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Processing capacity in children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders
Marco R Hoeksma1, Chantal Kemner, Marinus N Verbaten
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. m.r.hoeksma@pharm.uu.nl
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
|July 22, 2004
Summary
Children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) exhibit abnormal processing capacity, indicated by altered P3 amplitudes during auditory tasks. These differences in event-related potentials (ERP) suggest unique cognitive resource allocation in PDD.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) is characterized by social, communication, and behavioral impairments.
- Previous research noted reduced P3 amplitudes in individuals with PDD, but the underlying cause remained unclear.
- Understanding cognitive processing differences is crucial for PDD diagnosis and intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if reduced P3 amplitudes in PDD are linked to differences in cognitive processing capacity.
- To examine how task difficulty affects event-related potentials (ERP) in PDD.
- To determine if PDD-related processing abnormalities change with age.
Main Methods:
- Participants included children and adolescents with PDD and age-matched controls.
- An auditory task with varying difficulty levels was employed.
- Visual probe stimuli were presented, and event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded from 62 electrodes.
- P3 amplitudes were analyzed in response to auditory stimuli and visual probes.
Main Results:
- All participants demonstrated increased auditory stimulus amplitude with higher task loads.
- Control groups exhibited expected smaller P3 amplitudes to visual probes.
- Individuals with PDD did not show the typical decrease in P3 amplitudes to visual probes.
- PDD subjects displayed abnormal capacity allocation during the task.
Conclusions:
- PDD is associated with abnormal cognitive capacity allocation, as evidenced by ERP measures.
- These processing differences may manifest differently across development, with some resolving over time.
- Abnormalities in processing capacity can persist into adolescence in individuals with PDD.