Our proposed research will investigate the relationship between cognitive dysfunction in adolescents and adults with infantile autism and various components of the ERP (event-related brain potential) which are known to be associated with cognitive processes in normal adolescents and adults. ERPs will be recorded from non-retarded individuals with autism (ages 13 to 30 years) and from matched normal controls using an array of scalp EEG electrodes. The visual and auditory ERP components which are associated with attention, orienting, and memory modification will be compared between these subject groups. We will explore the possibilities that non-retarded autistic people differ from normal in their cognitive functioning in these ways: (a) how they engage auditory and visual attention mechanisms; (b) how easily their attention may be disrupted by orienting events; (c) to what degree they are able to spontaneously generate hypotheses about future events based on past experience; and (d) to what degree they are able to attribute different levels of importance to different events. We will assess the possibility that the cognitive difficulties in autism may be different during auditory and visual processing. These possibilities may represent core deficits in autism.
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