Spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder: evidence for impairments in mental simulation?

Sophie E. Lind,Jacob Raber,Dermot M. Bowler

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01411

Abstract

This study explored spatial navigation alongside several other cognitive abilities that are thought to share common underlying neurocognitive mechanisms (e.g., the capacity for self-projection, scene construction, or mental simulation), and which we hypothesized may be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty intellectually high-functioning children with ASD (with a mean age of ~8 years) were compared to 20 sex, age, IQ, and language ability matched typically developing children on a series of tasks to assess spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking (also known as episodic foresight or prospection), theory of mind (ToM), relational memory, and central coherence. This is the first study to explore these abilities concurrently within the same sample. Spatial navigation was assessed using the “memory island” task, which involves finding objects within a realistic, computer simulated, three-dimensional environment. Episodic memory and episodic future thinking were assessed using a past and future event description task. ToM was assessed using the “animations” task, in which children were asked to describe the interactions between two animated triangles. Relational memory was assessed using a recognition task involving memory for items (line drawings), patterned backgrounds, or combinations of items and backgrounds. Central coherence was assessed by exploring differences in performance across segmented and unsegmented versions of block design. Children with ASD were found to show impairments in spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and central coherence, but not ToM or relational memory. Among children with ASD, spatial navigation was found to be significantly negatively related to the number of repetitive behaviors. In other words, children who showed more repetitive behaviors showed poorer spatial navigation. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Highlights

It has been proposed that a common, core network of brain regions underlies several high-level cognitive abilities including (a) certain types of spatial navigation, (b) remembering past events, (c) imagining future events, and (d) theory of mind (ToM) (e.g., Buckner and Carroll, 2007; Hassabis and Maguire, 2007; Spreng et al, 2009)
This study explored spatial navigation alongside several other cognitive abilities that are thought to share common underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, and which we hypothesized may be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
In addition to difficulties with navigation, we have found that adults with ASD have impaired episodic memory, episodic future thinking, ability to imagine fictitious scenes, and ToM (Lind and Bowler, 2010; Lind et al, 2014; but see Crane et al, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

It has been proposed that a common, core network of brain regions (within the medial temporal lobe, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, retrosplenial cortex, temporal-parietal junction, lateral prefrontal cortex, and occipital cortex) underlies several high-level cognitive abilities including (a) certain types of spatial navigation, (b) remembering past events (episodic memory), (c) imagining future events (episodic future thinking/foresight/prospection), and (d) theory of mind (ToM) (e.g., Buckner and Carroll, 2007; Hassabis and Maguire, 2007; Spreng et al, 2009). The notions of self-projection and scene construction, which originate primarily from the field of neuroscience, closely echo the longer-standing notion of “mental simulation.”. From this perspective, Shanton and Goldman (2010) have suggested that whereas ToM involves inter-personal simulation, episodic remembering and episodic future thinking involve intra-personal simulation ( see Schacter et al, 2008), and others have highlighted the importance of mental simulation in spatial navigation (e.g., Thorndyke and Hayes-Roth, 1982; Chersi et al, 2013) The notions of self-projection and scene construction, which originate primarily from the field of neuroscience, closely echo the longer-standing notion of “mental simulation.” From this perspective, Shanton and Goldman (2010) have suggested that whereas ToM involves inter-personal simulation, episodic remembering and episodic future thinking involve intra-personal simulation ( see Schacter et al, 2008), and others have highlighted the importance of mental simulation in spatial navigation (e.g., Thorndyke and Hayes-Roth, 1982; Chersi et al, 2013)

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