Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T01:38:02.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Visual memory and sustained attention impairment in youths with autism spectrum disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2015

Y.-L. Chien
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
S. S.-F. Gau*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan Department of Psychology, School of Occupational Therapy, Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, and Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
C.-Y. Shang
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
Y.-N. Chiu
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
W.-C. Tsai
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
Y.-Y Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan
*
*Address for correspondence: S. S.-F. Gau, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, no. 7, Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 10002, Taiwan. (Email: gaushufe@ntu.edu.tw)

Abstract

Background

An uneven neurocognitive profile is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies focusing on the visual memory performance in ASD have shown controversial results. We investigated visual memory and sustained attention in youths with ASD and typically developing (TD) youths.

Method

We recruited 143 pairs of youths with ASD (males 93.7%; mean age 13.1, s.d. 3.5 years) and age- and sex-matched TD youths. The ASD group consisted of 67 youths with autistic disorder (autism) and 76 with Asperger's disorder (AS) based on the DSM-IV criteria. They were assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery involving the visual memory [spatial recognition memory (SRM), delayed matching to sample (DMS), paired associates learning (PAL)] and sustained attention (rapid visual information processing; RVP).

Results

Youths with ASD performed significantly worse than TD youths on most of the tasks; the significance disappeared in the superior intelligence quotient (IQ) subgroup. The response latency on the tasks did not differ between the ASD and TD groups. Age had significant main effects on SRM, DMS, RVP and part of PAL tasks and had an interaction with diagnosis in DMS and RVP performance. There was no significant difference between autism and AS on visual tasks.

Conclusions

Our findings implied that youths with ASD had a wide range of visual memory and sustained attention impairment that was moderated by age and IQ, which supports temporal and frontal lobe dysfunction in ASD. The lack of difference between autism and AS implies that visual memory and sustained attention cannot distinguish these two ASD subtypes, which supports DSM-5 ASD criteria.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ameli, R, Courchesne, E, Lincoln, A, Kaufman, AS, Grillon, C (1988). Visual memory processes in high-functioning individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 18, 601615.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association: Arlington: VA.Google Scholar
Awh, E, Jonides, J (2001). Overlapping mechanisms of attention and spatial working memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 5, 119126.Google Scholar
Awh, E, Jonides, J, Reuter-Lorenz, PA (1998). Rehearsal in spatial working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 24, 780790.Google Scholar
Awh, E, Vogel, EK, Oh, SH (2006). Interactions between attention and working memory. Neuroscience 139, 201208.Google Scholar
Begley, S (2000). Getting inside a teen brain. Hormones aren't the only reason adolescents act crazy. Their gray matter differs from children's and adults’. Newsweek 135, 5859.Google Scholar
Blair, RJ, Frith, U, Smith, N, Abell, F, Cipolotti, L (2002). Fractionation of visual memory: agency detection and its impairment in autism. Neuropsychologia 40, 108118.Google Scholar
Bonilha, L, Cendes, F, Rorden, C, Eckert, M, Dalgalarrondo, P, Li, LM, Steiner, CE (2008). Gray and white matter imbalance – typical structural abnormality underlying classic autism? Brain Development 30, 396401.Google Scholar
Boucher, J, Lewis, V (1992). Unfamiliar face recognition in relatively able autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 33, 843859.Google Scholar
Boucher, J, Warrington, EK (1976). Memory deficits in early infantile autism: some similarities to the amnesic syndrome. British Journal of Psychology 67, 7387.Google Scholar
Castelli, F, Frith, C, Happe, F, Frith, U (2002). Autism, Asperger syndrome and brain mechanisms for the attribution of mental states to animated shapes. Brain 125, 18391849.Google Scholar
Chien, YL, Gau, SS, Chiu, YN, Tsai, WC, Shang, CY, Wu, YY (2014). Impaired sustained attention, focused attention, and vigilance in youths with autistic disorder and Asperger's disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 8, 881889.Google Scholar
Chun, MM (2011). Visual working memory as visual attention sustained internally over time. Neuropsychologia 49, 14071409.Google Scholar
Cowan, N (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, 87114; discussion 114–185.Google Scholar
Cowan, N, Alloway, T (1997). Development of working memory. In The Development of Memory in Childhood (ed. Cowan, N.), pp. 314329. Psychology Press: Hove, UK.Google Scholar
Cowan, N, Elliott, EM, Scott Saults, J, Morey, CC, Mattox, S, Hismjatullina, A, Conway, AR (2005). On the capacity of attention: its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cognitive Psychology 51, 42100.Google Scholar
Cusack, R, Lehmann, M, Veldsman, M, Mitchell, DJ (2009). Encoding strategy and not visual working memory capacity correlates with intelligence. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 16, 641647.Google Scholar
Demidenko, E (2004). Mixed Models: Theory and Applications. John Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Egerhazi, A, Berecz, R, Bartok, E, Degrell, I (2007). Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) in mild cognitive impairment and in Alzheimer's disease. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 31, 746751.Google Scholar
Gau, S-F, Soong, W-T (1999). Psychiatric comorbidity of adolescents with sleep terrors or sleepwalking: a case–control study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 33, 734739.Google Scholar
Gau, SSF, Chong, MY, Chen, THH, Cheng, ATA (2005). A 3-year panel study of mental disorders among adolescents in Taiwan. American Journal of Psychiatry 162, 13441350.Google Scholar
Gau, SS, Liu, LT, Wu, YY, Chiu, YN, Tsai, WC (2013). Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the social responsiveness scale. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 7, 349360.Google Scholar
Gau, SS-F, Huang, W-L (2014). Rapid visual information processing as a cognitive endophenotype of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychological Medicine 44, 435446.Google Scholar
Gau, SS-F, Lee, C-M, Lai, M-C, Chiu, Y-N, Huang, Y-F, Kao, J-D, Wu, Y-Y (2011). Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Social Communication Questionnaire. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 5, 809818.Google Scholar
Giedd, JN (2008). The teen brain: insights from neuroimaging. Journal of Adolescent Health 42, 335343.Google Scholar
Hua, X, Thompson, PM, Leow, AD, Madsen, SK, Caplan, R, Alger, JR, O'Neill, J, Joshi, K, Smalley, SL, Toga, AW, Levitt, JG (2013). Brain growth rate abnormalities visualized in adolescents with autism. Human Brain Mapping 34, 425436.Google Scholar
Kail, RV, Ferrer, E (2007). Processing speed in childhood and adolescence: longitudinal models for examining developmental change. Child Development 78, 17601770.Google Scholar
Ke, X, Hong, S, Tang, T, Zou, B, Li, H, Hang, Y, Zhou, Z, Ruan, Z, Lu, Z, Tao, G, Liu, Y (2008). Voxel-based morphometry study on brain structure in children with high-functioning autism. Neuroreport 19, 921925.Google Scholar
Lin, YJ, Chen, WJ, Gau, SS (2013). Neuropsychological functions among adolescents with persistent, subsyndromal and remitted attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychological Medicine 27, 113.Google Scholar
Littell, RC, Milliken, GA, Stroup, WW, Wolfinger, RD, Schabenberger, O (2006). SAS for Mixed Models, 2nd edn. SAS Institute Inc.: Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Lord, C, Rutter, M, Le Couteur, A (1994). Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised: a revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 24, 659685.Google Scholar
Luna, B, Minshew, NJ, Garver, KE, Lazar, NA, Thulborn, KR, Eddy, WF, Sweeney, JA (2002). Neocortical system abnormalities in autism: an fMRI study of spatial working memory. Neurology 59, 834840.Google Scholar
Lundervold, AJ, Stickert, M, Hysing, M, Sørensen, L, Gillberg, C, Posserud, MB (2012). Attention deficits in children with combined autism and ADHD: a CPT study. Journal of Attention Disorders. Published online 31 August 2012. doi:10.1177/1087054712453168.Google Scholar
Mammarella, IC, Giofre, D, Caviola, S, Cornoldi, C, Hamilton, C (2014). Visuospatial working memory in children with autism: the effect of a semantic global organization. Research in Developmental Disabilities 35, 13491356.Google Scholar
Miller, JN, Ozonoff, S (2000). The external validity of Asperger disorder: lack of evidence from the domain of neuropsychology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 109, 227238.Google Scholar
Minshew, NJ, Goldstein, G (2001). The pattern of intact and impaired memory functions in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 42, 10951101.Google Scholar
Miyake, A, Friedman, NP, Rettinger, DA, Shah, P, Hegarty, M (2001). How are visuospatial working memory, executive functioning, and spatial abilities related? A latent-variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 130, 621640.Google Scholar
Moscovitch, M (1994). Cognitive resources and dual-task interference effects at retrieval in normal people: The role of the frontal lobes and medial temporal cortex. Neuropsychology 8, 524534.Google Scholar
O'Hearn, K, Tanaka, J, Lynn, A, Fedor, J, Minshew, N, Luna, B (2014). Developmental plateau in visual object processing from adolescence to adulthood in autism. Brain and Cognition 90, 124134.Google Scholar
Ozonoff, S, South, M, Miller, JN (2000). DSM-IV-defined Asperger syndrome: cognitive, behavioral and early history differentiation from high-functioning autism. Autism 4, 2946.Google Scholar
Palmer, S (2000). Working memory: a developmental study of phonological recoding. Memory 8, 179193.Google Scholar
Pickering, SJ (2001). The development of visuo-spatial working memory. Memory 9, 423432.Google Scholar
Prior, MR, Chen, CS (1976). Short-term and serial memory in autistic, retarded, and normal children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia 6, 121131.Google Scholar
Robbins, TW, James, M, Owen, AM, Sahakian, BJ, Lawrence, AD, McInnes, L, Rabbitt, PM (1998). A study of performance on tests from the CANTAB battery sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction in a large sample of normal volunteers: implications for theories of executive functioning and cognitive aging. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 4, 474490.Google Scholar
Robbins, TW, James, M, Owen, AM, Sahakian, BJ, McInnes, L, Rabbitt, P (1994). Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB): a factor analytic study of a large sample of normal elderly volunteers. Dementia 5, 266281.Google Scholar
Rojas, DC, Peterson, E, Winterrowd, E, Reite, ML, Rogers, SJ, Tregellas, JR (2006). Regional gray matter volumetric changes in autism associated with social and repetitive behavior symptoms. BMC Psychiatry 6, 56.Google Scholar
Sahakian, B, Jones, G, Levy, R, Gray, J, Warburton, D (1989). The effects of nicotine on attention, information processing, and short-term memory in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type. British Journal of Psychiatry 154, 797800.Google Scholar
Sahakian, BJ, Morris, RG, Evenden, JL, Heald, A, Levy, R, Philpot, M, Robbins, TW (1988). A comparative study of visuospatial memory and learning in Alzheimer-type dementia and Parkinson's disease. Brain 111, 695718.Google Scholar
Sahgal, A (1987). Some limitations of indices derived from signal detection theory: evaluation of an alternative index for measuring bias in memory tasks. Psychopharmacology (Berlin) 91, 517520.Google Scholar
Sahyoun, CP, Soulieres, I, Belliveau, JW, Mottron, L, Mody, M (2009). Cognitive differences in pictorial reasoning between high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 39, 10141023.Google Scholar
Salmanian, M, Tehrani-Doost, M, Ghanbari-Motlagh, M, Shahrivar, Z (2012). Visual memory of meaningless shapes in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Iran Journal of Psychiatry 7, 104108.Google Scholar
Scherf, KS, Luna, B, Kimchi, R, Minshew, N, Behrmann, M (2008). Missing the big picture: impaired development of global shape processing in autism. Autism Research 1, 114129.Google Scholar
Shang, CY, Gau, SS (2011). Visual memory as a potential cognitive endophenotype of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychological Medicine 41, 26032614.Google Scholar
Smyth, MM, Scholey, KA (1994). Interference in immediate spatial memory. Memory and Cognition 22, 113.Google Scholar
Squeglia, LM, Jacobus, J, Sorg, SF, Jernigan, TL, Tapert, SF (2013). Early adolescent cortical thinning is related to better neuropsychological performance. Journal of International Neuropsychological Society 19, 962970.Google Scholar
Stanislaw, H, Todorov, N (1999). Calculation of signal detection theory measures. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers 31, 137149.Google Scholar
Steele, SD, Minshew, NJ, Luna, B, Sweeney, JA (2007). Spatial working memory deficits in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 37, 605612.Google Scholar
Tanner, WP Jr, Swets, JA (1954). A decision-making theory of visual detection. Psychological Review 61, 401409.Google Scholar
Wesnes, K, Warburton, DM (1984). Effects of scopolamine and nicotine on human rapid information processing performance. Psychopharmacology 82, 147150.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Chien supplementary material

Supplementary Tables S1-S5

Download Chien supplementary material(File)
File 160.8 KB