A matter of precision? Scene imagery in individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

作者：Larissa L. Faustmann, Mareike Altgassen

摘要原文：The ability to create mental representations of scenes is essential for remembering, predicting, and imagining. In individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) this ability may be impaired. Considering that autistic characteristics such as weak central coherence or reduced communication abilities may disadvantage autistic participants in traditional imagery tasks, this study attempted to use a novel task design to measure the ability of scene imagery. Thirty high-functioning adults with ASD and 27 non-autistic matched control adults were asked to describe imagined fictitious scenes using two types of scene imagery tasks. In a free imagery task, participants were asked to imagine a scene based on a given keyword. In a guided imagery task, participants had to imagine a scene based on a detailed description of the scene. Additionally, narrative abilities were assessed using the Narrative Scoring Scheme. Statistical analyses revealed no group effects in the free and guided imagery of fictional scenes. Participants with ASD performed worse than control participants in the narrative task. Narrative abilities correlated positively with performance in both imagery tasks in the ASD group only. Hence, individuals with ASD seem to show as good imagery abilities as non-autistic individuals. The results are discussed in the light of the differences between imagery and imagination and possible gender differences.

摘要翻译：创建场景的心理表征的能力对于记忆、预测和想象至关重要。在患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的个体中，这种能力可能会受到损害。考虑到自闭症患者的特征，如中心连贯性较弱或沟通能力下降，可能会使自闭症参与者在传统表象任务中处于不利地位，本研究尝试使用一种新颖的任务设计来衡量场景表象的能力。 30 名患有 ASD 的高功能成年人和 27 名非自闭症匹配对照成年人被要求使用两种类型的场景意象任务来描述想象的虚构场景。在免费图像任务中，参与者被要求根据给定的关键字想象一个场景。在引导想象任务中，参与者必须根据场景的详细描述想象一个场景。此外，使用叙事评分方案评估叙事能力。统计分析显示，虚构场景的自由和引导意象不存在群体效应。自闭症谱系障碍参与者在叙事任务中的表现比对照组参与者差。仅自闭症谱系障碍组的叙事能力与两项意象任务的表现呈正相关。因此，自闭症患者似乎表现出与非自闭症患者一样好的想象能力。根据意象和想象之间的差异以及可能的性别差异对结果进行了讨论。