BASIC MEMORY PROCESSES IN AUTISM

自闭症的基本记忆过程

• 批准号: 2249566
• 负责人: GINA GREEN
• 金额: $ 6.12万
• 依托单位: EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER CTR MTL RETARDATN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-09-30 至 1996-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2249566
• 关键词: adolescence (12-20); autism; human subject; learning; memory; mental retardation; middle childhood (6-11); sensory discrimination; visual perception; visual stimulus

This application requests support for a two-year pilot study of memory in children with autism. Microscopic abnormalities have been found in the hippocampal complex, amygdala, and adjacent cortex within the limbic system of individuals with autism. Certain nonverbal learning and memory tasks have been shown to be sensitive to damage to those structures in studies with humans and nonhumans. We propose to use those tasks to evaluate basic learning and memory processes in children with autism whose severe language impairments preclude valid assessment by most traditional methods. The Specific Aims are to compare the performances of a sample of children with autism and those of a contrast group of nonautistic children with mental retardation on the following tasks: (1) Delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) with trial-unique stimuli. A novel stimulus (sample) is presented first on each trial, followed after a brief delay by presentation of that same stimulus with another novel stimulus (comparisons); a response to the comparison that does not match the sample is reinforced. Recognition memory is tested by manipulating the delay between sample removal and comparison presentation. This task is used widely to evaluate memory impairments in nonhumans and humans, and accurate performance at delays of more than 10 seconds appears to depend on an intact cortico-limbic system. (2) Delayed spatial alternation (DSA). This task represents another nonverbal test of memory that is sensitive to hippocampal damage. Subjects learn to alternate responding between two identical stimuli in different left-right positions with a brief delay between trials. Memory is challenged by increasing the delay. (3) Two-choice simple visual discrimination. For this task, two nonidentical stimuli are presented simultaneously on repeated trials. Responses to one stimulus (5+) are always reinforced, while responses to the other stimulus are not reinforced, until the subject responds exclusively to the 5+, Unlike DNMS, acquisition and retention of simple discriminations does not appear to be affected significantly by cortico- limbic damage.

此应用程序请求支持为期两年的内存试点研究 患有自闭症的儿童。在脑组织中发现了显微异常 海马复合体、杏仁核和边缘内邻近的皮质 自闭症患者系统。某些非语言学习和记忆 任务已被证明对这些结构的损坏很敏感 对人类和非人类的研究。我们建议使用这些任务来 评估自闭症儿童的基本学习和记忆过程 严重的语言障碍阻碍了大多数传统语言的有效评估 方法：研究方法。具体目的是比较一个样本的性能 自闭症儿童和非自闭症儿童的对照组 在以下任务中有智力障碍： (1)具有试验唯一刺激的延迟非匹配样本(DNMS)。一个 在每次试验中首先呈现新的刺激(样本)，然后呈现 通过用另一部小说呈现同样的刺激而短暂的延迟 刺激(比较)；对不匹配的比较的反应 样品被加固了。识别记忆测试是通过操作 样品移出和比较展示之间的延迟。这项任务是 广泛用于评估非人类和人类的记忆损伤，以及 在延迟超过10秒时的准确性能似乎取决于 在一个完整的皮质边缘系统上。 (2)延迟空间交替(DSA)。此任务代表另一个任务 对海马体损伤敏感的非语言记忆测试。科目 学会在两个相同的刺激之间交替反应 左右位，审判之间有短暂的延迟。记忆是 通过增加延迟来挑战。 (3)双选择简单视觉辨别。对于这项任务，有两个 不同的刺激在重复试验中同时呈现。 对一种刺激(5+)的反应总是增强的，而对 另一种刺激不会加强，直到受试者做出反应 专为5+，不同于DNM，获取和保留简单 辨别力似乎没有受到皮质醇的显著影响。 边缘损伤。