Neurotypical Adults Research Articles

Detection of Language Lateralization Using Spectral Analysis of EEG.

Language lateralization relies on expensive equipment and can be difficult to tolerate. We assessed if lateralized brain responses to a language task can be detected with spectral analysis of electroencephalography (EEG). Twenty right-handed, neurotypical adults (28 ± 10 years; five males) performed a verb generation task and two control tasks (word listening and repetition). We measured changes in EEG activity elicited by tasks (the event-related spectral perturbation [ERSP]) in the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands in two language (superior temporal and inferior frontal [ST and IF]) and one control (occipital [Occ]) region bilaterally. We tested whether language tasks elicited (1) changes in spectral power from baseline (significant ERSP) at any region or (2) asymmetric ERSPs between matched left and right regions. Left IF beta power (-0.37±0.53, t = -3.12, P = 0.006) and gamma power in all regions decreased during verb generation. Asymmetric ERSPs (right > left) occurred between the (1) IF regions in the beta band (right vs. left difference of 0.23±0.37, t(19) = -2.80, P = 0.0114) and (2) ST regions in the alpha band (right vs. left difference of 0.48±0.63, t(19) = -3.36, P = 0.003). No changes from baseline or hemispheric asymmetries were noted in language regions during control tasks. On the individual level, 16 (80%) participants showed decreased left IF beta power from baseline, and 16 showed ST alpha asymmetry. Eighteen participants (90%) showed one of these two findings. Spectral EEG analysis detects lateralized responses during language tasks in frontal and temporal regions. Spectral EEG analysis could be developed into a readily available language lateralization modality.

Level of autistic traits in neurotypical adults predicts kinematic idiosyncrasies in their biological movements.

Over the last decade of research, a notable connection between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and unique motor system characteristics has been identified, which may influence social communication through distinct movement patterns. In this study, we investigated the potential for features of the broader autism phenotype to account for kinematic idiosyncrasies in social movements expressed by neurotypical individuals. Fifty-eight participants provided recordings of point-light displays expressing three basic emotions and completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). We extracted kinematic metrics from the biological movements using computer vision and applied linear mixed-effects modeling to analyze the relationship between these kinematic metrics and AQ scores. Our results revealed that individual differences in the total AQ scores, and the sub-scale scores, significantly predicted variations in kinematic metrics representing order, volume, and magnitude. The results of this study suggest that autistic traits may intricately influence the movement expressions at the microlevel, highlighting the need for a more nuanced understanding of the potential endophenotypic characteristics associated with social movements in neurotypical individuals.

Autistic traits in neurotypical adults are related to impaired perceptual–motor coordination

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more prone to injury due to falls or collisions with objects. This may be caused by impaired perceptual–motor coordination, including inaccurate body-related spatial perception and insufficient anticipatory motor planning due to a detail-focused processing style. To investigate this hypothesis, an action-selection task was developed to create conditions likely to induce collisions with obstacles and to assess perceptual accuracy and predictive attentional properties for the action selection of subsequent movements in a sequence of actions. Sixteen participants completed an autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) survey and the task. Results indicated that AQ correlated significantly with body-related spatial perception, and it was a significant predictor of the number of collisions. For the association between collisions and the eye-tracking data, results of a generalized linear mixed model showed that collisions were more likely to happen when the total fixation time to exit width was short and when the time to first fixation was late. This suggests that participants with higher autistic traits were not able to properly plan subsequent movements. Overall, these findings suggested that impaired perceptual–motor coordination, which could occur due to difficulties in perceiving body-related spatial relationships and anticipatory motor planning, may underlie the high susceptibility to injury observed in individuals with ASD.

GABA and Glx predict EEG responses of visual sensitivity in autism.

The mechanisms underlying atypical sensory processing in autism remain to be elucidated, but research points toward a role of the glutamatergic/GABAergic balance. To investigate the potential relationships between visual sensitivity and its molecular correlates in autism, we combined data from electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies. Twenty autistic adults and sixteen neurotypical adults (NT) participated in both an EEG study assessing visual sensitivity (Sapey-Triomphe et al., Autism Research, 2023) and in an MRS study measuring Glx and GABA+ concentrations in the occipital cortex (Sapey-Triomphe et al., Molecular Autism, 2021). These studies revealed no group differences in neural detection thresholds or in Glx/GABA levels in the occipital cortex. Neural detection thresholds for contrast and spatial frequency (SF) were determined using fast periodic visual stimulations and neural frequency tagging. In the present study, Glx/GABA+ concentrations in the occipital cortex and neural detection thresholds did not differ between groups. Interestingly, lower Glx/GABA+ ratios were associated with lower contrast detection thresholds and higher SF detection thresholds. These correlations were also significant within the neurotypical and autistic groups. This report suggests that the Glx/GABA balance regulates visual detection thresholds across individuals. In both autistic and NTs, lower Glx/GABA ratios in the occipital cortex allow for better detection of visual inputs at the neural level. This study sheds light on the neurochemical underpinnings of visual sensitivity in autism and warrants further investigation.

Why am I overwhelmed by bright lights? The behavioural mechanisms of post-stroke visual hypersensitivity

After stroke, patients can experience visual hypersensitivity, an increase in their sensitivity for visual stimuli as compared to their state prior to the stroke. Candidate behavioural mechanisms for these subjective symptoms are atypical bottom-up sensory processing and impaired selective attention, but empirical evidence is currently lacking. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between post-stroke visual hypersensitivity and sensory thresholds, sensory processing speed, and selective attention using computational modelling of behavioural data. During a whole/partial report task, participants (51 stroke patients, 76 orthopedic patients, and 77 neurotypical adults) had to correctly identify a single target letter that was presented alone (for 17–100 ms) or along a distractor (for 83ms). Performance on this task was used to estimate the sensory threshold, sensory processing speed, and selective attention abilities of each participant. In the stroke population, both on a group and individual level, there was evidence for impaired selective attention and -to a lesser extent- lower sensory thresholds in patients with post-stroke visual hypersensitivity as compared to neurotypical adults, orthopedic patients, or stroke patients without post-stroke sensory hypersensitivity. These results provide a significant advancement in our comprehension of post-stroke visual hypersensitivity and can serve as a catalyst for further investigations into the underlying mechanisms of sensory hypersensitivity after other types of acquired brain injury as well as post-injury hypersensitivity for other sensory modalities.

The dynamics of statistical learning in autism – exploratory research

IntroductionIn the context of developmental disorders, it is frequently observed that atypical processes may yield seemingly unimpaired behavioural outcomes. Research has shown that children and adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have intact statistical learning performance. Recent studies have indicated that learning can happen not only during practice but during ultrashort rests between practice blocks (that is, ultrafast offline learning) but no study to date examined these dynamics in ASD.ObjectivesThis research aimed to unravel the effect of ASD on learning during and between blocks, also known as online and offline improvement.MethodsWe conducted a series of research with three different samples: 1) ASD children (N = 27), 2) ASD adults (N = 42), and 3) neurotypical adults with distinct positions on the autism spectrum, i.e., the severity of autistic traits (N = 174). Participants performed the Alternating Serial Reaction Time task, allowing us to measure statistical learning (the extraction of statistical knowledge) and general skill learning (speed-up regardless of probabilities) separately.ResultsIndividual differences in online and offline improvements were observed. Results of individual studies further confirmed by meta-analysis performed on the three above-mentioned datasets show that neither ASD nor the severity of autistic traits influences the dynamics of learning.Conclusions Our findings suggest that, not only learning but also the dynamics of acquisition of statistical knowledge are intact in autism.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Indistinguishable behavioural and neural correlates of perceptual self-other distinction in autistic and neurotypical adults

Previous research has suggested that self-bias (i.e., enhanced cognitive processing of self-versus other-relevant information) may be atypical in autism spectrum conditions (ASC), perhaps due to difficulties with self-other distinction. However, empirical evidence for this is inconsistent, and the neural basis of processing differences remains unknown. We present two experiments that aimed to test perceptual self-bias and familiarity effects in ASC using a perceptual-association task. Participants were asked to distinguish face/label associations of the self from those of other people of differing levels of familiarity (i.e., friend vs stranger). Experiment 1 took an individual differences approach by testing whether behavioural self-bias is associated with the number of autistic traits in a neurotypical adult sample (N = 59). Experiment 2 took a case–control approach by testing whether behavioural self-bias and associated ERP responses differ between neurotypical (N = 27) and autistic (N = 30) adults. Across both experiments, behavioural results showed that participants experienced a self-bias (self > friend and stranger) and a familiarity effect (e.g., friend > stranger); neither effect was affected by the number of autistic traits or autism diagnosis. In Experiment 2, analysis of N1, N2, and P3 ERP components revealed a typical self-bias in both groups (self distinct from friend and stranger), and only the autistic group showed evidence of a familiarity effect (N2 more negative-going for stranger than friend). The findings are discussed in relation to self-other distinction ability, and the relevance of other neuropsychological and psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and alexithymia are also considered.

Causal functional maps of brain rhythms in working memory

Human working memory is a key cognitive process that engages multiple functional anatomical nodes across the brain. Despite a plethora of correlative neuroimaging evidence regarding the working memory architecture, our understanding of critical hubs causally controlling overall performance is incomplete. Causal interpretation requires cognitive testing following safe, temporal, and controllable neuromodulation of specific functional anatomical nodes. Such experiments became available in healthy humans with the advance of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). Here, we synthesize findings of 28 placebo-controlled studies (in total, 1,057 participants) that applied frequency-specific noninvasive stimulation of neural oscillations and examined working memory performance in neurotypical adults. We use a computational meta-modeling method to simulate each intervention in realistic virtual brains and test reported behavioral outcomes against the stimulation-induced electric fields in different brain nodes. Our results show that stimulating anterior frontal and medial temporal theta oscillations and occipitoparietal gamma rhythms leads to significant dose-dependent improvement in working memory task performance. Conversely, prefrontal gamma modulation is detrimental to performance. Moreover, we found distinct spatial expression of theta subbands, where working memory changes followed orbitofrontal high-theta modulation and medial temporal low-theta modulation. Finally, all these results are driven by changes in working memory accuracy rather than processing time measures. These findings provide a fresh view of the working memory mechanisms, complementary to neuroimaging research, and propose hypothesis-driven targets for the clinical treatment of working memory deficits.

White matter associations with spelling performance.

Multiple neurocognitive processes are involved in the highly complex task of producing written words. Yet, little is known about the neural pathways that support spelling in healthy adults. We assessed the associations between performance on a difficult spelling-to-dictation task and microstructural properties of language-related white matter pathways, in a sample of 73 native English-speaking neurotypical adults. Participants completed a diffusion magnetic resonance imaging scan and a cognitive assessment battery. Using constrained spherical deconvolution modeling and probabilistic tractography, we reconstructed dorsal and ventral white matter tracts of interest, bilaterally, in individual participants. Spelling associations were found in both dorsal and ventral stream pathways. In high-performing spellers, spelling scores significantly correlated with fractional anisotropy (FA) within the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus, a ventral stream pathway. In low-performing spellers, spelling scores significantly correlated with FA within the third branch of the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, a dorsal pathway. An automated analysis of spelling errors revealed that high- and low- performing spellers also differed in their error patterns, diverging primarily in terms of the orthographic distance between their errors and the correct spelling, compared to the phonological plausibility of their spelling responses. The results demonstrate the complexity of the neurocognitive architecture of spelling. The distinct white matter associations and error patterns detected in low- and high- performing spellers suggest that they rely on different cognitive processes, such that high-performing spellers rely more on lexical-orthographic representations, while low-performing spellers rely more on phoneme-to-grapheme conversion.

A preliminary examination of regressive eye movements to content and function words when people with aphasia and neurotypical adults read narratives

ABSTRACT Background & Aims Eye-tracking technology provides a mechanism to explore regressive fixation behaviors to words constituting specific categories (i.e., content and function words) when people with aphasia (PWA) and neurotypical adults (NA) read multi-sentence narratives. Examining regressive eye movements to words comprising different categories allows for further discernment of intact and altered fixation behaviors that may contribute to the future development of interventions and supports. Methods Eight PWA and eight NAs read paragraph-length narratives while having eye movements tracked. Analyzed variables were the average log-transformed regression rate per content and function word; average duration of regressions to content and function words; and, among content words, average log-transformed regression rate per noun, verb, and modifier. Results Both participant groups exhibited significantly higher average regression rates per content than function word. PWA exhibited longer average fixation durations to content than function words, while NA exhibited no word type difference. PWA exhibited individual differences in regression rates to nouns, verbs, and modifiers, even though no significant differences occurred per content word type. Among NAs, only the mean regression rate between nouns and modifiers differed significantly. Conclusions Both PWA and NAs exhibit more frequent relative regressions to content than function words. This suggests that PWA retain awareness of the value of content words for conveying meaning. Distinct regression rates per type of content word suggest that some PWA may experience greater difficulty comprehending specific content word subtypes. Further individualized assessment using eye-tracking technology will advance understanding about reading comprehension strengths and challenges among PWA.

Gesture profiles distinguish primary progressive aphasia variants: a preliminary study

ABSTRACT Background Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive language deficits. The main variants of PPA – semantic (svPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), and nonfluent (nfvPPA) – can be challenging to distinguish. Limb apraxia often co-occurs with PPA, but it is unclear whether PPA variants are associated with different gesture deficits. Prior evidence from stroke indicates that temporal lobe lesions are associated with reduced benefit from meaning in gesture performance. Temporal lesions are also associated with greater deficits in hand postures compared to arm kinematics in gesture imitation. Aims We tested the hypothesis that svPPA, who primarily exhibit temporal lobe atrophy, would differentially show this pattern. In addition, we predicted that as a group, individuals with PPA would more accurately produce meaningful than meaningless gestures and kinematic components than hand postures, as found in neurotypical adults and individuals with stroke. Methods & Procedures Participants with PPA completed meaningful and meaningless gesture imitation tasks. Performance was scored for hand posture and arm kinematic components. Bayesian mixed-effect models examined trial-level gesture imitation accuracy, while controlling for dementia severity and random effects of subjects and items. Fixed effects included an interaction between PPA variant, task condition/meaning, and gesture component. Outcomes & Results We found a critical interaction between PPA variant, meaning, and gesture component. In particular, unlike lvPPA and nfvPPA, svPPA subjects’ hand postures failed to benefit from gesture meaning. This preliminary research extends prior findings on the role of the temporal lobe in action representations associated with manipulable objects, and is among the first to demonstrate distinct gesture imitation patterns between PPA variants. Conclusions Characterizing gesture deficits in PPA may help inform diagnostics, compensatory communication strategies, and models of praxis.

Brief Report: Atypical Temporal Sensitivity in Coarticulation in Autism: Evidence from Sibilant-Vowel Interaction in Cantonese.

Atypicalities in the prosodic aspects of speech are commonly considered in clinical assessments of autism. While there is an increasing number of studies using objective measures to assess prosodic deficits, such studies have primarily focused on the intonational and rhythmic aspects of prosody.Little is known about prosodic deficits that are reflected at the segmental level, despite the strong connection between prosody and segmental realization. This study examines the nature of sibilant-vowel coarticulation among male adult native speakers of Cantonese with autism and those without. Fifteen Cantonese-speaking autistic (ASD) adults (mean age = 25years) and 23 neuro-typical (NT) adults (mean age = 20years) participated. Each participant read aloud 42 syllables with a sibilant onset in carrier phrase. Spectral means and variance, skewness and kurtosiswere measured, and regressed by vocalicrounding (rounded vs. unrounded), cohort (ASD vs. NT), sibilantduration, and articulationrate. Whileneurotypical participants exhibit sibilant-vowel coarticulation that are sensitive to variationin sibilant duration, autistic participants show no sensitivity to segmental temporalchanges. These findings point to the potential for atypicalities in prosody-segment interaction as an important characteristic of autistic speech.

Measurement of synaptic density in Down syndrome using PET imaging: a pilot study

Down syndrome (DS) is the most prevalent genetic cause of intellectual disability, resulting from trisomy 21. Recently, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has been used to image synapses in vivo. The motivation for this pilot study was to investigate whether synaptic density in low functioning adults with DS can be evaluated using the PET radiotracer [11C]UCB-J. Data were acquired from low functioning adults with DS (n = 4) and older neurotypical (NT) adults (n = 37). Motion during the scans required the use of a 10-minute acquisition window for the calculation of synaptic density using SUVR50–60,CS which was determined to be a suitable approximation for specific binding in this analysis using dynamic data from the NT group. Of the regions analyzed a large effect was observed when comparing DS and NT hippocampus and cerebral cortex synaptic density as well as hippocampus and cerebellum volumes. In this pilot study, PET imaging of [11C]UCB-J was successfully completed and synaptic density measured in low functioning DS adults. This work provides the basis for studies where synaptic density may be compared between larger groups of NT adults and adults with DS who have varying degrees of baseline cognitive status.

Sensory Gating in the Auditory System: Classical and Novel Stimulus Paradigms.

Sensory gating is a phenomenon where the cortical response to the second stimulus in a pair of identical stimuli is inhibited. It is most often assessed in a conditioning-testing paradigm. Both active and passive neuronal mechanisms have been implicated in sensory gating. The present study aimed to assess if sensory gating is caused by an active neural mechanism associated with stimulus redundancy. The study was carried out on 20 young neurotypical adults. We assessed the gating phenomenon using identical and nonidentical stimuli pairs presented in an electrophysiological conditioning-testing paradigm. We hypothesized that the novel stimulus in the nonidentical stimulus pair would not exhibit the sensory gating effects (reduction in the amplitude of cortical potentials to the second stimuli in the pair), owing to stimulus novelty. Contrary to our expectations, the response analyses of the cortical auditory evoked potentials revealed that adults gated repetitive and novel stimuli similarly. The findings are discussed in relation to the significance of methodological factors in evaluating sensory gating. We believe that additional research using oddball presentation of novel stimuli along with appropriate analysis methods is necessary before drawing any conclusions on the mechanisms underlying sensory gating.

Sex-differential patterns of neuropsychological functioning in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

BackgroundThe sex-differential prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) varies across the lifespan, but little is known about sex differences in executive functions in adults with ADHD. MethodsWe assessed 261 adults, aged 18–40 years, diagnosed with ADHD (170 males [assigned at birth], aged 25.81 ± 5.49; 91 females, aged 27.76 ± 5.42) and 308 neurotypical adults (176 males, aged 24.62 ± 5.14; 132 female, aged 25.37 ± 5.42) via psychiatric interviews to confirm ADHD and other psychiatric diagnoses. They were assessed by the Cambridge Neuropsychological Testing Automated Battery (CANTAB) on Reaction Time (arousal/processing speed), Rapid Visual Information Processing (sustained attention), Spatial Span (spatial memory), Spatial Working Memory, Intradimentional/Extradimensional Shift (set-shifting), and Stocking of Cambridge (spatial planning). The primary analyses were adjusted for age, full-scale IQ, and co-occurring psychiatric conditions. ResultsAdults with ADHD had various co-occurring psychiatric conditions without sex differences in ADHD-neurotypical differences. Both adult males and females with ADHD performed poorer in all CANTAB tasks than same-sex neurotypical adults. Significant sex-moderating effects were observed in neuropsychological performance, including greater ADHD-neurotypical differences in arousal for females than males and in location memory for spatial tasks in males than females. ConclusionThere were no sex-moderating effects in the presence of co-occurring psychiatric conditions in adult ADHD. However, there were sex-moderating effects on how ADHD related to neuropsychological functioning in adulthood. ADHD was associated with more challenges in arousal/processing speed in females and more challenges in strategy use or inhibition in spatial memory in males.

Transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation improves sensory performance in humans: a randomized controlled crossover pilot study

Accurate senses depend on high-fidelity encoding by sensory receptors and error-free processing in the brain. Progress has been made towards restoring damaged sensory receptors. However, methods for on-demand treatment of impaired central sensory processing are scarce. Prior invasive studies demonstrated that continuous vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in rodents can activate the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system to rapidly improve central sensory processing. Here, we investigated whether transcutaneous VNS improves sensory performance in humans. We conducted three sham-controlled experiments, each with 12 neurotypical adults, that measured the effects of transcutaneous VNS on metrics of auditory and visual performance, and heart rate variability (HRV). Continuous stimulation was delivered to cervical (tcVNS) or auricular (taVNS) branches of the vagus nerve while participants performed psychophysics tasks or passively viewed a display. Relative to sham stimulation, tcVNS improved auditory performance by 37% (p = 0.00052) and visual performance by 23% (p = 0.038). Participants with lower performance during sham conditions experienced larger tcVNS-evoked improvements (p = 0.0040). Lastly, tcVNS increased HRV during passive viewing, corroborating vagal engagement. No evidence for an effect of taVNS was observed. These findings validate the effectiveness of tcVNS in humans and position it as a method for on-demand interventions of impairments associated with central sensory processing dysfunction.

Can group membership modulate the social abilities of autistic people? An intergroup bias in smile perception

Autistic adults struggle to reliably differentiate genuine and posed smiles. Intergroup bias is a promising factor that may modulate smile discrimination performance, which has been shown in neurotypical adults, and which could highlight ways to make social interactions easier. However, it is not clear whether this bias also exists in autistic people. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate this in autism using a minimal group paradigm. Seventy-five autistic and sixty-one non-autistic adults viewed videos of people making genuine or posed smiles and were informed (falsely) that some of the actors were from an in-group and others were from an out-group. The ability to identify smile authenticity of in-group and out-group members and group identification were assessed. Our results revealed that both groups seemed equally susceptible to ingroup favouritism, rating ingroup members as more genuine, but autistic adults also generally rated smiles as less genuine and were less likely to identify with ingroup members. Autistic adults showed reduced sensitivity to the different smile types but the absence of an intergroup bias in smile discrimination in both groups seems to indicate that membership can only modulate social judgements but not social abilities. These findings suggest a reconsideration of past findings that might have misrepresented the social judgements of autistic people through introducing an outgroup disadvantage, but also a need for tailored support for autistic social differences that emphasizes similarity and inclusion between diverse people.

Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Persons with Alexia and Aphasia

ABSTRACT Purpose This study examined word list and connected text oral reading fluency of persons with alexia and aphasia and whether fluency predicts reading comprehension abilities. Method Twelve individuals with chronic alexia and aphasia and twelve neurotypical, age- and education-matched individuals read aloud real and non word reading lists and paragraphs to elicit measures of fluency. Participants answered comprehension questions following the paragraphs. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze fluency and comprehension. Results Neurotypical adults read significantly more fluently than persons with alexia and aphasia for word lists and paragraphs. For both participant groups, comprehension was not found to be significantly influenced by oral non word list fluency, oral real word list fluency, or oral paragraph reading fluency. Conclusions Though results are interpreted with caution due to study limitations, the study provides an initial framework for characterizing fluency and comprehension of oral single word list and oral paragraph reading in persons with alexia and aphasia. Clinical implications include caution with use of list reading for assessing reading ability, as well as the need for better assessments for diagnosing alexia.

Atypical alpha band microstates produced during eyes-closed resting state EEG in autism

Electroencephalogram (EEG) microstates, which represent quasi-stable patterns of scalp topography, are a promising tool that has the temporal resolution to study atypical spatial and temporal networks in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While current literature suggests microstates are atypical in ASD, their clinical utility, i.e., relationship with the core behavioural characteristics of ASD, is not fully understood. The aim of this study was to examine microstate parameters in ASD, and examine the relationship between these parameters and core behavioural characteristics in ASD. We compared duration, occurrence, coverage, global explained variance percentage, global field power and spatial correlation of EEG microstates between autistic and neurotypical (NT) adults. Modified k-means cluster analysis was used on eyes-closed, resting state EEG from 30 ASD (10 females, 28.97 ± 9.34 years) and 30 age-equated NT (13 females, 29.33 ± 8.88 years) adults. Five optimal microstates, A to E, were selected to best represent the data. Five microstate maps explaining 80.44% of the NT and 78.44% of the ASD data were found. The ASD group was found to have atypical parameters of microstate A, C, D, and E. Of note, all parameters of microstate C in the ASD group were found to be significantly less than NT. While parameters of microstate D, and E were also found to significantly correlate with subscales of the Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale – Revised (RAADS-R), these findings did not survive a Bonferroni Correction. These findings, in combination with previous findings, highlight the potential clinical utility of EEG microstates and indicate their potential value as a neurophysiologic marker that can be further studied.

Strategy use and its evolvement in word list learning: a replication study.

Spontaneous strategy employment is important for memory performance, but systematic research on strategy use and within-task evolvement is limited. This online study aimed to replicate three main findings by Waris and colleagues in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2021): in word-list learning, spontaneous strategy use (1) predicts better task performance, (2) stabilizes along the task, and (3) increases during the first two task blocks. We administered a shortened version of their original real-word list-learning task to 209 neurotypical adults. Their first finding was partly replicated: manipulation strategies (grouping, visualization, association, narrative, other strategy) but not maintenance strategies (rehearsal/repetition, selective focus) were associated with superior word recall. The second finding on the decrease in strategy changers over task blocks was replicated. The third finding turned out to be misguided: neither our nor the original study showed task-initial increase in strategy use in the real-word learning condition. Our results confirm the important role of spontaneous strategies in understanding memory performance and the existence of task-initial dynamics in strategy employment. They support the general conclusions by Waris and colleagues: task demands can trigger strategy use even in a familiar task like learning a list of common words, and evolution of strategy use during a memory task reflects cognitive skill learning.