Abstract
Recognition memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tends to be undiminished compared to that of typically developing (TD) individuals (Bowler et al. 2007), but it is still unknown whether memory in ASD relies on qualitatively similar or different neurophysiology. We sought to explore the neural activity underlying recognition by employing the old/new word repetition event-related potential effect. Behavioural recognition performance was comparable across both groups, and demonstrated superior recognition for low frequency over high frequency words. However, the ASD group showed a parietal rather than anterior onset (300–500 ms), and diminished right frontal old/new effects (800–1500 ms) relative to TD individuals. This study shows that undiminished recognition performance results from a pattern of differing functional neurophysiology in ASD.
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Notes
The old-new effects reported here are unlikely to reflect item differences due to the assignment of word stimuli into ‘Target’ and ‘Lure’ categories, given that the old-new effects in the TD group look very similar to other published studies (Rugg and Doyle 1992; Rugg et al. 1995; Rugg and Curran 2007).
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the individuals who participated in the study. The first author was supported by a research studentship and international exchange scholarship from the Department of Psychology, City University London.
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Massand, E., Bowler, D.M., Mottron, L. et al. ERP Correlates of Recognition Memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 2038–2047 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1755-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1755-x