Bogte Hans, Flamma Bert, van der Meere Jaap, van Engeland Herman
Adhesie, GGz (Mental Health Care) Midden-Overijssel, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Deventer, the Netherlands.
Neuropsychologia. 2007 Apr 9;45(8):1707-14. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.12.020. Epub 2007 Jan 13.
Deficits in executive function (EF), i.e. function of the prefrontal cortex, may be central in the etiology of autism. One of the various aspects of EF is error detection and adjusting behavior after an error. In cognitive tests, adults normally slow down their responding on the next trial after making an error, a compensatory mechanism geared toward improving performance on subsequent trials, and a faculty critically associated with activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The current study evaluated post-error slowing in people with high functioning autism (HFA) (n=36), taking symptom severity into account, compared to the performance of a normal control group (n=32). Symptom severity in the HFA group was defined in terms of level of adaptation: living independently (outpatients; n=12) and living residentially (inpatients; n=24). Half the group of inpatients was on medication; the results of their performance were analyzed separately. A computerized version of a memory search task was used with two response probability conditions. The subjects in the control group adjusted their reaction time (RT) substantially after an error, while the group of participants with HFA appeared to be overall slow, with no significant adjustment of RT after an error. This finding remained significant if the medication factor was taken into account, and was independent of the degree of severity of the autistic disorder, as defined by the dichotomy 'inpatient versus outpatient'. Possible causes and implications of the finding are discussed.
执行功能（即前额叶皮质的功能）缺陷可能是自闭症病因的核心。执行功能的诸多方面之一是错误检测以及在犯错后调整行为。在认知测试中，成年人在犯错后的下一次试验中通常会放慢反应速度，这是一种旨在提高后续试验表现的补偿机制，并且该能力与前扣带回皮质（ACC）的活动密切相关。本研究评估了高功能自闭症（HFA）患者（n = 36）在考虑症状严重程度的情况下犯错后的反应减慢情况，并与正常对照组（n = 32）的表现进行了比较。HFA组的症状严重程度根据适应水平定义：独立生活（门诊患者；n = 12）和住院生活（住院患者；n = 24）。住院患者组中有一半在服药；对他们的表现结果进行了单独分析。使用了一个计算机化的记忆搜索任务版本，有两种反应概率条件。对照组的受试者在犯错后大幅调整了他们的反应时间（RT），而HFA参与者组总体上似乎反应较慢，犯错后RT没有显著调整。如果考虑药物因素，这一发现仍然显著，并且与由“住院患者与门诊患者”二分法定义的自闭症障碍严重程度无关。讨论了该发现的可能原因及影响。
