A Clinical and Neurobehavioural Review of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's Disorder

N. Rinehart, J.L Bradshaw, A.V. Brereton and B.Tonge, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2002, 36: 762 - 770.

This paper reviews past and contemporary conceptualisations of autism and Asperger's Disorder, together with epidemiological information, genetic and neurobehavioural findings. This paper focuses on neurobehavioural studies, in particular, executive functioning, lateralization, visual-perceptual and motor processing, which have provided an important source of information about the potential neurobiological dissociation that may exist between autism and Asperger's Disorder.

In light of the growing body of epidemiological information, genetic, and neurobehavioural evidence that distinguishes autism from Asperger's Disorder, it is premature to rule out the possibility that these disorders may be clinically, and possibly neurobiologically separate.