Memory and the self in Autism Celine Souchay Senior Lecturer in Human Memory

Reading Autism and Asperger Syndrome. The facts. Simon Baron-Cohen. (2008) Oxford University Press Autism. A very short Introduction. Uta Frith. (2008) Oxford University Press Lind, S. and Bowler, D. (2008) Episodic memory and autonoetic consciousness in autistic spectrum disorders: the roles of self-awareness, representational abilities and temporal cognition. In Memory in Autism, Jill Boucher and Dermot Bowler, Cambridge press, pp

Plan 1 Presentation 2 Making the diagnosis 3 The psychology of Autism 4 The biology of Autism 5 Intervention, treatment

Presentation

‘My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507.’

Six Major subgroups: –Asperger syndrome (IQ above 85 and there was no language delay) –High-Functioning autism (IQ above 85 and there was a language delay) –Low-Functioning autism (IQ is with or without language delay) –Atypical Autism (either atypical late onset or atypical because of having only one rather than two of the core features) –Pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified (not enough features to warrant a clear-cut diagnosis of autism, but individual has more than the usual number of autistic traits) Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD)

The three core features: -Social Difficulties -Communication abnormalities -Repetitive behavior and narrow interests Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD)

Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD) Social Difficulties - Extreme lack of interest in other people -No eye contact or staring for too long -Preferring to be alone -Difficulties anticipating how someone will feel or react. -Difficulties reading other people’s emotional expressions

Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD) Communication abnormalities -Echolalic speech -Literal understanding of speech -Language delay to varying degrees -Using speech inappropriately for the social context

Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD) Repetitive behavior and narrow interests -Hand-flapping -Spinning of the body -Obsessional interest (collecting) -Lining things up -Spinning the wheels of a toy car -Highly repetitive behaviour -Need for sameness

Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD) Autistic savants 0.5 to 10% of individuals with ASD show unusual abilities Stephen Wiltshire. Reproduced the Whole city of Rome from memory

Presentation What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD) Prevalence 1-2 per 1000 for autism 6 per 1000 for ASD 0.3 per 1000 for Asperger Increase in reported cases since 1990s Boys are at higher risk for autism than girls. The ASD sex ration averages 4.3:1 Asperger (1944). Autistic personality is an extreme variant of male intelligence

The Psychology of Autism

Five major Psychological theories: –Executive dysfunction theory –Weak central coherence theory –Mindblindness theory –Empathizing-systemizing theory –Magnocellular theory

The Psychology of Autism Executive dysfunction theory –Executive functions is the ability to control action (creating plans, shifting attention) and is linked to the prefrontal lobe cortex –Autistic people have executive dysfunction due to the fact that develpmentally the frontal lobes have matured in a atypical way. This explains: Repetitive behaviour (inability to plan or shift attention) Narrow interests and obsesssions Autistic people take longer on the Tower of London test

The Psychology of Autism Weak central coherence –Autistic people have problems integrating information to make a coherent, global picture –They focus on the small, local details in a scene –It explains: Their attention to detail, memory for detail Autistic people are faster at finding the figure

The Psychology of Autism The mindblindnes theory –Autistic people are delayed in developing a Theory of mind (ToM) –ToM is the ability to put oneself into someone’s shoes –A delay in developing a ToM leads to degrees of mindblindness. –It explains the social and communication difficulties and explains: Reduced joint attention (such as pointing) Reduced pretend play Lead to difficulties in understanding deception and to more faux-pas

The Psychology of Autism Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) The Sally-Anne False Belief Task The child sits at a table on which there are two dolls (Anne and Sally), each placed facing a lidded container (a basket and a square box). The experimenter names the dolls for the child, and then checks that the child has understood which is which. The experimenter enacts a scenario of hiding a marble in the basket using one doll (Sally) to ‘ hide ’ the marble with the other (Anne) looking on. Sally then ‘ leaves the room ’ and the marble is re- hidden in the box. Sally then returns and the experimenter asks the child three questions. ‘Where will Sally look for her marble?’ (belief question: the correct answer is ‘in the basket’) ‘Where is the marble really?’ (reality question: the correct answer is ‘in the box’) ‘Where was the marble in the beginning?’ (memory question: the correct answer is ‘in the basket’)‘in the bas

The Psychology of Autism The Empathizing-systemizing theory –Delay in Empathy / superior skill in systemizing Empathy: ToM or Mindreading + having appropriate emotional reaction to another person’s feelings Systemizing: Drive to analyse or construct systems. What defines a system is that it follows rules –Numerical systems (train tables) –Natural systems (Weather) –Mechanical system (videorecorder) –Abstract system (music notation)

The Psychology of Autism The Empathizing-systemizing theory –Example of systemizing in autism Letting sand run through one’s fingers Spinning round and round Collecting leaves Obsession with train tables Putting videos on the bookshelf in a strict order –Examples of systemizing in Asperger Wearing the same clothes every day Making lists Solving maths problems Learning the latin names of plants Watching the same movie dozens of times Imitating accents

The biology of Autism

Bruno Bettelheim (1964): Autism is due to purely emotional consequences of insufficient parental affection 2008: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder Mental disorders that are due to genetic causes and present from early childhood are known as neurodevelopmental disordes. They affect the development of the brain and mind.

The biology of Autism What happens to the Brain? Period of brain overgrowth in the first five years of life Differences in brain structures Amygdala (involved in emotion), Hippocampus (involved in memory), cerebellum (attention switching) All smaller in average in adolescents and adults with autism

The biology of Autism What happens to the Brain? Differences in brain function The Social Brain is underactive: Medial prefrontal cortex Amygdala Temporal-parietal junction Superior temporal gyrus Inferior frontal gyrus

Memory in Autism

Memory in adults with Autism (HFA and Asperger) Free recall impaired / Recognition not impaired ( Bowler, Gardiner, Grice, & Saavalainen, 2000; Bowler, Matthews, & Gardiner, 1997; Tager-Flusberg, 1991) Task-support hypothesis (Bowler, 1997) Providing support at test reduces memory difficulties Fewer Remember responses in HFA and Asperger (Bowler, Gardiner, & Gaigg, 2007; Bowler, Gardiner, & Grice, 2000). Lack of Recollection in Autism

Memory and the self in Autism Autobiographical memory in Autism Only one study in children ! (Bruck, London, Landa & Goodman, 2007). Method: questionnaire in which children were asked to provide life facts (e.g. ‘ What is your mother ’ s name? ’ ) and narratives of life events (e.g., ‘ What happened at your last birthday party? ’ ). Results: children with ASD recalled less autobiographical memories. These memories were characterized by a lack of detail. Compared to memories for recent events, memories for early-life events were very poor.

Memory and the self in Autism Autobiographical memory in AutismOnly 3 studies ! Klein et al. (1999). Case study RJ RJ was found to have accurate personal factual knowledge despite having difficulties in recalling personal experiences. Crane and Goddard (2008) Results generated in the fluency tasks showed a dissociation between preserved personal factual knowledge and diminished episodic memories. Goddard et al. (2006) diminished ability for recalling episodic autobiographical memories

Memory and the self in Autism Individuals with ASD show reduced self-reference effect (Hare and al, 2007; Lombardo et al., 2007; Millward et al, 2000 for adults/ Russeld and Jarrold, 1999; Williams and Happe, 2008 for children) The SRE refers to the robust finding that most people are better at retrieving information from memory that was encoded with reference to the self (Rogers, Kuiper and Kirker, 1977) Powell and Jordan (1993) proposed that episodic memory impairments in autism may be attributed to the lack of an ‘ experiencing self ’

Memory in Autism Conclusions 1-Episodic memory deficits in autism due to a diminished autonoetic consciousness 2-Sens of self qualitatively different in Autism. More concrete and factual