Another confusion about ASD and crime.

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The study doesn’t explain whether high-functioning adults with autism truly understand false beliefs over time, or whether they merely learn to solve the tasks, Bernier notes. But it does suggest that in the case of the moral scenarios, their ability to reason is not just delayed, but absent entirely. “If these are delays, they are persistent delays that last well into adulthood for people with typical cognitive ability,” he says.

[b]Frith says she is delighted that these researchers have come up with a strategy that validates the theory she helped develop 25 years ago.[/b] “It does make sense of the social behavior,” she says, “and it can be linked up to certain abnormal activations in the brain.”

Impaired moral judgment is associated with distinct neural systems, including the right temporal parietal junction4. Gabrieli says his group is working on an imaging study focusing on which brain regions are active in these individuals while they are engaged in moral reasoning.

They’d better work quickly: Frith predicts that the utility of the new test may be limited. “I have no doubt that the Asperger’s community will get hold of the test, study it, and learn the scenarios,” she says.