Spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder: evidence for impairments in mental simulation?

Abstract

This study explored spatial navigation alongside several other cognitive abilities that are thought to share common underlying neurocognitive mechanisms (e.g., the capacity for self-projection, scene construction, or mental simulation), and which we hypothesized may be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty intellectually high-functioning children with ASD (with a mean age of ~8 years) were compared to 20 sex, age, IQ, and language ability matched typically developing children on a series of tasks to assess spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking (also known as episodic foresight or prospection), theory of mind (ToM), relational memory, and central coherence. This is the first study to explore these abilities concurrently within the same sample. Spatial navigation was assessed using the “memory island” task, which involves finding objects within a realistic, computer simulated, three-dimensional environment. Episodic memory and episodic future thinking were assessed using a past and future event description task. ToM was assessed using the “animations” task, in which children were asked to describe the interactions between two animated triangles. Relational memory was assessed using a recognition task involving memory for items (line drawings), patterned backgrounds, or combinations of items and backgrounds. Central coherence was assessed by exploring differences in performance across segmented and unsegmented versions of block design. Children with ASD were found to show impairments in spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and central coherence, but not ToM or relational memory. Among children with ASD, spatial navigation was found to be significantly negatively related to the number of repetitive behaviors. In other words, children who showed more repetitive behaviors showed poorer spatial navigation. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Translating human deficits into mouse behavior

“…Deficits in working memory in ASD are also specific to increased working memory load, as increasing task complexity results in poorer performance (Kercood et al, 2014;Steele et al, 2007). Related to this, studies in children and adults with ASD have shown that spatial navigation ability is impaired (Lind et al, 2014;Lind et al, 2013).…”

Recognition memory and source memory in autism spectrum disorder: A study of the intention superiority and enactment effects

“…At the cognitive level, ASD is thought to be characterised by a particular profile of strengths and limitations in memory functioning (see individuals with ASD manifest impairments in both episodic memory, the ability to recall personally-experienced events, as well as episodic foresight, the ability to imagine events that are likely to be experienced in the future (Lind & Bowler, 2010;Lind, Bowler, & Raber, 2014;Lind, Williams, Bowler, & Peel, 2014;Terrett et al, 2013). Recent evidence has also indicated a substantial deficit in prospective memory, at least when spontaneous (as opposed to prompted) retrieval of prior intentions is required for successful completion of a planned action (see e.g., Altgassen, Koban, & Kliegel, 2012;Williams, Boucher, Lind, & Jarrold, 2013;Williams, Jarrold, Grainger, & Lind, 2014).…”

Spatial navigation from same and different directions: The role of executive functions, memory and attention in adults with autism spectrum disorder

“…These tests are, therefore, less realistic in terms of the real life navigation requirements than 3‐D environments. Such an environment is the island navigation task used by Lind et al [], where participants were asked to find target objects that were initially marked by clearly visible flags and then hidden to probe memory dependent spatial navigation. Lind et al [] observed that a group of ASD participants were less effective at finding the hidden objects despite having no difficulties reaching them when they were initially marked by the clearly visible flags.…”

“…The results of the few previous studies that have investigated spatial navigation in ASD, however, report mixed findings. Some studies found no differences between groups [Edgin & Pennington, 2005;Caron, Mottron, Rainville, & Chouinard, 2004], some studies found an overall navigational deficit in ASD independent of whether conditions probed allocentric or egocentric skills [Lind, Williams, Raber, Peel, & Bowler, 2013], and a few studies found specific allocentric navigational difficulties as predicted [Prior & Hoffmann, 1990;Lind, Bowler, & Raber, 2014;Ring et al, 2018]. Only three of these earlier studies compared allocentric and egocentric conditions within one study [Lind et al, 2013Ring et al, 2018].…”

“…Some studies found no differences between groups [Edgin & Pennington, ; Caron, Mottron, Rainville, & Chouinard, ], some studies found an overall navigational deficit in ASD independent of whether conditions probed allocentric or egocentric skills [Lind, Williams, Raber, Peel, & Bowler, ], and a few studies found specific allocentric navigational difficulties as predicted [Prior & Hoffmann, ; Lind, Bowler, & Raber, ; Ring et al, ]. Only three of these earlier studies compared allocentric and egocentric conditions within one study [Lind et al, ; Ring et al, ]. Since executive functions have been found to play an important role in spatial navigation [Moffat, Kennedy, Rodrigue, & Raz, ], they may be a relevant factor in explaining some of the inconsistencies found in previous spatial navigation studies in ASD.…”