Asperger syndrome: tests of right hemisphere functioning and interhemispheric communication.

McIntyre et al. (2002) gave the adults with Asperger syndrome a full day of paper-and-pencil brain games. The tests looked at right-hemisphere jobs like reading faces, copying shapes, and feeling where their body is in space.

They also checked how fast the two sides of the brain talk to each other. Then they matched every AS adult to a same-age, same-IQ adult without AS and compared scores.

The AS group looked almost exactly like people with nonverbal learning disability (NLD). They were strong with words but weak at puzzles, drawing, and body sense.

The pattern fits Rourke’s NLD model: right-brain and white-matter circuits are not working smoothly. The left-right talk test also ran slower in most AS adults.

Camodeca et al. (2020) reviewed dozens of later studies and still see odd lateralisation in autism language skills. Their big-picture view keeps the 2002 right-brain idea alive, but adds that language outcomes are mixed across people.

Baron-Cohen et al. (2004) used the same kind of adult-AS sample and paper tests. They found low empathy scores instead of right-brain puzzles, yet both papers show clear social-cognitive gaps. The methods match; the focus moved from hemisphere to feelings.

Iosa et al. (2012) went a step further with PET scans in bright AS adults. They saw extra blood flow in limbic and cerebellar spots. The new picture is the same population, but biology instead of puzzles, building a fuller brain map.

If your client with AS bombs visual-spatial tasks yet talks like a professor, think NLD. Swap purely verbal instructions for live demos, use clear hand-over-hand prompts, and check for body-in-space issues before asking gym skills. These small tweaks line up with what L et al. saw in the lab and can cut frustration in homes, schools, or clinics right away.