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Problem behavior in autism spectrum disorders: A paradigmatic self-organized perspective of network structures

; et al. 
; New York Vol. 42,  (2019).
DOI:10.1017/S0140525X18001188

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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) represent a set of neurodevelopmental lifelong disorders characterized by deficits of social interactions, impairments in communication skills, as well as excessively repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities (American Psychiatric Association 2013; World Health Organization 2010).

In particular, subjects with ASD can present temporary behaviors of acute agitation and aggressiveness. In fact, they can display momentary maladaptive and challenging behaviors as oppositional or disturbing activities as well as more severe behaviors such as self-injuries or aggressions. These multiple agitation forms are often called, for short, problem behaviors (or crisis behaviors ) (Horner 2010; Stark et al. 2015).

The problem behavior has been defined as the “tip of the iceberg” because it seems to be the result of many different underlying variables interplaying in a complex way (Mesibov et al. 2004). Interestingly, in a very recent experimental work (Tonello et al. 2018), ASD problem-behavior dynamics have been shown to fit the self-organized criticality (SOC) model.

The SOC is commonly used to describe natural phenomena and systems such as earthquakes, riverbank failures, and landslides, where a type of “catastrophic event is necessary in order to maintain a “critical equilibrium” (Bak 1997). As a SOC toy model, suppose we drop some grains of sand on a small, round table: Grain upon grain, a sand-pile forms in the shape of a cone. It keeps growing until the table surface is completely covered, and over it, a defined cone shape is reached. At this point, adding new grains won't change the pile shape any more. In fact, adding grain after grain will cause, suddenly and occasionally, landslides on the pile surface so that the target shape is maintained. So, the pile organizes itself (as a definite cone) and maintains its critical equilibrium through “catastrophic events” (i.e., landslides).

According to the...