Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Spatial Working Memory Deficits in Autism

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous studies have reported working memory deficits in autism, but this finding has been inconsistent. One possibility is that deficits in this domain may be present only when working memory load exceeds some limited capacity. High-functioning individuals with autism performed the CANTAB computerized test of spatial working memory. Individuals with autism made more errors than a matched group of typically developing controls on this task, and were less likely to consistently use a specific organized search strategy to complete the task. Overall, these results demonstrate reduced spatial working memory abilities in autism, and extend previous findings by demonstrating that these deficits are significant when tasks impose heavier demands on working memory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ameli, R., Courchesne, E., Lincoln, A., Kaufman, A. S., & Grillon, C. (1988). Visual memory processes in high-functioning individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18, 601–615.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A. (1986). Working memory: Theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennetto, L., Pennington, B. F., & Rogers, S. J. (1996). Intact and impaired memory functions in autism. Child Development, 67, 1816–1835.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, S., Martinkauppi, S., Raemae, P., Salli, E., Korvenoja, K., & Aronen, H. J. (1998). Distribution of cortical activation during visuospatial n-back tasks as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cerebral Cortex, 8, 743–752.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, A., Prevor, M. B., Callender, G., & Druin, D. P. (1997). Prefrontal cortex cognitive deficits in children treated early and continuously for PKU. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 62, 1–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, P. C., & Henson, R. N. (2001). Frontal lobes and human memory: Insights from functional neuroimaging. Brain, 124, 849–881.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fuster, J. M. (2000). Prefrontal neurons in networks of executive memory. Brain Research Bulletin, 52, 331–336.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, E. M., Pennington, B. F., Wehner, E. A., & Rogers, S. J. (1999). Executive functions in young children with autism. Child Development, 70, 817–832.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1988). Topography of cognition: Parallel distributed networks in primate association cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 11, 137–156.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hollingshead A. B., & Redlich, F. C. (1958). Social class and mental illness. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horwitz, B., Rumsey, J. M., Grady, C. L., & Rapoport, S. I. (1988). The cerebral metabolic landscape in autism. Archives of Neurology, 45, 749–755.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, C., Leboyer, M., & Bouvard, M. (1997). Executive function in parents of children with autism. Psychological Medicine, 27, 209–220.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, C., & Russell, J. (1993). Autistic children’s difficulty with mental disengagement from an object: Its implications for theories of autism. Developmental Psychology, 29, 498–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, C., Russell, J., & Robbins, T. W. (1994). Evidence for executive dysfunction in autism. Neuropsychologia, 32, 477–492.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, R. M., Steele, S. D., Meyer, E., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2005). Self-ordered pointing in children with autism: Failure to use verbal mediation in the service of working memory. Neuropsychologia, 43, 1400–1411.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koczat, D. L., Rogers, S. J., Pennington, B. F., & Ross, R. G. (2002). Eye movement abnormality suggestive of a spatial working memory deficit is present in parents of autistic probands. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 513–518.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Le Couteur, A., Rutter, M., Lord, C., Rios, P., Robertson, S., Holdgrafer, M., & McLennan, J. (1989). Autism diagnostic interview: A standardized investigator-based instrument. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19, 363–387.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E. H. Jr., Leventhal, B. L., DiLavore, P. C., et al. (2000). The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 205–223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Couteur, A. L. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview-revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659–685.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Rutter, M., Goode, S., Heemsbergen, J., Jordan, H., Mawhood, L., & Schopler, E. (1989). Autism diagnostic observation schedule: A standardized observation of communicative and social behavior. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19, 185–212.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luna, B., Minshew, N. J., Garver, K., Lazar, N. A., Thulborn, K. R., Eddy, W. F. et al. (2002). Neocortical system abnormalities in autism: An fMRI study of spatial working memory. Neurology, 59, 834–840.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, G., Blamire, A. M., Puce, A., Nobre, A. C., Bloch, G., Hyder, F., et al. (1994). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of human prefrontal cortex activation during a spatial working memory task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 91, 8690–8694.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Minshew, N. J., & Goldstein, G. (1993). Is autism an amnesic disorder? Evidence from the California Verbal Learning Test. Neuropsychology, 7, 209–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minshew, N. J., & Goldstein, G. (1998). Autism as a disorder of complex information processing. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 4, 129–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minshew, N. J., & Goldstein, G. (2001). The pattern of intact and impaired memory functions in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42, 1095–1101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minshew, N. J., Luna, B., & Sweeney, J. A. (1999). Oculomotor evidence for neocortical systems but not cerebellar dysfunction in autism. Neurology, 52, 917–922.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morris, R. G., Rowe, A., Fox, N., Feigenbaum, J. D., Miotto, E. C., & Howlin, P. (1999). Spatial working memory in Asperger’s syndrome and in patients with focal frontal and temporal lobe lesions. Brain and Cognition, 41, 9–26.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ohnishi, T., Matsuda, H., Hashimoto, T., Kunihiro, T., Nishikawa, M., Uema, T. et al. (2000). Abnormal regional cerebral blood flow in childhood autism. Brain, 123, 1838–1844.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Owen, A. M., Evans, A. C., & Petrides, M. (1996). Evidence for a two-stage model of spatial working memory processing within the lateral frontal cortex: A positron emission tomography study. Cerebral Cortex, 6, 31–38.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Owen, A. M., Downes, J. J., Sahakian, B. J., Polkey, C. E., & Robbins, T. W. (1990). Planning and spatial working memory following frontal lobe lesions in man. Neuropsychologia, 28, 1021–1034.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Owen, A. M., Morris, R. G., Sahakian, B. J., Polkey, C. E., & Robbins, T. W. (1996). Double dissociations of memory and executive functions in working memory tasks following frontal lobe excisions, temporal lobe excisions or amygdalo-hippocampectomy in man. Brain, 119, 1597–1615.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., & Jensen, J. (1999). Brief report: Specific executive function profiles in three neurodevelopmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 171–177.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., Pennington, B. F., & Rogers, S. J. (1991). Executive function deficits in high-functioning autistic individuals: Relationship to theory of mind. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 1081–1105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., & Strayer, D. L. (2001). Further evidence of intact working memory in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 257–263.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Papoulis, A. (1990). Probability and statistics. Prentence-Hall International Editions.

  • Pierrot-Deseilligny, C., Rivaud, S., Gaymard, B., Muri, R., & Vermersch, A. I. (1995). Cortical control of saccades. Annals of Neurology, 37, 557–567.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, T. W., James, M., Owen, A. M., Sahakian, B. J., McInnes, L., & Rabbitt, P. (1994). Cambridge neuropsychological test automated battery (CANTAB): A factor analytic study of a large sample of normal elderly volunteers. Dementia, 5, 266–281.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sweeney, J. A., Mintun, M. A., Kwee, S., Wiseman, M. B., Brown, D. L., & Rosenberg, D. R. et al. (1996). Positron emission tomography study of voluntary saccadic eye movements and spatial working memory. Journal of Neurophysiology, 75, 454–468.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tabachnik, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1989). Using multivariate statistics (2nd ed.). New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilbovicius, M., Garreau, B., Samsom, Y., Remy, P., Barthelemy, C., & Syrota, A. et al. (1995). Delayed maturation of the frontal cortex in childhood autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 248–252.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Support for the preparation of this manuscript was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism (HD35469) and NS33355 & MH01433, and the National Alliance for Autism Research. We are grateful to the families who participated in this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Shelly D. Steele

  2. Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Nancy J. Minshew

  3. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Beatriz Luna

  4. Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Psychology, Center for Cognitive Medicine (MC 913), University of Illinois at Chicago, 912 S. Wood St., Suite 235, Chicago, IL, 60612-7327, USA

    John A. Sweeney

Authors
  1. Shelly D. Steele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nancy J. Minshew
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Beatriz Luna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. John A. Sweeney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John A. Sweeney.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Steele, S.D., Minshew, N.J., Luna, B. et al. Spatial Working Memory Deficits in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 37, 605–612 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0202-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0202-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation