Children with autism have broad memory difficulties, new study finds

Children with autism have memory challenges that hinder not only their memory for faces but also their ability to remember other kinds of information, according to new research from the Stanford School of Medicine. The research, which is published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, clarifies a debate about memory function in kids with autism, showing that their memory struggles surpass their ability to form social memories. Memory is a key predictor of academic success, said Liu, adding that memory challenges may put kids with autism at a disadvantage. "Impairments in forming these associative memory traces could form one of the foundational elements in autism. " Comprehensive memory tests Autism, which affects about one in every 36 children, is characterized by social impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Some research has also suggested that children with autism have broader memory difficulties, but these studies were small and did not thoroughly assess participants' memory abilities. To clarify the impact of autism on memory, the new study included 25 children with high-functioning autism and normal IQ who were 8 to 12 years old, and a control group of 29 typically developing children with similar ages and IQs. For children with autism, the ability to retain non-social memories was predicted by connections in a network centered on the hippocampus-a small structure deep inside the brain that is known to regulate memory.

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