Spatial Working Memory in Asperger's Syndrome and in Patients with Focal Frontal and Temporal Lobe Lesions

doi:10.1006/brcg.1999.1093

Brain and Cognition

Volume 41, Issue 1, October 1999, Pages 9-26

https://doi.org/10.1006/brcg.1999.1093 Get rights and content

Abstract

Spatial working memory (SWM) was investigated in 15 patients with Asperger's syndrome (AS) comparing their performance to 18 age- and IQ-matched control subjects. An additional comparison was made with 20 unilateral frontal excision patients [9 right (RFL); 11 left (LFL)] and with 38 unilateral temporal lobectomy patients [18 right (RTL); 18 left (LTL)], the frontal and temporal lobe patients having separate matched control groups. SWM was tested using the Executive Golf Task, a test that also measures spatial strategy formation. The AS group showed a substantial deficit on SWM, but no impairment in strategy formation. The LFL showed the same pattern of impairment, but with a less substantial deficit. The RFL group showed a large deficit, but some of this was accounted for by a strategy formation impairment. Of the temporal lobe lesions groups, only the RTL group was impaired on SWM, but this group showed normal strategy formation. It was concluded that the SWM deficit in AS may reflect a more general difficulty in accessing different types of representations in order to guide voluntary behavior, providing at least a partial explanation for the executive deficits found in AS.

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^☆: Address correspondence to Robin G. Morris, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. E-mail: [email protected].

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Regular ArticleSpatial Working Memory in Asperger's Syndrome and in Patients with Focal Frontal and Temporal Lobe Lesions☆

Abstract

Neuropsychologia

Brain and Cognition

Neuropsychologia

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Cortex

Brain Research Bulletin

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Keeping track of a conversation: impairments in Alzheimer's disease

International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

A classification of hand preference by association analysis

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Non-verbal learning disabilities, pervasive developmental disorder—Should we care?

Journal of Child Neurology

Memory deficits in early infantile autism: Some similarities to the amnesic syndrome

British Journal of Psychology

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Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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British Journal of Clinical Psychology

A neurological model for childhood autism

Archives of Neurology

Cognitive and social development in children with prefrontal cortical lesions

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British Journal of Psychiatry

Mmemonic coding of visual space by neurons in the monkey's dorsolateral prefrontal cortex revealed by an oculomotor delayed-response task

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London B: Biological Science

Regular Article
Spatial Working Memory in Asperger's Syndrome and in Patients with Focal Frontal and Temporal Lobe Lesions☆