فصلنامه روانشناسی شناختی

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are developmental neurological disorders characterized by defects in social interactions, communication, and repetitive behaviors. This study attempted to examine the efficacy of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on social skills in children with ASD.Thirty-two children with confirmed ASD diagnoses were randomly allocated into a tDCS treatment group or a control group. The tDCS treatment group underwent 10 sessions of anodal tDCS stimulation applied simultaneously over the left DLPFC (F3) area, whereas the control group underwent the same procedures but with the use of sham tDCS stimulation.Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS) and Social Skills Rating System was used to measure the Social Skills in two pre-test and post-test stages. Finally, the data were analyzed by the SPSS software using repeated measures analysis.Results showed that anodal tDCS significantly increased social skills in the experimental group after treatment compared to the control group.

The importance of understanding the pathology, nature, and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has always been emphasised throughout school. Children with ASD have difficulties in verbal and non-verbal social communication, which limit their ability regarding effective social communication and academic achievement. The purpose of this research was to compare learning strategies and executive functions among successful and non-successful autistic students in terms of academic achievement. For this purpose, 15 successful students with ASD and 15 non-successful students with ASD were recruited via the purposeful sampling method. The Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test, the executive functions and learning strategies questionnaires were used. Data was analysed with an independent t-test. Results showed that, successful students with ASD had a significant difference with the second group in all variables of learning strategies in addition to inhibition, emotional management, planning, organizing and attention shifting. It can be concluded that students with ASD who are successful in education use more learning strategies and have better executive functions compared with autistic students who are not successful in education.

Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that main symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) such as deficits in social communication, speech and repetitive behaviors are associated with abnormalities in neural connectivity. The abnormalities in neural connectivity have been studied by several methods. Among these methods, electroencephalography is an efficient and a non-invasive tool that records brain electrical activity and helps us to gain information about brain neural connectivity and cognitive characters. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze electroencephalogram resting state data to compare brain connectivity (coherence) patterns between children with ASD and typically developing children. The method of this study was descriptive-analytical. The population of the study consisted of all children with ASD (aged 6-13) referred to psychologists in Mehraz Andisheh Clinic in Shiraz. Fifteen children with ASD (boys = 11 and girls = 4) were selected via purposeful sampling method. Moreover, a group of fifteen typically developing children who were matched based on chronological age and gender were recruited. Quantitative Electroencephalography data analyses showed a significant difference between the two groups and indicating hyper connectivity in most frequency bands among children with ASD. Therefore, quantitative electroencephalography patterns of children with ASD indicated an increase in the levels of coherence in delta (p < .05) and theta (p < .05) powers in the prefrontal region, theta (p < .05) and alpha (p < .05) waves in the central region, in theta (p < .001), alpha (p < .001) and beta (p < .001) waves in the occipital region, in addition to delta (p < .001), theta (p < .001) and alpha (p < .001) waves in the temporal region. The findings demonstrated abnormalities in brain connectivity (coherence) patterns of children with ASD which is supported by cortical connectivity theory. Consequently, these findings (hyper connectivity patterns) can be considered as a useful marker to better diagnose ASD. Moreover, changing these patterns may have a positive impact on the treatment of individuals with ASD.