Rabiee Atusa, Vasaghi-Gharamaleki Behnoosh, Samadi Sayyed Ali, Amiri-Shavaki Younes, Alaghband-Rad Javad, Seyedin Saba, Hosseini Soode
Department of Speech and Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Basic Sciences, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2018 Nov 3;32:107. doi: 10.14196/mjiri.32.107. eCollection 2018.
Past studies have documented working memory impairment in participants with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (IQ>70), but inconsistent findings have been reported. One possibility is the existence of verbal responses in the evaluation of working memory performance. The aim of the current study is to examine the working memory performance and its correlation with a prominent deficit in participants with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders by non-verbal working memory tasks compared with typically developing samples. The current study is a cross-sectional, comparative study. The working memory performance of the 30 participants with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (7-16 years) and 30 typically developing was compared by working memory subtests of the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised in Tehran, Iran. Two groups were matched for age and gender. ANOVA, ANCOVA, repeated measures ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data statistically. The significance value was set at p<0.05. The results showed that if the effect of FSIQ (full-scale intelligence quotient) were controlled individuals with highfunctioning Autism Spectrum Disorders exhibited significant impairment in the Reverse Memory subtest (p=0.001). Also, unpredictably Forward Memory (r=0.38, p=0.03) and Reverse Memory tasks (r=0.38, p=0.03) displayed a significant positive correlation with the Social interaction subscale of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (Second Edition). It seems that nonverbal working memory is impaired in persons with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders. Results of the current study revealed that factors like complexity and cognitive load of tasks may influence working memory performance in individuals with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders.
过去的研究记录了高功能自闭症谱系障碍（智商>70）参与者的工作记忆损害，但报告的结果并不一致。一种可能性是在工作记忆表现评估中存在言语反应。本研究的目的是通过非言语工作记忆任务，与典型发育样本相比，检查高功能自闭症谱系障碍参与者的工作记忆表现及其与突出缺陷的相关性。本研究是一项横断面比较研究。在伊朗德黑兰，通过修订版莱特国际操作量表的工作记忆子测试，比较了30名高功能自闭症谱系障碍（7 - 16岁）参与者和30名典型发育者的工作记忆表现。两组在年龄和性别上进行了匹配。使用方差分析、协方差分析、重复测量方差分析和皮尔逊相关系数对数据进行统计分析。显著性值设定为p<0.05。结果表明，如果控制全量表智商（FSIQ）的影响，高功能自闭症谱系障碍个体在逆向记忆子测试中表现出显著损害（p = 0.001）。此外，不可预测的是，正向记忆（r = 0.38，p = 0.03）和逆向记忆任务（r = 0.38，p = 0.03）与吉利姆自闭症评定量表（第二版）的社交互动子量表显示出显著正相关。似乎高功能自闭症谱系障碍患者的非言语工作记忆受损。本研究结果表明，任务的复杂性和认知负荷等因素可能会影响高功能自闭症谱系障碍个体的工作记忆表现。
