Title
Diminished neural adaptation during implicit learning in autism.
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies have shown evidence of disrupted neural adaptation during learning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in several types of tasks, potentially stemming from frontal-posterior cortical underconnectivity (Schipul et al., 2012). The aim of the current study was to examine neural adaptations in an implicit learning task that entails participation of frontal and posterior regions. Sixteen high-functioning adults with ASD and sixteen neurotypical control participants were trained on and performed an implicit dot pattern prototype learning task in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session. During the preliminary exposure to the type of implicit prototype learning task later to be used in the scanner, the ASD participants took longer than the neurotypical group to learn the task, demonstrating altered implicit learning in ASD. After equating task structure learning, the two groups' brain activation differed during their learning of a new prototype in the subsequent scanning session. The main findings indicated that neural adaptations in a distributed task network were reduced in the ASD group, relative to the neurotypical group, and were related to ASD symptom severity. Functional connectivity was reduced and did not change as much during learning for the ASD group, and was related to ASD symptom severity. These findings suggest that individuals with ASD show altered neural adaptations during learning, as seen in both activation and functional connectivity measures. This finding suggests why many real-world implicit learning situations may pose special challenges for ASD.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.10.039
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
ADI-R,ADOS,ASD,MNI,NT,ROI
Autism,Developmental psychology,Neurotypical,Functional magnetic resonance imaging,Prototype learning,Psychology,Cognitive psychology,Implicit learning,Autism spectrum disorder,Neuroimaging,Neural adaptation
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
125
1053-8119
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.35
4
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Sarah E. Schipul110.35
Marcel Just247675.67