Faculty Bibliography

INTRODUCTION/UNASSIGNED:Narrative, or storytelling, is a primary form of social communication. Prior work has documented differences in narrative in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but predominantly focused on English-speaking Western countries. Given the internalization of cultural values and conventions shapes narrative, the extent to which environmental (i.e., cultural and linguistic) factors may interact with ASD to influence the narrative ability remains unclear. The current study applied a cross-cultural approach to investigate narrative quality in ASD between a Western (United States) culture and an Eastern [Chinese (Hong Kong)] culture. Given that visual attention and exploration inform one's experiences and consequently storytelling, visual attention during narration was examined to unravel underlying mechanisms contributing to narrative. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:Participants included 56 autistic individuals (US-ASD) and 49 non-autistic controls (US-control) from the US who were native English speakers, as well as 24 autistic individuals (HK-ASD) and 52 controls (HK-control) from the Hong Kong SAR, China (HK), who were native Cantonese speakers, with age matched across groups. Participants narrated a wordless picture book presented on an eye-tracker, with narrative quality and dynamic gaze patterns examined. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Group comparisons revealed that autistic individuals from both cultures missed key story components and exhibited elevated rigid gaze patterns towards social stimuli. Cultural variations were also demonstrated, with US-ASD group, but not HK-ASD group, narrating with fewer descriptions and causal attributions of characters' thoughts/emotions. Further, correlational analyses revealed the association between decreased social attention and fewer descriptions of characters' thoughts/emotions across diagnostic and cultural groups. DISCUSSION/UNASSIGNED:Together, the findings highlight a difficulty in overall narrative structure and a pattern of regressive/rigid social attention present in ASD across cultures. In contrast, the difficulty in usage of cognitive/emotional terms and causal attributions in ASD appear to be culturally influenced, and were only present in US-ASD. Gaze-narrative associations detected across diagnosis and cultures emphasize the importance of extrapolating underlying mechanistic processes contributing to social language use in general and in ASD. Findings implicate key features of narrative ability that may be more or less malleable to cultural influences, with implications for the biological underpinnings of ASD and culturally-centered clinical practices.

INTRODUCTION/UNASSIGNED:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized in part by differences in pragmatic (i.e., social) language use. However, few studies on pragmatic language have included a meaningful number of autistic females, and even fewer have evaluated pragmatic language profiles for sex-specific differences. The existing literature on pragmatic language in autistic individuals without intellectual disability suggests that females may have stronger social communication skills compared to males, but findings are mixed, and there is not a clear profile of specific pragmatic skills that are liable to sex differences. It is also important to develop novel methodologies, such as computational methods, to characterize pragmatic language in ways less labor-intensive than gold-standard hand-coding methods, which are extremely time consuming and typically not feasible in clinical settings. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:The present study examined hand coding of pragmatic language data samples alongside multiple computational linguistic methodological approaches to characterize sex differences in pragmatic language in autistic males and females across narrative and semi-structured conversational tasks that might reveal context-specific patterns across sex and diagnostic groups. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Results indicated that most pragmatic domains differed between autistic and non-autistic groups, with autistic males showing the most obvious pragmatic differences, and that differences between diagnostic groups were more pronounced in the semi-structured conversational context. The alignment between computational and hand-coded findings was strongest in domains with clear theoretical overlap (e.g., frequency of emotional words) but was less consistent in areas that were less theoretically aligned (e.g., conversational dynamics and single word function). DISCUSSION/UNASSIGNED:These findings support the promise of computational methods for characterizing narrative abilities, though further study including validation against hand-coded approaches is warranted.

Narrative is an important communication skill for sharing personal experiences and connecting with others. Narrative skills are often impacted in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and have important consequences for social interactions and relationships. Subtle differences in narrative have also been reported among first-degree relatives of autistic individuals, suggesting that narrative may also be an etiologically important language-related skill that is influenced by genes associated with ASD. This study examined narrative ability and related visual attention during narration in ASD and first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD (siblings and parents) to understand how narrative and related attentional styles may be variably impacted across the spectrum of ASD genetic influence. Participants included 56 autistic individuals, 42 siblings of autistic individuals, 49 controls, 161 parents of autistic individuals, and 61 parent controls. Narratives were elicited using a wordless picture book presented on an eye tracker to record concurrent gaze. Findings revealed parallel patterns of narrative differences among ASD and sibling groups in the use of causal language to connect story elements and the use of cognitive and affective language. More subtle differences within the domain of causal language were evident in ASD parents. Parallel patterns in the ASD and sibling groups were also found for gaze during narration. Findings implicate causal language as a critical narrative skill that is impacted in ASD and may be reflective of ASD genetic influence in relatives. Gaze patterns during narration suggest similar attentional mechanisms associated with narrative among ASD families.

OBJECTIVE/UNASSIGNED:The Houston Conference Guidelines (Hannay et al., 1998) provided an initial framework for North American neuropsychology training that served the specialty well for several decades. Subsequent advances in technology, increased diversity of the U.S. and Canadian populations, and the adoption of competency-based training models within Health Service Psychology have created a need to update neuropsychology training guidelines. Therefore, in 2022, the Minnesota Conference to Update Education and Training Guidelines in Clinical Neuropsychology began a two-year drafting process leading to the currently proposed update. METHOD/UNASSIGNED:A Steering Committee worked with content experts, consultants, and delegates representing North American neuropsychological organizations and specialists. The final version of the guidelines was developed after reviewing neuropsychological training literature, gathering feedback from specialists, and making iterative revisions of earlier drafts to reach consensus. CONCLUSION/UNASSIGNED:The resulting "Minnesota Guidelines" include five foundational (Neuroscience and Brain Behavior Relationships; Integration of Science and Practice; Ethics, Standards, Laws, and Policies; Diversity; and Professional Relationships) and eight functional (Assessment; Intervention; Interdisciplinary Systems and Consultation; Research and Scholarship; Technology and Innovation; Teaching, Supervision, and Mentoring; Health and Professional Advocacy; and Administration, Management, and Business) areas of competency required for entry level specialty practice. While consensus was not achieved, a majority of voting delegates recommended the Guidelines for adoption and the Guidelines have been endorsed by six neuropsychology education and board certification organizations. The American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology has not endorsed the Minnesota Guidelines and will not make an endorsement decision until three months after online publication.

INTRODUCTION/UNASSIGNED:By 2050, the U.S. population is projected to become increasingly heterogeneous, requiring a culturally competent neuropsychology workforce equipped to serve this evolving demographic. International graduate trainees bring valuable cultural and linguistic assets to the field of clinical neuropsychology but face significant structural barriers involving restrictive immigration policies. METHODS/UNASSIGNED: = 28) levels, alongside personal narratives from four international trainees. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Results reveal low international trainee enrollment - particularly at the postdoctoral level - and widespread immigration-related challenges, such as limited visa sponsorship and duration, unawareness of visa-related training restrictions, and discomfort among directors in supporting visa issues. Despite the potential benefits of STEM designation for clinical and counseling psychology programs to ease visa barriers, few programs have attempted and succeeded in this process. Personal narratives also highlighted the burdensome STEM conversion process, and the role of trainee-led efforts in overcoming bureaucratic hurdles. CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:To urgently address these issues, we advocate for systemic reforms including national-level STEM reclassification of psychology programs, extended visa durations, enhanced national pipelines and institutional support for visa sponsorship, and improved education on immigration policies. These efforts align with the Multicultural Orientation (MCO) model and AACN's Relevance 2050 goals by fostering a culturally and linguistically responsive workforce equipped to meet evolving mental health needs and to ensure the continued relevance of clinical neuropsychology.

Efficient neural encoding of sound plays a critical role in speech and language, and when impaired, may have reverberating effects on communication skills. This study investigated disruptions to neural processing of temporal and spectral properties of speech in individuals with ASD and their parents and found evidence of inefficient temporal encoding of speech sounds in both groups. The ASD group further demonstrated less robust neural representation of spectral properties of speech sounds. Associations between neural processing of speech sounds and language-related abilities were evident in both groups. Parent-child associations were also detected in neural pitch processing. Together, results suggest that atypical neural processing of speech sounds is a heritable ingredient contributing to the ASD language phenotype.

Individuals born with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at an increased risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite this, studies are limited in their investigation of autism spectrum disorder in the context of CHD. This review provides an overview of the literature examining autism spectrum disorder in CHD and discusses strengths, limitations, and future directions. Recent efforts have been made to extrapolate the association between CHD and symptoms of autism. Findings suggest that the core features of autism spectrum disorder are also implicated in children with CHD, namely social-cognitive weaknesses, pragmatic language differences, and social problems. Compared to norm-referenced samples, separate studies have identified divergent and overlapping neuropsychological profiles among both patient groups, yet there are no studies directly comparing the two groups. There is emerging evidence of prevalence rates of autism diagnosis in CHD showing an increased odds of having autism spectrum disorder among children with CHD relative to the general population or matched controls. There also appears to be genetic links to this overlap, with several genes identified as being tied to both CHD and autism. Together, research points to potentially shared underlying mechanisms contributing to the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental, neuropsychological, and clinical traits in CHD and autism spectrum disorder. Future investigation delineating profiles across these patient populations can fill a significant gap in the literature and aid in treatment approaches to improve clinical outcomes.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a heritable neurodevelopmental disorder, confers genetic liability that is often expressed among relatives through subclinical, genetically-meaningful traits, or endophenotypes. For instance, relative to controls, parents of individuals with ASD differ in language-related skills, with differences emerging in childhood. To examine ASD-related endophenotypes, this study investigated developmental academic profiles among clinically unaffected siblings of individuals with ASD (n = 29). Lower performance in language-related skills among siblings mirrored previously-reported patterns among parents, which were also associated with greater subclinical ASD-related traits in themselves and their parents, and with greater symptom severity in their sibling with ASD. Findings demonstrated specific phenotypes, derived from standardized academic testing, that may represent childhood indicators of genetic liability to ASD in first-degree relatives.

Differences in visual attention have been documented in ASD, and appear linked to clinical symptoms. However, most research has been conducted in Western cultures. Because striking differences in visual attention patterns have been documented in other cultures, it is important to understand how culture may influence attentional patterns in ASD. This study compared differences in visual attention in ASD across Western and East Asian cultures, where differences in attention to contextual and global information have been repeatedly demonstrated, to investigate potential culturally-specific ASD phenotypes. One hundred thirty-two total participants included individuals with ASD (n = 24) and controls (n = 47) from Hong Kong (HK), along with a previously studied group of age- and IQ-comparable participants from the United States (n = 26 ASD; n = 35 control). Gaze was tracked while participants completed two narrative tasks that differed in social-emotional complexity. Proportions of fixations to face, bodies, and setting were examined across groups using linear mixed-effect models and a series of growth curve models. Cultural differences were found across tasks and groups. Both the ASD and control HK groups attended more to global contextual setting information, more to the body regions, and less toward faces of characters compared to US groups. Growth curve models indicated that these differences attenuated over time in certain stimuli. ASD-related effects were only observed in the more complex stimuli depicting characters with ambiguous facial expressions. Findings indicate a notable cultural influence on visual attention patterns in ASD, and underscore the importance of stimuli complexity in differentiating cultural versus diagnostic effects on attentional styles.