Neuropsychological dimensions of autism in children: A test of the hemispheric dysfunction hypothesis

Abstract

A neuropsychological study of 10 high functioning autistic children was carried out using a test battery that included tasks purporting to require either left-hemisphere or right-hemisphere strategies and abilities. When compared with mental-aged and-chronological-aged matched control children, the autistic group was found to be significantly poorer on the “left-hemisphere” tests, but to be performing at chronological age level on the “right-hemisphere” tests. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of performance suggested that autistic children are handicapped on tasks that require left-hemisphere mediated approaches and that there is evidence for impairment in performances which are traditionally considered to reflect frontal lobe involvement.