Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Apr;43(4):794-806. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1618-5.
This study used the modality shift experiment, a relatively simple reaction time measure to visual and auditory stimuli, to examine attentional shifting within and across modalities in 33 children and 42 adults with high-functioning autism as compared to matched numbers of age- and ability-matched typical controls. An exaggerated "modality shift effect" relative to the TD children occurred for the children with autism in conditions involving the reaction time when shifting from sound to light but not from light to sound. No exaggerated MSE was found for the adults with autism; rather, their responses were characterized by a generalized slowness relative to the adults with TD. These results suggest a lag in maturational development in autism in basic information processing mechanisms.
本研究采用模态转换实验，一种相对简单的视觉和听觉刺激反应时测量方法，比较了 33 名高功能自闭症儿童和 42 名成年人与年龄和能力相匹配的典型对照组在同一和跨模态之间的注意力转换。与 TD 儿童相比，自闭症儿童在从声音到光的反应时转换条件下出现了相对夸张的“模态转换效应”，而在从光到声音的转换条件下则没有。自闭症成人则没有发现夸张的 MSE；相反，他们的反应特征是相对于 TD 成人普遍较慢。这些结果表明，自闭症在基本信息处理机制方面的成熟发展存在滞后。
