Memory and the self in Autism
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF(Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Celine Souchay
Senior Lecturer in Human Memory
c.souchay@leeds.ac.uk
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.166187
Plan
•
•
•
•
•
1 Presentation
2 Making the diagnosis
3 The psychology of Autism
4 The biology of Autism
5 Intervention, treatment
Presentation
Presentation
Quic kT i me™ and a
T IFF (Unc ompres s ed) dec ompres s or
are needed t o s ee thi s pi c ture.
‘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.’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PtecbvV7Hs4
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q7e4_Of8CbU
Presentation
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD)
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 71-84 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)
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
Quic kTime™ and a
TIFF (Unc ompres sed) dec ompres sor
are needed to see this pic ture.
-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
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Presentation
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ? (ASD)
Autistic savants
0.5 to 10% of
individuals with ASD
show unusual abilities
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickT i me™ and a
T IFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed t o see thi s pi cture.
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
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Increase in reported
cases since 1990s
Asperger (1944). Autistic
personality is an extreme
variant of male intelligence
Boys are at higher risk for autism
than girls. The ASD sex ration
averages 4.3:1
The Psychology of Autism
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
QuickTime™ and a
TIF F ( Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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
Quic kTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see t his pic ture.
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
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 rehidden 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
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Baron-Cohen et al. (1985)
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
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
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Memory in Autism
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 Autism
Only 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