Rabiee Atusa, Vasaghi-Gharamaleki Behnoosh, Samadi Sayyed Ali, Amiri-Shavaki Younes, Alaghband-Rad Javad
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.
Iran J Med Sci. 2020 Mar;45(2):100-109. doi: 10.30476/IJMS.2019.45315.
There is a wealth of research done in developed countries on the investigation of the working memory (WM) performance in people with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) (IQ>70), with different reported findings. There is a dearth of similar studies in developing countries. In addition, the findings suggest that WM is possibly influenced by culture. The present study investigated WM performance and its relationship with the symptoms of ASD and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The present study is a cross-sectional comparative study between two groups of participants with high-functioning ASD, aged 8-16 years (n=30) and typically developing (n=30). This study was conducted in 2016-2017 in Tehran (Iran). The Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA) was used to compare the between-group differences on WM tasks. In addition, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between the ASD and ADHD symptoms with WM performance. The data were statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16.
It was found that in general, WM was impaired in the people with ASD. Unexpectedly, in the present study, two subscales of Social interaction and Stereotyped Behaviors of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition showed a significant positive correlation respectively with a score of two WM tasks, i.e. Visual Digit Span and Digit Span Forward.
These results showed that WM was impaired in individuals with ASD and that could have implications for intervention, but it is necessary that therapists be careful in choosing the appropriate tasks for intervention.
在发达国家，针对高功能自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者（智商>70）的工作记忆（WM）表现开展了大量研究，研究结果各异。而在发展中国家，类似研究相对匮乏。此外，研究结果表明，工作记忆可能受文化影响。本研究调查了工作记忆表现及其与自闭症谱系障碍和注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）症状之间的关系。
本研究是一项横断面比较研究，比较了两组年龄在8至16岁的高功能ASD参与者（n = 30）和发育正常的参与者（n = 30）。该研究于2016 - 2017年在德黑兰（伊朗）进行。采用多变量方差分析（MANOVA）来比较两组在工作记忆任务上的差异。此外，使用皮尔逊相关系数来检验自闭症谱系障碍和注意力缺陷多动障碍症状与工作记忆表现之间的关系。数据使用社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）16版进行统计分析。
研究发现，总体而言，自闭症谱系障碍患者的工作记忆受损。出乎意料的是，在本研究中，《吉尔姆自闭症评定量表第二版》的社交互动和刻板行为两个分量表分别与两项工作记忆任务的得分，即视觉数字广度和顺背数字广度，呈现出显著正相关。
这些结果表明，自闭症谱系障碍患者的工作记忆受损，这可能对干预产生影响，但治疗师在选择合适的干预任务时必须谨慎。
