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Abstract:
Abstract: Purpose. To examine the contribution of executive,
language, and memory systems to the higher level cognitive deficits
in autism. Subjects. Participants were children (n = 22 per group)
ages 7 - 17 years meeting research criteria for High Functioning
Autism (HFA) and normal controls matched in age, gender, SES, and
IQ. Methods. We measured performance on cognitive tasks related to
expressive language (CELF-formulated sentences), receptive language
(TLC, TOPS), set-shifting (ID/ED task), planning (Tower of London),
and nonverbal spatial working memory. Results. The two groups did
not differ on IQ (paired t-test, p = .25). While set-shifting and
planning were relatively spared in children with HFA (ps >
.05) they showed impairments in language and memory. Children with
HFA used significantly poorer search strategies (p = .02) and made
significantly more errors on the spatial working memory task,
especially in the most difficult conditions (ps <.05).
Moreover, errors on the spatial working memory task correlated with
performance on the language measures (ps < .01) such that HFAs
with more errors performed further below the standard mean on the
CELF and TLC. In addition, better strategy scores on the SWM task
correlated with better performance on the CELF (p = .008).
Conclusions. Our findings suggest that cognitive deficits in autism
may be related to impairments in cortical integration of language
and memory systems in contrast to executive systems.
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