Childhood autism: An appeal for an integrative and psychobiological approach

The difficulty that a person with autism has in establishing relationships, maintaining them (communicating and responding appropriately) is a common experience of those close to them., That impaired perceptual and cognitive processing can underlie this difficulty and the interactions of people with autism with the material environment has been established in the laboratory. The consequences at a psychological level of analysis may converge in the inadequacy of second-order representations of the world. An attenuation of such endogenous monitoring processes could also indirectly account for features of withdrawal and the stereotypies often observed. At another level of analysis there are delays in neurotransmission, in the CNS and a lack of flexibility of physiological response shown by evoked potential recordings. Tomographic studies of blood flow and metabolism illustrate a lack of correlation between information processing centres in the brain that may sometimes arise from diffuse gray matter atrophy. A "stop-go" form of modulation of central processing is mediated by anomalous ascending serotonergic and dopaminergic function (transmitters with inhibitory and switching functions). On these bases it is no wonder that representations are not formed and inappropriate and repetitive behaviors follow, although the link remains somewhat speculative. Both levels of analysis are useful for an explanation. As behavioral and pharmacotherapy, though helpful, are severely limited in their efficacy, more effort is required to synthesize the different levels of analysis into a psycho-biological approach, to remedial programs and new forms of therapy.