Exploring the Event-Related Potentials' Time Course of Associative Recognition in Autism

Behavioral data on episodic recollection in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) point limited relational memory functioning. However, the involvement of successive memory processes in the profile of episodic memory in ASD needs more study. Here, we used event-related potentials (ERP) to investigate the time course of episodic recollection with an associative recognition paradigm with picture pairs. Twenty-two participants with ASD and 32 with typical development (TD), all right-handed, were included. Behavioral results confirmed difficulties in correctly recognizing identical pairs in the ASD relative to TD group. We found an unexpected amplitude decrement on the P2 (220-270 msec) and FN400 (350-470 msec) potentials, suggesting diminished priming and familiarity effects in the ASD relative to TD group. However, ERP data revealed that the recognition of associative information relies on the same electrophysiological process (old/new effect in the 600-700-msec late positive component) in ASD participants as in TD ones, with a parietal extension in the ASD group. These results suggest that the electrophysiological processes of associative recognition are qualitatively similar in individuals with and without ASD but may differ quantitatively. This difference may be driven by the reduced early processing of picture pairs that may in turn lead to their diminished integration into the semantic memory system, being partially compensated by a greater involvement of associative memory during the recollection process. Other studies would be useful to go further in identifying these cognitive processes involved in atypical recognition in ASD and their neural substrates. LAY SUMMARY: We identified diminished performance on the associative recognition of picture pairs in adolescents and young adults with autism when compared to typical development. Electrophysiological data revealed qualitative similarities but quantitative differences between-group, with diminished priming and familiarity processes partially compensated by an enhanced parietal recollection process

Local Processing Bias Impacts Implicit and Explicit Memory in Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by atypical perception, including processing that is biased toward local details rather than global configurations. This bias may impact on memory. The present study examined the effect of this perception on both implicit (Experiment 1) and explicit (Experiment 2) memory in conditions that promote either local or global processing. The first experiment consisted of an object identification priming task using two distinct encoding conditions: one favoring local processing (Local condition) and the other favoring global processing (Global condition) of drawings. The second experiment focused on episodic (explicit) memory with two different cartoon recognition tasks that favored either local (i.e., processing specific details) or a global processing (i.e., processing each cartoon as a whole). In addition, all the participants underwent a general clinical cognitive assessment aimed at documenting their cognitive profile and enabling correlational analyses with experimental memory tasks. Seventeen participants with ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) controls aged from 10 to 16 years participated to the first experiment and 13 ASD matched with 13 TD participants were included for the second experiment. Experiment 1 confirmed the preservation of priming effects in ASD but, unlike the Comparison group, the ASD group did not increase his performance as controls after a globally oriented processing. Experiment 2 revealed that local processing led to difficulties in discriminating lures from targets in a recognition task when both lures and targets shared common details. The correlation analysis revealed that these difficulties were associated with processing speed and inhibition. These preliminary results suggest that natural perceptual processes oriented toward local information in ASD may impact upon their implicit memory by preventing globally oriented processing in time-limited conditions and induce confusion between explicit memories that share common details

Exploration of neural correlates of movement intention based on characterisation of temporal dependencies in electroencephalography

Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) provide a direct communication channel by using brain signals, enabling patients with motor impairments to interact with external devices. Motion intention detection is useful for intuitive movement-based BCI as movement is the fundamental mode of interaction with the environment. The aim of this paper is to investigate the temporal dynamics of brain processes using electroencephalography (EEG) to explore novel neural correlates of motion intention. We investigate the changes in temporal dependencies of the EEG by characterising the decay of autocorrelation during asynchronous voluntary finger tapping movement. The evolution of the autocorrelation function is characterised by its relaxation time, which is used as a robust marker for motion intention. We observed that there was reorganisation of temporal dependencies in EEG during motion intention. The autocorrelation decayed slower during movement intention and faster during the resting state. There was an increase in temporal dependence during movement intention. The relaxation time of the autocorrelation function showed significant (p < 0.05) discrimination between movement and resting state with the mean sensitivity of 78.37 ± 8.83%. The relaxation time provides movement related information that is complementary to the well-known event-related desynchronisation (ERD) by characterising the broad band EEG dynamics which is frequency independent in contrast to ERD. It can also detect motion intention on average 0.51s before the actual movement onset. We have thoroughly compared autocorrelation relaxation time features with ERD in four frequency bands. The relaxation time may therefore, complement the well-known features used in motion-based BCI leading to more robust and intuitive BCI solutions. The results obtained suggest that changes in autocorrelation decay may involve reorganisation of temporal dependencies of brain activity over longer duration during motion intention. This opens the possibilities of investigating further the temporal dynamics of fundamental neural processes underpinning motion intention

How scene encoding affects memory discrimination: Analysing eye movements data using data driven methods

Encoding of visual scenes remains under-explored due to methodological limitations. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between memory accuracy for visual scenes and eye movements at encoding. First, we used data-driven methods, a fixation density map (using iMap4) and a saliency map (using GBVS), to analyse the visual attention for items. Second, and in a more novel way, we conducted scanpath analyses without a priori (using ScanMatch). Scene memory accuracy was assessed by asking participants to discriminate identical scenes (targets) among rearranged scenes sharing some items with targets (distractors) and new scenes. Shorter fixation duration in regions of interest (ROIs) at encoding was associated with a better rejection of distractors; there was no significant difference in the relative fixation time in ROIs at encoding, between subsequent hits and misses at test. Hence, density of eye fixations in data-driven ROIs seems to be a marker of subsequent memory discrimination and pattern separation. Interestingly, we also identified a negative correlation between average MultiDimensional Scaling (MDS) distance scanpaths and the correct rejection of distractors, indicating that scanpath consistency significantly affects the ability to discriminate distractors from targets. These data suggest that visual exploration at encoding participates in discrimination processes at test

Intact memory storage but impaired retrieval in visual memory in autism: New insights from an electrophysiological study

In a recent study on visual episodic memory (Desaunay, Clochon, et al., 2020), we have shown event-related potentials (ERPs) differences associated with priming (150–300 msec), familiarity (350–470 msec), and recollection (600–700 msec), in young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared with typical development (TD). To go further into the study of the processes of storage and retrieval of the memory trace, we re-analyzed Desaunay, Clochon, et al's data using time-frequency analysis, that is, event-related synchronization and desynchronization (ERS/ERD). This allows a decomposition of the spectral power within frequency bands associated with these ERPs. We focused both on the same time windows and the same regions of interest as previously published. We mainly identified, in ASD compared with TD, reduced ERS in low-frequencies (delta, theta) in early time-windows, and non-significant differences in ERD in higher frequencies (alpha, beta1) in all time-windows. Reduced ERS during recognition confirmed previously reported diminution of priming effects and difficulties in manipulation and retrieval of both semantic and episodic information. Conversely, preserved ERD corroborates a preservation of memory storage processes. These observations are consistent with a cognitive model of memory in ASD, that suggests difficulties in cognitive operations or executive demand at retrieval, subsequent to successful long-term storage of information. Lay Summary We assessed the EEG synchronization and desynchronization, during visual episodic recognition. We observed, in youth with Autism, reduced synchronization in low-frequencies (delta, theta), suggesting reduced access to and manipulation of long-term stored information. By contrast, non-significant differences in desynchronization at higher frequencies (alpha, beta frequency bands), that support long-term stored semantic and episodic information, suggested preserved memory traces

Sleep oscillations related to memory consolidation during aromatases inhibitors for breast cancer

International audienceAromatase inhibitors (AIs) are associated with sleep difficulties in breast cancer (BC) patients. Sleep is known to favor memory consolidation through the occurrence of specific oscillations, i.e., slow waves (SW) and sleep spindles, allowing a dialogue between prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Interestingly, neuroimaging studies in BC patients have consistently shown structural and functional modifications in these two brain regions. With the aim to evaluate sleep oscillations related to memory consolidation during AIs , we collected polysomnography data in BC patients treated (AI+, n=17) or not (AI-, n=17) with AIs compared to healthy controls (HC, n=21). None of the patients had received chemotherapy and radiotherapy was finished since at least 6 months, that limit the confounding effects of other treatments than AIs. Fast and slow spindles were detected during sleep stage 2 at centro-parietal and frontal electrodes respectively. SW were detected at frontal electrodes during stage 3. Here, we show lower frontal SW densities in AI+ patients compared to HC. These results concord with previous reports about frontal cortical alterations in cancer following AIs administration. Moreover, AI+ patients tended to have lower spindle density at C4 electrode. Regression analyses showed that, in both patient groups, spindle density at C4 electrode explained a large variance of memory performances. Slow spindle characteristics did not differ between groups and sleep oscillations characteristics of AI- patients did not differ significantly from those of both AI+ patients and HC. Overall, our results add to the compelling evidence of the systemic effects of AIs previously reported in animals, with deleterious effects on cortical activity during sleep and associated memory consolidation in the current study. There is thus a need to further investigate sleep modifications during AIs administration. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these findings and investigation in other cancers on this topic should be conducted