New Clinical Studies Indicate Memory Impairments in Children with Autism
Over the past several years, autism has become a topic of interest with the disorder being on the increase. We have seen more cases of the neurological ailment as of late than ever before, with the condition effecting more than 1 and 36 individuals, accounting for around roughly three percent of the general populace. At one point, it was so noticeable that it was said that there was an autism epidemic, and the disorder found itself emerging in popular culture, with movies such as, The Accountant, and The Power Rangers movies displaying on the screen characters that were on the autistic spectrum.
Autism has long been — almost stereotypically — known for its difficulties in social interaction as well as its defining characteristic of rigid and repetitious behaviors. Think of the T.V sensational sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, with Sheldon Cooper needing to knock on a door obsessively three times before entering, with the fictional character ostensibly being based on an individual with high functioning autism, or what was previously known as Asperger’s, before it was lumped under the broader umbrella of the autistic spectrum for what could have been for lack of better terms the politics of psychology. The new research that has been in circulation over the last year indicates a news issue of concern for those living on the spectrum; an underlying issue that may be the reason behind half of these symptoms. What the new insights reveal out of these studies is that autism impairs memory in those living on the autistic spectrum.
These new findings were presented on July 10th, 2023, in, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. The didactic information that was found in the scholarly journal came out of Stanford. In the study, researchers conducted a clinical trial that consisted of a comprehensive memory evaluation that was performed on more than twenty individuals with high functioning autism, and another control group of twenty normally developing individuals that were not on the spectrum, the ages of those tested being between 8–16 years of age. During the comprehensive evaluation that was conducted at Stanford, the memory test assessed the participants ability to memorize faces, written material, non-social photographs which are photographs that do not contain any people within them. What the test was specifically targeting was that of whether participants could accurately recall the information presented to them after different intervals of time, both immediate and delayed. That is, if they could remember whether they had seen an image or heard a word, and readily describe the details about it.
Research in years past has shown that individuals with autism have difficulties in the area of facial recognition. Those studies also shed light on the fact that they may have challenges in broader memory recall, however those findings were unreliable for numerous reasons. One of the more trying aspects of working in any capacity with autistic individuals is that the condition resides on such a broad spectrum. To put it into perspective, there are those on the spectrum that have great tribulations when it comes self-care, and that are perhaps non-verbal, whereas on the other hand there are those with higher IQs and that are higher functioning, carrying out jobs, and even finding academic success. Thus, the challenge has been to find an adequate test that accounts for this tricky aspect of the disorder.
New though that these findings are, they are consistent with tests that was conducted almost twenty years ago. In 2006, a scholarly article was published out of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Veteran Affairs, entitled, The Profile of Memory Function in Children with Autism. The abstract of that article highlighted to clinical tests that were conducted at that time to test memory abilities in children with autism. The research at that time was carried out by Diane L. Williams, Gerald Goldstein, and Nancy J. Minshew. Within the framework of their clinical study, they worked with a control group of 36 high functioning autistics in addition to a group of 36 typically developing youths around the same age as the previous group. Both groups were administered a memory test, and the results showed that children with autism demonstrated poor memorization for both complex visual data, as well as that of verbal information and spatial recognition. It is interesting to note the consistencies between the two studies, as the abstract goes on to emphasize the challenge it is to find consistencies in autistic research due to the many variables that can be found throughout the entirety of the autistic population. They also stressed the fact that the issue of memory has been a topic of interest in the autistic community for decades. Their abstract as well as their insights can be found in the January 2006 edition of, Neuropsychology.
Be that as it may, the new researched performed out of the Stanford School of Medicine has yielded some fresh discoveries. For Jin Liu, the postdoctoral scholar showed a compassionate vantage point that seemed more concerned with the day-to-day challenges that this poses for autistic youths as she is quoted in the Stanford Medicine article, Children with autism have broad memory difficulties, Stanford Medicine-led study finds, saying, “High functioning autistics go to our mainstream schools, receiving the same education and instructions as their peers. Not only that, but memorization plays a vital role in academic success, and these challenges may put them at a disadvantage.” On the other hand, Professor Vinod Menon was apt to highlight the underlying issues present as he was noted saying, “Social cognition cannot occur without reliable memory. Their findings show that autism in children not only presents its problems in their ability to memorize faces, but that it also impedes on their capacity to recall other information. Not only that, but their assessment also showed that behind these challenges that there were various distinct brain networks at play that were driving these memory complications.
Consistent with previous research in the field, it has been accepted that children with autism have their tribulations in facial recognition, more so than normally developing students, which was what this study also found to be true. What they found additionally was surprising to the researchers involved. Their tests showed that immediate visual and delayed verbal recognition were lower, reiterating that autism also effected memory in areas of non-social information. Conversely, the children that did not have autism had results that were consistent across the board. The children that had good memory with faces also had a greater ability for memorizing information that was non-social. This was unexpected to Liu. According to the postdoctoral scholar, We suspected that any behavioral discrepancies might be weak due to the fact that our study participants with autism had higher IQs… However, we still. Found very noticeable general memory impairments in this group.” She then went on to comment on the finding as she noted, “Amongst the children that had autism, what we found was that some of the kids seemed to have both impairments, while others had some severe impairment in one area of memory compared to the other. Menon also went on to talk to this unexpected discovery as he was quoted saying,” We found it surprising that these two dimensions of memory are both dysfunctional, in ways that seem unrelated.”
Another aspect of the clinical test conducted at Stanford School of Medicine was found in a brain scan for the children with autism. Upon scrutinizing these brain scans, both Liu and Menon found there were distinct brain networks that were responsible for the different types of memory difficulty. More specifically, the capacity to bring up information of non-social information were found to belong to networks in the brain belonging to the hippocampus. In addition to that, the brain scan showed that facial recognition in children with autism was found to be predicted by an area of the brain centered and connected on the posterior cingulate cortex. Following the brain scans, Professor Menon also spoke to this point, as he remarked, “What the findings indicate is that general and face-memory challenges have two underlying sources in the b rain which contribute to a broader profile of memory impairments in autism.” Another surprising discovery that was related to this matter was found in the way that these distinct brain networks showed over-connected circuity.
With everything unearthed by this new bit of research, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. As noted, before, one of the many reasons to this has to do with the many faces of autism. If you have met one person with autism, then you have met one person with autism. Which is just another way of observing how the disorder presents itself differently in each individual case. It would be interesting to find whether or not these impediments in memory are behind the poor social interactions or repetitious behaviors, but perhaps that is a topic for later research.
Writting and Research: Aaron M. Weis