Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate whether a physiological measure of impaired use of context could be obtained in people with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). The experimental paradigm employed was the use of electroencephalography to measure the detection of semantic incongruity within written sentences, as indexed by an N400 event-related potential. Whilst the seven controls appropriately demonstrated N400 potentials only to semantically incongruent stimuli, the seven participants with AS inappropriately demonstrated N400 potentials to congruent stimuli. These results are compatible with the possibility that the participants with AS did not use the context within sentences to predict the final word of the sentences.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by a grant from the Shirley Foundation. We are grateful to Prof S Baron-Cohen and Dr U Choudury for allowing us to study patients under their care. We would like to thank all our participants for helping us in this study.
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Ring, H., Sharma, S., Wheelwright, S. et al. An Electrophysiological Investigation of Semantic Incongruity Processing by People with Asperger’s Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 37, 281–290 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0167-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0167-1