AUTHOR=Gambra Leyre , Magallon Sara , Crespo-Eguílaz Nerea 

TITLE=Weak central coherence in neurodevelopmental disorders: a comparative study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1348074

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1348074

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Central coherence is the normal tendency to process and give meaning to incoming information taking into account the context or global view of that information.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We assessed the central coherence of 252 school children of normal intelligence between 6 and 11 years old. We compared the performance of two groups: (a) a control group (<italic>n</italic> = 194), and (b) a clinical group (<italic>n</italic> = 58) comprising children with NVLD+ADHD (<italic>n</italic> = 24), ADHD alone (<italic>n</italic> = 16), SCD (<italic>n</italic> = 8) and level-1ASD (<italic>n</italic> = 10) (Kluskall-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U were calculated to make comparisons within groups and between pairs of groups). The effects of medication were studied (Student’s <italic>t</italic> test).</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The NVLD+ADHD, SCD and ASD1 groups showed weak central coherence. The performance of the ADHD group was normal and differed significantly from the NVLD+ADHD group.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Central coherence deficit was not exclusive to ASD1: it also characterizes NVLD and SCD.</p></sec>