Les personnes avec syndrome d’Asperger soumise à une hostilité objective développent des états de méfiance généralisée pouvant conduire à des actes hétéro-agressifs. Ceux-ci peuvent être confondus avec des syndromes de persécution entrant dans le cadre d’une personnalité schizoïde ou schizothymique. Ces deux entités posées sur l’axe 2 sont en effet des diagnostics différentiels du syndrome d’Asperger, du fait de leur caractère commun de permanence et de la présence d’atypie de la socialisation. À partir de deux cas cliniques, cet article propose une série de critères cognitifs (profile Wechsler), développementaux (chronologie des actes de violences), discursif (aspect qualitatif du discours rapportant les événements) permettant de faire le diagnostic différentiel d’une situation d’hostilité vis-à-vis de l’entourage. Les conséquences dans le support à apporter à ces personnes sont également exposées.

Individuals with Asperger syndrome may, when exposed to hostility (e.g. bullying at school or at work), develop hostile ideas against their social environment, sometimes leading to aggression. These ideas and acts may be confounded with those arising from a persecutory state in schizoid or schizotypal personality, or even schizophrenia. These entities can be confounded with Asperger syndrome due to their permanent nature, and the presence of atypical social and emotional behaviours. This paper proposes cognitive (Wechsler profile), developmental (course of hostile behaviours), discursive (qualitative features of discourse reporting hostile thoughts), which may contribute to differential diagnosis in the presence of hostile thoughts and behaviours. Consequences for case management are also reported.

Autism is an enduring developmental condition characterized by abnormality in the perceptual, cognitive and emotional domains. This chapter will present the current state of empirically based knowledge on the nature and characterization of working memory in autistic persons. The chapter will first present a clinical overview of autism, as well as the current models of the cognitive features that characterize this condition. After describing major theories of working memory, the performance pattern of autistic persons on different components of working memory will be reviewed. Lastly, the impact that special abilities have on the retention of information over the short-term will be analysed. Overall, the chapter will provide a general perspective on the characterization of working memory in autism and it will present critical views on the conclusions that can be drawn from the present findings.

The efficacy of cognitive training was assessed in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and persons with normal cognitive aging. Forty-seven participants were included in this study: 28 with MCI and 17 controls. Twenty-one participants received intervention (20 MCI and 9 controls) and 16 participants (8 MCI and 8 controls) received no intervention (waiting-list group). The intervention focused on teaching episodic memory strategies. Three tasks of episodic memory (list recall, face-name association, text memory) were used as primary outcome measures. Results were analyzed using analyses of variance. The intervention effect (pre- and post-intervention difference) was significant on two of the primary outcome measures (delayed list recall and face-name association). A significant pre-post-effect was also found on measures of subjective memory and well-being. There was no improvement in the performance of groups of individuals with MCI and normal elderly persons who did not receive the intervention. These results suggest that persons with MCI can improve their performance on episodic memory when provided with cognitive training.

Les outils d'aide a l'habilete sociale constituent, avec l'amenagement du cursus academique et l'explication du diagnostic a la personne, un volet important de la readaptation des personnes verbales avec trouble envahissant du developpement (TED). Ces outils regroupent: a) le surentrainement aux fonctions sociales elementaires, par l'exposition a du materiel social; b) les groupes d'acquisition des habiletes sociales, au cours desquels une situation sociale particuliere est travaillee avec un animateur chez un groupe de personnes TED, a partir de representations filmees de scenes; c) les scenarios sociaux, scripts adaptes a la resolution d'une situation de crise specifique chez un sujet. Cet article fait le point sur ces trois outils et decrit les comportements qu'ils tentent de reeduquer, les deficits cognitifs qui sous-tendent ces comportements, et les forces cognitives sur lesquelles ils s'appuient.