodevelopmental Disorders Work Group An editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation The Austrian doctor Hans Asperger cooperated extensively with the Nazi regime and may have sent dozens of children to their deaths The Austrian doctor Hans Asperger cooperated extensively with the Nazi regime and may have sent dozens of children to their deaths Horrific details of his involvement were revealed yesterday in the journal Molecular Autism and will be detailed in a forthcoming book called “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna.” Asperger was among the first researchers to describe autism and his decades of work with children later informed the concept of an autism ‘spectrum.’ Scholars have raised questions about his associations with the Nazi Party and his involvement in Nazi efforts to euthanize children with certain health conditions or disabilities The new book and paper suggest that Asperger referred dozens of children to a clinic called Am Spiegelgrund in Vienna, where doctors experimented on children or killed them1 The clinic’s staff gave the children barbiturates which often led to their death by pneumonia some experts say the eponymous medical term ‘Asperger syndrome’ should be discarded The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5) has already dispensed with Asperger syndrome for other reasons, notes David Mandell professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania “Asperger [syndrome] was put in a coffin with the DSM-5 and maybe this information will be the final nail in terms of preventing it from coming back,” he says saying the stain on Asperger’s name shouldn’t erase his contributions to the understanding of autism “I don’t think erasing history is an answer,” says Herwig Czech a medical historian at the Medical University of Vienna and author of the new paper “I think we also have to part ways with the idea that an eponym is an unmitigated honor of the person It is simply a historical acknowledgement that can be Asperger syndrome officially entered the medical lexicon in 1981 when British psychiatrist Lorna Wing found Asperger’s 1944 thesis and popularized his work In 1992, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) included the syndrome and The term is still listed in the ICD-10, that manual’s current version. But the ICD-11, expected to debut in May, will subsume the syndrome into the autism diagnosis Yet the term is still widely used to refer to someone on the milder end of the autism spectrum Asperger was never a member of the Nazi Party books and academic articles portrayed him as a benevolent figure who saved children with autism from the killing centers but he didn’t find a link to Nazi eugenics It wasn’t until historians dug up Asperger’s clinical records that the truth came to light The children’s clinic where Asperger worked was bombed by Allied troops and for decades many people believed the clinical records had been destroyed Czech was asked to speak at a 2010 symposium commemorating Asperger’s death That inspired him to start digging into the government archives in Vienna for details about the pediatrician — where he discovered the well-preserved clinical records Czech found a Nazi Party file that vouched for Asperger’s loyalty even though he was not a member as well as his medical case files and notes historian Edith Sheffer visited the same Vienna archives Sheffer has a son with autism and had long been curious about Asperger who she had thought had a “heroic” reputation “From the very first file I found in the archives I saw that he was implicated in the Nazi program that actually killed disabled children,” says Sheffer senior fellow at the University of California Asperger described the behavior of children with autism as being in opposition to Nazi Party values a typical child interacts with others as an “integrated member of his community,” he wrote but one with autism follows his own interests “without considering restrictions or prescriptions imposed from outside.” Asperger’s clinical files describe children with disabilities and psychiatric conditions in far more negative terms than his colleagues did Am Spiegelgrund physicians described a boy named Leo as “very well developed in every respect.” Asperger described him as a “very difficult psychopathic boy of a kind which is not frequent among small children.” Asperger’s closest colleagues and mentors were the architects of Am Spiegelgrund’s eugenics program “He was traveling at the highest echelons of the killing system and so I really see him as more than just a passive follower,” Sheffer says Czech found evidence suggesting Asperger personally transferred at least two children to Am Spiegelgrund and served on a committee that referred dozens of others; the children died there There is no evidence that Asperger saved children from the clinic “Could he have sent more children to Spiegelgrund The archives also reveal an arc in Asperger’s descriptions of children in his clinic Asperger was circumspect in classifying children But within months of Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 he began describing children with autism as a “well-characterized group of children,” Sheffer says he began calling them “abnormal children.” And by 1944 he described them as outside “the greater organism” of the Nazi ideal “Why did he adopt the writing style that he did I think because he was up for promotion,” Sheffer says of his evolving approach She says Asperger’s career soared during the war years As his Jewish colleagues were removed from their positions he described himself in interviews as a resister of Nazi ideology and called the euthanasia program “totally inhuman,” according to Sheffer they are an important part of autism research Information on Asperger’s life was “scant” in the 1990s, when Ami Klin director of the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta “There was no historical scholarship invested in that,” he says people are divided on the appropriate way forward Even the two historians disagree: Unlike Czech, Sheffer says people should stop using the word ‘Asperger.’ Ending the term’s usage would “honor the children killed in his name as well as those still labeled with it,” she wrote in The New York Times Some people who received a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome say it’s time to bury the term “I would be very upset if there was some sort of consensus that the findings themselves were tainted and needed to be set aside because of the nature of the person who contributed them,” says Phil Schwarz a software engineer in Massachusetts who is on the spectrum keeping the name may help us remember the lessons of this dark past This article was republished in Science Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content begged me not to have children because the world doesn't need more "weirdos." I might stand in an awkward-looking position as my head feels like it's spinning I visually appear uninterested in what people are saying or doing people sometimes ask me if I'm falling asleep as I am engaged with what others are talking about Simple tasks like reading or organizing my thoughts might take me longer I used to talk under my breath during long walks to help me clear my mind and organize my thoughts Strangers might assume that I am drunk or on drugs because of how I walk and talk I also experience what I call "tactile sensory overload," which means I shrug my shoulders to rearrange my shirt or jacket if they are rubbing my neck uncomfortably this quick gesture might make me look like I am hallucinating due to substance abuse I believe others assume that I am unfit for society There is a misconception that autistic people won't amount to anything But I am one of many who are proving otherwise I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when I was six years old which meant it was difficult for people to understand what I was saying I did not always understand why my classmates thought certain activities were fun like playing with toy dinosaurs or pretending to be dogs one day I jumped out of my comfort zone and joined in with kids who were pretending to be dogs The "dog leader" initially welcomed me but a few days later You're not playing with us!" In that same academic year I was walking by the swing set and two of my classmates yelled at me You're not our friend!" Both of these experiences have stayed with me I was in special day classes as part of the Preschool Intervention Program up until second grade although I would spend an hour or two in a "normal" class every day I was excited to be in a class with three times more students But I still faced harsh discrimination in a normal classroom setting and one even chucked a handball at my face I made friends but I rarely spent any time with them outside school but I also didn't want to get in the way or intrude on my friends I feared that they would soon feel annoyed by my presence especially if I nonverbally expressed my disinterest in what they were doing or talking about My interests are more traditional: I like neighborhood hikes I had made tons of friends but it was rare that I would be asked to join them anywhere other than the school canteen They were nice to me but I felt a perpetual sense of loneliness I felt left out all the time but I didn't tell anybody what I was going through as I found it hard to articulate my emotions I have since built up my confidence in that area I have found it easier to make friends as an adult university and at the local fair where I worked for two summers I am still shy but I have become bolder over the years I now go up to people and initiate conversations Some people believe that we cannot feel emotions that we should stop stimming and that autism is caused by bad parenting I am living proof that these claims are not true how could I have obtained two science degrees I have made friends and teachers laugh out loud because of my sense of humor And I would not be here today if it were not for my mother as she has always been my number-one supporter I want people to understand that having Asperger's does not mean you are an alien from some exoplanet and we perhaps feel these more strongly than the common neurotypical person due to the discrimination we face People stare at me in public because of the way I walk and talk I try to mask this while out in public and make sure that nobody is watching while I'm rearranging my jacket to get comfortable people look at me with anything from perplexity to confusion or even anger when I am out in my neighborhood Some people look at the ground and speed-walk past me while others look at me and whisper something to their companion I have been followed by a pick-up truck and had to run home when I haven't felt safe a man yelled at me from his car while I was walking through a parking lot He looked right at me and he seemed really mad because sadly I am getting used to this after 21 years I believe that I am living a full and rich life I have fought for my dreams—big and small—insofar as becoming a royalty-published author a recipient of two science degrees and a professional YouTuber I am currently qualifying as a mathematics teacher and I feel I have found my passion and purpose in life The vast majority of students have been nothing but kind especially with my background where not everybody has accepted me for who I am people with autism can accomplish incredible things There may be day-to-day tasks that we find difficult but there are others that might be easier for us We can do anything that we set our hearts and minds to regardless of the prejudice we might encounter it helps when people recognize and accept us for who we are Matthew Kenslow is the author of Juggling the Issues, which is available to order now. He also runs the YouTube channel Matthew Kenslow All views expressed in this article are the author's own Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all Simon Baron-Cohen is director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK, and president of the International Society for Autism Research. Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna Edith Sheffer W. W. Norton (2018) Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05112-1 Walking in two worlds: how an Indigenous computer scientist is using AI to preserve threatened languages Regulation of PV interneuron plasticity by neuropeptide-encoding genes Serotonin and neurotensin inputs in the vCA1 dictate opposing social valence Native American tribe teams up with genomicists to confirm link to iconic ancient site When a great ball of fire came crashing down Ancient DNA reveals Phoenicians’ surprising genetic ancestry Trump gutted two landmark environmental reports — can researchers save them? Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts to US science Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW Post Summary of the role The Characterisation & Processing of Advanced Materials. Prof. Valeria Nicolosi research group. 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By Sarah Patten I find the suggestion that there needs to be a cure for autism an absolutely ridiculous notion Coming as I do from a family where many of our men-folk exhibit spectrum behavior spending much of their time in the garden shed whittling or inventing my child fits right in with our collective history of quiet To me that’s all down to genetics and hard wiring our experience of Asperger’s has been what Uta Frith delicately defined as having ‘a dash of autism.’ Parents and carers of highly autistic children undoubtedly face more challenges But how many of you out there wish a cure or is it more about adaptation and acceptance Autism Diet and Nutrition: How Does it Affect Autism Health Adaptation takes on many forms. The greatest concession we have made as a family is with our food. Diet and nutrition have been a focal point of family life for the past five years and what we eat and how we eat has been tailored for the most part to my son Henry’s complex relationship with food Henry exhibited increasingly odd mealtime habits eating an ever-diminishing selection of foods that had to be served on separate plates By age seven he would eat just three white foods; bread chicken breast and dried cereal along with vast quantities of milk teachers were insisting we consider medication I realized that Henry’s perception of what he ate was something I didn’t understand and I focused my efforts on discovering how he saw food Together over a number of sessions we covered the kitchen counter with a vast array of fruits meats and anything else we could lay our hands on and Henry explained as best as he could why colors And we are taking about peas and tomatoes here almonds (as flour) and eggs into Henry’s daily diet had an unmistakable effect on his well-being less flustered and more able to cope with everyday transitions protein for breakfast in the form of meat and fish somehow anchored him and without doubt emotionally stable and able to take on the day I saw for myself the positive effects of a broader nutrient in-take But a little Googling also showed up a ton of studies as well as anecdotal evidence that supports our experience we tuned in to the negative and unraveling effects of sugar in all its forms along with other white Henry’s beloved bread was replaced with a whole-grain fortified version and overall the balance of carbohydrate to protein redressed At aged twelve Henry now eats just about anything and everything So whereas three white bland foods used to feature separate plates he now eats stews and sauces with tastes and textures that span the globe Aligned with this extension of his diet is a clear improvement in his physical and emotional health We have gone from ugly school meetings with headteachers about controlling behavior and a tense home-life where food was a four-letter-word to where I now have a healthy who only last week ate a spicy tomato and chicken stew when out at a friend’s house So not only did he navigate a complex social situation away from home he ate a mixed textured dinner featuring the food last to be accepted onto his plate; tomatoes Is this a cure? No, I don’t think so. When eating just three foods Henry was lacking essential vitamins and minerals that I’m sure contributed to his aberrant behavior that was then being attributed to his Asperger’s syndrome From the off improving his diet made his unsettled nervousness a non-issue but I do feel he’s more finely-tuned than most Aspergers have delicate wiring (spot the non-medic!) and are anything but robust and I believe that paying attention to what they eat reaps amazing rewards You don’t fill a Ferrari up with low-grade crude High-grade fuel gives high-grade performance Henry quite obviously has Asperger’s syndrome but he’s a happy Aspie coping well in a main stream secondary with a close group of friends So my message loud and clear is: never underestimate the power of a good diet Sarah Patten is mother to a son with Asperger’s syndrome and author of the book What to Feed an Asperger – How to Go from Three Foods to Three Hundred with Love Patience and a Little Sleight of Hand.’  Sarah was born in The Lake District in Britain and after university went to work as a pollution research scientist studying the effects of pollution on sea life including stranded whales took her all over Europe  In her mid-twenties Sarah switched careers and started writing TV shows She has written and directed an eclectic mix of factual TV both in the US and the UK She now focuses her energies on looking after her growing sons and writing articles and books This article was featured in Issue 35 – Summertime Fun and Safety on the Spectrum We hope you enjoyed this article. In order to support us to create more helpful information like this, please consider purchasing a subscription to Autism Parenting Magazine Enter you email address below to  download your FREE guide & receive top autism parenting tips direct to your inbox We respect the privacy of your email address and we will never or rent your details Sign Up Unsubscribe anytime Contact Advertise with us About Us Affiliate program Editorial Policy Autism Behavioral Solutions Nonverbal Autism and Communication skills Education and Classroom Social Skills Sensory Solutions Autism Parenting Advice Autism Resources Code Of Ethics GDPR Policy Complaints Policy Cookie Policy Disclaimer Privacy Policy Modern Slavery Statement Terms and Conditions Accessibility Careers Copyright © 2024 Autism Parenting Magazine This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns Other cookies are those that are being identified and have not been classified into any category as yet Get a FREE issue of the magazine & top autism parenting tips to your inbox We respect the privacy of your email address and will never sell or rent your details 50% Complete Where shall we send it?Enter your email address below to get a free issue of the magazine & top autism tips direct your inbox SEND IT NOW Privacy Policy Enter your email below to receive the free guide and get top autism tips to your inbox Privacy Policy Lo sentimos, la página que usted busca no se ha podido encontrar. Puede intentar su búsqueda de nuevo o visitar la lista de temas populares. Enter email to download and get news and resources in your inbox Tips for parents on timing and how to explain the diagnosis This article was originally published in the Spring 2015 issue of Autism Spectrum News and is shared here with permission A diagnosis of Asperger’s can be an overwhelming experience for parents and children. Some parents may feel a sense of relief at finally getting an explanation of their child’s difficulties; at the same time, it also can foreshadow a road ahead full of therapies, academic difficulties, and social skill building As clinicians who often evaluate and treat children with Asperger’s we are frequently asked whether parents should share the diagnosis with their child This is a decision that deserves careful consideration Children who have been given an understanding of the label of Asperger’s may feel a sense of belonging after realizing that there are lots of children out there like them they may experience a sense of empowerment in having a community of like-minded children they may find at school or in various social skills groups or other treatment settings It can offer opportunities for forging connections with others who share similar challenges Children may use their Asperger’s label as a potential cornerstone for building self‐advocacy skills and it can help facilitate a sense of control in their lives Asperger’s may be seen less as a disorder and more as a positive and fundamental part of their self-concept the word Asperger’s can feel like a disease or a term describing what is “wrong with them.” We have seen children who were exposed to the word Asperger’s when they were diagnosed but avoid saying it because of the sense of impairment it represents They may see Asperger’s as a challenge that holds them back from reaching their potential Disclosing the diagnosis can present other issues because children with Asperger’s often have difficulties with the subtle nuances of communication it may be hard for them to learn when it is appropriate or inappropriate to share the information with others there is misunderstanding about the diagnosis at a societal level and all too often it is framed in terms of its deficiencies rather than its differences We think this is an issue that needs to be dealt with carefully and sensitively to maximize the child’s adjustment to what lies ahead This article presents some guidelines to help parents make the best decision for their child our society feels differently about psychiatric diagnoses and medical diagnoses Many parents feel less conflicted about the prospect of telling their child that they have a pervasive medical condition such as diabetes or asthma then a psychiatric one disorders of the mind are viewed and treated differently than those of the body And even parents of special needs children while likely more sensitive to the effects of the stigma there are some in the field who don’t view Asperger’s or autism spectrum disorders as disorders at all but rather as unique ways of perceiving the world that should be embraced rather than cured This makes it harder for parents to gauge the meaning of the diagnosis and cautious about attributing a label that can be lifelong Another important consideration is the parents’ reactions to the diagnosis one or both parents identify with what their child is going through because they experienced similar struggles themselves Acknowledging their child’s diagnosis may trigger painful memories and powerful defenses for parents if you are considering having this discussion with your child we recommend first taking the time into explore your beliefs and biases about the diagnosis Even if you hold these views close to your chest We are big advocates of parents meeting with a psychologist to process their own feelings about their child’s diagnosis and help formulate the best way to present it to their child Children can be diagnosed as young as two or three or well into adolescence so the discussion about when and how to talk to a child about the diagnosis will be impacted by the age of the child and his level of emotional maturity  Some children may be able to grasp the nature of the diagnosis at seven and eight Whether the decision to share the diagnosis is being prompted by a recent evaluation or parents have chosen to delay the conversation until the child seems ready most children know something is different about them In general we have found that children construct all sorts of fantasies and ideas about what is wrong with them and having a candid discussion may actually dispel some of their fears Below are a few suggestions to foster an open discussion with your child and it’s pretty easy to come up with a list for each of us It might be helpful for each of the family members to speak about three things they are good at and three things that they struggle with What is unique about children with Asperger’s is the level of discrepancy that can exist between different areas A 10-year-old with Asperger’s may have a reading level equivalent to high school student What can be difficult for the child is the feeling of having such a large split inside of them It can also be valuable to highlight the feeling of this dramatic chasm between the areas you may talk about going to visit a foreign country and feeling like you have a hard time understanding the language or culture We have found the use of metaphors particularly valuable in highlighting what it can feel like for a child with Asperger’s dealing with these difficulties These metaphors can also be used to explain to siblings friends or teachers when they don’t understand why your child is having a difficult time in some of these areas Many role models exist who speak openly and share their challenges. It can be helpful to have your child learn about different role models in pop culture or sports who have specific areas of difficulty who embrace their challenges and model optimism finding a baseball player with an area of difficulty for a child interested in baseball or learning about an engineer with difficulties for a child who loves transportation or an actor on a child’s beloved television show who has shared some challenges Children’s reactions to these talks reflect a full range of responses Some will have many questions and want to understand more They may want to look up what different words mean and feel like they can’t stop talking or thinking about it Other children will be resistant to talking more about it and will want some space to process this information in their own quiet way The biggest gift you can give to your child is to respect her uniqueness and provide her the space and an opportunity to think and reflect about this information You may want to enlist the help of mental health professionals to facilitate the healthy processing of some very complicated information We believe that the understanding and synthesizing of this information is integral to your child’s forming of his identity supporting this process will help  empower him for success and self-actualization through hard work Autism Spectrum News is a quarterly print and online publication dedicated to providing parents, professionals, and individuals on the spectrum with a trusted source of science-based education, vital information and a roadmap to quality resources in the autism community.  To view the current issue or the archives, please visit www.mhnews-autism.org Asperger’s is an outdated term used to describe some people who have autism spectrum disorder You can help a child with Asperger’s by emphasizing that everyone has unique strengths and weaknesses and using simple metaphors to help them understand why some things are challenging for them You can also help them learn about how their role models have overcome challenges Talking openly about challenges helps us heal This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get updates on our care services in California and resources to support children’s mental health. Get exclusive updates on our care services and resources to support children’s mental health. Join our weekly newsletter for expert tips, parenting guides, and more. History and philosophyThe aftermath of the Hans Asperger exposéRabbi David Ariel Sher on implications for psychologists The disability he described in 1944 was named after him and appeared in mainstream diagnostic manuals was designated 'International Asperger's Day' and countries across the world marked this date Asperger represented the benevolent face of psychiatry saved children from the insidious peril of the Third Reich Asperger was barely known in the English-speaking world It was only in 1981 that the renowned psychiatrist Lorna Wing introduced the term Asperger's syndrome in a journal article in Psychological Medicine the syndrome became widely known and was finally incorporated in the DSM in 1994 strode to the front of a gathering in Vienna's ornate City Hall and addressed the assembled crowd The audience had gathered for a two-day symposium on Asperger's life and work Asperger's daughter and grandchildren were present professionals from across the world would discuss the latest developments in Asperger's syndrome and reflect on Asperger's legacy But now they listened in startled silence as Czech explained the archival material he had unearthed that would devastate the adulatory narrative surrounding Asperger Perhaps the most shocking discovery Czech shared on that day was a medical note from Spiegelgrund hospital concerning a two-year-old girl named Herta Schreiber Am Spiegelgrund was founded in the summer of 1940 on the grounds of the Steinhof Hospital in Vienna a former colleague of Asperger and a leading figure of the Nazi 'euthanasia' programme It was here that children who did not meet the Nazi criteria of 'racial purity' and 'hereditary worthiness' were sent Almost 800 children were killed at Spiegelgrund between 1940-1945 many by poisoning or through the administration of barbiturates over a period of time; the cause of the children's death was listed as 'pneumonia' on documentation In brief notes he wrote that 'At home the child must be an unbearable burden to her mother who has to care for five healthy children.' Using the euphemistic language characteristic of German state documents of the period Asperger wrote; 'Permanent placement at Spiegelgrund seems absolutely necessary.' A few days later Herta was admitted to Spiegelgrund and on 2 September the cause of death regularly induced at Spiegelgrund Herta was not even afforded dignity in death; her brain was preserved and used for research alongside hundreds of organs of other Spiegelgrund victims The hospital only released these for burial in 2002 These revelations were a source of embarrassment to those who had championed Asperger it would have been easier to doubt the veracity of these revelations a subsequent article by Czech that appeared in Molecular Autism in 2018 so meticulous in its painstaking collation of first-hand archival material from diverse sources Asperger championed the rehabilitation of those with a chance of becoming 'useful' to the German Volk refer to what fate should be met by those who exhibited no chance of this Asperger had diagnosed Herta Schreiber as 'post-encephalitic?' In 1944 he had written of working with optimism at his clinic 'in the case of these post-encephalitic personalities we too have to say that one in most cases has to largely capitulate.' It seemed clear that capitulation in the case of Herta Schreiber meant signing papers for her to be killed Asperger observed in his evaluative notes that she featured 'Erethic imbecility "encephalitic" affects.' In the final recommendation Asperger wrote 'Spiegelgrund would be the best possibility.' Nurses at Spiegelgrund noted that Elisabeth was affectionate and friendly but could only say one word – 'Mama' On 30 September 1942 she succumbed to the induced 'pneumonia' at the killing facility These shocking cases were paralleled by others it was discovered that children based at the Gugging psychiatric hospital near Vienna were playing truant from school and it was urged that those 'non-educable' in both a 'special school' or psychiatric institution were to be handed to 'the operation of Dr Jekelius' at the earliest opportunity Asperger was the only qualified clinician appointed to this panel which by mid-February 1942 classified 35 children as uneducable and unemployable a verdict inexorably linked to 'euthanasia' 41 children were transferred from Gugging to Spiegelgrund Contrary to the claims that Asperger consistently embellished his diagnostic reports to save children Czech found in at least 12 patients' files that Asperger was far harsher in his assessments than even the Spiegelgrund staff He labelled children with terms including 'unbearable burden' 'semi-imbecile' or 'psychopathic infant' He sent one boy with 'hypochondria' symptoms to a forced labour camp as a 'cure' He unnecessarily referred to the Jewish lineage of his patients the regime took measures to ensure Jewish children in non-Jewish foster families were placed in Jewish orphanages from where they were transported to death camps Asperger recommended separating a 13-year-old Jewish boy named Alfred from his non-Jewish foster mother and placing him with Jewish foster parents; a highly questionable judgment Asperger wrote of a boy named Ivo; 'The only problem is that the boy is a Mischling of the first degree.' Asperger's unnecessary use of this term –which denoted individuals with one Jewish parent – was an extremely hazardous and potentially fatal piece of information Asperger wrote the label 'Mischling' on the front cover of nine-year-old Marie Klein's diagnostic assessment noting that the way she spoke contrasted 'to her quite Jewish character' From Asperger's Heilpädagogik (therapeutic pedagogy) ward Marie was sent to a children's home and in February 1940 was deported to the Wlodawa ghetto from where children were taken to be gassed at Sobibor was admitted to Asperger's clinic in 1939 She had displayed great fear two days before admittance and spoke of anti-Jewish persecution; something understandable in Nazi-ruled Vienna Asperger claimed she was schizophrenic and noted 'For her age and race conspicuously retarded sexual development'; evidence that he had internalised sexualised Nazi anti-Jewish stereotypes Asperger also profited from the dismissal of 96 Jewish Viennese paediatricians (out of 110) and in 1935 despite not having obtained the specialist doctor paediatric degree and after only four years at the ward in the place of more experienced Jewish doctors In Asperger's youth he had belonged to the right-wing faction of Bund Neuland he was a member of several rabidly anti-Semitic organisations including the National Socialist German Physician's League the figurehead of the Nazi Party within the medical profession he was signing his diagnoses with 'Heil Hitler!' In that year referring to the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being forcibly sterilised Asperger wrote; 'You know by what means one strives to prevent the transmission of diseased hereditary material' and said 'We physicians have to take on the tasks that accrue to us in this area with full responsibility.' A year later he wrote of the need 'to carry out restrictive measures' to stop 'the diseased…transmitting their diseased hereditary material' to the detriment 'of the Volk' He emerged unscathed from repeated vetting by the Nazi Party which was initially concerned about Asperger's Catholicism Vienna's deputy Gauleiter wrote in 1940 that the Nazi Party had 'no objections whatsoever' against Asperger and in 1940 the Nazi authorities deemed his political views and character 'irreproachable' and stated that Asperger conformed to 'the National Socialist racial and sterilisation laws' A colleague warned Asperger that he went too far with pro-Nazi rhetoric and observed that a lecture of Asperger's was 'maybe just a little bit too Nazi for your reputation' and advised 'I would drop the thanks to the Führer' where tens of thousands of civilians were put to death by the German forces Asperger declared of his service in Croatia; '…I would not like to miss any of these experiences' heading Innsbruck University's paediatric clinic and in 1962 being appointed Chair of the Vienna Paediatric Clinic he buttressed his claims of the importance of heredity by citing Johannes Lange who conducted 'research' by exploiting Holocaust victims' body parts sent from Auschwitz-Birkenau by his student Asperger wrote that child victims of sexual abuse shared a 'shamelessness' and that they 'attracted' these experiences He denounced a 15-year-old girl abused by a 40-year-old man for showing no 'remorse' for what occurred and opined she displayed 'severe sexual depravation' Asperger spoke appreciatively of 'my mentor Hamburger' in reference to the director of the Vienna Paediatric Clinic who by 1931 had commenced purging the clinic of its Jewish and female professionals Asperger lamented how 'feebleminded' families 'procreate in numbers clearly above the average' and declared their reliance on public welfare 'presents a very serious eugenic problem' Shortly after Czech's article appeared a book with a similarly damning assessment of Asperger's war-time guilt was published by Edith Sheffer Sheffer attacked the positive portrayal of Asperger that had been widely propagated Sheffer's volume and Czech's article were particularly scathing in their assessment of Uta Frith's book chapter 'Asperger and his syndrome' which claimed 'Asperger clearly cared about these children who in most people's eyes were simply obnoxious brats' and argued his innocence against claims of his Nazi involvement In a letter to The Guardian in the aftermath of the exposé Frith said 'none of this was known' at the time she translated Asperger's work and that she found Asperger's collusion in the euthanasia programme 'very saddening' but did not explain why her book chapter did not discuss the references to Nazi ideology in the preface to Asperger's 1944 paper initially presented Asperger in a positive light as an Oskar Schindler-esque figure who tried to protect children from Nazi race hygiene measures by underscoring those children on the 'high-functioning' side of the spectrum Czech attacked this position by illustrating how Asperger devoted a section of his 1944 paper to outlining the hereditary nature of the condition and how Asperger highlighted the severe impediments of his case studies in papers Asperger referred to the heredity as 'degenerative' which increased the probability of fatal outcomes of these evaluations Silberman's apologetic arguments in articles relating to Asperger following the first revelations on Asperger's actions stimulated a furious backlash from Manuel Casanova Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina Silberman later rewrote sections of his book to reflect Asperger's disturbing history Dean Falk of Florida State University authored an article in an effort to defend Asperger's record She argued that it was unlikely that Asperger knew of the murderous activities taking place at Am Spiegelgrund a paper from Czech appeared shortly thereafter positing that Falk's article misrepresented sources and failed to engage with evidence presented in Czech's paper 'by omitting everything' that did not support Falk's 'manifest agenda of defending Hans Asperger's record' Czech argued that Falk's paper should never have passed peer review and demonstrated how Falk's arguments were severely undermined by the presence of 'basic factual errors' and mistranslations Falk admitted she had mistranslated some key words in German but related that she still thought that as late as April 1942 Asperger did not know about the killings at Am Spiegelgrund long before Herta's transferal to Spiegelgrund it was widely known across Vienna that psychiatric patients were being murdered; astoundingly a protest was even staged outside Vienna's Steinhof psychiatric hospital public knowledge of the Nazi 'euthanasia' programme was so detailed that the official Nazi party newspaper was forced to deny rumours that patients were receiving lethal injections or were being gassed to further indicate the implausibility of Falk's claim that Asperger 'didn't know' of 'euthanasia' killings Almost a year prior to Herta Schreiber's referral Wödl had been sufficiently alarmed by widespread rumours of 'euthanasia' killings to identify the Nazi coordinator of the T4 killing programme and approach him directly (in an unsuccessful attempt to save Alfred who was killed at age six at Spiegelgrund) because Falk did not engage with all the issues Czech raised in his riposte and because Falk did not address other wide-ranging and comprehensive incriminating evidence delineated in Czech's initial paper one is forced to conclude that the detailed historical revelations concerning Asperger stand with no credible challenge to their veracity Some may wonder how lessons from this saga are relevant to day-to-day psychological practise With autistic people already subjected to greater levels of prejudice and stigma than the general population it seems that we should be careful as clinicians in using terminology that can associate autistic people with infamous or brutal figures director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge argues that 'The saga is relevant to everyday practise because we want autism to be free of any stigma and if we use Asperger syndrome as a term for one of the subgroups there is a risk of an association with a dark period in history Rather than naming subgroups after specific doctors It may be queried why it is not possible to simply divorce 'Asperger's' as a concept from Asperger as a person he noted that 'The idea that we can divorce the label from the man himself is also not straightforward some people who love Michael Jackson's music no longer play it because of his likely paedophilia.' Baron-Cohen also referred to Sibelius and Wagner as being 'composers whose music we can no longer listen to and separate from their culpability' in actively supporting anti-Semitism (Wagner's music has been under a semi-official moratorium in Israel since Kristallnacht over his rabid anti-Semitism) It is true that the term 'Aspie' was and is used with pride by many autistic individuals who found it reflected the unique cognitive style that an Asperger's syndrome diagnosis represented There has already been considerable research on the preferences of those within the autism community regarding what terms to use (see for example it seems only correct that autistic people should be the final arbiters of how the term is used was conducted by the National Autistic Society (NAS) with the editor noting that the society felt that changing the name was both 'necessary and urgent' who in 1993 founded the magazine – which is written by and for autistic people – wrote that she suggested changing the name because Asperger 'fully cooperated' with Hitler's euthanasia programme and also because 'since this information has become public knowledge some people who share our disability have even begun to receive hate mail.' When I contacted them the Head of Research at the NAS also revealed that in response to the question posed by the NAS: 'Should the National Autistic Society reduce our use of the term Asperger syndrome immediately except where explaining that this was a former name for a diagnosis within autism?' 53 per cent said yes and 31 per cent said no with 16 per cent ticking 'Don't know' who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome wrote that 'The idea that the condition I have been diagnosed with bears the name of the individual who would have sent people like me to their deaths is something I feel extremely upset about.' He added 'after the news about Hans Asperger I think it's time the condition was renamed.' Baron-Cohen similarly wrote that in light of the recent revelations he is no longer comfortable using this term He changed the acronym of the CLASS clinic that he set up in 1997 (the first diagnostic clinic in the UK for adults with suspected Asperger syndrome) from its previous meaning of Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service to the Cambridge Lifespan Autistic Spectrum Service Our use of the term Asperger's syndrome now needs to be revised particularly as the NAS and other evidence to date indicates that overall the autism community prefers it not being used at all except where explaining that this was a former name for a diagnosis within autism which already has to contend with unacceptable levels of stigma may be further stigmatised by the use of this term This saga is also relevant to everyday practise because it reveals uncomfortable truths about the way in which those working in our profession can easily exploit vulnerable populations whom we have a duty to both champion and protect They deserve the basic human rights of being accorded dignity and respect This narrative must be closely studied by clinicians and researchers so that a new generation learns from history and avoids repeating the shocking violations of human rights of the past This dark chapter concerns the most critical ethical issues that psychiatrists and psychologists face breach of trust and dereliction of duty of care This is a story that must be told and retold Die "Autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 'Autistic psychopathy' in childhood (U Australian Government. (2013). Celebrating International Asperger's Day.Retrieved fromhttps://formerministers.dss.gov.au/11804/celebrating-international-aspergers-day/ Baron, S. (2018, June 4). Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna – review. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/04/aspergers-children-origin-autism-nazi-vienna-edith-sheffer-review Is it time to give up on a single diagnostic label for autism Retrieved from: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-it-time-to-give-up-on-a-single-diagnostic-label-for-autism/ Did Hans Asperger actively assist the Nazi euthanasia program Bodkin, H. (2018, April 19). Pioneer doctor Asperger was Nazi collaborator who 'sent children to their deaths. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/19/aspergers-pioneer-nazi-collaborator-sent-children-deaths/ Steve Silberman and his tribe of Nazi sympathizers Retrieved from: https://corticalchauvinism.com/2016/01/23/steve-silberman-and-his-tribe-of-nazi-sympathizers/ Charter, D. (2018, April 19). Asperger helped Nazis kill children, documents show. The Times. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/asperger-helped-nazis-kill-children-documents-show-djl26zpm9 Connolly, K. (2018, April 19). Hans Asperger aided and supported Nazi programme, study says. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/hans-asperger-aided-and-supported-nazi-programme-study-says and "race hygiene" in Nazi-era Vienna Czech, H. (2019). Response to 'Non-complicit: revisiting Hans Asperger's Career in Nazi-era Vienna'. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 49, 3883–3887. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-03981-7 Donvan, J. (2018, April 25). Why did it take so long to expose Hans Asperger's Nazi ties? The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/why-it-took-so-long-to-expose-hans-aspergers-nazi-ties/558872/ Falk, D. (2019). Non-complicit: revisiting Hans Asperger's career in Nazi-era Vienna. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49, 1–12. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-03981-7 More on Asperger's career: a reply to Czech Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/22/what-we-must-learn-from-asperger-expose Furfaro, H. (2018, April 19). New evidence ties Hans Asperger to Nazi eugenics program. Spectrum News. Retrieved from https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/new-evidence-ties-hans-asperger-nazi-eugenics-program/ I am autistic – and after the news about Hans Asperger I think it's time the condition was renamed Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hans-asperger-autism-eugenics-nazi-germany-lorna-wing-judith-gould-a8312536.html The "Mischling" experience in oral history National Autistic Society. (2018). Study on problematic history of Hans Asperger. Retrieved from https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2018-04-19-study-on-hans-asperger.aspx The Goth. (2018, July). Editorial. The magazine that was Asperger United, 95, 3. The Goth. (2018, October). Changes at the NAS and the Spectrum. The Spectrum, 96, 9. Weindling, P. (2013). From scientific object to commemorated victim: the children of the Spiegelgrund. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 35(3), 415–430. Retrieved from https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC4365921&blobtype=pdf Wing, L. (1981). Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account. Psychological Medicine, 11(1), 115–129. doi: 10.1017/S0033291700053332 © Copyright 2000-2025 The British Psychological Society Volume 6 - 2015 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02024 This article is part of the Research TopicHistorical Roots of PsychopathologyView all 10 articles First described in 1944 by Hans Asperger (1944) it was not before 1994 that Asperger Syndrome (AS) was included in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders only to disappear in the Manual’s fifth edition in 2013 During its brief existence as a diagnostic entity AS aroused immense interest and controversy AS patients show deficits in social interaction but also display a rich variety of subtle clinical characteristics that for many distinguish AS from autism difficulties operationalising diagnostic criteria and differentiating AS from autism ultimately led to its merging into the unifying category of Autistic Spectrum Disorders Here we briefly review the short history of this fascinating condition Results of a pubmed search for articles containing the word “Asperger” in the title these several diagnostic schemes nevertheless produced a bewildering semiologic cacophony Gillberg’s criteria are too restrictive and the only mentioning clumsiness as a mandatory symptom Szatmari’s criteria do not include interest restriction – a major criterion in the remaining diagnostic systems DSM-IV and ICD-10 do not require abnormal non-verbal communication mandatory in Gillberg’s and Szatmari’s sets was the exclusion of a diagnosis of AS if criteria for autism were met FIGURE 2. Mandatory diagnostic criteria for Asperger Syndrome according to Szatmari et al. (1989), Gillberg (2002) Klin proposed a reversal of the precedence rule: in the presence of criteria for both HFA and AS the insuperable fragility of AS as a diagnostic entity resides in the lack of a biological marker and in a phenotype that many see as insufficiently different from that of other related disorders This work was supported by an unrestricted grant from Novartis Pharma The reviewer João Gama Marques and handling Editor Diogo Telles-Correia declared their shared affiliation and the handling Editor states that the process nevertheless met the standards of a fair and objective review American Psychiatric Association [APA] (ed.) (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) Google Scholar American Psychiatric Association [APA] (ed.) 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: J. B. Barahona-Corrêa, YmVybmFyZG8uY29ycmVhQGNhZGluLm5ldA== Metrics details Subjects with Asperger’s syndrome without intellectual disabilities have significant difficulties in establishing social relationships despite their IQ being within the normal range One of the effects of social deficit is depression The question arises whether loneliness and dimensions of meaning in life correlate with the severity of depression and whether the average severity of depression loneliness and dimensions of meaning in life differentiate the following groups: people with Asperger’s syndrome and depression people with Asperger’s syndrome without depression people with depression without Asperger’s syndrome and healthy subjects The study was conducted on a total of 170 people including: 43 people with Asperger’s syndrome and depression 41 people with Asperger’s syndrome without depression 40 people with depression without Asperger’s syndrome and 46 healthy people (without Asperger’s syndrome and without depression) All were administered a demographic survey Asperger’s syndrome and depressive episodes were diagnosed on the basis of ICD-10 research criteria still applicable in Poland In the group with Asperger’s syndrome and depression the highest levels of loneliness and the lowest values of the dimensions of the sense of meaning in life This result was significantly different from the results obtained in the other study groups Both in people with Asperger’s syndrome without depression and in people with depression without Asperger’s syndrome the values of the dimensions of the sense of meaning in life and the level of loneliness differ significantly from the results obtained in the control group The BDI-II scores correlated positively with the loneliness values and negatively with the sense of meaning in life values in all groups The results indicate that both suffering from depression and having Asperger’s syndrome are associated with an increased sense of loneliness and a reduced sense of meaning in life People with Asperger’s syndrome and depression have the highest values of loneliness and the lowest values of dimensions of the sense of meaning of life compared to the other groups studied The limitation of the work is the deliberate selection of groups because it would be interesting to answer the question whether Asperger’s syndrome is a risk factor for depression in the population The aim of our work is to compare the sense of loneliness and the structure of the meaning in life in groups of people with Asperger’s syndrome and depression with Asperger’s syndrome without depression with depression without Asperger's syndrome and in a control group of healthy subjects Our research aims to answer the question whether the co-morbidity of depression and Asperger’s syndrome has an additive effect on the feeling of loneliness and reduced sense of meaning in life in this group of patients It is also interesting whether the sense of meaning in life and the feeling of loneliness is more influenced by suffering from depression or being on the ASD spectrum without intellectual disability Both disorders significantly interfere with the psychological functioning of a person and affect social contacts and purposeful activity of the subject In connection with the research objectives the following research hypotheses were formulated: The co-morbidity of depression and Asperger’s syndrome has an additive effect on the sense of loneliness and reduced sense of meaning in life of people affected by both these disorders The sense of meaning in life and the feeling of loneliness is affected more significantly by being on the ASD spectrum within the intellectual norm than by suffering from depression (a) Box-whisker charts of differences in the scores of loneliness rating scales (DJGLS scale) and sense of meaning in life (LAP-R scale) between 4 groups: patients with Asperger's Syndrome and depression and healthy subjects; (A) feeling of loneliness (DJGLS scale); (B) Purpose (PU) on the LAP-R scale; (C) Coherence (CO) on the LAP-R scale (D) Choice/Responsibleness (CR) on the LAP-R scale (b) Box-whisker charts of differences in the scores of loneliness rating scales (DJGLS scale) and sense of meaning in life (LAP-R scale) between 4 groups: patients with Asperger’s and healthy subjects; A) Death Acceptance (DA) on the LAP-R scale B) Existential vacuum (EV) on the LAP-R scale; C) Goal-seeking (GS) on the LAP-R scale D) The personal meaning index on the LAP-R scale R) Existential transcendence (ET) on the LAP-R scale The weakest correlation was found between death acceptance (DA) and severity of depression in the group with Asperger's syndrome and depression (weak negative correlation: R = − 0.302; p = 0.049) as well as acceptance of death and severity of depression in the group with Asperger's syndrome (weak the patients showed a strong increase in the sense of loneliness (DJGLS) with the increase in the severity of depression on the Beck scale (Asperger's syndrome and depression: R = 0.889 p < 0.001; Asperger's syndrome: R = 0.938 patients with Asperger's Syndrome and depression had similar scores as patients in the depressed group for LAP-R dimensions such as: The personal meaning index (TPMI) (Asperger's Syndrome and depression: R = − 0.847 p < 0.001) and Existential transcendence (ET) (Asperger's syndrome and depression: R = − 0.849 Patients with Asperger's syndrome only in the case of TPMI and ET dimensions obtained a similar negative correlation between the dimensions and the severity of depression on the Beck scale loneliness and all dimensions of the LAP-R scale correlated positively with the severity of depression (BDI-II) The coefficients of these correlations reached relatively high values at p < 0.001 The above means that the psychological construct of depression is similar to the psychological construct of the sense of loneliness and lack of meaning in life It is puzzling that acceptance of death does not correlate with the results of the Beck Depression Inventory This fact is explained by the well-known clinical observation that not every depressed patient has suicidal ruminations and acceptance of non-existence associated with the end of existence A large proportion of patients with depression are afraid of death Suicidal thoughts occur in severe depression and only patients in a stable state of mood disorders were qualified for our study Our study should probably be repeated in a clinical ward where patients with suicidal ideations are hospitalized Due to the insufficient number of women representing the group with Asperger's syndrome and depression (N = 12) as well as with Asperger's syndrome (N = 3) statistical analysis could not be performed Due to the very similar age of all participants in the study, in all 4 groups, the results of the analysis of the correlation between the DJGLS scales and dimensions in the LAP-R scale and age were statistically insignificant, or statistically significant, but poorly correlated (Table S5 in the Supplement) The results of the presented research provide important premises for the professional practice of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists Special care should be given to people with co-occurrence of mood disorders and pervasive developmental disorders as a group particularly predisposed to a high sense of loneliness and a low sense of meaning in life In the Polish population of people in the late adult phase the estimated diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is significantly underestimated because the psychiatrists’ awareness of the existence of autism spectrum disorders appeared with the introduction of the ICD-10 classification in Poland Seniors on the autism spectrum were usually classified as having intellectual disabilities our study involved only young adults diagnosed in childhood after the introduction of ICD-10 in Poland What is missing from our paper is the reference to other research using psychometric tools such as DJGLS and LAP-R to study people on the autism spectrum and mood disorders Such works either do not exist or are not available in English-language literature The selection of patients for individual groups was deliberate and was not random It is interesting whether we would get similar results in large-population studies where patient selection would be random Another limitation of the study was the failure to include the duration of mood disorders in patients as a variable The only analyzed variable was the severity of symptoms measured using the BDI-II scale The use of antidepressants or the absence of their use were also not taken into account based on the anamnesis it was known that most patients with depression took serotonin reuptake inhibitors or serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors patients taking mood stabilizers had either a diagnosis of bipolar disorder or a history of hospitalization which automatically excluded their participation in the study Our goal was not to include the duration of the disease but only the severity of symptoms measured quantitatively using a standardized tool—BDI-II People with Asperger's syndrome and depression have higher values in terms of loneliness and lower values in terms of meaning in life than people with Asperger's syndrome without depression people with depression without Asperger's syndrome The severity of depression measured with BDI-II strongly correlates with the intensity of loneliness and dimensions of meaning in life except for the acceptance of death dimension The study was carried out in the period 05.2022–03.2023 in the mental health clinic of the Society of Friends of the Disabled in Łódź and the family doctor’s clinic in Aleksandrów Łódzki 43 people with Asperger’s syndrome and depression 41 with Asperger's syndrome without depression 40 people with depression without Asperger’s syndrome and 46 healthy people The patients were recruited from three mental health clinics and the control group was selected from the charges of the family doctor Efforts were made to ensure that the groups consisted of equal number of subjects and people in each group were of a similar age The study excluded people with mental and behavioral disorders other than a depressive episode and a high-functioning autism spectrum without intellectual disability The study also excluded people hospitalized for psychiatric reasons within the last six months such as a past infarction or stroke in the last year partially or poorly controlled bronchial asthma heart failure grade III and IV according to NYHA chronic kidney disease in stages IIIa to Va according to KDIGO severe degenerative joint changes that make it difficult to move decompensated type I and type II diabetes and other severe systemic diseases were also excluded Subjects with depression and those with both depression and Asperger’s syndrome qualified for the study were diagnosed with F32 and F33 in a mild or moderate degree according to the ICD-10 classification still in force in Poland people with depression who had been hospitalized due to the severe course of the disease were excluded from the study because the severe course of depression and hospitalization could be an additional variable confounding the research results both because of the stigma associated with the stay in psychiatric hospital and because of the lack of participation in social life caused by the symptoms of depression The patients completed the following questionnaires once: a demographic questionnaire of the authors’ own construction the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in a version standardized and published by the Laboratory of Psychological Tests of the Polish Psychological Association the Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R) by Gary T Reker in a standardized version published by the Laboratory of Psychological Tests of the Polish Psychological Association published by the Psychological Test Laboratory of the Polish Psychological Association including Purpose (life goals and a sense of direction) Coherence (understanding oneself and the environment) Choice/Responsibleness (a view on the ability to make life choices) Existential vacuum (absence of meaning in life Each item is rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) and each subscale has 8 items The Existential vacuum scale is scored negatively The calculation of the two remaining complex scales is based on the simple scales They include The Personal Meaning Index (life goals understanding of oneself and the environment) and Existential Transcendence (a general measure of life attitudes) death acceptance with existential vacuum and goal seeking subtraction The severity of depressive symptoms (or depressiveness) was assessed with the use of the Beck Depression Inventory version II (BDI) validated and published by the Psychological Test Laboratory of the Polish Psychological Association The test comprises 21 items concerning the occurrence and severity of depressive symptoms within the last two weeks The scores for each item range from 0 to 3 which gives a total score of 0 to 63 points The higher scores reflect the greater severity of depressiveness The study obtained the approval of the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Lodz (consent no Informed consent form was obtained from all participants in the study All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations by including a statement in the methods section to this effect In order to assess the internal consistency of the LAP-R scale in the study Cronbach's alpha was used along with the assessment of intercorrelation between the dimensions of the scale Nominal variables were presented using cardinality with percentages while ordinal or continuous variables with a distribution other than normal were presented using medians with quartiles of 25 and 75% (Q1–Q3) The distribution of continuous variables was tested using the Shapiro–Wilk W test The non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test was used to assess differences between the 2 groups while non-parametric analysis of variance using the Kruskal–Wallis test was used to assess differences between > 2 groups post-hoc tests were performed using Dunn's test the non-parametric Spearman rank correlation test was used to assess the relationship between two continuous or ordinal variables and the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (R) was used to assess the relationship between the variables Statistically significant results for differences between two or more groups were presented using a box-whisker chart and correlation results using a scatterplot The level of statistical significance for the analyses was set at p < 0.05 The statistical program STATISTICA version 13.3 (TIBCO 2022 The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request (marcin.kosmalski@umed.lodz.pl) Gaebel, W., Stricker, J. & Kerst, A. 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Aging 28, 582–598. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027506289723 (2016) Exploring Existential Meaning: Optimizing Human Development Across the Life Span 221 (Sage Publications Podręcznik do polskiej adaptacji kwestionariusza Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R) Gary’ego T Rekera (Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych Polskiego Towarzystwa Psychologicznego,Warszawa Download references This research was funded by the Medical University of Lodz Department of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies The Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw Statistical analysis was performed by K.S. and approval of the final version to be published Percentagewise the contributions are as follows: K.S The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43826-z Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Hans Asperger with a young boy at the Children's Clinic at the University of Vienna in the 1930s The publication of a new history of autism called In a Different Key has reopened an unsettling question about the pioneering Viennese pediatrician Hans Asperger: Was he a Nazi sympathizer or a man who paid lip service to his bosses' murderous ideology in order to save the lives of as many of his young patients as possible The implications of this question are far-reaching because Asperger's work on autism at the University of Vienna in the 1930s was ignored for decades after the war That had a catastrophic impact on autistic people and their families The controversy also gets to the heart of the difficulty of accurately judging the behavior of people living under brutal regimes In Donvan and Zucker's view Asperger was an ambitious opportunist who uncritically spouted Nazi ideology in his first public lecture on autism in 1938 and enthusiastically signed letters "Heil Hitler!" Most devastatingly he signed a letter of referral effectively condemning a little girl with encephalitis named Herta Schreiber to death in a Vienna rehab facility that had been converted into a killing center by Asperger's former colleague Donvan and Zucker base their conclusions on documents allegedly uncovered by a Holocaust scholar in Vienna named Herwig Czech Czech has made a career of documenting the horrific crimes of the medical establishment under the Third Reich while "outing" secret Nazis like neurologist Walther Birkmayer who pioneered the use of a drug called L-dopa to treat Parkinson's disease but was a member of the dreaded SS with other staff members at the Children's Clinic realized in the 1930s that autism was a spectrum of disorders that conferred both disability and ability I also made clear that once the Nazis marched into Austria to annex the country for the fatherland in 1938 nearly all of Asperger's colleagues became fervent members of the Nazi party while his Jewish colleagues were purged from the faculty at the University of Vienna and forced to flee the country or face death in a concentration camp I focused primarily on the years leading up to World War II and on the crucial work that Asperger and his colleagues did at the Children's Clinic at the university before the Nazis took over and transformed the once hallowed institution of learning into a center for the study of "racial hygiene" staffed by bumbling fanatics What I found led me to conclude that Asperger was the true discoverer of what we now call the autism spectrum — a lifelong condition with a broad and strikingly heterogeneous range of clinical presentations I drew on the first case history of autism written at the Children's Clinic in 1935 by Asperger's colleague psychologist Anni Weiss Weiss evaluated a boy named Gottfried who exhibited many traits now considered classic manifestations of autism — including difficulty in relating to his peers which made him a frequent target of bullying After having Gottfried take an intelligence test one that he undertook with great difficulty Weiss came to an astonishingly prescient conclusion Weiss noticed that Gottfried was acutely anxious about violating the rules of the test She concluded that in fact he was highly intelligent but in a way that couldn't be captured by the usual standardized tests I discovered another forgotten paper written by an American psychiatrist named Joseph Michaels who visited Asperger's clinic before the war At first skeptical about the lack of psychoanalytical frameworks guiding the staff Michaels was eventually converted by what he called the clinic's "highly personal" approach which viewed eccentric behavior as problematic only if it created problems for the child "Fundamentally there appears to be no special interest in the differences between normal and abnormal," Michaels wrote "as it is felt that theoretically this is unclear and practically it is of no great importance .. great value is placed on intuition gained .. Asperger and his colleagues would eventually examine more than 200 children with autism at all levels of ability — from nonspeaking children who would always require assistance in their daily lives to a young man who became an assistant professor of astronomy after detecting an error in one of Isaac Newton's proofs Asperger noted the prevalence of autistic traits among "distinguished scientists," and went so far as to say "It seems that for success in science and art the necessary ingredient may be an ability to turn away from the everyday world an ability to rethink a subject with originality so as to create in new untrodden ways." which Donvan and Zucker put forth as evidence of Nazi sympathies Asperger may well have emphasized his "most promising cases" to his Nazi bosses in part because newly passed eugenics laws in Austria targeted more impaired children for extermination This tactic inadvertently led to one of the most pernicious myths about Asperger's legacy: that he only saw high-functioning children when he made clear in his published work that he saw children from all points on the spectrum Donvan and Zucker's account of that lecture omits any reference to the most radical statement Asperger made that day: his observation that his patients' impairments were inextricable from their special gifts he would make the prescient suggestion that the enhanced pattern-recognition abilities of his autistic patients would make them valuable code-breakers for the Reich This view was completely at odds with the eugenicists' core belief that humanity could only thrive by shedding the "burden" of providing disabled people with the support they need while they make contributions that only they can Asperger anticipated the development of the modern neurodiversity movement dyslexia and ADHD as profound disabilities that can also convey striking gifts in the presence of adequate accommodations and educational resources As a clinician who worked with children with many types of hereditary disabilities Asperger was in an acutely perilous position — particularly because the man who originally assigned him to work in the Children's Clinic an infectious disease specialist named Franz Hamburger became one of the most prominent Nazis in Austria Hamburger portrayed the Fuehrer as a grand physician opening up "new avenues of health for the 80 million folk of Germany." Under the influence of fanatics like Hamburger the distinction between normal and abnormal behavior became a litmus test that meant the difference between life and death The Nazis embarked on a series of euthanasia campaigns to murder disabled children and adults in large numbers which effectively became practice runs for the Holocaust Doctors were required to report disabled children in their care medical students were trained to administer lethal injections while filling out fictitious death certificates and clinics and hospitals became factories of death — including the former rehab facility in Vienna called Am Spiegelgrund that became the primary killing center for all of Austria under the supervision of Erwin Jekelius A prominent bishop who objected to the mass murder of disabled children on religious grounds was quickly dispatched to a camp Medical students at the University of Munich who opposed euthanasia were arrested convicted of treason by a people's court and publicly beheaded Asperger found himself in what he later described as a "truly dangerous situation." According to Adam Feinstein the Gestapo came to the clinic twice to arrest Asperger — and both times In order to retain his position at the university the soft-spoken Asperger would have been required at the very least to take a loyalty oath to Hitler Asperger was chided by his colleague Josef Feldner for paying lip service to the Fuehrer was "a bit too Nazistic for your reputation." Though nearly all of Asperger's colleagues eventually joined the Nazi party Understanding the terrible historical forces that Asperger was up against makes sense of the oddly strident note he struck in his best-known paper "The example of autism shows particularly well how even abnormal personalities can be capable of development and adjustment," Asperger wrote gives us the right and the duty to speak out for these children with the whole force of our personality." Asperger's insights would inspire the British psychiatrist Lorna Wing to conceive of autism as a broad and inclusive spectrum instead of a rare narrowly defined form of childhood psychosis — allegedly caused by unloving "refrigerator" parents — that was described by Leo Kanner the child psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Hospital who took sole credit for discovering the condition in 1943 The real story was much more complicated than that it was Kanner who rescued Georg Frankl and dozens of other Jewish clinicians from the gathering storm leading up to the Holocaust reaping the benefits of Frankl's expertise by having him evaluate Kanner's first autistic patients Kanner would go on to become the world's leading authority on autism while mentioning Asperger's work only once in print Rumors that Asperger was more compliant with his Nazi bosses than he himself suggested after the war have circulated for decades. As Donvan and Zucker point out, Eric Schopler, the founder of TEACCH — a pioneering autism education and research program in North Carolina — objected to Lorna Wing's coinage of the term "Asperger syndrome" for this reason preferring the term "high-functioning autism." But In a Different Key raises the speculation about Asperger's character to a new level the authors claim that Asperger served on a committee that decided which children should live and which should die though they do not explore the possibility that Asperger could have used that position to save as many children as possible Czech has never made his information available to me, despite numerous requests of increasing urgency over the years, even after his allegations appeared in a review of my book in The Spectator by autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen But I was able to find support for his claim that Asperger signed the letter of referral sending Herta Schreiber to Am Spiegelgrund in the work of another scholar named Waltraud Hauepl I have amended the text of future editions of my book to reflect this darkest episode in Asperger's career primarily because Asperger's work was not made widely available in English until 1991 Without her serendipitous discovery of Asperger's work when it was still being overlooked the British psychiatrist Lorna Wing would never have been inspired to broaden the diagnostic criteria for autism into a spectrum that included what she called Asperger's syndrome making support services available to a wide range of people — including teenagers and adults — who had been excluded from a diagnosis before which are demanding a place at the table when public policy that impacts autistic people and their families is formulated told me recently that she is carrying on her father's work to this day seeing autistic patients from age 5 to age 60 Georg Frankl immediately re-established contact with her father and the two men maintained a lively correspondence about the progress of their patients as they had done in the years before darkness fell in Austria They also visited one another cordially in their respective home countries which one wouldn't expect if Frankl believed that Asperger was a Nazi monster who had enthusiastically sent his young patients to their deaths I look forward to Herwig Czech finally making his research available to other scholars But if Donvan and Zucker's allegations turn out to be true the most important lesson of this tragic chapter in history is not that Asperger's work should be ignored as it was in most of the world until developmental psychologist Uta Frith finally made it available in English The most important lesson is not that brutal regimes like the Third Reich enable evil men to do evil but that they are able to compel even well-intentioned people to do monstrous things Steve Silberman is author of NeuroTribes a New York Times best-selling history of autism and the neurodiversity movement Become an NPR sponsor MRI scans may offer a more accurate way to detect autism in girls A Rutgers University study found that tracking and measuring the involuntary head movements revealed in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans offers a new more accurate way to detect autism in girls Rutgers University-New Brunswick neuroscientist Elizabeth Torres said the traditional criteria used to diagnose autism are largely based on the observed behavior of children and since boys in western society are expected to be active deviations from that norm are easy to spot Perhaps partly due to these cultural biases boys are diagnosed with autism five times as often as girls so we’re measuring females with a male ruler,” she said In a paper published in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience Torres and her co-authors report on what they found by matching data about involuntary head movements from fMRI scans to diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder “But you can’t hold totally still; nobody can The machine will pick up involuntary movements that the patient is unaware of and that an observer wouldn’t see with the naked eye.” Torres, associate professor of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, used data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) databases which contain raw information from brain scans collected from laboratories around the world – a guard against the cultural bias inherent in observation The researchers examined the scans of 2,199 people all of whom had been diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s syndrome a relatively mild disorder on the autism spectrum Three hundred nine of the scans were of females Torres says the tools traditionally used to diagnose autism offer no definition of “normal” behavior nor do they offer standardized scales that can be mapped to the kind of neurophysiological data that comes from fMRI scans may help clinicians more accurately determine whether and where a person belongs on the autism spectrum This is the latest in a series of articles in which Torres has made use of electronic data either obtained from fMRI scans or from wearable sensors to study such conditions as autism and stroke a an undergraduate student when the research was done and now a Fulbright Scholar in India; and Caroline Whyatt and Carla Caballero both post-doctoral researchers in Torres’ laboratory at Rutgers University-New Brunswick Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues with Rutgers websites to accessibility@rutgers.edu or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier / Provide Feedback form Copyright ©2025, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. All rights reserved. Contact webmaster Method: A total of 78 age- and education-matched participants [26 patients with recent-onset SZ, 26 individuals with AS, and 26 healthy controls (HC)] were recruited for the study. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs), with age, years of education, and medication included as covariates, were used to examine group differences on total NSS and the five subscale scores. Discriminant analyses were employed to identify the NSS subscales that maximally discriminate between the three groups. Results: Significant differences among the three groups were found in NSS total score and on the five NSS subscales. The clinical groups differed significantly in the NSS subscale MOCO. The correct discriminant rate between patients with SZ and individuals with AS was 61.5%. The correct discriminant rate was 92.3% between individuals with AS and HC, and 80.8% between SZ patients and HC, respectively. Conclusion: Our findings provide new evidence for the presence of NSS in AS and lend further support to previously reported difficulties in movement control in this disorder. According to the present results, SZ and AS seem to be characterized by both quantitative and qualitative NSS expression. Volume 5 - 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00091 This article is part of the Research TopicPsychomotor symptomatology in psychiatric illnessesView all 18 articles This suggests that distinguishing between both spectrum disorders remains a diagnostic challenge Such diagnostic overlaps might confound the diagnosis and delay appropriate treatment of these patients the symptoms overlap could at least partially account for the inconsistent findings in previous scientific studies Overall, the above mentioned clinical studies suggest that motor abnormalities are a typical characteristic of SZ and AS. Hence, there is a stimulating debate whether these disorders share similar sensory-motor features or not (37). Regarding subtle neurological deficits in autism, however, only Mayoral et al. (34) compared NSS in early-onset SZ and AS at present it is difficult to highlight a potential difference in subtle sensory-motor abnormalities in patients with SZ and individuals with AS The precise evaluation of subtle sensory-motor neurological signs in SZ and AS is of potential clinical significance since the assessment of NSS might allow for more accurate disease classification this approach might help to overcome the missing conceptual clarity and better delineate a precise phenotype in order to identify endophenotypes underpinning SZ and AS The purpose of this investigation was twofold. First, we were interested in whether there is a difference between NSS severity in patients with SZ and individuals with AS. Second, we sought to identify characteristic NSS, which are either unique or shared by both disorders. Based on the findings of a previous study in juveniles (34) and on our clinical observation it was hypothesized that individuals with AS would show NSS scores at least as high as patients with SZ we expected AS individuals being predominantly susceptible to NSS that involve gross motor skills we employed a descriptive and predictive linear discrimination analysis (LDA) in order to examine if both total NSS and subscale scores are able to discriminate between the three groups All study participants gave informed consent to participation and the study has been approved by the local ethics committee of the Medical Faculty The three groups of participants were matched according to age and education. Level of IQ among individuals with AS ranged from 71 to 124 (mean IQ: 99.0 ± 18.5) according to CFT-20-R (40) Patients with SZ according to DSM-IV had an initial onset of psychosis within 2 years prior to study entry with a mean duration of illness of 7.15 months (range 2–15 months) SZ subtypes were distributed as follows: paranoid n = 12 all SZ patients were clinically stable with consistent medication doses for 4 weeks or longer They were receiving treatment with a single second-generation antipsychotic agent according to their psychiatrists’ choice Patients were treated on average for 2.33 ± 1.44 months throughout the course of illness Potential extrapyramidal side effects were excluded before study entry by an experienced psychiatrist who was not directly involved in the study Individuals with AS and HC did not take any antipsychotic SZ patients had low or no prevalence of positive and negative symptoms At the time of clinical and NSS assessment no SZ patients manifested psychotic symptoms (two or more of the positive symptom items >3 or a total SAPS score >40) Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package of the Social Sciences (SPSS version 21.0 Sociodemographic and clinical variables were described and compared between the three groups with unpaired t-test or chi-square test for categorical variables using conventional significance levels (p < 0.05) To test for differences in NSS performance between the three study subgroups we conducted an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) including the potentially distorting factors age Gender comparisons on NSS performance within each study group and between the three groups used t-tests and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) p values of the identified NSS subscales were corrected for the number of tested NSS subscales in our main analysis using the Bonferroni method where n (=18) equaled the number of correlations (classical Bonferroni correction) the corrected threshold was set to p = 0.0027 [α = 0.05/18 tests (total NSS + five subscale scores × three groups)] and CPZ as covariates was conducted to further examine the differences between groups if a significant main effect was identified p values of the identified NSS subscales were corrected for the number of tested NSS subscales using the Bonferroni method where n (=12) equaled the number of correlations (classical Bonferroni correction) the corrected threshold was set to p = 0.0041 [α = 0.05/12 tests (total NSS + five subscale scores × two groups)] and CPZ with total scores and subscores of NSS were conducted with the Pearson correlation coefficient To examine the ability of NSS to discriminate among the three groups, both descriptive and predictive LDAs were used (11, 49, 50) The aim of this analysis was to determine whether NSS subscales would discriminate between patients with SZ and those with AS total NSS and the five subscale scores were treated as “within subject variable” (independent variables) whereas the diagnostic group was treated as the “between subject factor” (grouping variable) only those NSS scores that reached statistical significance in the ANCOVAs were used as predictive variables this effect is most likely driven by the influence of confounders such as age since a significant gender effect diminished after covarying for these factors Descriptive summary of the sociodemographic and clinical variables of all participants p values of the identified NSS subscales were corrected for the number of tested NSS subscales in our main analysis using the Bonferroni method (p < 0.0027) NSS total and two subscale scores (MOCO and COMT) hold Bonferroni correction for multiple testing Gender differences in NSS performance (two-tailed t-tests) Neurological soft signs total scores and NSS scores on the five subscales among the three groups The bottom and top of the box represent the first and third quartile and the band inside the box is the second quartile (the median) The ends of the whiskers indicate the minimum and maximum of the NSS performance The ANCOVA showed that compared with SZ patients the individuals with AS showed significantly higher NSS total scores [F(4 47) = 3.63; p = 0.012] and higher scores on the subscale COMT [F(4 individuals with AS showed lower scores on the NSS subscale MOCO [F(4 47) = 4.38; p = 0.004] when compared to SZ patients p values of the two identified NSS subscales were corrected for the number of tested NSS subscales in our main analysis using the Bonferroni method (p < 0.0041) MOCO hold Bonferroni correction for multiple testing No significant difference was found between individuals with AS and SZ patients on the subscales IF [F(4 individuals with AS showed significantly higher NSS total scores [F(3 48) = 24.50; p < 0.001] and elevated NSS on the subscales MOCO [F(3 and RLSO) hold Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (p < 0.0041) SZ patients showed significantly more total NSS signs [F(4 47) = 12.90; p < 0.001] and higher NSS scores on the subscale MOCO [F(4 NSS total and two subscale scores (MOCO and HS) hold Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (p < 0.0041) no significant difference was found between SZ patients and HC on the subscale COMT [F(4 47) = 2.45; p = 0.059] and RLSO [F(4 and BPRS scores were not significantly associated with total score and five subscores of NSS at the conventional significance level (p < 0.05) BPRS scores were not associated with total score and five subscores of NSS at the conventional significance level (p < 0.05) In this study, we conducted a LDA (11, 49, 50) to examine the ability of the total NSS and five subscale scores to discriminate between the three groups we also tested for the possibility of predicting the correct diagnosis solely based on NSS performance Only the NSS subscales that reached statistical significance in post hoc analysis and survived the Bonferroni correction were used as predictive variables Canonical discriminant functions of neurological soft signs (total score predictive LDA was also conducted for group–group comparison All three analyses showed significant results After including the NSS total score and the NSS subscale COMT in the LDA the correct discriminant rate elevated from 61.5 to 71.2% (Wilks’ λ = 0.774; χ2 = 12.438; p = 0.006; eigenvalue: 0.292; canonical correlation = 0.476) The correct rate of AS individuals was 65.4% while the correct rate of SZ patients was 76.9% The other was between individuals with AS and HC and HS) that reached statistical significance in the post hoc analysis and survived the Bonferroni correction were used as predictor variables The total correct discriminant rate was 92.3% The descriptive LDA revealed the emergence of one significant linear discriminant function (Wilks’ λ = 0.445; χ2 = 37.746; p < 0.001; eigenvalue: 1.195; canonical correlation = 0.738) The remaining predictive LDA was between SZ patients and HC total NSS and three subscale scores (MOCO and HS) that reached statistical significance in the post hoc analysis and survived the Bonferroni correction were used as predictor variables The total correct discriminant rate was 80.8% The results of the descriptive LDA revealed the emergence of one significant linear discriminant function (Wilks’ λ = 0.569; χ2 = 27.334; p < 0.001; eigenvalue: 0.757; canonical correlation = 0.656) NSS total scores (r = 0.335; p = 0.095) and scores on the subscales MOCO (r = 0.262; p = 0.228) COMT (r = 0.133; p = 0.547) and RLSO (r = 0.140; p = 0.523) were not associated with CPZ equivalents at the conventional significance level (p < 0.05) This study assessed and compared NSS levels in both patients with SZ and AS patients with SZ show significantly higher NSS score on the subscale MOCO when compared to individuals with AS SZ patients can be distinguished from those with AS by only one NSS subscale (MOCO) These findings were consistent across the analyses of prevalence and in the LDA investigating young patients with early-onset SZ does not allow making inferences for the whole SZ spectrum because NSS might be instable in subgroups of young patients with incomplete brain maturation the above mentioned findings cannot be generalized to the whole autism spectrum Our data might support the hypothesis of developmental deficits in AS during adolescence and adulthood especially motor tests evaluating fine motor skills and manual dexterity might be helpful when classifying and differentiating patients with SZ and individuals with AS The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The authors cordially thank all patients and healthy controls for participating in this study. This work was supported by the Marie-Curie Initial Training Network TESIS: “Toward an Embodied Science of InterSubjectivity” (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN, 264828). We also acknowledge financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and University of Heidelberg within the funding program “Open Access Publishing”. Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. Volume 11 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02103 This article is part of the Research TopicNeuromarketing and Organizational Cognitive NeuroscienceView all 15 articles This study examines how advertising material and brands related to organizational communication are perceived by people with Asperger syndrome The main objective of the study was to understand whether the perception of advertising differs between individuals with AS and a neurotypical population Neuromarketing techniques were used to examine two key variables which were also measured by physiological and biometric variables The results were compared with those of a control group from a neurotypical population; i.e. participants who had not been diagnosed with any type of developmental disorder Commercial advertisements were the preferred material used in this research although social-themed advertisements were also included some produced by commercial companies and others by institutional advertisers (NGOs and foundations) Qualitative techniques were also used to explain the observed phenomena Data revealed significant differences between the two groups in their perception of advertising and organizational communication with respect to attention and emotion variables Broadly speaking, we can say that the “distinctive features” or general characteristics present in people affected by Asperger’s (hereinafter, AS) fall into three main areas, according to the Wing Triad (Wing, 1981): Social area: limitations in establishing social relationships deficient interpretation of other people’s body language Communication area: verbal and non-verbal communication deficiencies Psychomotor area: imperfect fine motor skills (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) This would have a direct impact on understanding and interpreting language in advertising material where these kinds of resources are widely employed to communicate adequately and achieve certain objectives All of these features must be taken into account when interpreting results and assessing message comprehension Some people with ASD can recall large amounts of information from limited stimuli such as movie conversations or fragments of song lyrics they have heard only once they tend to watch their preferred audiovisual content more often This study aims to examine how AS subjects perceive advertising to highlight the limitations of AS subjects with respect to social and communicative areas particularly in language literality and the interpretative deficiency regarding other people’s body language Abstract concepts and non-verbal communication are important features of advertising but understanding such messages can be a challenge for subjects with AS It operates as an interdisciplinary field where neuroscience and consumer psychology intersect with neuroscience supporting the study of decision-making processes This can enhance activities such as persuasive communication where results have historically been hard to foresee and measure neuromarketing was the primary tool used in this study as it allows for the measurement of attention and emotion in AS individuals when responding to brands and for a comparison with neurotypical subjects Many individual behaviors are not easy to observe using traditional research methods (Shaw and Bagozzi, 2017). They can be better measured with neuromarketing techniques, which provide researchers with objective, trustworthy, and less-prone-to-bias data (Camerer et al., 2005) In the case of advertising and organizational communication an intricate decision-making process takes place through the neural system and functional circuits Neurobiological components and cognitive and affective processes are dependent on the neural system meaning that the simplified abstractions derived from areas of the brain and its neural circuits are especially useful Such abstractions are the most essential elements in obtaining conclusions from the neurobiological markers that are fully substantiated by neuroscience Four main neural circuits have been established as important for consumer and decision-making neuroscience: (a) attention; (b) memory; (c) emotional processing; and (d) reward processing (Torreblanca et al., 2012; Shaw and Bagozzi, 2017) These variables are present when consumers are exposed to publicity making it hard to discriminate and pay attention to all of them due to processing capacity The exact process of attention is key in buying decisions Different points of attention are correlated to various cerebral zones that can be observed and measured using neuroscientific techniques Few studies have been carried out with AS subjects in the communication area Studies have tended to focus on psychological and medical areas rather than on areas related to organizational communication or brand publicity Due to its highly precise results and special characteristics for investigating audience responses to commercials neuroscience is one of the most suitable methodologies for studying the reactions of people with AS A mixed approach was adopted for this study This was complemented by techniques used in social investigations to examine data obtained by neuroscience and find explanations for the observed behaviors The general aim of the study was to investigate the impact of commercial advertising on individuals with AS and to compare the results with those of neurotypical individuals This was achieved by measuring their brand perception through emotion (EDR) and attention (EDL) variables the study had three specific objectives: (a) to investigate whether brands and companies are communicating appropriately with AS individuals; (b) to understand how a group of people diagnosed with AS assimilate and understand publicity; and (c) to understand how the language of advertising in its various forms influences AS and neurotypical individuals as well as the meaning and use that advertising has for each group The second group (the control group) comprised 17 neurotypical individuals (11 men and 6 women with a mean age of 23 years) The research was conducted in compliance with the guidance of the Helsinki Declaration The internal Ethics Committee of the department responsible for this investigation also approved this research All of the 32 participants in the neuromarketing experiments and surveys were over 18 years of age They all signed written authorization giving their consent to participate in the research and to the disclosure and transfer of data transfer The Asperger’s Association Madrid approved the research method employed and supervised its development To determine the effectiveness of a stimulus with respect to its impact on attention and emotion, this study used instruments based on Sociograph technology which enable researchers to measure the unconscious reactions of a group of people exposed to commercials or audiovisual content. Sociograph is a company that specializes in peer-reviewed international neuromarketing studies (Aiger et al., 2013) Sociograph works with biometric technology developed by Salamanca University The technology involves complex activation and control mechanisms that enable quantitative and simultaneous measurements of the mood of dozens of subjects at any given time the evaluation of emotional changes experienced when viewing communication items The two measures obtained through this system (EDL and EDR) correspond exactly with the two main previously noted social problems of AS individuals: lack of continuous attention and a lack of emotional projection a representative sample of commercials was chosen from broadcast television due to its comprehensive depiction of the companies and the brand values that are advertised it offers a more compelling sensorial experience compared with advertisements from other media The average duration of the commercials was between 20 and 60 s to avoid people with AS experiencing boredom A total of 33 commercials from companies and brands in different commercial categories were used These also included some commercials from social and public interest entities Characteristics and distribution of commercials based on complexity level In order to identify the types of commercials used in the experiment, we set up a dynamic focus group with a reduced format. This comprised a group moderator and a few AS subjects to avoid them being inhibited. The usefulness of focus groups with a reduced number of participants has been validated in other scientific literature (Ibáñez, 1979 it was difficult to keep the AS subjects interested and explore topics in-depth and we decided to carry out in-depth interviews with other AS individuals a day after the group session to obtain more focused opinions To qualify and explain the results from the Sociograph viewings, Alalwan’s (2018) recommendation was taken into account and we asked participants to complete either a short survey or written test The duration was kept short to allow for the attention needs of AS subjects The survey or test was related to three specific commercials that were considered particularly representative of each of the complexity categories The test asked the participants whether they liked the commercial and to explain why Their understanding of the product and the company image was then analyzed The test for the neurotypical group was identical to that for the AS group one for the AS group and another for the control group at the premises of the Asperger’s Association Madrid a place that was familiar to AS participants randomly mixing the three categories of complexity The videos were shown in full and in the same order in both sessions The first 7 min of the commercials were not counted because previous studies carried out with Sociograph technology have shown that measurements at the start are not reliable due to the initial excitement created by the situation of the experiment This effect gradually decreases and disappears completely after a few minutes The written surveys were completed immediately after the neuromarketing sessions Sociograph technology allows for the mathematical analysis and processing of data in a set timeline with specific algorithms. Data are obtained as coefficients, which can be translated into a graph. This application can measure EDL and EDR parameters with a frequency of 36 inputs per second. For this type of study, 1 input per second is more than enough. The application calculates this measure by averaging those 36 inputs per second (Tapia et al., 2016) Tonic activity (EDL) is measured using the sum of all participants’ electrodermal resistance in kiloohms (KΩ) The less resistance obtained from the exposed subject Higher resistance is associated with a lower degree of attention EDL values were inverted in the Excel graphic representation An increased EDL on the time graph represents an increased attention level whereas a decreased EDL on the time graph represents a decreased attention level The research results were grouped into statistical data to ensure participant anonymity and prevent the identification of the respondents The results are based primarily on data obtained from Sociograph technology this incorporated data obtained from the surveys The variety of advertisements in the tests produced a large amount of data This allowed a detailed study of each commercial a summary of the main observations was deemed to be of greater interest we compare the responses of AS and control subjects and attempt an explanation of notable differences differences between the AS and control participants were very significant both in how a commercial was understood and in the attention and emotion levels of the subjects the evolution of the variables for some commercials was inverted in the two groups The first observation was that the EDL graph (attention level) and EDR graph (emotion level) were not interdependent for either group (AS and controls) a high peak of emotional response was detected in EDR both variables crossed throughout each commercial and we were able to determine whether the varying levels of attention and emotion represented an effective commercial (i.e. one that attracts attention and creates expectation based on the sales proposal or the values expressed by the brand) They show a similar development for the AS group (top left) and the control group (top right) Even though the intent of this commercial makes it highly complex its story is chronological and maintains a natural This would explain why attention levels follow a similar pattern in both groups with differences indicated by the pronounced “saw teeth” in the AS graph where the control graph shows a smoother evolution Figure 1. Ikea commercial: “The Other Letter” (running time: 12:44–15:20 min) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ2kFqq6Ldo) Figure 1 also shows the EDR graphs for emotional response. Here, both audiences reacted at almost the same moments in the commercial, although the control graph shows a greater number of emotional peaks. This also happened with the McDonald’s “Great Menu” commercial, where the EDL graphs for attention follow similar patterns in the two audiences (Figure 2) the EDR graphs for emotional response are very different and reach peaks at completely different times for the two groups with controls reacting more often (at 20:37 Figure 2. McDonald’s commercial: “Great Menu” (running time 20:34–21:18 min) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVn1R0rMVLI) When plot intricacies appear or the story is hard to follow (e.g. the initial interest among AS subjects increases rapidly if the situation lengthens with no apparent explanation the neurotypical audience responded with greater caution to unexpected or complicated scenarios Their attention was not triggered so quickly and grew with ups and downs When the plot was resolved in a clever or sentimental manner AS subjects show discontinuities and jumps in attention that could be due to being more instantaneous and their reactions dependent on the specific stimuli of each moment and expressed spontaneously the attention graphs for neurotypicals show a progressive evolution because they follow a gradual process and manage their attention with greater self-control This could explain the graphs for some commercials where a comparison of the EDR (emotional response) and EDL (attentional response) for the AS group and neurotypicals shows that the graphs seem to be opposite where AS attention gradually increases (top left) whereas the opposite happens for the neurotypical group (top right) there are significant differences between the groups The AS graph (bottom left) shows a flat and low curve with pronounced peaks at 07:40 and 07:41 which correspond to increases in the neurotypical graph The AS graph suddenly drops and emotional response almost disappears until the end the neurotypical curve (bottom right) is much more active Figure 3. Vileda kitchen cloth commercial: “Magical” (running time: 7:30–7:50 min) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzqdOVRbgoI) the graphs for the AS group show bursts of emotion as the images and situations seem to excite their perception but their attention decreases more quickly AS subjects show an initial interest in situations that are difficult to understand possibly because they expect to find an element of meaning The levels of attention and emotion can be recovered by the appearance of a new element if it creates the expectation of an explanation During the focus group and in-depth interviews some AS subjects said they had problems understanding puns and double-entendres This difficulty led to an increase in interest but this attentiveness decays rapidly when non-comprehension continues for a long time The appearance of an isolated element such as a big picture can trigger a sudden and brief rise in the emotional variable for the AS group This does not happen with a neurotypical audience because changes in their attention and emotions are more subtle Their attention grows suddenly in commercials where the viewer gradually discovers a hidden meaning that was not apparent at the beginning or when an unexpected turn of events occurs or when a new interpretation of the message is possible Such increases in attention do not happen with AS subjects probably because they do not have an immediate grasp of the intentions lengthy ambiguous stories or scenarios that arouse interest in neurotypicals do not have the same effect for AS subjects This is probably because the former expect a denouement whereas the latter are unable to obtain a clear message and their progress is therefore prevented The presence of celebrities is a technique employed by the advertising industry as it has been shown to increase attention and memory rates both in commercial brands and social advertisements Famous people were included in our reel of commercials and the effects corroborated the positive reaction of a neurotypical audience this type of commercial did not seem to have a significant effect on the AS audience whose attention was not roused neither were emotional responses generated When considering the complexity of the plot of the commercials neurotypicals liked complicated stories as long as they could be understood AS subject comprehension was inversely proportional to the level of plot complexity that did not appear to frustrate or discourage them (which could dangerously undermine the advertised brand or company) but generated a lack of interest in the advertisement three of the commercials tested were subjected to deeper research based on the three levels of complexity found in current advertising The following is an analysis of each of the three commercials from the lowest to the highest level of complexity The analysis draws on the knowledge obtained from focus groups and in-depth interviews Interest rises in the AS group (top left) reached a significant emotion peak at 12:30 (bottom left) whereas neurotypical interest progressively fell as they watched the commercial (top right) due to predictability despite having some minor peaks of emotion (bottom right) Figure 4. Dyson vacuum cleaner commercial: “Cordless” (running time 12:24–12:42 min) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twPbou1ix2o) which look very similar in terms of interest evolution the curve is more pronounced for the AS group Figure 5. Pizzas Casa Tarradellas commercial: “Pirates” (running time 24:51–25:21 min) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyCEUlsMTmA) The third commercial depicted a highly complex story summarized in a few takes (ONCE commercial “Christmas Lottery”3) This example depicted a family gathering a few days before Christmas One of them is about to hand out coupons to all of them for a lottery with a very high cash prize (a very common situation in Spain at Christmas) the family members explain what they plan to do should they win the prize They all want to go far away to enjoy the money meaning that the family would be separated and the person with the coupons decides not to distribute them The commercial is difficult to understand because of the underlying meanings and also because of the complex situation where the world of desires (“what I would do if I were a millionaire”) and the real world are compared Undoubtedly and despite its complicated plot the commercial was interesting and created enough intrigue for viewers to follow the story 60% thought they understood the commercial but an analysis of their explanations revealed that they misunderstood the story They made several incorrect assessments of the situation; e.g. they assumed that the family had already won the lottery rather than reading it as a mere possibility Only 6.6% of the AS subjects stated explicitly that they “did not get it at all.” The neurotypical group labeled the commercial as attractive and this particular advertising campaign was a great success. The AS group, however, considered the commercial to be “a little attractive” (53.8%) or “not at all attractive” (26.6%). The neuromarketing graphs shown in Figure 6 confirm these effects neurotypical interest decreases as they predict the outcome of the commercial whereas interest among the AS subjects increased as the ambiguity of the situation builds an expectation that there will soon be an explanatory element in the plot The emotion graph verifies that the level of emotional response created in the neurotypicals maintains a high average throughout the entire commercial as well as showing two peaks (at 20:13 and 20:29) the AS graph presents many “saw teeth,” when compared to the control group and emotional engagement is much less intense throughout the commercial Figure 6. ONCE commercial: “Christmas Lottery” (running time 20:02–20:32 min) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E70b9EK9Chg) Analysis of the three levels of complexity in current advertising indicated that storyline complexity which is a common approach in recent commercials widens the ever-increasing gap between the general public and AS individuals While the former prefer smart and complex stories (as long as they are interesting) the latter feel confused or believe they have understood the message correctly when they have misunderstood it which leads to frustration and disappointment This happens even when their interest has gradually increased throughout the viewing as the AS subject has not enjoyed the commercial its message has not been effectively conveyed and it does not create positive feelings toward the brand or company One of the greatest challenges our society currently faces is developing activities that respect the diverse needs of different people This becomes particularly relevant when it comes to communication and more specifically with negative or positive effects on citizens This study aimed to determine whether the perception of advertising differs between subjects with AS and a neurotypical population using different types of commercials with varying degrees of complexity The level of complexity in commercials was shown to affect both groups but in different ways low-complexity commercials were among the most prominent in the EDL attention graphs: almost all of them were in the upper half of the score range EDR emotion graphs rank medium and high-complexity commercials highly although they are not clearly understood by AS individuals rhetorical stories have a greater capacity to focus their feelings Low-complexity commercials were situated in the lower half of the EDR rankings further studies on this topic should be conducted The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Asperger’s Association Madrid and the ethics committee of the Department of Applied Communication Studies in Complutense University of Madrid The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) and minor(s)’ legal guardian/next of kin for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article PN-G and AA-R were involved in the conceptualization of the project and acquisition of data and analysis and EA-F were involved in the interpretation of the data All authors were involved in drafting and revising the work for intellectual content and approved the manuscript for publication Thank you to Sociograph for their collaboration on this research project as well as their contribution to scientific knowledge Thank you to undergraduate student Lucía Hidalgo for facilitating our understanding of Asperger’s syndrome 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited *Correspondence: Patricia Nuñez-Gomez, cG51bmV6Z29AdWNtLmVz Metrics details There is great phenotypic heterogeneity within autism spectrum disorders (ASD) which has led to question their classification into a single diagnostic category The study of the common genetic variation in ASD has suggested a greater contribution of other psychiatric conditions in Asperger syndrome (AS) than in the rest of the DSM-IV ASD subtypes (Non_AS) using available genetic data from previously performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) we aimed to study the genetic overlap between five of the most related disorders (schizophrenia (SCZ) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and anxiety (ANX)) comparing it with the overlap in Non_AS subtypes A Spanish cohort of autism trios (N = 371) was exome sequenced as part of the Autism Sequencing Consortium (ASC) and 241 trios were extensively characterized to be diagnosed with AS following DSM-IV and Gillberg’s criteria (N = 39) or not (N = 202) polygenic risk scores (PRS) were calculated for ASD and OCD (from available summary data from Psychiatric Genomic Consortium (PGC) repository) in the Spanish trios’ cohort By using polygenic transmission disequilibrium test (pTDT) we reported that risk for SCZ (Pscz = 0.008 corrected-PMDD = 0.0501) is over-transmitted to children with AS but not to Non_AS agnostic clustering procedure with deviation values from pTDT tests suggested two differentiated clusters of subjects one of which is significantly enriched in AS (P = 0.025) a recently developed software to predict gene expression from genotype data revealed a clear pattern of correlation between cortical gene expression in ADHD and AS (P < 0.001) and a similar strong correlation pattern between MDD and AS but also extendable to another non-brain tissue such as lung (P < 0.001) these results support the idea of AS being qualitatively distinct from Non_AS autism and consistently evidence the genetic overlap between AS and ADHD Differential psychiatric comorbidities may have an etiopathological relationship with the ASD subtype Given this main difference in the genetic architecture of AS a reasonable question is whether common predisposing variation from comorbid disorders may be present to a greater extent in AS than in other ASD subtypes ASD complete trios (N = 379) were recruited in two sites in Spain Santiago de Compostela (N = 138; sample 1) Subjects from Madrid were recruited as part of AMITEA program at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón Subjects from Santiago were recruited from an ongoing project from the Galician Public Foundation of Genomic Medicine Informed consent signed by each participating subject or legal guardian and approval from the corresponding Research Ethics Committee were obtained before starting the study Only individuals with 3 years of age or above and ASD diagnosis were included Parents had no diagnosed psychiatric disorder when trios were recruited 41 probands without mental retardation were included within the 202 Non_AS trios as they did not meet both DSM and Gilbert’s criteria No screening for copy number variants (CNVs) carriers was performed The average age for recruitment and diagnoses was 15.41 years (CI 95%: 14.55–16.66) a trait without genetic correlation with ASD Hierarchical clustering using Ward’s minimum variance method was performed with hclust function from cluster R package Goodness of clustering algorithm results was assessed by determining the silhouette width coefficient which measures how well an observation is clustered and it estimates the average distance between clusters Observations with negative silhouette width were removed fviz_silhouette function from factoextra R library was used ASD subjects within each cluster were analyzed to test enrichment of AS subjects within any group S-PrediXcan25 an extension of PrediXcan software that infers its results using only summary statistics from GWAS was then used on GWAS summary data from ASD and comorbid disorders with significant polygenic transmission (SCZ ADHD) to estimate gene expression differences between cases and controls using imputed expression data from GTEx (brain frontal cortex) Correlation between gene expression differences between AS and Non_AS (measured by per gene Z-values derived from PrediXcan test) and gene expression differences between cases and controls from comorbid disorders (measured by per gene Z-values derived from S-PrediXcan test) was analyzed This relation was studied under different P thresholds from S-PrediXcan Comparisons of polygenic transmission values between AS and Non_AS groups were performed with two-sample t-test Data normality was contrasted with Shapiro–Wilk test Paired t-test was used to test significance of transmission across all comorbid disorders in AS and Non_AS subgroups of trios Correlation analyses were performed using Spearman correlation Benjamini–Hochberg FDR correction was performed After imputation and quality control (QC) of genotypic data, we retained 221,418 SNPs, of which a total of 51,718 variants with MAF > 0.1% were used after clumping (methods). Average pTDT and deviation were calculated in our ASD trios cohort using GWAS data from ASD and five comorbid disorders assessed (SCZ, MDD, ADHD, ANX, and OCD; Table 1) All subsequent analyses were based on the P threshold in which pTDT had higher transmission values at each disorder Transmission disequilibrium is represented as standard deviations of the mid-parent distribution Colored geometric lines represent 95% confidence intervals P-values over geom error bars measure the probability that the mean of the pTDT deviation distribution is higher than 0 (two-sided pTDT values were calculated based on the P threshold in which highest transmission were found for the whole ASD trios’ population (N = 379) Significant over-transmissions were confirmed with random permutation of AS subgroup “*” Permutation P-value < 0.05; “+” Permutation P-value < 0.1 Correlation of pTDT deviations across disorders was assessed (Supplementary Fig. 1) Although SCZ and OCD pTDT deviations are significantly correlated within our ASD cohort there are no correlation between any of significantly over-transmitted pTDT scores (ADHD multiple polygenic over-transmission does not occur due to genetic overlap between disorders different genetic etiologies contribute to the development of AS condition is a more likely outcome pruning clusters with only confident results (118 and 74 individuals in C1 and C2 AS subjects were overrepresented in cluster C2 (18 of 74 vs 13 of 118; Fisher two-tailed P = 0.025; OR (95%) = 2.60 (1.10–6.19)) In order to analyze whether polygenic over-transmission related with comorbid disorders (MDD and SCZ) in AS subgroup has biological consequences to infer gene expression differences between AS and Non_AS and to compare these differences with expression patterns related with those comorbid disorders expression similarities between MDD and AS conditions appear not to be restricted to brain cortex but distributed across other tissues but to a significant lesser degree than findings in ADHD or MDD To assess whether these correlations patterns are extendable to a neurodegenerative disorder, AS and ALZ gene expression correlation was also explored. In contrast with ADHD or MDD, no consistent growing pattern of correlation was observed (Supplementary Table 6) which suggests that expression similarities between AS and neuropsychiatric disorders are restricted to neurodevelopment Indeed, no correlation pattern was observed when using BMI results from S-PrediXcan in any of the three tissues analyzed (Fig. 2) results are not affected by ancestral stratification or other environmental factors that potentially biases case–control studies by using an agnostic procedure of hierarchical clustering we strengthen the rationale of our initial hypothesis By comparing AS–Non_AS and case–control differences from comorbid disorders we described significant gene expression relationships between AS and ADHD or MDD particularly that related to comorbidity with ADHD adds on previous elucubrations giving the possibility of a more biological-based explanation of the high psychiatric comorbidity observed in AS From the genetic architecture to synaptic plasticity in autism spectrum disorder The epidemiology and global burden of autism spectrum disorders Annual research review: re-thinking the classification of autism spectrum disorders Psychiatric comorbidity and functioning in a clinically referred population of adults with autism spectrum disorders: a comparative study Psychiatric co-occurring symptoms and disorders in young and older adults with autism spectrum disorder Comorbid social anxiety disorder in adults with autism spectrum disorder Autistic traits in a population-based ADHD twin sample and psychiatric comorbidity of adult autism spectrum disorders Commonly studied comorbid psychopathologies among persons with autism spectrum disorder Psychiatric disorders in individuals with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder: similarities and differences Obsessions and compulsions in Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Identification of risk loci with shared effects on five major psychiatric disorders: a genome-wide analysis Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder Insights into Autism spectrum disorder genomic architecture and biology from 71 risk loci Meta-analysis of GWAS of over 16,000 individuals with autism spectrum disorder highlights a novel locus at 10q24.32 and a significant overlap with schizophrenia Polygenic transmission disequilibrium confirms that common and rare variation act additively to create risk for autism spectrum disorders Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism Three diagnostic approaches to Asperger syndrome: implications for research Comparison of diagnostic methods for asperger syndrome Psychopathology in children and adolescents with ASD without mental retardation A gene-based association method for mapping traits using reference transcriptome data Exploring the phenotypic consequences of tissue specific gene expression variation inferred from GWAS summary statistics Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®) (American Psychiatric Pub Genome-wide association analyses identify 44 risk variants and refine the ge.netic architecture of major depression Biological insights from 108 schizophrenia-associated genetic loci Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of anxiety disorders Revealing the complex genetic architecture of obsessive-compulsive disorder using meta-analysis Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for height and body mass index in ∼700000 individuals of European ancestry Brock, G., Pihur, V., Datta, S. & Datta, S. clValid: An R Package for Cluster Validation. R Package Version 0.6-6. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=clValid (2018) Charrad, M., Ghazzali, N., Boiteau, V. & Niknafs, A. Package NbClust. R package version 3.0. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/NbClust/index.html (2015) The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project Cortical and subcortical brain morphometry differences between patients with autism spectrum disorder and healthy individuals across the lifespan: results from the ENIGMA ASD Working Group and regional gene expression patterns in autism Patches of disorganization in the neocortex of children with autism Coexpression networks implicate human midfetal deep cortical projection neurons in the pathogenesis of autism Li, J. et al. A comparative study of the genetic components of three subcategories of autism spectrum disorder. Mol. Psychiatry. [published online: June 06, 2018]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0081-x Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new loci and functional pathways influencing Alzheimer’s disease risk Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain Exon-focused genome-wide association study of obsessive-compulsive disorder and shared polygenic risk with schizophrenia Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia Association of schizophrenia polygenic risk score with manic and depressive psychosis in bipolar disorder Genome-wide analysis of adolescent psychotic-like experiences shows genetic overlap with psychiatric disorders GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci Parellada, M. What does the future hold for Asperger syndrome. Rev Psiquiatr Salud Ment (accepted for publication). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsm.2019.05.002. The relationship of Asperger’s syndrome to autism: a preliminary EEG coherence study Electrophysiological signs of supplementary-motor-area deficits in high-functioning autism but not Asperger syndrome: an examination of internally cued movement-related potentials A Concise history of Asperger syndrome: the short reign of a troublesome diagnosis Disentangling the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder through genetic findings Psychiatric polygenic risk scores as predictor for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in a clinical child and adolescent sample Psychiatric comorbidities in asperger syndrome and high functioning autism: diagnostic challenges Download references This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS PI14/02103 and ERA-NET: NEURON 2010) co-financed by ERDF Funds from the European Commission European Union Structural Funds and European Union Seventh Framework Program and H2020 Program From the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañón we are grateful to patients and families who kindly participated in this project Exome sequencing was performed at the Mount Sinai Research Center as our ASD cohort is part of the Autism Sequencing Consortium (ASC) sample JGP has been a recipient of a post-doctoral fellowship from the Instituto de Investigacion Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM) Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM) Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM) Fundación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela (FIDIS) Javier Costas Costas & Julio Rodríguez Alicia García-Alcón & María José Penzol CIMUS (Centre for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases) Cristina Rodríguez-Fontenla, Aitana Alonso-González & Montse Fernández-Prieto Celso Arango & Mara Parellada with some contribution from the rest of authors.; J.G.P performed research and data analysis with some contribution from rest of authors.; J.G.P The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-00939-7 Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2024) Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (2023) Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2023) Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today What’s the rest of the story of Asperger and autism Last summer, we learned how the autism diagnosis crossed the Atlantic in the late 1930s. The discovery that two Austrian clinicians made their way from the hospital where Hans Asperger got his start to Dr. Leo Kanner’s clinic in America was an outstanding piece of research and discovery from Neurotribes author Steve Silberman. I wrote about that on this blog in August and psychology in the first part of the 20th century The Nazi takeover scattered those creative minds all over the western world to the benefit of countless recipients of their knowledge The two clinicians he describes – Anni Weiss and Georg Frankl – were a small part of a large forced migration that transformed psychiatry here and elsewhere One of those ideas being our modern concept of autism There is now substantial evidence that autism was being characterized—but not named—in Vienna in the late 19th century and Asperger built on that and the work of their mentors Kanner made autism his own with the publication of one paper after another and continued working with children of all sorts at American universities autism seems to have been one interest among many We will probably never know how much Kanner knew of autism when Weiss and Frankl came on the scene It would be wrong to say they brought all the knowledge yet I feel sure they made a significant contribution That's an example of the thinking that grew in Vienna before the war In my own research, I learned that Weiss brought that knowledge with her to America, where she made a career in psychology she would test supposedly less intelligent minorities with the same insight she deployed in Austria That's the nice part of the story - Jewish doctors bringing wisdom and insight to America for the benefit of disadvantaged people That's where we have another disturbing revelation This one comes from John Donvan and Caren Zucker authors of the forthcoming book In A Different Key—The Story of Autism They present shocking material that casts light on who Dr and shatters the myth of the kindly doctor who devoted his life to caring for kids I first heard of the material that’s in A Different Key this summer when I was at the College of William & Mary The story was shocking enough that I even remember where I was—looking out over our sunken quadrangle And I quickly found enough to feel very disheartened about the word Asperger’s as a name for how I am different and Fred Volkmar was assured Asperger was never a Nazi His daughter Maria Felder Asperger always spoke of his kindness I had some doubts about Asperger’s kindness already in my role on government autism committees I listened to allegations of all the “new things” that were appearing in autistic kids I asked the folks at NIH's Office of Autism Research Coordination where I might find the original writings of both Kanner and Asperger The tragedy was that so few people took advantage of his insights and we had to "re-discover" much of his work in the past 20 years Asperger's power to observe and record what he saw and felt is striking That part of the story was handed to me in the original writings 5 years ago and shared with the broad public recently in Neurotribes Yet I also saw another side to him, in the tone of the writing. It was cold; hard; unsympathetic. While people like me were capable of exceptional things, we were mostly disabled (my paraphrase of his words.) More disabled autistics were caricatures, clowns deserving of nothing more than pity or laughter Kanner's early writing contained a lot of wisdom too but he made a few critically different judgements he saw proto-autistic parents as "refrigerator mothers" where Asperger saw them as "affected like their children." And because of that Kanner believed the kids would be better institutionalized People pooh-poohed my suspicions about his feelings saying Asperger was just talking as a conservative German in the 1930s Others said he had to be careful because of the Nazis looking over his shoulder Several years passed and the Different Key book appeared in my mailbox I read how Asperger sent "uneducable" kids to their deaths I just can’t see him in a good light anymore Why he did it may be the subject of endless speculation That is the thing that comes out in A Different Key Donvan and Zucker talk about Vienna in the years before WWII Neurotribes had described the scene in Vienna too like the work of Weiss and her predecessors at the University clinic One of the places they both mentioned was Dr Jekelius and his Spiegelgrund clinic where hundreds of “defective” children were deliberately killed hundreds of child brains were found stored in the basement you'll read of Hans Asperger recommending that a mother of a two-year-old girl who was “surely an unbearable burden” send her for “permanent placement” at Spiegengrund and in later records it appears that Asperger and the mother agreed she was in a better place another Asperger letter dispatched 26 boys and 9 girls from a lower Austrian mental hospital for “Jekelius action” as quickly as possible I’ve seen the original presentations of that material There’s more out there, including confirmation of the death of those kids and the killing of another kid Asperger had diagnosed with what Asperger had called autistic psychopathy It’s there – mostly in German - if you care to go looking Spiegelgrund is truly one of Austria’s dirty secrets though some truth was aired in TV documentaries over the past decade but these kids were not of any particular race “Asperger wasn’t a Nazi,” but in a job application he had written that he was a candidate for the Nazi Doctor’s Association No one forces us to make such claims on job applications These disclosures originally emerged thanks to Herwig Czech The essence was published in Austria four and five years ago The idea of doctor or family assisted suicide is a very controversial topic today The idea of parents consigning their kids to death is universally condemned particularly among the disability rights community Are we to overlook it because “that was what they did then” we have Asperger’s judgment that the kids were uneducable are we to accept that killing 35 was necessary to save the rest But actions like that are not without consequences in postwar life is that I would not want that doctor around me or my kids today So how do I feel about having a diagnostic label attached to me It makes me glad it’s all consolidated into the Autism Spectrum There’s more to In A Different Key than this story just as there is more to Neurotribes than the story of Asperger’s colleagues joining Kanner in America so the story I share with you here is really a footnote for those authors having been diagnosed with this Asperger's Syndrome 18 years ago because this is just one of many different perspectives you will encounter between them A smart reader can take benefit from them all give this some thought and let me know what you think In putting these thoughts together I must acknowledge a debt to Tom Insel and Susan Daniels at the National Institutes of Health who set me on this trail 5 years ago by pointing me to the original works of Kanner and Asperger when I asked about the origins of autism knowledge Then Steve Silberman brought a thousand new ideas with his book last year And now John Donvan and Caren Zucker with their book and its revelations this winter POSTSCRIPT: If you are horrified by the revelation of Asperger's ethical choices in wartime you may be tempted to run from anything he ever said or did The fact that he did things you would never countenance today does not diminish by one iota the scientific value of his work The opinions expressed here are his own. There is no warranty expressed or implied. While reading this essay may give you food for thought, actually printing and eating it may make you sick. John Elder Robison is the author of Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's, and Be Different, Adventures of a Free-range Aspergian. Psychology Today © 2025 Sussex Publishers, LLC Self Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today. Asperger and the movement to reframe the syndromeWhat really mattersIn a world with too much noise and too little context We don’t flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today “It’s up to them to decide if they want to be named after someone like him.” by Hope Reese a children’s clinic in Vienna where children were euthanized and used for medical experiments under the Nazi regime Ronald Zak/APWhen historian Edith Sheffer arrived at the Vienna archives to learn more about Dr a pediatrician credited with identifying and defining autism in the 1940s she was excited to learn about the scientist Her son had been diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was 17 months old But Sheffer did not find what she expected the very first file I found on my very first day was his district party file that testified to his involvement in the racial hygiene measures of the Third Reich,” she told me While Asperger was never a member of the Nazi Party Sheffer discovered that he played a critical role in identifying children with disabilities and sending dozens to Spiegelgrund a children’s ward in Vienna where adolescents were euthanized or subjected to experimentation Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna Sheffer is a senior fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the University of California Berkeley I spoke with her about the potential significance of the name change and the issues involved in diagnosing it and other mental conditions Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity Why wasn’t more known about Asperger until recently Were people afraid to tell the truth about him On his Wikipedia page and in the parent manuals there was always a paragraph or two saying Leo Kanner in the United States came up with the diagnosis and then Asperger was working in Nazi Vienna Asperger was known for defending kids with disabilities and supposedly emphasized their special talents in technical subjects in order to rescue them from the child euthanasia program And Asperger cultivated that image in the postwar period telling people he’d risked his life in order to rescue children for career advancement so he wasn’t of great interest for that reason either I thought about abandoning the project once I found out it wasn’t a heroic story but a horror story Did it also make you wonder about other diagnoses that are named after certain people Do we often look back with a critical eye at the people who were involved in certain illnesses or diagnoses So there are maybe a dozen or so diagnoses named after Nazi-era doctors that now go by alternative names the most common of which was reactive arthritis Asperger’s is the most famous eponymous diagnosis linked to the Nazi period but there are other precedents where we’ve renamed diagnoses It’s really remarkable the American Psychiatric Association didn’t vet Asperger’s research Usually when you make an eponymous diagnosis you’re supposed to research the individual you’re naming it after How do you respond to the argument that there’s a historical value in remembering who he was My response is I don’t want my son to be named after someone who sent children like him to their deaths The point is that it’s an identity for millions of people and it’s up to them to decide if they want to be named after someone like him there’s been a movement to remove Confederate flags and statues We’re in a moment now of reconsidering the past and how we want to label the streets and schools around us just got renamed because the man had [supported] eugenics — not sterilized anyone personally where we’re becoming more sensitive to how we want to identify and what values we want to represent told me his colleagues rarely talk about Asperger’s anymore And the term itself is no longer an official part of the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] — it’s come under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorder it’s no longer part of the DSM-5; it was reclassified in 2013 as autism spectrum disorder people definitely still use the term to refer to children; it’s not used nearly as frequently as it used to be My son once saw a psychiatrist who told me he should feel so lucky because he’s named after this brilliant doctor who rescued children using Asperger’s history to make him feel positive about his diagnosis So it’s something that I still encounter The Change.org petition has a goal of 35,000 signatures. What does it take to actually change the name of a syndrome, which, though it isn’t in the DSM, is still used widely by the medical community under the autism umbrella People have been living with this identity for years or even since then [because some doctors continued to use the term] — I mean You identify your entire personality with Asperger’s syndrome So it’s hard to rename that overnight people will call themselves “Aspies.” Is that a little different because it’s not really after the man’s name Then that affects how parents talk to their children The American Psychiatric Association took the right first step of reclassifying it medically and raising awareness is one way to have people stop using the name If the name were changed to social communication disorder would it have an impact on parents and their comfort level with the diagnosis Or with the way society perceives these children I think people have favored Asperger’s syndrome over autism because autism suggests whereas Asperger’s syndrome suggests Social communication disorder is a more benign label I’m all in favor of more benign labels because autism has really turned into a bugaboo of a term But we’re just really without an adequate vocabulary to discuss autism Children can bear very little resemblance to one another Science recognizes that autism is really an imperfect umbrella label and the hope is that within 10 or 15 years we’ll be able to break it up into subtypes or into multiple diagnoses but right now we’re just not at that point I’d like to draw the analogy to hysteria white female hysteria in the 19th and early 20th centuries Women who were hysterical could have epilepsy or anxiety — and science wasn’t at a point then to disaggregate it years we’ll be able to break up different kinds of autism Social communication disorder doesn’t get us very far Asperger is implicated in sending children off to their deaths But he also did recognize “special” children and is credited for saving them How do you suss apart the complicating factors So he claims that he didn’t report children [to the Nazi authorities] that he was obligated to report There’s no way to prove that; he may well have rescued children and he would deserve commendation for that I allow for the possibility that he may have rescued children It doesn’t change the fact that he did send dozens to their deaths I feel it’s important to present the context in which he worked The fact is that he was a conscious and willing participant in a system of killing He associated with the top leaders of the euthanasia program in Vienna People who hear about his involvement will automatically assume “He was coerced.” But no — a lot of what he was doing was voluntary He did not need to associate with these men; he did not need to be at that hospital that was so heavily involved He worked down the hall from people doing lethal experiments on babies the men with whom he was associating were doing worse things — but he could’ve done a lot more “The Third Reich was a diagnosis regime obsessed with sorting out the population.” Can you expand on that So we think of the Third Reich in terms of extermination but I think that can obscure the extent to which all of this was based on the initial act of labeling people you need to evaluate the person and decide to sort them The Third Reich was extremely concerned with sorting people into categories There was as much effort put into teaching asocials or the work-shy to work by putting them in labor camps or “helping” children that were seen to be disabled who might be able to be remediated The diagnosis regime was this massive effort to index the population Nazi Germany had these public health offices that kept large registries on individuals a quarter of the population wound up being indexed This could be anything from “your father’s an alcoholic” to “you have a clubfoot” to “you misbehaved at school and you’re failing.” Hamburg indexed 60 percent of its population and these became the basis of whether or not you were going to be sterilized if you’d be deported to a concentration camp The Nazi regime was basically this massive effort of reengineering the population through this labeling Considering your personal experience with your son do you see other flaws in our current system of diagnosing children How would you like your son to be evaluated of watching children more and more carefully hit prescribed milestones There’s a rise in psychologists working at schools and more and more children are being labeled and raised on psychiatric medications we are replicating a bit of the “diagnosis regime” where every kid has their set of issues That can be great in the service of individualized attention but there’s also a danger of children identifying themselves as having a disability when it’s really a difference It was just that he was working on certain issues so we just presented it as everyone has a different kind of mind They had cartoon images of kids with different issues — a kid in a wheelchair The kid with autism was playing with trains and there were bullet points about lack of eye contact and this and that To draw a cartoon character of some kid with autism playing with trains they make a bunch of assumptions about his personality that just aren’t right Hope Reese is a journalist in Louisville, Kentucky. Her writing has appeared in the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, Playboy, Vox, and other publications. Find her on Twitter @hope_reese Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day 5 million Americans are facing having their loans sent to collections Auto workers supported tariffs to protect their jobs The most surprising consequence of Trump’s trade war Today, Explained podcastMay 4Love on the Spectrum stars call on RFK Jr. to resignTwo cast members of the hit Netflix reality TV show on what the HHS secretary misunderstands about autism The Gray AreaMay 3Did our politics fail us during Covid?Political scientist Frances Lee examines the “noble lies” and truth-seeking failures of the pandemic. Adam Felman is an Editor for Medical News Today and Greatist Adam also owns every Nic Cage movie and has a one-eyed hedgehog called Philip K Jenna Fletcher is a freelance writer and content creator She writes extensively about health and wellness she has a personal interest in writing about overcoming grief and postpartum depression and anxiety and reducing the stigma surrounding child loss and mental healthcare She holds a bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College Dannell Roberts is a licensed psychologist and licensed behavior analyst in Hattiesburg She specializes in evaluations of childhood disorders such as autism spectrum disorders She also specializes in behavioral treatments of common childhood disorders based on the principles of applied behavior analysis Roberts is the co-owner and program director of Will’s Way It shares many features with other types of autism It is also marked by strong intellectual and verbal communication skills Asperger’s syndrome (AS) used to be a stand-alone diagnosis, but in 2013, the American Psychiatric Association released the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5) and included it as part of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) It is also called “ASD — without intellectual or language impairment.” It is unclear exactly how many people are living with AS. Some estimates put the number at about 1 in every 250 people in part due to the lack of studies on the prevalence and the new categorization of the syndrome under the broad category of autism About 1 in 44 people are living with autism. Additionally, more than four times as many boys receive a diagnosis compared with girls, for a number of reasons Here are some key points about ASD and Asperger’s: These signs include poorly coordinated motor skills The main difference between AS and other forms of autism is the presence of strong verbal and intellectual skills Other common signs include: some children and adults can learn to compensate and build on their strengths several therapies and social supports may help but it can help a person to learn to manage differences in the way they think A 2015 review of studies into alternative therapies for ASD found that, according to anecdotal evidence, music therapy, sensory integration therapy, acupuncture the authors came to the conclusion that no evidence fully supports the effectiveness of alternative or complementary medication for ASD Parents and other caregivers may benefit from learning experiences that help them gain a deeper understanding of AS they can better support a loved one living with AS and prevent them from feeling isolated a person living with AS can often cope with change if they know it is coming and if someone has planned it Family and other support networks can help the person prepare for change when appropriate and help teach family members about the importance of preparing the person for the change It is important to note that not every child qualifies for an IEP or GIEP but if an educational team believes it is necessary the child will gain additional support protected by law The core characteristics of AS are lifelong but additional support can help the individual maximize their achievements and quality of life Some researchers have proposed that environmental factors may contribute to the development of AS While researchers and others have speculated on several potential causes no environmental factor has substantial evidence to support its case as a direct or indirect cause of AS There are a few complications of Asperger’s syndrome It can be an underlying condition that fuels other functional difficulties or the complications can arise from some of the symptoms of AS Another challenge is overcoming issues in diagnosing across genders, with those born female often receiving a misdiagnosis due to variations in behavior There are even some studies suggesting that doctors are overdiagnosing ASD although professionals need more research to make that determination If a parent or caregiver suspects delays in social skills they can refer the child to a pediatrician Their primary doctor can then recommend a specialist such as a developmental pediatrician or psychologist There is no specific test for Asperger’s syndrome professionals with training to diagnose will sometimes use a combination of interviews and questionnaires such as the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (ASRS) the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS 2) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) to make informed clinical decisions can rule out other conditions and determine whether a physical disorder is causing the symptoms Early diagnosis can be difficult due to the wide range of symptoms so an accurate diagnosis or appropriate treatment may not occur until adulthood This video from 2007 gives one perspective on living with ASD Asperger’s syndrome (AS) was once considered a stand-alone diagnosis until the American Psychiatric Association released the DSM-5 in 2013 which included it as part of autism spectrum disorder It is no longer considered a separate diagnosis Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder can be challenging but therapy and support methods can aid those living with ASD in managing differences in thought patterns and habits and avoiding complications Traci Pedersen is a freelance author with more than 15 years’ experience writing on themes of psychology and alternative health for a variety of publications She also has written 14 science chapter books and numerous teacher resource books for the elementary classroom Dr. Megan Soliman is an ABMS board certified internal medicine physician whose main focus in her clinical practice is patient advocacy Her research interests include adverse effects of medications and herbal supplements Soliman is enthusiastic about “bread and butter” medicine which includes treating patients with the most common diseases She also has a passion for reaching underserved communities now referred to as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors Asperger’s was once considered a distinct condition but is no longer an official diagnosis it is referred to as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ASD involves differences in social interaction Some autistic people need no or minimal support while others may need substantial support for their well-being and daily tasks Genetics plays a substantial role in autism Environmental factors can also influence the expression of these genes contributing to the chances of the condition ASD is considered to have a strong genetic component, with heritability estimated at 60–90% However, environmental factors can also influence its development. Recent evidence suggests environmental factors contribute to 40–50% of ASD variability that collectively increase the chance of the condition Spontaneous mutations also contribute to this genetic aspect environmental factors are believed to play a role in the development of genetic mutations associated with ASD ASD is a complex and highly diverse condition with no single “autism gene.” Instead it’s believed to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors Different autistic people may have variations in different genes In a 2022 study including more than 63,000 individuals researchers analyzed various types of genetic mutations and identified 72 genes associated with ASD They found that copy number variants (CNVs) had the strongest link to autism CNVs are a type of genetic variation that involves changes in the number of copies of specific sections of a person’s DNA While most people have two copies of each gene (one inherited from each parent) CNVs can result in either fewer or more copies of a particular gene or DNA segment The same researchers conducted a meta-analysis including people with developmental delay They found 373 genes associated with both ASD and developmental delay These genes were related to early stages of brain development in immature neurons Some genes had different mutation frequencies between ASD and developmental delay groups This suggests that while common genetic pathways are involved in these conditions ASD isn’t exclusively linked to one particular parent Both parents can contribute genetic factors for ASD though recent research has shed light on potential parent-specific genetic influences For example, a 2019 study with more than 9,000 individuals from families with autism focused on rare genetic changes within non-coding areas of genes Findings indicated that when these genetic changes originated from fathers they were more likely to be inherited by autistic children within the same family rare inherited genetic variations could heighten the likelihood of autism with potential variations in chances depending on whether they are of maternal or paternal origin The following factors may increase the chances of having ASD: There’s a strong genetic component to ASD. According to a 2017 study, about 90% of the differences or variations in how ASD develops in autistic individuals can be explained by genetic factors A five-country population study published in 2015 found that mothers 40–49 years old and fathers 50 years or older had a higher chance of having children with ASD than younger parents mothers under age 20 were also associated with an increased chance of their offspring having ASD Premature birth and low birth weight may be associated with an increased chance of ASD. One 2020 study found that 22.6% of children born at 25 weeks received an ASD diagnosis while the chance decreased to 6% for those born at 31 weeks have been associated with a higher chance of ASD Research suggests that children whose mothers had prenatal infections had a 1.16 times higher chance of autism Infections in the year before pregnancy were linked to a 1.25 times increased chance of autism during pregnancy may have potential links to ASD A population 2022 study in Southern California found that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during the first two trimesters of pregnancy was linked to an increased chance of ASD It is now included in the broader category of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) autism is a complex condition shaped by multiple factors Research is ongoing to better understand how it develops to improve early detection and support for those who need it Beth lives in London and works as a freelance writer on a range of projects Along with writing regular articles for Medical News Today This involves recording minutes for conferences and documenting their process of curating art exhibitions Erik Mayville is a clinical psychologist specializing in neurodevelopmental disorders He maintains an independent practice in Fairfield where he works with tri-state area children Asperger’s and schizophrenia symptoms can include difficulties with social interactions This overlap in symptoms can create challenges in diagnosing each condition correctly It is also possible for people to have both conditions This article looks at the similarities between Asperger’s and schizophrenia People with ASD and schizophrenia both have difficulty processing social information. They may also lack typical social and communicative behaviors while schizophrenia typically develops in late adolescence and early adulthood According to 2021 research children who have parents with schizophrenia have an increased chance of having autistic traits Genetic factors play a role in both conditions Researchers also found a significant link between environmental factors A 2019 review also found that people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) have more autistic symptoms than those without SSDs which may be due to shared genetic risk factors Learn more about schizophrenia and autism in our mental health hub here. a mental health care professional will assess symptoms and conduct tests to rule out other possible conditions The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) states the following criteria for a schizophrenia diagnosis: If people have a history of ASD or a childhood communication disorder they must fulfill the above criteria and have experienced delusions or hallucinations for at least 1 month to receive a schizophrenia diagnosis Learn about the different types of schizophrenia here. To diagnose Asperger’s in children a mental health care professional will assess symptoms and monitor their development and behavior In adults a mental health care professional may ask questions about behavior patterns and administer tests to assess cognition and restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests The DSM-5 now classifies Asperger’s under the umbrella term of ASD. The DSM-5 lists the following criteria for ASD: According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) children with Asperger’s still show early language skills Learn about the levels of autism here Symptoms of Asperger’s and schizophrenia can overlap and may share the following symptoms: People with schizophrenia may have psychosis symptoms Many people with schizophrenia hear voices. People may also have sensory experiences of things that are not real People with schizophrenia may also have delusions such as irrational beliefs that are not true Up to 34.8% of people with ASD may have psychotic symptoms. Difficulty processing information may increase the risk of developing psychosis symptoms People with ASD may have unusual sensory experiences Delusional beliefs may stem from a lack of understanding of expected social conventions Sometimes, doctors and other healthcare professionals have difficulty detecting hallucinations or delusions in children with communication problems When a person with schizophrenia displays negative symptoms they lack certain feelings or motivations that people without the condition would likely have People with schizophrenia may have a flat affect meaning they may respond without facial expression or in a monotone voice People with ASD may exhibit similar characteristics People with ASD or schizophrenia may have difficulty creating or maintaining social relationships Social withdrawal may be a symptom of both conditions Some people may have difficulty identifying humor or metaphors in conversation and may not be able to understand the emotional aspects of a social situation Theory of mind allows people to recognize mental states People with ASD or schizophrenia may have deficits in theory of mind People may find it difficult to identify other people’s emotions or intentions and lack self-awareness Language difficulties may be present in both ASD and schizophrenia People with these conditions may not initiate conversations and speak vaguely and repetitively Learn more about autism with schizophrenia here. Treatment of schizophrenia may include: Learn about treating schizophrenia with the antipsychotic medication Risperdal here. Treatment of Asperger’s may include: Learn more about Asperger’s in adults, including treatment. Sometimes, mental health care professionals may find it easier to differentiate between extreme cases of ASD and schizophrenia than mild cases of each condition People may need to work with a team of healthcare professionals to ensure they receive the correct diagnosis and begin effective treatment Treatments for schizophrenia may help people manage their symptoms and improve how they function in education Early diagnosis and treatment of Asperger’s may increase a child’s chance of success in school and independence in adulthood and schizophrenia have overlapping symptoms Both conditions may share similar genetic risk factors Receiving the correct diagnosis helps ensure people get effective treatment Healthcare professionals will assess symptoms and examine cognition and behavior to diagnose ASD and schizophrenia Eight-year study finds pioneer of paediatrics assisted in Third Reich’s ‘euthanasia’ programme The Austrian doctor after whom Asperger syndrome is named was an active participant in the Nazi regime, assisting in the Third Reich’s so called euthanasia programme and supporting the concept of racial hygiene by deeming certain children unworthy to live, according to a study by a medical historian has made the claim in an academic paper published in the open access journal Molecular Autism following eight years of research into the paediatrician Hans Asperger Asperger is hailed as a pioneer in the field of child psychiatry and paediatrics particularly for his groundbreaking contribution to the understanding of Asperger syndrome and the autism spectrum But by unearthing previously untouched documents from state archives including Asperger’s personnel files and patient case records Czech has revealed a scientist who allied himself so closely with the Nazi ideology that he frequently referred children to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic which was set up as a collecting point for children who failed to conform to the regime’s criteria of “worthy to live” Nearly 800 children died at the clinic between 1940 and 1945 many of whom were murdered under the notorious child “euthanasia” scheme the editors of Molecular Autism – Simon Baron-Cohen Steve Silberman and Joseph Buxbaum – said they welcomed the fact that Czech’s “meticulous research” had finally thrown light on decades of scepticism about Asperger’s claims that he had taken a caring approach to his patients “The degree of Asperger’s involvement in the targeting of Vienna’s most vulnerable children has remained an open and vexing question in autism research for a long time,” they wrote in a joint statement At the time the term Asperger syndrome was first coined in London in 1981 were unaware of Hans Asperger’s close alliance with the Nazi programme of compulsory sterilisation and euthanasia.” Hans Asperger (front row right) with his medical colleagues in Vienna in 1933 Photograph: Medical University of Vienna/JosephinumAmong Czech’s findings is a photo of the distraught face of Herta Schreiber who suffered from encephalitis and died of pneumonia three months after her admittance to Spiegelgrund Asperger ordered her transfer because “she must be an unbearable burden to her mother” and she was deemed incurable found in a preparation jar in the basement of the clinic in the late 1990s Two year-old Herta Schreiber was one of the children Hans Asperger sent to the Spiegelgrund clinic the collecting point for children not considered under Nazi criteria “hereditarily worthy” or “racially pure” where almost 800 children died between 1940 and 1945 many murdered by poisoning and other means Asperger examined Herta on 27 June 1941 and since falling ill with encephalitis a few months earlier had displayed signs of mental disturbance and impaired physical development Asperger wrote of Herta: “Severe personality disorder (post-encephalitic?): most severe motoric retardation; erethic idiocy; seizures At home the child must be an unbearable burden to the mother Permanent placement at Spiegelgrund seems absolutely necessary.”  Herta was admitted to Spiegelgrund on 1 July 1941 The following month the head of Spiegelgrund recommended she be considered for euthanasia She died of pneumonia the day after her third birthday on 2 September 1941 Pneumonia was routinely induced in Spiegelgrund patients through the administration of barbiturates over a prolonged period.  A note in her file indicates her mother knew and accepted that her child would be killed Thank you for your feedback.There was no evidence that Asperger deliberately targeted for euthanasia the patients with distinct psychological characteristics he had called “autistic psychopaths” under the diagnosis for which he became famous But his diagnoses proved burdensome for many of his patients even years after the collapse of the Nazi regime Asperger continued working as a doctor for more than three decades was there evidence of the benevolent attitude towards his patients that Asperger and others later boasted of Czech also found a distinct lack of evidence of Asperger’s self-coined “pedagogic optimism” according to which some could be treated or cured Asperger did take considerable pride in his “Heilpädagogik” – therapeutic pedagogy – which promoted the popular idea among his colleagues and Nazi leaders at a time of labour shortages that in certain cases people with autism made excellent soldiers and reliable workers But Asperger also wrote about the need to “carry out restrictive measures” against patients deemed to be incurable and with hereditary conditions “out of a sense of great responsibility” towards the German race he was responsible for depriving of their liberty many children whom he deemed incapable of existing outside institutions,” Czech said Asperger rose to the highest position in the expanding field of therapeutic pedagogy and was promoted over the heads of Jewish colleagues who were forced out of the profession which he believed had been instrumental in establishing the common view that Asperger had “defended his patients against the Nazi regime at great personal risk” Frith declined to comment for this article Evidence of the Nazi authorities’ trust in Hans Asperger’s credentials as someone in tune with the project’s sensibilities Photograph: WStLACzech also lists examples of how Asperger often deemed sexually abused children to be responsible for the abuse and cites how antisemitic stereotypes crept into Asperger’s diagnostic reports “Asperger refused to acknowledge the reality of anti-Jewish persecution by the Nazi regime; this indifference is visible both during and after the war,” said Czech The historian admitted that his findings might well be painful for autistic people and their families to digest “It would have been wrong for me to have withheld this information however difficult it might be to hear,” he said there is no evidence to show his contributions to autism research were tainted by his problematic role during National Socialism So purging the term Asperger from the medical lexicon would not be helpful this should be an opportunity to look at the past and learn lessons from it.” director at the National Autistic Society in the UK’s Centre for Autism said: “We expect these findings to spark a big conversation among autistic people and their family members particularly those who identify with the term ‘Asperger’ Obviously no one with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome should feel in any way tainted by this very troubling history.” a psychologist told my parents and me that I showed signs of Asperger’s Syndrome a condition on the high-functioning end of the Autism spectrum Having Asperger’s is a bit like being in cognitive limbo I am privileged compared to people with more low-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders but not neurotypical to the point of fitting in with my classmates and other kids my age and sometimes unintentionally upset others with my words or tone of voice I couldn’t process emotions and social norms like other people could I was so ashamed of it that I never told anyone for the majority of elementary and middle school But my story differs from many others who grow up with a developmental disorder I was also finding my way as a young gay man When the guys in my class talked about girls because I couldn’t think of any other reason I slowly developed a fear that I wouldn’t be able to be in a relationship I kept searching for the word to describe how I thought of him and I couldn’t understand the word I kept thinking of I blurted out that word I’d been shying away from And he laughed and said he knew that I was gay I suddenly started feeling funny around certain guys gut feeling that I had never experienced before remembering its negative connotation among the people I grew up around I could hardly admit to myself that I was gay I felt pressured by some in my friend group to get a girlfriend so I asked out this girl from my theatre class The summer eventually became the school year I confessed to her that I thought I might be gay The floodgates that had held back my emotions finally opened I realized that it was serious—that I was truly able to care about someone in such a deep And once I finally learned what it was like to do that it was like a domino effect for everyone else in my life My empathy for them finally manifested—I felt what my friends and family felt But while I was finally able to accept myself as a gay man I found that I couldn’t bring myself to tell my own partner about my disorders and thought he wouldn’t understand; that he might get overwhelmed by it and call it quits like when he’d be driving us down a back road at 90 miles an hour while I gripped my seatbelt with white knuckles I embarrassed him by singing Ed Sheeran’s Perfect to him in front of people little differences in values and personalities on either side that I wasn’t able to pick up on because my brain is wired in a different way because I tried so hard to be seen through the lens of being neurotypical I learned then probably the most painful lesson of my life: no relationship can survive without complete honesty even if it means telling hard truths—things you’ve never told anyone If you try and hide who you are from the person you love they will grow to love a fictional character but it paled in comparison to my shame of having Asperger’s cursing whatever it was that gave it to me But I’ve learned that to have Asperger’s does not mean to feel nothing It means that you have to work harder to make connections And to any LGBTQ people living with developmental disorders I want my message to be one of patience and optimism less human for feeling things differently than others You can and will find a way to make sense of your different identities and experiences a relationship may have been the summit—where I finally began to understand myself—but it came after years of slow and I’m proud to be living with Asperger’s GLAAD’s Director of Communications and Transgender Advocacy GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change Andrew Cashin receives funding from the Australian Government National Disability Insurance Agency Information Linkages and Capacity Building Grant Scheme Grant number 4-DW65XKD This is a mainstream capacity building grant to build the capacity to care for people with ASD and/or intellectual disability in mainstream healthcare Southern Cross University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU View all partners Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg describes herself as having Asperger’s while others on the autism spectrum, such as Australian comedian Hannah Gatsby, describe themselves as “autistic” the previous diagnoses of “Asperger’s disorder” and “autistic disorder” both fall within the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder Autism describes a “neurotype” – a person’s thinking and information-processing style Autism is one of the forms of diversity in human thinking When these challenges become overwhelming and impact how a person learns, plays, works or socialises, a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is made The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) outlines the criteria clinicians use to diagnose mental illnesses and behavioural disorders autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder were the two primary diagnoses related to autism in the fourth edition of the manual In 2013, the DSM-5 collapsed both diagnoses into one autism spectrum disorder The two thinkers behind the DSM-4 diagnostic categories were Baltimore psychiatrist Leo Kanner and Viennese paediatrician Hans Asperger They described the challenges faced by people who were later diagnosed with autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder Kanner and Asperger observed patterns of behaviour that differed to typical thinkers in the domains of communication social interaction and flexibility of behaviour and thinking The variance was associated with challenges in adaptation and distress the majority of those diagnosed with autism also had an intellectual disability Clinicians became focused on the accompanying intellectual disability as a necessary part of autism The introduction of Asperger’s disorder shifted this focus and acknowledged the diversity in autism In the DSM-4 it superficially looked like autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder were different things with the Asperger’s criteria stating there could be no intellectual disability or delay in the development of speech Today, as a legacy of the recognition of the autism itself, the majority of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder – the new term from the DSM-5 – don’t a have an accompanying intellectual disability The move to autism spectrum disorder brought the previously diagnosed autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder under the one new diagnostic umbrella term It made clear that other diagnostic groups – such as intellectual disability – can co-exist with autism The other major change was acknowledging communication and social skills are intimately linked and not separable Rather than separating “impaired communication” and “impaired social skills” the diagnostic criteria changed to “impaired social communication” The introduction of the spectrum in the diagnostic term further clarified that people have varied capabilities in the flexibility of their thinking behaviour and social communication – and this can change in response to the context the person is in Some people feel the clinical label of Asperger’s allowed a much more refined understanding of autism This included recognising the achievements and great societal contributions of people with known or presumed autism The contraction “Aspie” played an enormous part in the shift to positive identity formation. In the time up to the release of the DSM-5, Tony Attwood and Carol Gray two well known thinkers in the area of autism highlighted the strengths associated with “being Aspie” as something to be proud of But they also raised awareness of the challenges A more recent shift in language has been the reclamation of what was once viewed as a slur – “autistic” This was a shift from person-first language to identity-based language from “person with autism spectrum disorder” to “autistic” The neurodiversity rights movement describes its aim to push back against a breach of human rights resulting from the wish to cure The movement uses a “social model of disability” This views disability as arising from societies’ response to individuals and the failure to adjust to enable full participation The inherent challenges in autism are seen as only a problem if not accommodated through reasonable adjustments However the social model contrasts itself against a very outdated medical or clinical model Current clinical thinking and practice focuses on targeted supports to reduce distress, promote thriving and enable optimum individual participation in school, work, community and social activities. It doesn’t aim to cure or fundamentally change people with autism. A diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder signals there are challenges beyond what will be solved by adjustments alone; individual supports are also needed. So it’s important to combine the best of the social model and contemporary clinical model. Is there a difference between Asperger’s and autism? If so, what are the differences? Many people use both terms but are not always aware of the history, meaning, and context.  Although there seems to have been an increase in awareness and trying to understand autism and other diagnoses, there are still plenty of questions and Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder face challenges that can lead to frustration and anger, but is there a link between high functioning autism and anger or aggression? If so, how can parents help teach their child to regulate those angry emotions and manage them in daily life? Struggling to manage aggressive episodes? Grab your Parenting a child with developmental disabilities, including High Functioning Autism (HFA), is no doubt, a challenging but exhausting responsibility which I have struggled with for the past 45 years when my son was diagnosed with what was referred to in the late 1990’s as Asperger’s syndrome. Looking back at my son’s growth and development within In 2003, a girl named Greta Thunberg was born in Sweden. When that girl was eight years old, she first learned about the very real threat of global warming; a threat humans had caused with their own hands. At the same time, she was assured those hands could work to fix it. If we just During the summer of 2005, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. I heard about this condition for the first time from my psychologist when he was telling me who I was more so than anyone ever had before. But I didn’t take it seriously. After all, I was 21 years old at the time, I Growing up with autism is challenging. And as somebody who has Asperger’s syndrome, I know this all too well. Pre-Diagnosis Raised in a middle-class family in one of the nicest counties in the Atlanta area, everything was fairly typical for me in my day-to-day life as a child. My father is a pilot for UPS, Think you know about girls on the autism spectrum? Well, think again. Here are five myths you may have heard about that need to be reconsidered when we think about girls who have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (AS), “mild autism,” or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) level 1. This information comes from original research done This is a story of my son Jacob and the challenges he lives with every day. It is a story of his junior year in high school and a cross-country race he ran. This was a race that I can still see and feel when I close my eyes, and my memories take me back Depression 101 for Aspies Having a condition such as Asperger’s syndrome sounds complicated, however, we learn how to be in control, how to deal with it over time. We try this, we try that, and start noticing what gives good and bad results. It gets easier for sure. But what happens when you have two Living with Asperger’s syndrome has turned out to be a literal roller coaster in more than one sense. For starters, you don’t always know how to deal with intense feelings, with different situations that are out of your routine, and, this is the best part, you have to discover the best way to process it Are you intimidated by the “failure to launch” syndrome for your young adult with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? For most parents, the term translates into a fear factor, restraining them from helping their young adults with Asperger’s syndrome to transition into the adult world. As a parent, your support and perception of your child’s ability Hi, my name is Leanne Strong, I’m 24 years old, and I have a very mild form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome. Many people on the autism spectrum have a very concrete way of thinking. Many of us have difficulty understanding when someone is joking or being serious, or when certain “rules” don’t need My name is Alex Manners, and I live in a town called Solihull in England.  I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome when I was 10 years old, and while it has brought along many challenges that I have had to face, I feel that it makes me the person that I am. I consequently view Page [tcb_pagination_current_page] of [tcb_pagination_total_pages] First Previous Next Last Metrics details Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by dysfunction in three core behavioral domains: repetitive behaviors There is evidence that abnormalities exist in peptide systems oxytocin and the closely related peptide vasopressin are known to play a role in social and repetitive behaviors This study examined the impact of oxytocin on repetitive behaviors in 15 adults with autism or Asperger's disorder via randomized double-blind oxytocin and placebo challenges The primary outcome measure was an instrument rating six repetitive behaviors: need to know Patients with autism spectrum disorders showed a significant reduction in repetitive behaviors following oxytocin infusion in comparison to placebo infusion Repetitive behavior in autism spectrum disorders may be related to abnormalities in the oxytocin system and may be partially ameliorated by synthetic oxytocin infusion which was rescued by intraventricular administration of oxytocin Although analogies between animal and human behavior must be viewed with caution these studies suggest that oxytocin may play a role in repetitive behaviors and that one patient developed serious side effects including psychosis and memory impairment it was hypothesized that infusion of synthetic oxytocin might modulate the severity of this repetitive behavior domain in patients with autism spectrum disorders Since we did not have a measure of social attachment that might be sensitive to change over a brief period of time (over 4 h) this domain was not assessed in this study on which the patients with autism scored within the autistic range and those with Asperger's disorder did not Patients and their guardians signed written informed consent and the study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as adopted and promulgated by the National Institutes of Health without a current or past history of schizophrenia with a mean IQ (±SD) of 90.33 (±9.90) (range=74–110) Nine patients were medication free for greater than 1 year prior to the study; three patients were medication free for greater than 6 weeks prior to the study (one was previously on fluoxetine and one on bupropion); and the remaining three patients were medication free for a minimum of 2 weeks prior to and throughout the study (one was previously on fluvoxamine and risperidone Each subject served as their own control; a control group of individuals who were normal or from another diagnostic category was not included because the repetitive behaviors being monitored are characteristic of autism spectrum patients but are not exhibited by either normal adults or adults in other diagnostic categories Since we would not predict a change in these behaviors with the administration of oxytocin it was more meaningful to use the patients on placebo as their own controls They underwent two identical challenge days in which they received a continuous infusion over 4 h of synthetic oxytocin (pitocin) or placebo All subjects were admitted into the General Clinical Research Center on the evening prior to each challenge the subject was awakened at 8:00 am and an indwelling intravenous catheter inserted and these continued to be monitored every half hour 6 cc3 of blood was drawn and the oxytocin/placebo infusion was administered in a randomized double-blind fashion The initial vial of pitocin (10 u/ml) combined aseptically with a l.0 l bag of normal saline was first given at a rate of 10 ml/h The infusion was initiated at a low rate to minimize potential side effects the infusion rate was titrated every 15 min by 25 ml in the first hour and held constant at the maximum rate of 700 ml/h during the fourth hour rotated in an infusion bottle to ensure thorough mixing was added to the system by a constant infusion pump to control accurately the rate of infusion Staff members were given specific instructions to discontinue increasing the rate of infusion if the patient experienced significant side effects In order to assess possible cardiovascular effects blood pressure and pulse were recorded every half hour Oral temperature was recorded at every hour All 15 subjects returned in 2–3 weeks for an identical challenge administered with the other infusion substance Severity of repetitive autistic behaviors was evaluated using a method developed during past research with this population The ratings were completed at baseline (0) and 240 min and reported the frequency of each of the six repetitive behaviors using a four-point ordinal scale with the following values: 0=never These ratings were done following a 15–20 min interview during which several other measures were administered and the rater had the opportunity to observe the patient's behavior in this domain We obtained an estimate of the scale's validity during another autism study in which 15 ratings were conducted by three raters using both this instrument and the YBOCS compulsion severity scale utilizing the YBOCS symptom checklist to elicit types of repetitive behaviors We found that this scale had a correlation of 0.81 with the YBOCS compulsion scale (p=0.01) We obtained 100% agreement between raters on the measure of repetitive behaviors when rating a patient over the same time period A repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted looking at the two infusions (oxytocin vs placebo) over time (0 A logarithmic transformation was done for the repetitive behavior ratings because the data were not normally distributed Baseline differences on the oxytocin vs placebo days were examined using paired sample t-tests Differences in response between patients with autism and patients with Asperger's disorder were examined using independent sample t-tests Pearson correlations between behavioral response and physiological measures (blood pressure and oral temperature) and χ2 analysis comparing behavioral responses in patients with and without side effects were also conducted A significance criterion of p<0.05 was used in all analyses Effects of oxytocin vs placebo infusion on repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorder patients over time Mean scores were significantly lower over time following oxytocin vs placebo (F=3.487 Effects of oxytocin and placebo infusion on repetitive behaviors from baseline (0 min indicated by square) to end point (240 min indicated by arrow) for each individual autism spectrum disorder patient Mean and frequency distribution at end point for oxytocin vs placebo Individuals who responded to oxytocin often had a decrease in the number of different types of repetitive behavior from three or four at baseline to none or one at end point not only did the severity decrease over time but did the number of different types of repetitive behaviors on oxytocin six of the participants had an increase in repetitive behaviors while only one did on oxytocin which suggests that the structured challenge situation itself may have caused an increase in these behaviors in some patients Patients with autism did not differ from patients with Asperger's disorder following oxytocin infusion (t=0.687 There were no significant effects of either infusion on blood pressure and these measures did not marginally or significantly correlate with the behavioral measures of response to the infusion agents Side effects on oxytocin were mild and included drowsiness Placebo side effects included mild drowsiness There was no relationship between the presence or number of side effects and behavioral response to oxytocin or placebo administration of exogenous oxytocin decreased the core autistic repetitive behaviors measured; on oxytocin not only did the severity of the behaviors decrease over time but so did the number of different types of repetitive behaviors this is the first study to examine the effect of oxytocin infusion on core behaviors in autism The data suggest that oxytocin may play a role in the severity of common compulsive/repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders the results suggest that dysfunction of the oxytocin system might contribute to characteristics of autistic disorder beyond those of the social dimension strengthening the theory that oxytocin dysfunction plays a role in the etiology of autism the peptide may be binding to receptors in peripheral tissues and since these targets feed back to the CNS this may result in the observed changes in behavior One promising strategy for peptide delivery to the brain is through chemical modification resulting in a peptide or fragment with favorable BBB permeability which has important implications for the development of clinically relevant treatments Intranasal oxytocin in obsessive–compulsive disorder Carrier-mediated transport of vasopressin across the blood–brain barrier of the mouse Oxytocin is a precursor of potent behaviourally active neuropeptide A major 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peptide forms B lymphocyte antigen D8/17 and repetitive behaviors in autism The relationship between repetitive behaviors and growth hormone response to sumatriptan challenge in adult autistic disorder A gender-specific mechanism for pair bonding: oxytocin and partner preference formation in monogamous voles Central administration of oxytocin modulates the infant rat's response to social isolation Serotonin and neuropeptides in affiliative behaviors The regulation of oxytocin receptor binding in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus by testosterone and its metabolites Vasopressin binds to microvessels from rat hippocampus Effect of oxytocin on regional 3H-orotic acid uptake in rat brain The influence of vasopressin on the regional uptake of [3H] orotic acid by the rat brain Elevated cerebrospinal fluid levels of oxytocin in obsessive–compulsive disorder Comparison with Tourette's syndrome and healthy controls Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised: a revised version of a diagnostic scale for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders Cerebrospinal fluid levels of oxytocin in Prader–Willi syndrome: a preliminary report Centrally mediated effects of neurohypophyseal hormones Plasma oxytocin levels in autistic children Oxytocin-induced paw sucking in infant rats Oxytocin mediates acquisition of maternally associated odor preferences in preweanling rat pups Oxytocin is required for nursing but is not essential for parturition or reproductive behavior Oxytocin effects on emotional processes: separation distress and relationships to psychiatric disorders Oxytocin in Maternal Sexual and Social Processes Long term facilitation of social recognition in rats by vasopressin related peptides: a structure–activity study Low doses of oxytocin facilitate social recognition in rats Neurohypophyseal hormone receptors in the septum are implicated in social recognition in the rat survival and biological effects in mice of a behaviorally active enzymatically stable peptide: pharmacokinetics of cyclo-(Leu-Gly) and puromycin-induced amnesia Oxytocin and vasopressin in obsessive–compulsive disorder Ontogeny of oxytocin receptors in rat forebrain: a quantitative study Cerebrospinal fluid neurochemistry in children and adolescents with obsessive–compulsive disorder Facilitation of passive avoid-ance response by newly synthesized cationized arginine vasopressin fragment 4–9 in rats Neurohypophyseal hormones and excessive grooming behavior Social status in the pairs of male squirrel monkeys determines the behavioral response to central oxytocin administration A role for central vasopressin in pair bonding in monogamous prairie voles Enhanced social interactions in rats following chronic Gene targeting approaches to neuroendocrinology: oxytocin Kinetics of arginine-vasopressin uptake at the blood–brain barrier Download references Supported in part by grants from the Seaver Foundation National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression National Alliance for Autism Research and Grant 5 MO1 RR00071 for the Mount Sinai General Clinical Research Center from the National Center for Research Resources Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1300021 This individual is no longer a medical reviewer in our network The credentials and contact information reflected here may not be current Dr. Marc S. Lener is an ABMS board certified psychiatrist in clinical practice in New York City He is founder and CEO of Singula Institute Asperger’s syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder It affects a person’s ability to communicate and socialize Asperger’s has now integrated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Asperger’s is no longer an official diagnosis, and as of May 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) only has one broad category for autism — ASD — instead of listing disorders within the spectrum Though the term is no longer used in clinical contexts and people who have good language skills but may be socially awkward find Asperger’s more fitting for their unique set of symptoms “level 1 autism” may be used instead of Asperger’s People with Asperger’s symptoms may have difficulty navigating conversations. Some people may misinterpret this as rudeness While they’re capable of being rude just like anybody else people with Asperger’s often have difficulty reading social cues and can seem tactless They may avoid eye contact or misunderstand social conventions so making friends and “fitting in” can be more challenging People with Asperger’s can also appear uninterested in social situations they may tend to monopolize conversations by talking about themselves or their special interests They may seem detached, which could stem from the difficulty to understand nonverbal cues like body language or recognize when someone is upset. This could also be from being overstimulated and overwhelmed Though there’s a myth they are blunt and selfish It’s no secret that autistic people have many talents and abilities. Some folks assume all people with Asperger’s are gifted or have a very high IQ While this is true for some in the autistic community being on the spectrum doesn’t automatically make you a musical One symptom of autism that people with Asperger’s tend to have is special interests They can be perceived as being highly intelligent because they can usually talk about their special interests for hours and appear to know everything about their interests people with level 1 autism can have unique or impressive strengths but may also have difficulty in other areas When having a conversation with a person with Asperger’s, they may seem blunt, emotionless, or lacking in empathy This is a stereotype that creates misconceptions about neurodevelopmental disorders Though they may have trouble navigating social interactions people with Asperger’s are capable of understanding the feelings and emotions of others They can have difficulty processing complex emotions and there may be a delay in understanding how others are feeling According to a 2019 meta-analysis early research suggested that people with Asperger’s may have impaired empathy but more recent research has found that factors like age and gender may influence empathy impairments People with Asperger’s also have morality, which is the subject of 2016 research Researchers found that people with level 1 autism exhibit a typical pattern of moral judgments It’s not a phase that children or adults grow out of There’s no “cure” for autism. It’s a part of who people are. It’s not treatable with medication or other therapies, but treatments — such as therapy and other resources — can help manage any symptoms Research from 2013 suggests that some children can have an optimal outcome following an autism diagnosis when they no longer have certain symptoms or impairments but they may require additional support throughout their lives People with Asperger’s and social anxiety disorder may share an overlap of symptoms Both disorders are characterized by difficulty navigating social situations but people with the disorder are capable of communicating and socializing without challenges People with Asperger’s lack the awareness of social conventions to comfortably engage with others in social settings They may find it difficult to understand nonverbal cues like body language or comprehend jokes in a nonliteral sense that can stilt conversations which used to be called Asperger’s syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by social awkwardness There are stereotypes about the disorder that perpetuate misinformation and myths and not everyone with level 1 autism is the same The following organizations may provide more information or support: Her work has been published in dozens of publications and websites she runs a local maternal health nonprofit To keep up with Zawn, visit her website or learn more about her work Autism may affect some of these preferences and how someone relates to others Asperger’s used to be a type of autism diagnosis all forms of autism come under the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) although some people still identify as “aspies.” An older 2016 survey of autistic adults who identified as high functioning found that most wanted romantic relationships Those in relationships with other autistic people reported having higher relationship satisfaction fulfilling relationships are possible with autistic and nonautistic people Read on to learn more about Asperger’s and adult relationships signs a person in a relationship might be autistic The exact challenges or strengths that autism adds to relationships will depend on the individual ways it affects a person it may mean someone bonds very well with people who share the same interests as them This last point can be a consequence of ableism which refers to prejudice or discrimination against those with disabilities Some people wrongly assume that those with disabilities do not need or want close relationships or sex meaning they can have gaps in their knowledge that may make them vulnerable to risks Autistic people, particularly women, may also be more vulnerable to victimization in relationships, according to a 2020 expert review The authors say that autistic women can be at higher risk of experiencing inappropriate sexual behavior in relationships than both autistic men and neurotypical women Education about safe relationships may help protect against this Yes, similarly to other people, autistic people can have happy relationships A 2020 analysis found that both autistic and nonautistic individuals value similar things when it comes to intimacy However, in relationships comprising autistic and nonautistic people, there may be significant differences in how each person sees the world. This can result in what sociologists call the “double empathy problem,” which is when people with very different experiences have difficulty empathizing with each other This does not mean it is impossible for autistic and nonautistic individuals to have healthy it may take more learning and open-mindedness for the nonautistic person to understand their partner Autism symptoms vary greatly from person to person Some that might present in relationships include the below Executive functioning is the ability to plan and coordinate a person’s life Autistic people often have differences in executive functioning in comparison to nonautistic individuals When something disrupts a person’s routine Autistic people tend to focus strongly on a limited range of interests often to the exclusion of all other interests A person with these special interests may: Autistic people sometimes use fewer facial expressions or voice intonation when they are communicating This can mean that others do not know how they are feeling those without autism can use facial expressions and figures of speech that an autistic person does not understand They may miss these social cues or find them confusing Some autistic people also have difficulty understanding speech that is not literal In addition to the differences in communication style, autistic people can also sometimes have difficulty with mentalization which is the ability to think about thinking This may mean they do not always understand their mental state or guess how others might be feeling This may make other peoples’ actions confusing or cause a person to feel they often do not understand their partner Autistic people can find certain sensations This can affect where they feel comfortable on dates or their home environment the person may strongly like or dislike certain forms of touch or find too much physical sensation overwhelming One of the most important skills in any relationship is clear communication This can be especially useful in relationships where one or both people are neurodivergent as it can help individuals understand each other such as how a person currently feels and why or what aspects of relationships or social interactions they find easy or hard Some people may need to learn more about autism and about themselves for them to be able to explain their experiences to others accurately Other skills that may help with relationships include: both autistic and nonautistic people need to avoid: Autistic support groups may be a helpful resource for adults looking to learn about having relationships Other autistic people and their partners may have useful insights to share on how they communicate and resolve problems in their relationships Listening to stories from people can also provide a source of hope and role models for what a healthy and happy relationship can look like For people who are having difficulty in their relationships, individual therapy or relationship counseling with a health expert specializing in neurodivergence may help There are also coaches who specifically work with autistic people to help them learn skills and achieve personal goals can bring unique strengths and challenges to relationships Autistic people can be deeply committed partners who value honesty and reliability and who are passionate about their interests they may also communicate and experience the world differently from nonautistic people and an ongoing exploration of what each partner needs or prefers in their relationship can help make the relationship more rewarding The diagnostic terms for autism were overhauled 10 years ago campaigners and autistic people reflect on these changes Chris Bonnello, 37, was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 2011. But these days he just says he’s autistic. “A lot of us did not want to let go originally, it was something that fitted us very nicely,” recalls the teacher turned autism advocate who runs a website called Autistic Not Weird from his home in Nottingham “But it is better for autistic people if we are all recognised received a diagnosis of autism spectrum condition in 2019 Yet in daily life she describes herself as an “Aspie” – an informal affectionate term for a person with Asperger syndrome She doesn’t have the complex learning disabilities some autistic people do and which non-autistic people can think of when they hear autism She says using Aspie or Asperger’s just helps outsiders understand what she’s like and clears up confusion based on her cognitive and language abilities that she would have received the Asperger’s label had she been diagnosed earlier Weston says she is not trying to separate herself from other autistic people because she thinks she’s special; she would much rather not have the complex struggles that come with her disability Although she has also learned the hard way it is better to stick to calling herself autistic online where she has been bullied for using Aspie “The language police will inform you that you can’t use that term because of the link with Hans Asperger and the Nazis,” she says It will be 10 years next month that Asperger’s syndrome was removed as an official diagnosis from the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – psychiatry’s “bible” which heavily influences how countries including the UK make determinations Instead of recognising Asperger’s – a social learning disability in a person who has never had any significant problems with language development and isn’t intellectually impaired – the so-called DSM-5 created the umbrella autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (“disorder” is often replaced with “condition” in the UK) Collapsed into it was Asperger’s along with autistic disorder – which could come with language and intellectual impairment and was sometimes colloquially called “classic autism” when it did – and some other related conditions individuals with an ASD diagnosis are given specifiers – ASD with or without intellectual or language impairment for example – and their level of required support indicated on a scale of 1 to 3 (very substantial) Previous diagnoses of Asperger’s transferred over as ASD: no one needed rediagnosis which presented evidence he was involved in the Third Reich’s euthanasia programme that killed children considered to be disabled.) If you are diagnosed with autism it doesn’t explain much about what your actual condition isJulia MicklewrightThere were many reasons for Asperger’s removal in DSM-5 a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King’s College London who was on the working group that made the changes replicable evidence to support a diagnostic distinction between Asperger’s syndrome and “high-functioning autism” (a loose term now considered discriminatory but which was used in the past to describe individuals who had a picture of autism but good current language and general cognition The identity loss for people with Asperger’s diagnoses was one of the biggest concerns at the time, recall those caught in the controversy. A lot of self-advocates didn’t want to trade Asperger’s – which they had been working hard to destigmatise – for autism. Whereas Asperger’s could connote gifted and quirky, autism could suggest someone who had trouble participating in society. Read moreAutistic Not Weird’s Bonnello periodically surveys the autistic community on a range of autism-related issues (his 2022 survey had more than 11,000 respondents While in 2018 about 51% said they used Asperger’s syndrome in relation to their own personal situation or when discussing autism The Hans Asperger revelations occurred between the surveys and while it isn’t personally why he moved away from Asperger’s Brenda Dater is the executive director of the US-based Asperger/Autism Network non-profit The organisation originally campaigned to stop Asperger’s being removed from the DSM-5 because of concerns that without the label community members would no longer be able to find one another What she’s seen over the past decade is an age split who were either diagnosed in their youth with Asperger’s or claimed the title later in life young people now not only don’t receive that diagnosis but are actively rejecting the term The new generation want to be more inclusive and they also don’t want to be associated with a syndrome named after someone with Nazi ties “I get many more questions about why we still have Asperger’s in our name versus worries we are going to lose the term,” she says the organisation is planning to drop the Asperger’s – something Dater says the community absolutely wasn’t ready for five years ago tell an individual they couldn’t use the term Asperger’s or Aspie “but as an organisation we need to move away from that” “Asperger’s is on the way out; I expect it will be gone in the next five or 10 years Yet it would also be wrong to think there aren’t still those flying the flag for Asperger’s – culture changes slowly – and some campaigners suggest perhaps the shift has been less pronounced in the UK than the US There is still some stigma around autism compared with Asperger’s in both countries, says Robert Naseef, a US-based clinical psychologist who advises the Autism Society of America “The stereotype of ‘classic autism’ endures,” he says When Naseef gives a diagnosis of ASD requiring level 1 support he’ll often tell people it was formerly called Asperger’s syndrome “I soften it a little… but I also explain: ‘You have autism you are autistic and you are part of a group that is now over 2% of the population.’” The UK charity Action for Asperger’s provides specialist counselling services for those “with autism/Asperger’s syndrome” or who live with them Nicholson has been through some angst with the name – first because of the DSM-5 and then the Hans Asperger revelations – but she’s sticking with it they think extremes not “functioning people with difficulties” “I get lots of wives writing in saying: ‘I think my husband has Asperger’s.’ It is never: ‘I think my husband has autism.’” Almost all of us, by history, would meet some of the criteria for autismCatherine LordNicholson follows a small campaign to reinstate Asperger’s syndrome in the DSM spearheaded by Normand Giroux, a Canadian clinical psychologist who represents a Quebec-based parent association Giroux has made multiple representations to the APA arguing Asperger’s should be reinstated as the “Aspie profile” within the broader autism umbrella to recognise autism’s “most mitigated or partial forms” “They say we are bringing clinical perspectives that are not truly scientific,” he says But the clinical perspective is important too When Sarah Weston got her diagnosis, she turned to Asperger’s Syndrome People into Everything (Aspie) a small charity that provides a centre in Worcester for adults from the West Midlands who identify as Asperger’s types and where they can feel welcome and accepted (diagnostic services in the area direct people to the organisation) it helped her come to terms with her diagnosis and connected her with others to develop a social life With friends she has made through Aspie she’s been on cinema and theatre trips to a UK Comic-Con and to watch Aspie’s football team “They think we’re the weirdos but the truth is the weirdos are outside the door,” she jokes following the vision of her late daughter who set it up in 2011 after being diagnosed with Asperger’s and finding a dearth of services Micklewright doesn’t support the reconfiguration that has occurred with DSM-5 and agrees with Temple Grandin’s sentiment it’s a disservice to people not keeping Asperger’s,” she says Everyone is lumped together but they have such different needs and concerns “If you are diagnosed with autism it doesn’t explain much about what your actual condition is,” she says a useful label that helps people orient and understand themselves Micklewright notes with pride that when she received her British Empire Medal in 2021 it was “for services to People with Asperger’s Syndrome” disputes that a significant minority of people are getting lost is that it simply just isn’t very specific don’t even have to be current (they can be historic) would meet some of the criteria for autism,” she says “If people are slipping through the cracks, then other people are slipping in,” says Francesca Happé. Diagnosis rates have increased exponentially over the past 20 years in the UK with the biggest increases in women and people over the age of 19 And the best interpretation isn’t that DSM-5 has necessarily changed much but that diagnosis is being more widely applied and there’s a historical backlog (in the past adult diagnosis was uncommon and it was seldom considered that women could have Asperger’s or autism) Yet Lord does see a different issue with DSM-5 While there are specifiers so people can end up with more qualified diagnoses and the right support bracket she has become particularly worried that people with higher support needs are missing out on services In 2022, Lord, as part of a group of other experts and parent advocates of autistic children with high dependency, published a proposal in the Lancet that a new term be designated to apply to those with autism who need round-the-clock care Lord acknowledges the irony – having brought the autistic conditions together she now wants to divide them – but the logic behind it is that this group got lost in the shuffle when autism became the new catch-all “The disability rights movement when it calls for self-determination and independence… can fail to acknowledge that there are those who do need 24-hour care,” she says The proposal wasn’t well received among self-advocates Not only was the language non-inclusive (it could lead to some autistic people being more and less valued) and fuzzy (just who would count?) but it went against the grain of treating people as individuals and getting them the support best suited to them (and of which more is desperately needed across the spectrum) And the last thing any significantly challenged kid needs is a label like that Yet while “profound autism” clearly missed the mark (Lord now acknowledges it may not have been the best term) the idea of introducing new subgroups to break up what really is a very heterogeneous spectrum could be helpful for both support services and research if it can be done sensitively “The singular umbrella concept does not seem to do justice to the huge variability within the spectrum,” says Simon Baron-Cohen a professor in the departments of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Cambridge who directs its Autism Research Centre But any move would require both precise language and wide discussion with an autistic community that is very against subdividing (labels shouldn’t just be imposed by researchers or clinicians are now working to see if they can come up with some alternative subgroups under the spectrum that may better characterise severity and could be used in the future “Just exactly how you formulate those is really difficult,” she says This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Our concept of autism has evolved over the past 20 years rendering redundant the diagnostic labels of Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) is set to eliminate two diagnostic categories related to autism: ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ and ‘pervasive developmental disorder unspecified,’ currently listed as subtypes of autism will be subsumed into the single definition of ‘autism spectrum disorder.’ The ICD-11 is following the path set in 2013 by the DSM-5 the then-new version of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” Asperger syndrome entered the U.S. diagnostic system with the publication of the DSM-IV in 1994. Even then, researchers questioned its validity, suggesting it might be just another variant of autism1 They also perceptively discussed the introduction of the ‘remainder category,’ pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and warned that “unless it is clearly formulated there is a danger that it will cease to have any useful meaning.” similarly stated that Asperger’s syndrome is a diagnosis of “uncertain nosological validity.” So these diagnoses were always controversial our changing definition of the term ‘autism,’ and the consequent changes in how we go about clinical ascertainment have rendered redundant the need for separate diagnoses of Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS the diagnostic criteria for an ‘autistic disorder’ required evidence of delays or abnormal functioning before the age of 3 years in social communication (language) The alternative diagnosis of ‘Asperger’s disorder’ (DSM-IV-TR) was determined by the absence of significant cognitive or language delay although the definition did allow for the presence of abnormal social interaction during that early developmental period the distinction between an autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder usually came down to a decision about whether or not there had been generalized developmental delay or language delay within the first 3 years the clinical diagnosis of Asperger’s disorder in older children and adults often rested on whether the individual with features of autism had an intelligence quotient in the normal range and good formal language skills even though these were never explicit diagnostic criteria clinicians firmly believed that at least three-quarters of individuals with autism had ‘mental retardation’ (now termed ‘intellectual disability’) But we now know that most individuals with autism possess average verbal and nonverbal intelligence. The prevalence of associated intellectual disability has been falling, such that more than two-thirds of newly diagnosed individuals have intelligence quotients in the normal range, according to recent U.S. national surveys2 The great majority of children with autism in the United Kingdom are in mainstream classrooms The DSM-5 and ICD-11 do not require a history of early cognitive or language delay as essential components of autism spectrum disorder Asperger syndrome is satisfactorily subsumed under the new rubric Using the DSM-IV, clinicians usually applied a diagnosis of PDD-NOS to individuals with social-communication impairments who lacked the cognitive rigidity and stereotypies essential for an autism diagnosis3 We suspect these individuals now receive a diagnosis of social (pragmatic) communication disorder, a new diagnostic category in the DSM-5. This condition encompasses a constellation of language features that are subsumed under ‘developmental language disorder (with impairment of pragmatic language)’ in the ICD-114 These language diagnoses now essentially replace PDD-NOS and David Skuse is professor of behavioral and brain sciences at University College London and deputy director of the Population Policy and Practice program at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology board-certified psychiatrist who operates a private practice in Pennsylvania Asperger's syndrome was a diagnostic label for what is now simply known as autism spectrum disorder It can affect social interactions and behaviors and has also been linked to depression characteristics of Asperger's can also resemble symptoms of depression This can potentially complicate diagnosis and treatment Asperger's (aka autism) is a form of neurodivergence it means that their brain works differently than a neurotypical person's brain Rather than thinking about these differences in terms of "high" or "low" functioning it is important to focus on how neurotypical expectations may affect a person's need for support and accommodations People with Asperger's also tend to dislike change; for example you might prefer eating the same food daily Asperger's and autism spectrum disorders are forms of neurodivergence but it is considered a disability because people with brains that function differently are expected to adapt to a neurotypical society a person with Asperger's might naturally withdraw from social situations because they are made difficult due to autism traits This is different from someone who withdraws due to feeling depressed It can also come from working with therapists and other professionals who have lived experiences with autism either because they are also autistic or because they regularly work with people who are autistic These types of coping strategies can also be implemented during therapy to ensure that you are optimally supported If you or a loved one are struggling with depression, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database Mazzone L, Ruta L, Reale L. Psychiatric comorbidities in asperger syndrome and high functioning autism: diagnostic challenges Cassidy S, Bradley P, Robinson J, Allison C, McHugh M, Baron-Cohen S. Suicidal ideation and suicide plans or attempts in adults with Asperger's syndrome attending a specialist diagnostic clinic: a clinical cohort study Ohan JL, Ellefson SE, Corrigan PW. Brief report: the impact of changing from dsm-iv ‘asperger’s’ to dsm-5 ‘autistic spectrum disorder’ diagnostic labels on stigma and treatment attitudes Fitzgerald MM. The history of autism in the first half century of the 20th century: new and revised. JRTDD Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What is autism spectrum disorder? Magnuson KM, Constantino JN. Characterization of Depression in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders McDougle C. What's the connection between autism and depression Raja M, Azzoni A. Comorbidity of Asperger’s syndrome and Bipolar disorder Stewart ME, Barnard L, Pearson J, Hasan R, O’Brien G. Presentation of depression in autism and Asperger syndrome: a review Tarazi FI, Sahli ZT, Pleskow J, Mousa SA. Asperger’s syndrome: diagnosis, comorbidity and therapy. Expert Rev Neurother. 2015;15(3):281-293. doi:10.1586/14737175.2015.1009898 Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. the father of Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza says that he doesn’t believe the Asperger’s was what drove his son to commit murder Adam was diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was 13 which seemed to provide some relief for Peter and his ex-wife Nancy who said the psychiatrist and others presented it as a positive step toward being able to find Adam some help Asperger’s finally put a name to the oddities about their son that were making it “crystal clear something was wrong.” Despite public perception that autistic children are prone to lashing out in fits of violent behavior there is little evidence that people with autism or Asperger’s which is now part of the autism diagnosis in the new psychiatric-disorders manual are any more prone to violence against others than the general population Children with autism may react unpredictably or aggressively on occasion but those outbursts are generally directed at themselves a clinical psychologist with Autism Speaks their violent acts are self-injurious and spontaneous the result of frustrated attempts to communicate and not getting their pain or desires heard or addressed (MORE: Father of Sandy Hook Killer Breaks Silence) in an effort to highlight the need to address mental-health shortcomings in the U.S Calls to Autism Speaks spiked by 130% in the days and weeks after the Newtown tragedy from worried parents of autistic children who feared that their children might be discriminated against feared or isolated because of the shootings (MORE: 7 Revelations From the New Report on the Sandy Hook School Massacre) But if such violence isn’t generally associated with autism then what could have driven Adam to commit mass murder People with autism often suffer from other mental illnesses as well Problems with sleep can also exacerbate their symptoms and sense of frustration “Asperger’s makes people unusual but it doesn’t make people like this,” Peter said in the New Yorker “I was thinking it could mask schizophrenia.” Almost every major mental illness tends to be slightly more common in autism as well as in other developmental disorders but Elder points out that “in many cases in which people commit violent acts they aren’t diagnosed with a mental illness and we don’t know what drives these people to do these things.” diagnosing other mental illnesses in people with autism is challenging “There are some individuals with [autism-spectrum disorders] that meet full criteria for a specific psychiatric disorder as well psychiatric illnesses can also be mistakenly overdiagnosed in this population,” says Roya Ostovar assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Neurodevelopmental Services at McLean Hospital “Some of the symptoms of psychiatric disorders can overlap with autism.” (MORE: A Different Ending to My ‘Adam Lanza’ Story) Peter’s hunch that other mental-health issues plagued his son comes from the fact that what distinguished Adam’s act was its planned execution — something unusual in the rare occasions of violence associated with autism Adam demolished one of his computer hard drives and left pictures of himself with a gun to his head having what his mother called “bad days” over his frustration in passing courses he was taking at Western Connecticut State University for high school credit He was skipping classes and going instead to play Dance Dance Revolution and having more frequent crying breakdowns isolating himself in his room and refusing to engage with his mother or anyone else Adam had also stopped taking medication to control his symptoms It’s also unclear whether he was getting any behavioral therapy which research shows can alleviate some of the tension and anxiety surrounding difficult social situations and encounters Nancy had home-schooled Adam since the eighth grade further keeping him cocooned in his own world (MORE: A Look Inside the World of Adam Lanza) Leaving autism symptoms unaddressed can snowball magnifying the social difficulties and intensifying frustrations The behavioral problems — obsessions with what seem like logical and reasonable rituals but are actually pathological — only become more ingrained making frustration and anxiety more likely and more painful Did the intensity of that psychic pain drive Adam to his final heinous acts The Connecticut state’s attorney report on the incident included a potentially ominous hint about Adam’s increasingly dangerous mental state When Nancy asked if he would feel sad if anything were to happen to her Adam said “no.” And while research on autism shows that the condition is associated with an inability to understand what empathy and emotions are it’s not often linked to the shutting down of emotions that accompanies some psychoses Whatever was eating at Adam in the months before that December day in 2012 — whether it was autism that wasn’t appropriately treated or some other mental illness entirely — there were few outward signs that it would lead to such a violently tragic end But his case will likely become part of much-needed research on autism and how it affects our children Contact us at letters@time.com a person with Asperger’s performs repetitive behaviors People with Asperger’s struggle in social situations but may have a normal or high IQ Asperger’s used to be its own distinct condition, but now most doctors consider it a type of autism. (1) Many describe it as a less severe or high-functioning form of autism Signs and Symptoms of Asperger’sSymptoms of Asperger’s vary but most kids and adults know they have the disorder because they have trouble communicating in social situations Some will struggle to maintain eye contact while others might find it difficult to interpret gestures or figures of speech Another sign of the disorder is a distinct pattern of speech Individuals with Asperger’s may talk in a loud They might also lack inflection when they speak and repeat themselves often Awkward movements and trouble with coordination are physical signs that someone with Asperger’s might have While experts refer to some traits as symptoms, many individuals with Asperger’s view their abilities as gifts. Positive qualities that people with the disorder might have include an incredible rote memory, a high IQ, and a distinctive sense of humor, notes the Asperger-Autism Network It’s important to remember that no two people with Asperger’s experience exactly the same symptoms Learn More About Signs and Symptoms of Asperger’s An Austrian pediatrician named Hans Asperger first described Asperger’s syndrome in the 1940s. (2) The doctor had observed behaviors similar to autism in children who otherwise had normal intelligence and language skills many experts believed that Asperger’s was just a milder form of autism and preferred the term “high-functioning autism,” as opposed to recognizing Asperger’s as an entirely new condition Asperger’s was added to the American Psychiatric Association’s fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as a separate disorder from autism But in 2013, the fifth edition, the DSM-5 under the broad diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder This distinction essentially combined autism and Asperger’s into a single category This new classification has caused debate in the medical community Many experts still consider Asperger’s a separate disorder with symptoms that are different from other forms of autism Others believe Asperger’s is merely a less severe form of autism The exact cause of Asperger’s is a mystery But researchers do have some clues and theories as to what may raise someone’s risk Genes are one factor that probably plays a role and certain genetic diseases are linked to the disorder Boys are much more likely to develop Asperger’s than girls Some experts believe that exposures during pregnancy could contribute to Asperger’s These might include being in contact with certain chemicals having a virus or other complications during pregnancy may up the risk of giving birth to a child with Asperger’s One thing that doesn’t cause Asperger’s: vaccines Asperger’s is probably caused by many factors Researchers are working hard to provide the public with more answers and insights Experts don’t know exactly why some people have Asperger’s Asperger’s is considered a neurobiological disorder This means it’s a condition that affects the nervous system and other aspects of a person’s physiology Research shows that genes and brain abnormalities probably play a role Asperger’s is not caused by bad parenting. Some people incorrectly jump to this conclusion because the symptoms are often revealed through odd, eccentric, or seemingly rude behaviors. (3) Learn More About Causes of Asperger’s: Common Risk Factors, Genetics, and More Finding out if you have Asperger’s syndrome isn’t a one-step process diagnosing the disorder typically involves using several tools Most are used to help doctors gauge behavior while others are specifically created for adults Genetic testing is another tool that might help clinicians figure out if a person’s symptoms are caused by gene mutations or other genetic disorders and neurological tests — are also used to assess a person with Asperger’s most primary care physicians and pediatricians screen children for autism spectrum disorders at infant and toddler well-check visits Making a formal diagnosis usually involves combining the results of several different tests and referring to the DSM Learn More About Diagnosing Asperger’s: Tests and Screenings, Early Diagnosis, and Your Doctors Parents are usually the first to notice that something is different about their child. Unfortunately, Asperger’s syndrome often goes undiagnosed until a child starts having difficulties in school or with other social activities, according to a study. (4) It’s a good idea to talk with your doctor if you think your child has any problems with social interactions. Parents should always seek the help of a medical professional if a child experiences social or communication delays. Asperger’s syndrome won’t improve on its own without therapy, so it’s best to look into medical intervention. (5) Experts may be able to diagnose Asperger’s in children as young as 18 months old (5) An earlier diagnosis may help your child cope better and start effective treatments sooner Your pediatrician or family doctor is a good place to start Receiving an Asperger’s diagnosis can be scary and overwhelming. It’s important to find a physician you trust. Autism Speaks offers a list of doctors If your child receives an Asperger’s diagnosis, you’ll probably have a lot of questions for your doctor. Here are some you might want to ask: (5,6) Asperger’s can affect everyone differently Many children and teens with Asperger’s attend conventional schools and can manage well academically and socially. But some may require special facilities for kids with autism or learning disabilities. (7) Living with Asperger’s or having a child with the disorder can be challenging But it’s important to know that you can live a happy Many people celebrate their unique gifts and special abilities A good support system can be key to helping someone with Asperger’s live independently Duration of Asperger’sAsperger’s is a lifelong disorder that doesn’t just go away Adults with Asperger’s tend to learn how to understand their own strengths and weaknesses which can help them improve their social skills and medications that can help a person with Asperger’s effectively cope with any challenges they face Treatment and Medication Options for Asperger’s There’s no cure but the good news is that proper treatment can help someone with Asperger’s live a productive and successful life The key is to start a regimen as soon as you can Various types of therapy are used to help people with Asperger’s Some are designed to reward positive behaviors while others help a person change their thoughts and perceptions Every child and adult with Asperger’s is unique and might respond differently to certain regimens Sometimes the most-effective treatments involve combining several different methods Medications are sometimes an option if a person with Asperger’s struggles with symptoms of anxiety Between 30 and 95 percent of kids with an autism spectrum disorder receive some type of complementary or alternative treatment. While some parents report these therapies are beneficial, they often lack scientific support. Approaches such as acupuncture, yoga, chelation therapy Learn More About Treatment for Asperger’s: Medication, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Surgery Options, and More there’s no known way to prevent Asperger’s syndrome The cause of autism spectrum disorders is unknown at this point Complications of Asperger’sAsperger’s can lead to certain social and physical complications, including: (10) Research and Statistics: Who Has Asperger’s It’s difficult to say just how many kids and adults are living with Asperger’s syndrome especially since it’s now lumped into a diagnostic category that includes other forms of autism According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in every 44 children has an autism spectrum disorder. (11) But there aren’t many studies to determine how many of these kids would fall under the Asperger’s category Some experts estimate that at least 1 in every 250 people has a form of Asperger’s and that as many as 50 percent of people with Asperger’s are undiagnosed, according to the Asperger/Autism Network. (12) BIPOC Communities and Asperger’s Some research has shown that minorities may face additional challenges when it comes to autism spectrum disorders Black and Hispanic Americans and Asperger’s A 2017 study found racial disparities may exist when it comes to detecting and diagnosing autism. Results showed white children were about 19 percent more likely than Black children and 65 percent more likely than Hispanic children to receive an autism diagnosis. (13) Another study found that parents of minority toddlers were more likely to dismiss autism symptoms, such as communication delays. (14) Experts say more resources need to be utilized to help Black Americans get better access to diagnosis and treatment options. (15) Related Conditions and Causes of Asperger’sCertain disorders may look like Asperger’s or occur along with it Some conditions that often occur with Asperger’s include: (16) In May 2013, the DSM-5 added a condition called social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SCD) to describe people who have trouble with social communication but have normal intelligence. Many of the symptoms overlap with Asperger’s. (17) SCD isn’t included under the autism spectrum disorder category in the manual. It’s instead considered a communication disorder. (18) Some people who were previously diagnosed with Asperger’s are now being identified as having SCD Your doctor can help give you an accurate diagnosis You might wonder how Asperger’s is different from classic autism While current guidelines suggest it’s merely a form of an autism spectrum disorder many experts believe that people with Asperger’s have distinct symptoms that set them apart people with either Asperger’s or autism benefit from similar treatments and early intervention so it’s important to see your doctor if you think you or your child has either condition Learn More About Asperger’s vs. Autism Resources We Love If you or your child has Asperger’s syndrome Certain resources can help provide support and the American Psychiatric Association are good places to start Several websites host blogs that can also be helpful for people with Asperger’s Others provide useful information about financial assistance programs for families who are impacted by Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders If you’d like to participate in a clinical trial including ClinicalTrials.gov and CenterWatch can help you locate a research study in your area Taking advantage of valuable resources can greatly impact your Asperger’s journey Staying informed and connected can help you cope with the physical and financial burdens that often accompany autism spectrum disorders American Psychiatric Association (APA) where leading psychiatrists answer your top questions Autism Speaks We love that this organization has an Autism Response Team (ART) that answers your questions You can call during business hours or send members of the team an email Autism Society that helps users increase their knowledge about the disorder and you can download a certificate when you finish Asperger/Autism Network (AANE) The AANE works with families to help people with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders build meaningful, connected lives. It provides education, support, and advocacy. We love its parent coaching resource which offers one-on-one sessions designed to help parents of children The experts will even review your child’s individualized education program (IEP) U.S. Autism Association This nonprofit organization offers education and solutions for families dealing with an autism diagnosis has created a program for individuals on the autism spectrum to achieve a successful college and post-collegiate experience Learn more about the curriculum on its website Global and Regional Autism Spectrum Partnership (GRASP) Sometimes, you just need to talk to someone. GRASP offers a list of support groups in your area they’ll connect you with services in your region Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide to DSM-5 The APA’s Understanding Mental Disorders book is chock-full of information about how autism is recognized and diagnosed, based on the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). You can see excerpts from the book and purchase it from the APA Asperger/Autism Spectrum Education Network (ASPEN) ASPEN hosts an annual fall conference with keynote speakers and relevant topics for people with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) Looking to get involved? The ASAN advocates, so the voices of people with autism are heard. You can volunteer, join an affiliate group, or find other ways to support the cause here Prior to her freelance career, Marks was a supervising producer of medical programming for Ivanhoe Broadcast News. She is a Telly award winner and Freddie award finalist. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband and four children, traveling, and cheering on the UCF Knights. The story that Hans Asperger saved autistic children from the Nazis is exposed as a myth in Edith Sheffer’s new biography But who was Hans Asperger and how did the medical establishment come to honour him Asperger wrote wholly damning descriptions of at least 42 of his patients His signature is on the paperwork that transferred them to the notorious Am Spiegelgrund clinic where almost 800 children died due to neglect or lethal overdoses It would have been impossible for Asperger not to know his patients’ likely fate; the killings at the asylum led to public protests Sheffer reveals that Asperger actively endorsed the forced sterilisation lawsSheffer also gives a long-overdue and gripping analysis of Asperger’s own writing before She details his wartime denigration of the cognitively and physically disabled children in his care She frames him as complicit in “negative eugenics” and a careerist Jewish doctors were forbidden to practise public medicine during the Anschluss Asperger did not protest about his more senior Jewish colleagues’ exclusion he became the head of the Curative Education Clinic within Vienna’s prestigious children’s hospital Asperger began to work for the Nazi state as a psychiatric expert for the city’s juvenile court system He also applied to consult for the Hitler Youth.” Sheffer reveals that Asperger actively endorsed the forced sterilisation laws citing his words that some people were “a burden on the community” and that “the proliferation of many of these types is undesirable for the Volk the task is to exclude certain people from reproduction” The pioneering British autism psychiatrist Lorna Wing did not know this history when she first came across Asperger’s writing in the late 1970s She had been assessing young patients at the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in London They did not fit into existing categories such as autism or schizophrenia because they had no obvious intellectual disabilities or delusions their profound difficulties with obsessive thinking and social interaction meant that they still needed help particularly as they were at high risk of depression Wing was attracted to Asperger’s writing on what he had called “autistic psychopathy” in the 1940s His work had never been translated into English; Wing relied on her husband’s schoolboy knowledge of German for an initial translation of Asperger’s 1944 thesis She was impressed by the Austrian paediatrician’s detailed, sympathetic descriptions of his patients. They sounded just like the young men she was encountering at the Maudsley. There was a stigma around the word “autism” so Wing proposed a new diagnostic term, Asperger syndrome She wrote that while autism was associated with “muteness and total social withdrawal” for parents “the suggestion that their child may have an interesting condition called Asperger’s syndrome is more acceptable” His strong belief that “curative education” could help appealed she had a profoundly autistic daughter and shared Asperger’s view that appropriate education could improve outcome Wing’s own thesis was that autism was a spectrum disorder and did not always entail intellectual disability and that variant could usefully be termed Asperger Syndrome He became the ideal figurehead for the burgeoning autistic rights movement which argues that autism is a difference to be accepted rather than a disease to be prevented or cured child psychiatrist Leo Kanner was widely disliked for blaming poor parenting or “refrigerator mothers” for causing a debilitating disorder; Asperger maintained autism was inborn and could come with positive abilities It’s hard to believe that anyone will want to identify with Asperger syndrome after reading Sheffer’s extremely disturbing but very lucid book Certainly it would honour a doctor who cared for all autistic people and worked tirelessly to make their lives better Asperger’s Children by Edith Sheffer is published by W W Norton & Co (£20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846 Read moreIt is very saddening that he appears to have been a willing accomplice in the Nazi euthanasia programme It seems certain now that he effectively signed the death warrants of children with severe brain damage while at the same time providing educational therapy for the children in his clinic The term Asperger syndrome is not in the most recent diagnostic systems but it will be up to the autism community to decide whether it should remain in use.Uta FrithEmeritus professor of cognitive development Hitler’s rationale seems less distant from even modern political rhetoric than many imagine. Nazis spoke of “useless eaters”, those “hereditary defectives” certain to cost the government thousands of marks per year. Read moreThe real lesson of Czech’s study is not that Asperger was a monster – even if he was – but that we must understand his ideological mistake if we are never to repeat it Asperger associated autism with capacity for brilliance even when a disability entails no such thing the life of the disabled person – their security their individual potential – becomes not a shred less valuable Children with special needs grow up into adults with special needs (Forcing schools to abandon inclusion leaves us all poorer, 16 April; Letters only 16% of people with Asperger syndrome are employed full time – and that includes my 39-year-old son recently diagnosed with high-functioning Asperger’s he has got nowhere with the hundreds of jobs he has applied for over the past three years apart from occasional readjustment of the furniture to make the process more “friendly” the same requirements of social communication expected Employers’ expectation seems to be that applicants on the autism spectrum should “step up” to their mindset And take it from me and my son – all those “disability friendly” logos on job websites mean very little My son currently works part-time in a supermarket The inequity goes on and on and on.Name and address supplied Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters This article was amended on 31 August 2020 to remove some personal information