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Development of an Autism Subtyping Questionnaire Based on Social Behaviors

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder can be differentiated into three subtypes (aloof, passive, and active-but-odd) based on social behaviors according to the Wing Subgroups Questionnaire (WSQ). However, the correlations between the scores on some individual items and the total score are poor. In the present study, we translated the WSQ into Chinese, modified it, validated it in autistic and typically-developing Chinese children, and renamed it the Beijing Autism Subtyping Questionnaire (BASQ). Our results demonstrated that the BASQ had improved validity and reliability, and differentiated autistic children into these three subtypes more precisely. We noted that the autistic symptoms tended to be severe in the aloof, moderate in the passive, and mild in the active-but-odd subtypes. The modified questionnaire may facilitate etiological studies and the selection of therapeutic regimes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grant from the University of Ulm–Peking University Health Science Center Joint Center for Neuroscience Fund (BMU20160563) and the grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81601196).

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Author notes

  1. Fan-Chao Meng and Xin-Jie Xu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Fan-Chao Meng, Tian-Jia Song, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ji-Sheng Han & Rong Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, Ministry of Education of China, Peking University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Fan-Chao Meng, Tian-Jia Song, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ji-Sheng Han & Rong Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, National Committee of Health and Family Planning of China, Peking University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Fan-Chao Meng, Tian-Jia Song, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ji-Sheng Han & Rong Zhang

  4. Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Fan-Chao Meng, Tian-Jia Song, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ji-Sheng Han & Rong Zhang

  5. Central Laboratory, Research Center for Translational Medicine, Department of Scientific Research, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, China

    Xin-Jie Xu

  6. Division of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xiao-Li Wang

  7. Wuxi Shenpingxintai Medical Technology Co., Ltd., Wuxi, 214000, China

    Song-Ping Han

Authors
  1. Fan-Chao Meng
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  2. Xin-Jie Xu
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  3. Tian-Jia Song
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  5. Xiao-Li Wang
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  7. Ji-Sheng Han
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  8. Rong Zhang
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Correspondence to Ji-Sheng Han or Rong Zhang.

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Meng, FC., Xu, XJ., Song, TJ. et al. Development of an Autism Subtyping Questionnaire Based on Social Behaviors. Neurosci. Bull. 34, 789–800 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-018-0224-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-018-0224-8

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