Abstract
Disturbances in lateral preference in autism are of interest because of their potential to shed light on brain maturational processes in this disorder. Forty-seven autistic individuals with a history of disordered early language development and 22 autistic individuals with normal early language acquisition were matched with 112 healthy individuals and compared on a standardized measure of lateral preference, the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Autistic individuals with a history of early language disturbance showed more atypical cerebral dominance than both healthy participants and autistic individuals with normal early language skills. The data indicated maturational disturbances in establishing lateral preference rather than increased rates of left handedness. Atypical establishment of cerebral dominance may be one cause of disordered language development in autism.
References
Annett, M. (1999). The theory of agnostic right shift gene in schizophrenia and autism. Schizophrenia Research, 39, 177-182.
Blackstock, E. G. (1978). Cerebral asymmetry and the development of early infantile autism. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 8, 339-353.
Boddaert, N., & Zilbovicius, M. (2002). Functional neuroimaging and childhood autism. Pediatric Radiology, 32, 1-7.
Bradford, Y., Haines, J., Hutcheson, H., Gardiner, M., Braun, T., Sheffield, V., Cassavant, T., Huang, W., Wang, K., Vieland, V., Folstein, S., Santangelo, S., & Piven, J. (2001). Incorporating language phenotypes strengthens evidence of linkage to autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 105, 539-547.
Bryson, S. E. (1990). Autism and Anomalous Handedness. In S. Coren (Ed.), Left handedness (pp. 441-456). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Carver, L. J., & Dawson, G. (2002). Development and neural bases of face recognition in autism. Molecular Psychiatry, 7 Suppl. 2, S18-S20.
Cornish, K. M., & McManus, I. C. (1996). Hand preference and hand skill in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 26, 597-609.
Egaas, B., Courchesne, E., & Saitoh, O. (1995). Reduced size of corpus callosum in autism. Archives of Neurology, 52, 794-801.
Fein, D., Humes, M., Kaplan, E., Lucci, D., & Waterhouse, L. (1984). The question of left hemisphere dysfunction in infantile autism. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 258-281.
Folstein, S. E., & Santangelo, S. L. (1999). Autism: A genetic perspective. In Tager-Flusberg (Ed.), Neurodevelopmental disorders (pp. 431-451). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hardan, A. Y., Minshew, N. J., & Keshavan, M. S. (2000). Corpus callosum size in autism. Neurology, 55, 1033-1036.
Hashimoto, T., Sasaki, M., Fukumizu, M., Hanaoka, S., Sugai, K., & Matsuda, H. (2000). Single-photon emission computed to-mography of the brain in autism: Effect of the developmental level. Pediatric Neurology, 23, 416-420.
Hauck, J. A., & Dewey, D. (2001). Hand preference and motor functioning in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 265-277.
Hier, D. B., LeMay, M., & Rosenberger, P. B. (1979). Autism and unfavorable left-right asymmetries of the brain. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 153-159.
Keshavan, M. S., Diwadkar, V. A., DeBellis, M., Dick, E., Kotwal, R., Rosenberg, D. R., Sweeney, J. A., Minshew, N., & Pettegrew, J. W. (2002). Development of the corpus callosum in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. Life Sciences, 70, 1909-1922.
Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E. H.Jr., Leventhal, B. L., DiLavore, P. C., Pickles, A., & Rutter, M. (2000). The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: Astandard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 205-223.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Couteur, A. L. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview-revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659-685.
McAlonan, G. M., Daly, E., Kumari, V., Critchley, H. D., Amelsvoort, T. T., Suckling, J., Simmons, A., Sigmundsson, T., Greenwood, K., Russell, A., Schmitz, N., Happe, F., Howlin, P., & Murphy, D. G. (2002). Brain anatomy and sensorimotor gating in Asperger's syndrome. Brain, 125, 1594-1606.
McCartney, G., & Hopper, P. (1999). Development of lateralized behaviour in the human fetus from 12 to 27 weeks' gestation. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 41, 83-86.
McManus, I. C., Murray, B., Doyle, K., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1992). Handedness in childhood autism shows a dissociation of skill and preference. Cortex, 28, 373-381.
Prior, M. R., & Bradshaw, J. L. (1979). Hemisphere functioning in autistic children. Cortex, 15, 73-81.
Raczkowski, D., & Kalat, J. W. (1974). Reliability and validity of some handedness questionnaire items. Neuropsychologia, 12, 43-47.
Rinehart, N. J., Bradshaw, J. L., Brereton, A. V., & Tonge, B. J. (2002). Lateralization in individuals with high-functioning autism and Asperger's disorder: A frontostriatal model. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 321-332.
Soper, H. V., Satz, P., Orsini, D. L., Henry, R. R., Zvi, J. C., & Schulman, M. (1986). Handedness patterns in autism suggest subtypes. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 16, 155-167.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Escalante-Mead, P.R., Minshew, N.J. & Sweeney, J.A. Abnormal Brain Lateralization in High-Functioning Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 33, 539–543 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025887713788
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025887713788