Caron M-J, Mottron L, Rainville C, Chouinard S
Clinique Spécialisée des Troubles Envahissants du Développement, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, 7070 Boul. Perras, Montréal (PQ), Canada H1E 1A4.
Neuropsychologia. 2004;42(4):467-81. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.08.015.
This series of experiments was aimed at assessing spatial abilities in high functioning individuals with autism (HFA), using a human-size labyrinth. In the context of recent findings that the performance of individuals with HFA was superior to typically developing individuals in several non-social cognitive operations, it was expected that the HFA group would outperform a typically developing comparison group matched on full-scale IQ. Results showed that individuals with autism performed all spatial tasks at a level at least equivalent to the typically developing comparison group. No differences between groups were found in route and survey tasks. Superior performance for individuals with HFA was found in tasks involving maps, in the form of superior accuracy in graphic cued recall of a path, and shorter learning times in a map learning task. We propose that a superior ability to detect [Human Perception and Performance 27 (3) (2001) 719], match [Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 34 (1993) 1351] and reproduce [Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 40 (5) (1999) 743] simple visual elements yields superior performance in tasks relying on the detection and graphic reproduction of the visual elements composing a map. Enhanced discrimination, detection, and memory for visually simple patterns in autism may account for the superior performance of persons with autism on visuo-spatial tasks that heavily involve pattern recognition, either in the form of recognizing and memorizing landmarks or in detecting the similarity between map and landscape features. At a neuro-anatomical level, these findings suggest an intact dorso-lateral pathway, and enhanced performance in non social tasks relying on the infero-temporal pathway.
这一系列实验旨在使用一个真人大小的迷宫来评估高功能自闭症个体（HFA）的空间能力。鉴于最近的研究发现，HFA个体在一些非社交认知操作中的表现优于正常发育个体，因此预计HFA组的表现会超过在全量表智商上匹配的正常发育对照组。结果显示，自闭症个体在所有空间任务中的表现至少与正常发育对照组相当。在路线和勘察任务中未发现两组之间存在差异。在涉及地图的任务中发现HFA个体表现出色，具体表现为在图形线索回忆路径时具有更高的准确性，以及在地图学习任务中学习时间更短。我们认为，在检测[《人类感知与表现》27(3)(2001)719]、匹配[《儿童心理学与精神病学杂志》34(1993)1351]和再现[《儿童心理学与精神病学杂志》40(5)(1999)743]简单视觉元素方面的卓越能力，会在依赖于对构成地图的视觉元素进行检测和图形再现的任务中产生卓越表现。自闭症患者对视觉上简单模式的辨别、检测和记忆能力增强，可能解释了自闭症患者在严重涉及模式识别的视觉空间任务中表现卓越的原因，无论是以识别和记忆地标形式，还是以检测地图与地形特征之间的相似性形式。在神经解剖学层面，这些发现表明背外侧通路完整，并且在依赖颞下通路的非社交任务中表现增强。
