title: Visual memory and sustained attention impairment in youths with autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An uneven neurocognitive profile is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies focusing on the visual memory performance in ASD have shown controversial results. We investigated visual memory and sustained attention in youths with ASD and typically developing (TD) youths.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 143 pairs of youths with ASD (males 93.7%; mean age 13.1, s.d. 3.5 years) and age- and sex-matched TD youths. The ASD group consisted of 67 youths with autistic disorder (autism) and 76 with Asperger's disorder (AS) based on the DSM-IV criteria. They were assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery involving the visual memory [spatial recognition memory (SRM), delayed matching to sample (DMS), paired associates learning (PAL)] and sustained attention (rapid visual information processing; RVP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Youths with ASD performed significantly worse than TD youths on most of the tasks; the significance disappeared in the superior intelligence quotient (IQ) subgroup. The response latency on the tasks did not differ between the ASD and TD groups. Age had significant main effects on SRM, DMS, RVP and part of PAL tasks and had an interaction with diagnosis in DMS and RVP performance. There was no significant difference between autism and AS on visual tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings implied that youths with ASD had a wide range of visual memory and sustained attention impairment that was moderated by age and IQ, which supports temporal and frontal lobe dysfunction in ASD. The lack of difference between autism and AS implies that visual memory and sustained attention cannot distinguish these two ASD subtypes, which supports DSM-5 ASD criteria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine,Taipei,Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y-L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine,Taipei,Taiwan.
authors.forename: S S-F
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gau
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine,Taipei,Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine,Taipei,Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y-N
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine,Taipei,Taiwan.
authors.forename: W-C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Linkou Medical Center,Chang Gung University College of Medicine,Tao-Yuan,Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y-Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001288:Attention; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; autism; autism spectrum; neurocognition; visual memory