title: Neuropsychological performance of Finnish and Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies investigating neuropsychological functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have only analysed certain abilities, such as executive functions or language. While comprehensive assessment of the neuropsychological profile of children with ASD has been the focus of recent research, most of the published evidence originates from single centres. Though studies on differences in neuropsychological features of children with ASD across countries are essential for identifying different phenotypes of ASD, such studies have not been conducted.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our goal was to assess the neuropsychological abilities of children with ASD in northern Finland and Egypt and to examine the effect of age and intelligence quotient (IQ) on these abilities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Selected verbal and non-verbal subtests of the neuropsychological assessment NEPSY were used to examine 88 children with ASD in northern Finland (n=54, age M=11.2, IQ M=117.1) and Egypt (n=34, age M=8.4, IQ M=96.6).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Finnish ASD children scored significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts on the verbal NEPSY subtests Comprehension of Instructions (p<0.001), Comprehension of Sentence Structure (p<0.01), Narrative Memory (p<0.001) and Verbal Fluency (p<0.05) and on the non-verbal NEPSY subtest Design Fluency (p<0.01). Finnish and Egyptian ASD children did not differ on the subtests Memory for Faces, Object Recognition and Object Memory. In addition, we found that age and verbal IQ can have significant influence on neuropsychological performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest a possible cultural impact on verbal and visuomotor fluency. However, the ability to recognize and memorize objects and the disability to remember faces appear to be typical for ASD and culturally independent.
authors.affiliation: PEDEGO Research Unit, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; sherinelsheikh@gmail.com.|Child Psychiatry Unit, Abbassia Mental Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.|Centre for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Sherin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elsheikh
authors.affiliation: PEDEGO Research Unit, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Sanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuusikko-Gauffin
authors.affiliation: PEDEGO Research Unit, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.|Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Marja-Leena
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Mattila
authors.affiliation: PEDEGO Research Unit, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.|Centre for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jussila
authors.affiliation: PEDEGO Research Unit, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.|Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ebeling
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Humanities, Logopedics, Child Language Research Centre, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Soile
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loukusa
authors.affiliation: Institute of Postgraduate Childhood Studies, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Manal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Omar
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Geylan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Riad
authors.affiliation: Centre for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Arja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rautio
authors.affiliation: PEDEGO Research Unit, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.|Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Irma
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moilanen
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D032882:Comprehension; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
keywords: NEPSY; autism spectrum disorder; culture; neuropsychological abilities; neuropsychology
references.citation: J Athl Train. 2009 Jul-Aug;44(4):405-9
references.pmid: 19593423
references.citation: Nature. 2009 Oct 8;461(7265):802-8
references.pmid: 19812673
references.citation: Int J Neurosci. 2009;119(10):1830-47
references.pmid: 19922389
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2010 Feb;100(2):270-2
references.pmid: 20019320
references.citation: J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2010 Nov;32(9):1028-35
references.pmid: 20526932
references.citation: Dev Med Child Neurol. 2010 Dec;52(12):1167-8
references.pmid: 20964674
references.citation: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2011 Jun;50(6):583-592.e11
references.pmid: 21621142
references.citation: Dev Neurorehabil. 2011;14(4):215-20
references.pmid: 21513465
references.citation: J Autism Dev Disord. 2012 Feb;42(2):181-90
references.pmid: 21455794
references.citation: Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2012 Mar;47(3):395-8
references.pmid: 21293843
references.citation: Psychiatr Serv. 2012 Dec;63(12):1225-30
references.pmid: 23070112
references.citation: Biol Psychol. 2013 Mar;92(3):440-6
references.pmid: 22465045
references.citation: J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Aug;43(8):1895-909
references.pmid: 23224514
references.citation: J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Nov;43(11):2569-83
references.pmid: 23494561
references.citation: Laterality. 2014;19(5):615-37
references.pmid: 24611866
references.citation: Child Neuropsychol. 2015;21(1):55-77
references.pmid: 24397431
references.citation: Child Neuropsychol. 2015;21(2):121-49
references.pmid: 24479756
references.citation: Dev Neuropsychol. 2001;20(1):375-83
references.pmid: 11827094
references.citation: J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2003 Dec;24(6):418-23
references.pmid: 14671475
references.citation: Br J Psychiatry. 2004 Sep;185:266-72
references.pmid: 15339839
references.citation: Dev Neuropsychol. 2004;26(2):647-60
references.pmid: 15456689
references.citation: J Speech Hear Disord. 1986 Feb;51(1):8-23
references.pmid: 3945063
references.citation: Dev Neuropsychol. 2005;27(3):337-60
references.pmid: 15843101
references.citation: Child Neuropsychol. 2006 Aug;12(4-5):299-305
references.pmid: 16911974