19 Duffield T.C.

Trontel H.G.

Bigler E.D.

Froehlich A.

Prigge M.B.

Travers B.

Green R.R.

Cariello A.N.

Cooperrider J.

Nielsen J.

et al. Neuropsychological investigation of motor impairments in autism.

The child was comfortably seated in front of a computer monitor viewing a cartoon and fitted with a custom-designed double-barreled pediatric nasal cannula that both delivered odors from a computer-controlled air-dilution olfactometer and measured the nasal airflow of the sniff response ( Figure 1 ). The 10-min procedure consisted of 20 trials (10 for each valence), each 1–2 s in duration, separated by a 30-s intertrial interval. We used two pairs of odorants, one mono-molecular (pleasant phenyl-ethyl alcohol [PEA], undiluted, CAS 60-12-8, Sigma-Aldrich and unpleasant butyric acid, diluted at 30% in odorless propane-1,2-diol, CAS 107-92-6, Sigma-Aldrich) and one of complex mixtures (pleasant herbal essence and unpleasant rotten fish, both from Senseale, Ramat Gan, Israel). Both pairs of odorants were presented at similar subjective intensity as rated by adult raters. The same result materialized for both odor pairs. To obtain explicit odor ratings, children sniffed the odors from jars and rated their pleasantness using a six-point VAS where each point was also denoted by a “smiley,” ranging from a happy face associated with pleasant to a sad face associated with unpleasant. To assess general motor performance in ASD, we conducted three tasks: an FTT, SOG, and MPT []. The FTT consisted of using the index finger to tap on a board-mounted manual counter as many times as possible within 10 s. The task was repeated twice with each hand; the totals from all trials were averaged for both hands combined. If the two trials were not within ±5 points, a third trial was completed, and the average of three trials was used. The SOG was measured using a hand dynamometer (NeuLog, SES Scientific Educational Systems) that the subjects held in the palm of their hand and squeezed as tightly as possible. Strength (in kilograms) was recorded in three trials for each hand and averaged. The total SOG score was computed by combining the means of both hands. In the MPT, the participant was required to insert pegs in a grooved board in a specific directionality as quickly as possible using the dominant and non-dominant hand separately. The modification was in the number of pegs used (18 instead of 25) and type of pegs (two-colored wooden pegs). The score was the time required to place all 18 pegs into the holes (timing was not interrupted in the event of a dropped peg). The total MPT score was computed by combining the completion time in both hands.