Emotional false memory in autism spectrum disorder: More than spared

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Understanding how emotions impact memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for targeted interventions.
• Previous research has not fully elucidated the nuances of emotional memory processing in youth with ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate emotional false memory in youth with ASD compared to typically developing peers.
• To examine the influence of negative, positive, and neutral emotional stimuli on memory discrimination.

Main Methods:

• A verbal IQ-case matched sample of 38 youth with ASD and 38 typically developing (TYP) youth (ages 8-14) participated.
• Participants completed a recognition task involving photographs from everyday event scripts.
• Analysis focused on hit rates, false alarm rates (causal and gap-filling errors), and associations with cognitive and behavioral factors.

Main Results:

• Both ASD and TYP groups exhibited similar overall performance, with higher false alarms for causal errors than gap-filling errors.
• The ASD group made significantly more causal and gap-filling errors on emotional (negative and positive) lures compared to neutral lures and compared to the TYP group.
• Task performance in the ASD group was associated with repetitive behaviors, including compulsive, ritualistic, sameness behaviors, and restricted interests.

Conclusions:

• Emotional stimuli impair memory discrimination in youth with ASD more than in typically developing youth.
• Findings suggest an altered integration of cognition and emotion in ASD, linked to repetitive behaviors.
• Results have implications for understanding ASD and developing psychosocial interventions.