Dehnavi Farangis, Khan Azizuddin
Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Powai, Mumbai, 400 076, Maharashtra, India.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 Jun;54(6):2298-2306. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-05975-y. Epub 2023 Apr 20.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental condition including persistent challenges with social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behavior. Though prospective memory failures are commonly observed in ASD population it has been less studied among adults with ASD. Prospective memory (PM) refers to the execution of delayed intentions. There are contradictory findings of regular and irregular prospective memory task among autistic adults. The present study is an attempt to investigate prospective memory performance among adults with autism spectrum disorder using the Virtual Week board game.
Virtual Week (Rendell & Craik, 2000) (3-day Version) is a computerized board game in which participants after rolling a die move token clockwise around the board. Each round of the board represents one virtual "day." Adults between 16 and 25 years of age who were diagnosed with ASD (N = 23) were compared with non-ASD (N = 26) adults.
Analyses of variance were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that autistic adults as compared to normal adults showed poorer performance on time-based task than on event-based task. A significant difference was evident between regular and irregular prospective memory tasks across both tasks among autistic adults. Results also revealed that ASD difficulties are associated with the prospective component of the irregular task.
Prospective memory failures are widely observed in ASD group, and have important implications for functional independence. The findings of this study provide insight into prospective memory challenges that adults with autism spectrum disorder face in a daily basis.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种复杂的发育状况，包括在社交沟通、兴趣受限和重复行为方面持续存在的挑战。尽管前瞻性记忆缺陷在自闭症谱系障碍人群中普遍存在，但在成年自闭症谱系障碍患者中对此研究较少。前瞻性记忆（PM）是指延迟意图的执行。在自闭症成年人中，常规和非常规前瞻性记忆任务的研究结果相互矛盾。本研究旨在使用虚拟周棋盘游戏调查成年自闭症谱系障碍患者的前瞻性记忆表现。
虚拟周（Rendell & Craik，2000）（3天版本）是一款电脑棋盘游戏，参与者掷骰子后将棋子沿棋盘顺时针移动。棋盘的每一轮代表一个虚拟“日”。将16至25岁被诊断为自闭症谱系障碍的成年人（N = 23）与非自闭症谱系障碍成年人（N = 26）进行比较。
使用方差分析来分析数据。结果显示，与正常成年人相比，自闭症成年人在基于时间的任务上的表现比在基于事件的任务上更差。在自闭症成年人的这两项任务中，常规和非常规前瞻性记忆任务之间存在显著差异。结果还显示，自闭症谱系障碍的困难与非常规任务的前瞻性成分有关。
前瞻性记忆缺陷在自闭症谱系障碍组中广泛存在，对功能独立性具有重要影响。本研究结果为成年自闭症谱系障碍患者在日常生活中面临的前瞻性记忆挑战提供了见解。
