Re-conceptualizing ASD Within a Dimensional Framework: Positive, Negative, and Cognitive Feature Clusters.
Introduction of the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria and revision of diagnostic classification for Autism Spectrum Disorder in the latest diagnostic manual call for a new way of conceptualizing heterogeneous ASD features. We propose a novel conceptualization of ASD, borrowing from the schizophrenia literature in clustering ASD features along positive, negative, and cognitive dimensions. We argue that this dimensional conceptualization can offer improved ability to classify, diagnose, and treat, to apply and predict response to treatment, and to explore underlying neural and genetic alterations that may contribute to particular feature clusters. We suggest the proposed conceptualization can advance the field in a manner that may prove clinically and biologically useful for understanding and addressing heterogeneity within ASD.
Yale University Child Study Center, 230 South Frontage Rd, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA. jennifer.foss-feig@yale.edu.
Jennifer H
JH
Foss-Feig
Yale University Child Study Center, 230 South Frontage Rd, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA. james.mcpartland@yale.edu.
James C
JC
McPartland
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Alan
A
Anticevic
Yale University Child Study Center, 230 South Frontage Rd, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
Julie
J
Wolf
D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D014481:United States
Autism spectrum disorder; Classification; Diagnosis; Heterogeneity; RDoC; Symptoms