Abstract
Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit altered frontal lobe activation during working memory (WM) processing despite relatively intact WM updating ability. To determine whether this alteration reflects compensation and is also present in adolescents, this study examined prefrontal activation during WM updating in adolescents with ASD using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Eighteen adolescents with high-functioning ASD and 18 typically developing (TD) adolescents aged 11–18 years successfully underwent a verbal n-back paradigm with a WM (i.e., 2-back) and a control (i.e., 0-back) condition. We found that adolescents with ASD exhibit more right-lateralized prefrontal activation in response to WM load (i.e., 2-back > 0-back) compared to TD adolescents. More importantly, right-lateralized prefrontal activation was associated with better WM updating ability—specifically among adolescents with ASD. Thus, adolescents with ASD might rely on a compensatory mechanism such as the employment of a visuospatial processing style to help them update verbal WM.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 107743 |
Journal | Biological Psychology |
Volume | 148 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Adolescent
- Autism spectrum disorder
- n-back
- Near-infrared spectroscopy
- Prefrontal cortex
- Working memory
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology