自閉症社交挑戰、社交腦網絡、以及PEERS®社交技巧訓練

Social Challenges, Social Brain Network in Autism Spectrum Disorder, and the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills®(PEERS®) Social Skills Training

自閉症類群障礙症是常見的神經發展疾患，其核心症狀為社交溝通障礙與刻板重複的行為模式，對人際溝通與日常生活帶來極大的影響。近期研究發現，自閉症的社交溝通障礙，部分面向可能會隨著年齡減輕，尤其是輕症患者。本土追蹤研究亦顯示，社交溝通障礙可能隨著年紀有部分減輕，但情緒覺察能力進步較為有限。社交腦的定義，是指大腦中處理社交訊息，與辨識他人心理狀態的相關腦區。自閉症者在執行和人際互動有關的任務時（例如：臉部情緒辨識測驗、觀點轉換測驗、心智化測驗），其腦部活化形式可能和常人有差異。研究顯示，自閉症者在接受結構化社交技巧訓練後，其社交溝通能力可能有所改善，焦慮與負向情緒減輕，並且增進社交技巧相關知識。

Autism spectrum disorder is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. It is characterized by social communication deficits and repetitive, restricted behaviors, which cause enormous impact on the interpersonal communication and daily life of the individual. Recent studies have suggested that some aspects of social communication deficits may improve with age, particularly the autistic individuals with milder symptom severity. Our longitudinal study of autistic individuals in Taiwan also revealed that some aspects of social communication deficits may improve from late childhood to early adulthood; however, limited improvement was found in social awareness.‘Social brain' indicates the brain regions that process social information or recognize other people's mental status. When performing social tasks such as face emotion recognition, perspective-taking, or mentalizing tasks, autistic individuals may exhibit different activation patterns over these brain regions compared to the non-autistic individuals. After social skills training, autistic individuals may demonstrate improvement in social communication ability, reduction in anxiety and negative emotions, and gain of social skills knowledge.