Neurocognitive Mechanisms underlying Episodic Memory Functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

项目摘要 患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的儿童和青少年表现出情景记忆缺陷，即使当 在对一般智力功能的评估中，他们的表现在典型范围内。然而，没有统一的 理论已经能够完全捕捉到这些赤字的本质。大多数当前可用的帐户 强调复杂认知能力的困难表明零碎的知识结构 自我和世界可能不会为患有自闭症的儿童和青少年提供足够的基础 详细的情节记忆。然而，这些记忆困难中的一些可能源于视觉改变 处理事件的基本特征(例如，关于事件位置的信息)。拟议的研究计划 旨在弥合情景记忆和自闭症视觉处理领域之间的差距，这两个领域是 被认为是非典型的。 被提议的应用程序的中心是测试改变了背部视觉处理的假设 处理流负责记录空间信息的情节保持(目标1)，并且 行为后果扩展到时间信息，但不扩展到事件特征(例如，事件颜色 或形状)(目标2)。对这些目标的追求将为功能磁学的培训提供机会 磁共振成像(FMRI)技术，用于发展认知神经科学的实验设计 ASD的研究、非典型神经解剖学、神经功能以及潜在的翻译应用 预期的研究结果。 与心理健康的相关性。青春期是一个认知和社会发生重大变化的时期 重要的是确定自闭症患者在这段时间内的表现，因为一些证据表明 症状加剧，而其他证据表明它们可能会消退。在这方面，确定以下领域 认知功能受损与保留对于识别易损性和 相对强弱对适应功能的影响。

Project Summary Children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show deficits in episodic memory, even when they perform within the typical range in assessments of general intellectual functioning. However, no unifying theory has been able to fully capture the nature of these deficits. Most of the currently available accounts emphasize difficulties with complex cognitive abilities suggesting that fragmentary knowledge structures about the self and the world may not provide sufficient foundation for children and adolescents with ASD to retain detailed episodic memories. However, some of these memory difficulties may stem from altered visual processing of basic features of events (e.g., information about event location). The proposed research plan seeks to bridge the gap between the fields of episodic memory and visual processing in ASD, which are believed to be atypical. The proposed application is centered around testing the hypothesis that altered processing in the dorsal visual processing stream is responsible for documented episodic retention for spatial information (Aim 1) and that the behavioral consequences extend to temporal information, but do not extend to event features (e.g., event color or shape) (Aim 2). The pursuit of these aims will provide the opportunity for training in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) techniques, experimental designs utilized in developmental cognitive neuroscience research, atypical neuroanatomy, neural function in ASD, and potential translational applications of the expected research findings. Relevance for Mental Health. Adolescence is a time of significant cognitive and social change and it is important to establish how those with ASD fare during this period since some evidence suggests that symptoms intensify while other evidence suggests that they may subside. In this context, identifying areas of impaired versus preserved cognitive functioning may be important to recognize aspects of vulnerability and relative strength with implications for adaptive functioning.