Autism Research Group, Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Rhind Building, City, University of London, London, EC1V 0HB, UK.
Wayfinding Lab, Psychology Research Centre, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK.
Autism Res. 2018 May;11(5):798-810. doi: 10.1002/aur.1924. Epub 2018 Feb 5.
To resolve some of the inconsistencies in existing research into spatial navigation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we tested two large age- and ability-matched groups of ASD and typically developing (TD) participants for their spatial navigation abilities in a route learning task, which has been shown to shed light on the strategies participants employ when navigating complex environments. Participants studied a route through a virtual maze by watching a short video of a first-person perspective navigating a maze. The maze included four four-way intersections that were each marked with two unique landmarks in two corners of the intersection. At test, static images of the intersections, either as seen during the video or as approached from a different direction, were presented and participants had to indicate in which direction they would need to travel (straight, left, or right) in order to follow the originally studied route. On both types of test trials, the ASD group performed worse and their difficulties were related to reduced cognitive flexibility. Eye-movement data and follow-up item-memory tests suggested that navigation difficulties may have been related to differences in attention during encoding and less spontaneous use of landmarks as cues for navigation. Spatial navigation performance was best predicted by memory for landmarks as well as by executive functions. The results are discussed in relation to theories of underlying navigation-related brain regions. More research is needed to disentangle the influence of executive functions, memory and attention on spatial navigation. Autism Res 2018, 11: 798-810. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Navigating an environment is difficult for people with ASD independent of whether they are travelling in the same or in a different direction from that which they originally studied. The present study suggests that flexibility in alternating travel directions, difficulties in remembering landmarks as well as reduced attention to landmarks while learning a route play a role in the navigation difficulties in ASD. Guidance at route learning might help autistic individuals to improve their ability to navigate in their environments.
为了解决自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中空间导航研究中的一些不一致之处，我们在路线学习任务中测试了两个年龄和能力匹配的 ASD 和典型发育（TD）参与者群体的空间导航能力，该任务已被证明可以揭示参与者在导航复杂环境时所采用的策略。参与者通过观看第一人称视角穿越迷宫的短视频来学习路线。该迷宫包括四个四路交叉口，每个交叉口的四个角落都有两个独特的地标。在测试中，呈现交叉口的静态图像，要么是在视频中看到的，要么是从不同方向接近的，参与者必须指出他们需要朝哪个方向行驶（直走、左转或右转）才能沿着最初学习的路线前进。在这两种类型的测试试验中，ASD 组的表现都较差，他们的困难与认知灵活性降低有关。眼动数据和后续的项目记忆测试表明，导航困难可能与编码过程中的注意力差异以及地标作为导航线索的自发性使用较少有关。空间导航表现最好通过地标记忆以及执行功能来预测。研究结果与潜在导航相关大脑区域的理论有关。需要更多的研究来理清执行功能、记忆和注意力对空间导航的影响。自闭症研究 2018，11：798-810。 © 2018 自闭症国际研究协会，威利期刊，公司。
对于 ASD 患者来说，无论他们是沿着与最初学习时相同的方向还是不同的方向行驶，在环境中导航都是困难的。本研究表明，在交替行驶方向时的灵活性、记忆地标时的困难以及在学习路线时对地标注意力的降低在 ASD 中的导航困难中起作用。在路线学习时提供指导可能有助于自闭症个体提高他们在环境中导航的能力。
