Sallie Bernard* Albert Enayati, B. S., Ch. E., M. S. M. E. Heidi Roger
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Table V: Summary of Motor Disorder Behaviorsin Mercury Poisoning & Autism
e. Cognition/Mental Function Nearly all autistic individuals show impairment in some aspects of mental function, even as other cognitive abilities remain intact. Most individuals may test in the retarded range, while others have normal to above average IQs. These characteristics are true in mercurialism. Moreover, the specific areas of impairment are similar in the two disorders. The impaired areas in autism are generally in (a) short term or working memory and auditory and verbal memory; (b) concentration and attention, particularly attention shifting; (c) visual motor and perceptual motor skills, including eye-hand coordination; (d) language/verbal expression and comprehension; and (e) using visually presented information when constraints are placed on processing time. Relatively unimpaired areas include rote memory skills, pattern recognition, matching, perceptual organization, and stimuli discrimination. Higher level mental skills requiring complex processing are typically deficient; these include (a) processing and filtering of multiple stimuli; (b) following multiple step commands; (c) sequencing, planning and organizing; and (d) abstract/conceptual thinking and symbolic understanding (Rumsey & Hamburger, 1988; Plioplys, 1989; Bailey et al, 1996; Filipek et al, 1999; Rumsey, 1985; Dawson, 1996; Schuler, 1995; Grandin, 1995; Sigman et al, 1987). Younger or more mentally impaired children may have difficulties with symbolic play and understanding object permanence or the mental state of others (Bailey et al, 1996). Some autistic children are hyperlexic, showing superior decoding skills while lacking comprehension of the words being read (Prizant, 1996). As mentioned before, for most autistic individuals verbal IQ is lower than performance IQ. As in autism, Hg exposure causes some level of impairment primarily in (a) short term memory and auditory and verbal memory; (b) concentration and attention, including response inhibition; (c) visual motor and perceptual motor skills, including eye-hand coordination; (d) language/verbal expression and comprehension; and (e) simple reaction time. Hg-affected individuals may present as “forgetful” or “confused.” Performance IQ may be higher than verbal IQ. “Degeneration of higher mental powers” has resulted in (a) difficulty carrying out complex commands; (b) impairment in abstract and symbolic thinking; and (c) deficits in constructional skills and conceptual abstraction. One study mentions alexia, the inability to comprehend the meaning of words, although reading of the words is intact (Yeates & Mortensen, 1994; O’Carroll et al, 1995; Pierce et al, 1972; Snyder, 1972; Adams et al, 1983; Kark et al, 1971; Amin-Zaki, 1974 and 1979; Davis et al, 1994; Grandjean et al, 1997 & 1998; Myers & Davidson, 1998; Gilbert & Grant-Webster 1995; Dales, 1972; Fagala and Wigg, 1992; Farnesworth, 1997; Tuthill, 1899; Joselow et al, 1972; Rice, 1997; Piikivi et al, 1984; Vroom and Greer, 1972). Even children exposed prenatally to “safe” levels of methylmercury show lower scores on selective subtests of cognition, especially in the domains of memory and attention, relative to unexposed controls (Grandjean et al, 1998). In exposed juvenile monkeys, tests have revealed delays in the development of object permanence, or the ability to conceptualize the existence of a hidden object (Rice, 1996). Research on mental retardation in autism is contradictory (Schuler, 1995). The finding that “mental retardation or borderline intelligence often co-exists with autism” (Filipek et al, 1999) is based on using standard measures of intelligence (Gillberg & Coleman, 1992, p.32; Bryson, 1996); other intelligence tests, designed to circumvent the language and attentional deficits of autistic children, show significantly higher intelligence test scores (Koegel et al, 1997; Russell et al, 1999). One study using such a modified rating instrument has found 20% of autistic children to be mentally retarded (Edelson et al, 1998), rather than the 70%-80% so scored on standard tests. ASD individuals also show “strikingly uneven scores” on IQ subtests, “unlike other disorders involving mental retardation, in which subtest scores seem to be more or less even” (Bailey et al, 1996). Also unlike typical cases of mental retardation, which is nearly always noted in the peri- or neonatal periods, most parents of ASD children report infants of seemingly normal appearance and development who were later characterized as mentally retarded on tests. For example, one study compared early developmental aberrations in mentally retarded children with and without autism. Findings indicated that, whereas nearly all parents of the non-autistic mentally retarded study group were aware of their child’s impairment by age 3 months, nearly all parents of the autistic children failed to notice any developmental delays or issues until after 12 months of age (Baranek, 1999). Finally, there are several case reports of autistic adults who were labeled mentally retarded as children based on tests, who later “emerged” from their autism and had normal IQs (ARI Newsletter, 1993, review). As in autism, symptomatic mercury-poisoned victims can present with normal IQs, borderline intelligence, or mental retardation; some may be so impaired as to be untestable (Vroom and Greer, 1972; Davis et al, 1994). When lowered intelligence is found, it is always reported as an obvious deterioration among previously normally functioning people; this includes children exposed as infants or toddlers (Dale, 1972; Vroom and Greer, 1972; Amin-Zaki, 1978). Once the Hg-exposure source is removed, many (although not all) of these patients “recover” their normal IQ, suggesting that “real” IQ was not affected (Vroom and Greer, 1972; Davis et al, 1994). Infant monkeys given low doses of Hg, while clearly impaired in visual, auditory, and sensory functions, had intact central processing speed, which has been shown to correlate with IQ in humans (Rice, 1997). |
