New research reveals that children with autism struggle with memory challenges that go beyond remembering faces.
This struggle extends to remembering other types of information as well, and these impairments are represented in unique wiring patterns within the children’s brains.
The research, conducted by Stanford School of Medicine and published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, suggests that we need to broaden our understanding of autism in children and consider new treatments for the developmental disorder.
“Memory is a key predictor of academic success,” said lead author Dr. Jin Liu.
“Many high-functioning kids with autism go to mainstream schools and receive the same instruction as other kids. Memory challenges may put kids with autism at a disadvantage.”
Linking Memory to Social Behaviors
The researchers propose that memory impairments may significantly contribute to social challenges in children with autism.
“Social cognition cannot occur without reliable memory,” said senior author Dr. Vinod Menon. “Social behaviors are complex… Impairments in forming these associative memory traces could form one of the foundational elements in autism.”
Detailed Memory Tests
The study, which included 25 children with high-functioning autism and a control group of 29 typically developing children, tested various memory skills, including remembering faces, written material, and non-social photographs.
They also examined the children’s ability to recognize and recall information after various lengths of delay.
Children with autism showed more difficulty in recalling both social and non-social information. Their scores on immediate and delayed verbal recall, immediate visual recall, and delayed verbal recognition were lower.
Distinct Brain Networks
The study also found distinct brain networks at work in children with autism.
The ability to remember non-social memories was predicted by connections in a network centered on the hippocampus, an area known to regulate memory.
On the other hand, face memory in children with autism was predicted by a separate set of connections centered on the posterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain’s default mode network, which plays roles in social cognition.
“In both networks, the brains of children with autism showed over-connected circuits relative to typically developing children,” said Menon, aligning with other studies that have found over-connectivity in brain networks in children with autism.
The researchers recommend that future autism therapies account for this wider range of memory difficulties and how they affect social skills. This, according to Menon, is crucial for functioning in real-world and academic settings.
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The study was published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
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