孤独症谱系障碍儿童的冲突控制特征及与焦虑症状的关系

Conflict control and the correlation with anxiety symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder

目的:探索孤独症谱系障碍(ASD)儿童的冲突控制特征,及其与焦虑症状的关系。方法:招募并纳入6~12岁ASD儿童23例和正常发育(TD)儿童22例。通过箭头朝向和简笔画面孔Flanker试验评估被试儿童的冲突控制特征,采用重复测量方差法分析反应正确率和平均反应时的差异。使用儿童焦虑情绪障碍筛查量表(SCARED)评估被试儿童的焦虑症状,并应用Spearman偏相关分析其与行为学指标的关联性。结果:ASD儿童在两组Flanker试验冲突条件下的反应时均较TD儿童长(均P<0.05),在两组Flanker试验冲突条件下的反应时均大于一致性条件(均P<0.05);TD儿童仅在箭头Flanker试验冲突条件下的反应时大于一致性条件(P<0.05)。同时,ASD儿童在简笔画面孔Flanker试验冲突条件下的反应正确率与SCARED总分及广泛性焦虑、分离性焦虑因子呈负相关(r=-0.43,-0.49,-0.59,均P<0.05)。结论:ASD儿童可能存在冲突控制缺陷,受社会性信息的影响,并与焦虑症状相关。

Objective:To investigate the characteristic of conflict control in children with autism spectrum dis-order(ASD),and further to explore its relationship with anxiety symptoms.Methods:Twenty-three children with ASD and 22 children with typical development(TD)aged 6-12 years were recruited to complete the arrow flanker and cartoon flanker tasks in the present study,and the indices of response accuracy(ACC)and mean response time(RT)were recorded to reflect the performance.In addition,the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disor-ders(SCARED)was used to assess the anxiety symptoms of all participants.Repeated measures ANOVA was con-ducted to analyze the behavioral performance,as well as partial Spearman correlation was used to analyze the rela-tionship between behavioral indices and SCARED scores.Results:In both arrow and cartoon flanker tasks,children with ASD responded slower than subjects with TD(Ps<0.05).Furthermore,the RTs of incongruent condition were longer than that of congruent condition in ASD group(Ps<0.05)in both flanker tasks.However,in TD group,the similar effect was only found in the arrow flanker task(P<0.05).The results also showed that,in ASD group,the ACC of incongruent condition in the cartoon flanker task was negatively correlated with the SCARED scores,including the total score and sub-scores of generalized anxiety and separation anxiety(r=-0.43,-0.49-0.59,Ps<0.05).Conclusion:It suggests that the ability of conflict control is attenuated in children with autism spectrum dis-order,which may be associated with anxiety symptoms.