Researchers have been aware that memory deficits or impairments can make it challenging for autistic children to socialize and engage with their peers effectively. But the exact nature of how memory deficits could manifest among autistic children was poorly understood, until now. In a recent study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, a team of California-based researchers found that autistic children tend to face difficulties in remembering people’s faces and certain types of information.
“Social cognition cannot occur without reliable memory,” senior author Vinod Menon, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine said in a press release.
“Social behaviors are complex, and they involve multiple brain processes, including associating faces and voices to particular contexts, which require robust episodic memory,” Menon added. “Impairments in forming these associative memory traces could form one of the foundational elements in autism.”
To better understand memory function in autistic children, the team conducted episodic memory assessments in 25 children who were diagnosed with high-functioning autism. The children were between 8 to 12 years old. All of them had normal IQ levels. In the control group, the researchers included 29 neurotypical children (those who are not on the spectrum or diagnosed with other neurological conditions).
Each participant underwent a thorough evaluation of their memory skills and abilities. That included whether they were able to remember different people’s faces, written material, and photographs that did not include individuals. The evaluations also included testing their general memory functions. The team then asked the children to identify the images or words they were introduced to. The children were also encouraged to provide details of the information they had seen and read previously. During these tests, all participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of their brains. That enabled the scientists to study which regions of the brain played a role in memory functions.
While the neurotypical children displayed consistent memory skills during the tests, the autistic children found it difficult to recall non-social information. “The study participants with autism had fairly high IQ, comparable to typically developing participants, but we still observed very obvious general memory impairments in this group,” lead author Jin Liu from Standford University School of Medicine said in a press release. She further added that the research team was surprised to observe such significant differences between autistic children and their neurotypical counterparts. ““Among children with autism, some kids seem to have both impairments and some have more severe impairment in one area of memory or the other,” Liu added.
The brain scans of the autistic children revealed that “ general and face memory deficits were associated with distinct, hyperconnected circuits,” Liu and colleagues observed in their paper.
“Social cognition cannot occur without reliable memory. Social behaviors are complex, and they involve multiple brain processes, including associating faces and voices to particular contexts, which require robust episodic memory,” Menon further explained in an official statement released by Stanford University School of Medicine. “Impairments in forming these associative memory traces could form one of the foundational elements in autism.”
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