COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN PEOPLE WITH AND WITHOUT AUTISM

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 自闭症是一种常见的发育障碍，严重损害认知，情感和社会功能。 正常的认知功能需要适当的注意力调节，以服务于目标导向行为。 为了描述自闭症患者的注意力调节是如何被破坏的，重要的是要描述健康受试者的发展过程。注意调节的操作包括选择、吸引和维持对任务相关刺激的注意，随着任务需求的变化而分离和转移注意，以及抑制或抑制对任务无关刺激的注意。健康成年人注意力机制的行为研究已经通过指定参与这些机制的实验范例来确定注意力调节的功能结构（Bunge等人，2002;凯西等人，1997; Luna等人，2001; Vaidya等人，1998年）。 基于这些发现，有可能系统地检查哪些注意力机制可能是完整的，哪些注意力机制可能在自闭症中受损。 通过将这些发现与受试者在各种标准化认知测试中的表现模式联系起来，测量感知、语言和记忆能力（例如，智商测试，如韦氏儿童和成人量表），有可能确定什么类型的注意力缺陷是自闭症中发现的认知缺陷的预测。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Autism is a common developmental disorder that significantly impairs cognitive, emotional, and social functioning. Normal cognitive functioning requires appropriate regulation of attention in the service of goal directed behavior. In order to characterize how attention regulation breaks down in Autism, it is important to characterize its developmental course in healthy subjects. Operations of attention regulation include selecting, engaging, and sustaining attention to task-relevant stimuli, disengaging and shifting attention as task demands change, and inhibiting or suppressing attention to task-irrelevant stimuli. Behavioral studies of attentional mechanisms in healthy adults have identified the functional architecture of attention regulation by specifying experimental paradigms that engage these mechanisms (Bunge et al., 2002; Casey et al., 1997; Luna et al., 2001; Vaidya et al., 1998). Based on these findings, it is possible to systematically examine which attentional mechanisms may be intact and which may be impaired in Autism. By linking these findings to subjects' patterns of performance on a variety of standardized cognitive tests, measuring perceptual, language and memory abilities (e.g., IQ tests such as the Wechsler Scales for Children and Adults), it is possible to determine what types of attentional deficits are predictive of cognitive deficits found in Autism.