This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Preliminary Study

Joel A. Vilensky, PhD; Antonio R. Damasio, MD; Ralph G. Maurer, MD

Arch Neurol. 1981;38(10):646-649.

Abstract
• Kinesiologic analysis of the gaits of 21 autistic, 15 normal, and five hyperactive-aggressive children revealed that the autistic patients had (a) reduced stride lengths, (b) increased stance times, (c) increased hip flexion at "toe-off," and (d) decreased knee extension and ankle dorsiflexion at ground contact. In many respects, the gait differences between the autistic and normal subjects resembled differences between the gaits of parkinsonian patients and of normal adults. These preliminary results are compatible with the view that the autistic syndrome may be associated with specific dysfunction of the motor system affecting, among other structures, the basal ganglia.

Author Affiliations
From the Departments of Neurology (Division of Behavioral Neurology) (Drs Vilensky and Damasio), Anatomy (Dr Vilensky), and Psychiatry (Division of Child Psychiatry) (Dr Maurer), University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Nov 7, 1980.

Reprint requests to Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA 52242 (Dr Damasio).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Decreased connectivity and cerebellar activity in autism during motor task performance
Mostofsky et al.
Brain 2009;132:2413-2425.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Acquisition of internal models of motor tasks in children with autism
Gidley Larson et al.
Brain 2008;131:2894-2903.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Motor Performance and Anatomic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the Basal Ganglia in Autism
Hardan et al.
J Child Neurol 2003;18:317-324.
ABSTRACT  

Movement analysis in infancy may be useful for early diagnosis of autism
Teitelbaum et al.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1998;95:13982-13987.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hypothesis III: Tourette Syndrome Is Only One of Several Causes of a Developmental Basal Ganglia Syndrome
Palumbo et al.
Arch Neurol 1997;54:475-483.
ABSTRACT  

Neurologic Abnormalities in Infantile Autism
Haas et al.
J Child Neurol 1996;11:84-92.
ABSTRACT  

Locomotion of Autistic Adults
Hallett et al.
Arch Neurol 1993;50:1304-1308.
ABSTRACT