ACTA MEDICA MEDITERRANEA journal is retracting this paper following on concerns raised by the Journal Owner, Mister Carmelo Pennino, the manager of Carbone Editore company. After an internal investigation that involved all Section Editors, the journal owner detected a suspected misconduct in terms of self-citations activity. The link of the retracted articlehttp://www.actamedicamediterranea.com/archive/2017/medica-1/executive-functioning-in-preschool-children-affected-by-autism-spectrum-disor-der-a-pilot-study/pdf
FRANCESCO PRECENZANO*, MARIA RUBERTO**, LUCIA PARISI***, MARGHERITA SALERNO****, AGATA MALTESE***, CLARA VAGLIANO*
GIOVANNI MESSINA*****, ANNABELLA DI FOLCO***, TERESA DI FILIPPO*, MICHELE ROCCELLA***
*Clinic of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Department of Mental Health and Physical and Preventive Medicine, Second University of Naples, Italy - **Department of Medical-Surgical and Dental Specialties, Second University of Naples, Italy - ***Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, University of Palermo, Italy - ****Sciences for Mother and Child Health Promotion, University of Palermo, Italy - *****Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Physiology and Unit of Dietetics and Sports Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy
*Francesco Precenzano, Maria Ruberto and Lucia Parisi equally contributed to the manuscript
Introduction: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a complex set of neurological dysfunction and development characterized by deficits in social and non-verbal interaction. Few studies have explored the executive functioning in ASD preschoolers. The aim of this pilot study is the assessment of executive functioning in preschool children with ASD.
Material and methods: 8 ASD children (7 males, 1 female) mean age 3.09 (SD ± 0.83 years) were enrolled in the study and compared with a control group of 15 typically developing children (12 males, 3 females) (mean age 24.3 ± 0.61). All subjects underwent assessment of executive functioning with the BRIEF-P test.
Results: The two groups were matched for age (p = 0.625) and gender (p = 0.900). Table 1 shows the comparison between the two groups at the BRIEF-P, with significantly higher scores on all subscales of ASD children compared with controls.
Conclusions: Despite the small sample examined the results of this study agree with what is already known in the literature con- firm the presence of a significant deficit in executive functions of subjects with ASD emphasizing for the first time the emergence of such problems at an early stage of development, but demanding further studies to confirm this.
Autism Spectrum Disorders, Preschool children, BRIEF-P, executive functions.
10.19193/0393-6384_2017_1_005