Reversal and nonreversal shifts in autistic children

Reversal and nonreversal shifts in nineteen 2- to 14-year-old autistic children were studied. Each child was taught both a reversal and nonreversal shift discrimination task. The reversal shift condition entailed teaching the child to respond to one (the S+) of a pair of stimuli during training and subsequently reversing the S+ during testing. The nonreversal shift condition consisted of teaching the child two unrelated discriminations during training and testing. The results indicated that the older autistic children did better on reversal shifts than younger children who did better on nonreversal shifts. These findings are consistent with those for normal children.     

Neuropsychological evaluation of neurologically asymptomatic HIV-infected children

Forty-two children born to HIV positive mothers (29 infected at different stages of the disease, according to the Disease Control Classification Centers, and 13 noninfected) underwent evaluation using a battery of neuropsychological tests. Executive function impairments were present in all infected children, whereas memory and visuo-prassic deficits were evident only in those with full-blown AIDS. Language abilities and overall intelligence were spared. Performance of seroreverters was in the normal range. These findings suggest that even in neurologically asymptomatic children, neuropsychological evaluation can identify early impairment of specific cognitive functions. The findings are discussed in the light of the prognostic power of neuropsychological assessment for early signs of HIV neurological involvement.