College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences, Institute of Mental Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
College of Science and Engineering, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2019 Apr 30;14(4):e0216198. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216198. eCollection 2019.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders. It is not clear whether working memory (WM) deficits are commonly experienced by individuals with ASD.
To determine whether individuals with ASD experience significant impairments in WM and whether there are specific domains of working memory that are impaired.
We conducted a meta-analysis using four electronic databases EMBASE (OVID), MEDLINE (OVID), PsychINFO (EBSCOHOST), and Web of Science, to examine the literature to investigate whether people with ASD experience impairments related to WM. Meta-analyses were conducted separately for phonological and visuospatial domains of WM. Subgroup analyses investigated age and intelligence quotient as potential moderators.
A total of 29 papers containing 34 studies measuring phonological and visuospatial domains of WM met the inclusion criteria. WM scores were significantly lower for individuals with ASD compared to typically developed (TD) controls, in both the visuospatial domain when investigating accuracy (d: -0.73, 95% CI -1.04 to -0.42, p < 0.05) and error rates (d: 0.56, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.88, p<0.05), and the phonological domain when investigating accuracy (d:-0.67, 95% CI -1.10 to -0.24, p>0.05) and error rate (d: 1.45, 95% CI -0.07 to 2.96, p = 0.06). Age and IQ did not explain the differences in WM in ASD.
The findings of this meta-analysis indicate that across the lifespan, individuals with ASD demonstrate large impairments in WM across both phonological and visuospatial WM domains when compared to healthy individuals.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种终身神经发育障碍。目前尚不清楚 ASD 患者是否普遍存在工作记忆（WM）缺陷。
确定 ASD 患者是否存在 WM 显著损伤，以及是否存在特定的工作记忆领域受损。
我们使用四个电子数据库 EMBASE（OVID）、MEDLINE（OVID）、PsychINFO（EBSCOHOST）和 Web of Science 进行荟萃分析，以检查文献，调查 ASD 患者是否存在与 WM 相关的损伤。分别对语音和视空间 WM 领域进行荟萃分析。亚组分析研究了年龄和智商作为潜在的调节因素。
共有 29 篇论文包含 34 项研究，测量了 WM 的语音和视空间领域，符合纳入标准。与对照组相比，ASD 患者的 WM 得分显著降低，在视空间域中，无论是准确性（d：-0.73，95%CI-1.04 至-0.42，p<0.05）还是错误率（d：0.56，95%CI0.25 至 0.88，p<0.05），以及语音域中准确性（d：-0.67，95%CI-1.10 至-0.24，p>0.05）和错误率（d：1.45，95%CI-0.07 至 2.96，p=0.06），都存在显著差异。年龄和智商并不能解释 ASD 中 WM 的差异。
这项荟萃分析的结果表明，在整个生命周期中，与健康个体相比，ASD 患者在语音和视空间 WM 领域都存在 WM 严重损伤。
