Kody Myers, Utah State University
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Reaction time (RT) represents the amount of time it takes to process a stimulus and program an appropriate response. An increase in the complexity of a response can yield an increase in RT indicating the need for greater preparation (Christina and Rose, 1985). Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) typically exhibit impairments in motor control such as opening the hand in advance of a grasp (Fabbri-Destro et al., 2009; Schmitz et al., 2003). These deficits may arise from impairment in the sequencing aspects of motor acts (Cattaneo et al., 2007). Impairment in action preparation may be reflected in increased RT when compared to typically developing (TD) children. Five children with ASD and three TD children were tested on a joint-action motor planning task that required them to reach for, lift and hand an object to a researcher. Some trials required the subject to manipulate the object in order to aid the researcher. RT was measured from the start of the command word used to the lifting of digits #2-4. We hypothesized that RT would be longer for the trials that required manipulation of the object and when ASD trials were compared to the controls. RT was longer for the ASD subjects compared to the controls. However, in the trials that required manipulation versus those that did not, the RT was smaller for the control group but similar for the ASD group. In addition, for tasks where the object needed to be used, the hammer object elicited a quicker reaction time than the stick for both control subjects and those with ASD suggesting that motor planning issues in ASD (Eigsti, 2013; Fabbri-Destro et al., 2009) might be facilitated by using tools with inherent action properties (e.g., the handle of the hammer facilitates grasping).