Common vs. Distinct Visuomotor Control Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia.
Motor inhibition problems live in both autism and schizophrenia, but autism shows extra trouble when the brain is busy.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Carment et al. (2020) compared how well three groups handle eye-hand tasks. The groups were adults with autism, adults with schizophrenia, and adults with no diagnosis.
Everyone tracked moving dots on a screen while the rules changed without warning. The test measured how fast they stopped, started, or aimed ahead.
What they found
Both clinical groups moved less smoothly than the control group. The autism group had the roughest time when they also had to think hard. They also mis-timed when to start or stop more often than the schizophrenia group.
How this fits with other research
McPhillips et al. (2014) already showed that motor clumsiness is not autism-specific. Kids with language problems were just as awkward. Loïc’s team widens the lens by adding schizophrenia and finding a unique autism hitch under extra brain load.
Storch et al. (2012) linked poor body-scaling skills to worse social scores in autism. Loïc agrees that motor slips matter, but shifts focus from body-fit judgments to real-time stop-and-go control.
de Moraes et al. (2020) gave autism youth virtual motor drills and saw real-world gains. Their positive result sits beside Loïc’s negative picture: practice can boost skills, yet baseline deficits remain easy to spot.
Why it matters
You now have a quick red flag: if your learner with autism stumbles on stop-and-go tasks when you add language or counting, motor inhibition may be the weak link. Build in brief, pause-heavy warm-ups before teaching new skills. Track if small doses of virtual or real stop-and-go games cut the lag.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are neurodevelopmental disorders with partly overlapping clinical phenotypes including sensorimotor impairments. However, direct comparative studies on sensorimotor control across these two disorders are lacking. We set out to compare visuomotor upper limb impairment, quantitatively, in ASD and SCZ. Patients with ASD (N = 24) were compared to previously published data from healthy control participants (N = 24) and patients with SCZ (N = 24). All participants performed a visuomotor grip force-tracking task in single and dual-task conditions. The dual-task (high cognitive load) presented either visual distractors or required mental addition during grip force-tracking. Motor inhibition was measured by duration of force release and from principal component analysis (PCA) of the participant's force-trajectory. Common impairments in patients with ASD and SCZ included increased force-tracking error in single-task condition compared to controls, a further increase in error in dual-task conditions, and prolonged duration of force release. These three sensorimotor impairments were found in both patient groups. In contrast, distinct impairments in patients with ASD included greater error under high cognitive load and delayed onset of force release compared to SCZ. The PCA inhibition component was higher in ASD than SCZ and controls, correlated to duration of force release, and explained group differences in tracking error. In conclusion, sensorimotor impairments related to motor inhibition are common to ASD and SCZ, but more severe in ASD, consistent with enhanced neurodevelopmental load in ASD. Furthermore, impaired motor anticipation may represent a further specific impairment in ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 885-896. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are neurodevelopmental disorders with partly overlapping and partly distinct clinical symptoms. Sensorimotor impairments rank among these symptoms, but it is less clear whether they are shared or distinct. In this study, we showed using a grip force task that sensorimotor impairments related to motor inhibition are common to ASD and SCZ, but more severe in ASD. Impaired motor anticipation may represent a further specific impairment in ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2287