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Learning and memory functions in Autism Spectrum Disorders| old_uid | 16027 |
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| title | Learning and memory functions in Autism Spectrum Disorders |
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| start_date | 2015/09/18 |
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| schedule | 14h-15h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder that is clinically defined by impairments in social communication behaviours, sensory processing abnormalities and repetitive patterns of interests and behaviour. Approximately half of the ASD population has additional language and/or intellectual impairments and across the autism spectrum, individuals present with a complex cognitive phenotype that includes difficulties in the domain of learning and memory. My talk will provide an overview of the learning and memory literature in ASD and consider what role abnormalities in this domain might play in the development of the disorder. Specifically, I will show that ASD is characterised by relative difficulties in establishing flexible relations amongst elements of experience in memory, whilst their ability to remember the individual elements per se is relatively spared. Thus, whilst individuals with ASD have few difficulties remembering a set of unrelated pictures or words, they have difficulties remembering the order in which the items were presented or the location of the pictures on the screen. Similarly, whilst individuals with ASD have few difficulties remembering facts from the past, such as the name of the primary school they went to, they have difficulties bringing to mind contextually rich memories of the past that involve the self at a particular place and time in ones’ personal history. I will suggest that this pattern may contribute to the delays in language development that characterise approximately half of the ASD population and I will also consider the possibility that memory abnormalities play a role in aspects of the social-cognitive impairments that characterise the disorder. |
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| responsibles | <not specified> |
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