Exploring Perceptual Learning Abnormalities in High Functioning Children with Autism

项目摘要 患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的个体在一些知觉上表现出学习加速 任务，但在知觉学习和将学习概括到新情况的能力方面存在缺陷。感性的 缺陷可能反映了ASD患者的皮质结构和功能的异常，它们可能 这是(或加剧)定义自闭症的许多社交和沟通缺陷的基础。尤其是， 对面部表情、语音、韵律和手势动作进行感知分类的能力 儿童在发育过程中获得的知识是形成正常语言和社交技能的先决条件。 因此，了解与ASD相关的知觉学习缺陷可能有助于我们更好地理解 并改善沟通和社交障碍。然而，到目前为止，这项研究直接检查了 ASD患者的分类和知觉学习产生了混合的结果，并显示出很强的说服力 个体差异的重要影响的迹象。最近使用连接主义模型进行的模拟 视觉皮质处理和试点数据比较学习有和没有反馈建议了一种方法 解释不同研究和个人的不同发现。具体地说，这些模型和数据表明 基本神经可塑性机制的缺陷(皮质神经连接的经验依赖性改变) 特别是在学习条件下，注意暴露可以解释非典型知觉类别 高功能(HF)儿童和患有ASD的成年人表现出的学习能力。这有两个总体目标 项目。它们旨在为未来的工作奠定坚实的基础，这些工作可以充分发展神经基础 自闭症的认知加工理论，以及帮助儿童学习的翻译训练方案 患有自闭症。第一个是从接触中学习时探索知觉学习，而不是通过 反馈并确定在学习复杂的视觉感知类别时是否发现异常 也延伸到基本知觉辨别的知觉学习和听觉通道。第二 目的是检验刺激的递进典型性排序是否影响其中一种学习或两种学习中的学习 以及所研究的所有水平和方式是否都是如此。将进行四个实验 使用基本知觉学习方法的变体来比较接触学习和直接学习 训练。两个实验将使用视觉刺激和两个听觉刺激。两人将考察家族相似之处 类别学习和第二部分将考察知觉辨别学习。这些实验将测试 以下假设源自过去的模拟和实验：不同于典型的发育儿童，(1) 涉及反馈的训练方案将产生比暴露在HF中的学习更多的学习 (2)高血压性孤独症儿童只会表现出循序渐进的优势。 训练；以及(3)患有ASD的HF儿童在暴露于两者后会表现出知觉学习的异常 知觉类别学习和辨别任务，以及视觉和听觉通道。

Project Summary Individuals suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show accelerated learning in some perceptual tasks, but deficits in perceptual learning and the ability to generalize learning to novel situations. Perceptual deficits likely reflect abnormalities in cortical structure and function in individuals with ASD, and they may underlie (or exacerbate) many of the social and communicative deficits that define ASD. In particular, the abilities to perceptually categorize facial expressions, speech sounds, prosody, and gestural movements that children acquire during development are a prerequisite for normal language and social skills to emerge. Therefore, understanding the perceptual learning deficits associated with ASD may help us better understand and ameliorate communicative and social impairments. However, the research so far directly examining categorization and perceptual learning in ASD individuals has produced mixed findings and shows strong indications of important effects of individual differences. Recent simulations with connectionist models of visual cortical processing and pilot data comparing learning with and without feedback suggest a way to explain the diverse findings across studies and individuals. Specifically, these models and data suggest that deficits in basic neural plasticity mechanisms (experience dependent changes in cortical neural connections) particularly under conditions of learning from attentive exposure can account for atypical perceptual category learning shown by high functioning (HF) children and adults with ASD. There are two general aims of this project. They are designed to lay a solid foundation for future work that could fully develop neurally-grounded cognitive processing theories of ASD, and translational training protocols to help facilitate learning by children with ASD. The first is to explore perceptual learning when learning from exposure versus learning with feedback and to determine whether abnormalities found when learning complex visual perceptual categories also extend to perceptual learning of basic perceptual discriminations and to the auditory modality. The second aim is to examine whether progressive typicality ordering of stimuli affects learning in either or both learning conditions and whether that is true for all levels and modalities studied. Four experiments will be conducted using variants of a basic perceptual learning methodology comparing learning from exposure versus with direct training. Two experiments will use visual stimuli and two auditory. Two will look at family resemblance category learning and two will examine perceptual discrimination learning. These experiments will test the following hypotheses derived from past simulations and experiments: unlike typically developing children, (1) training regimens involving feedback will produce much greater learning than learning from exposure in HF children with ASD; (2) HF children with ASD will show an advantage of progressive ordering only with direct training; and (3) HF children with ASD will show abnormalities in perceptual learning from exposure in both perceptual category learning and discrimination tasks and in both the visual and auditory modalities.