Commentary: Perceptual learning in autism: over-specificity and possible remedies

Recent neuroscience studies with animal models of ASD strongly suggest that synaptic mechanisms (including synaptic plasticity) and cortical circuitry are atypical in these animals (Bourgeron, 2009, 2015); learning-related changes in neural connections are likely to also be abnormal (Leblanc and Fag...

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Published in:Frontiers in integrative neuroscience 2016-05, Vol.10, p.18-18
Main Authors: Mercado, 3rd, Eduardo, Church, Barbara A, Seccia, Amanda M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autism
Behavior modification
Neuroscience
Repetition
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Summary:Recent neuroscience studies with animal models of ASD strongly suggest that synaptic mechanisms (including synaptic plasticity) and cortical circuitry are atypical in these animals (Bourgeron, 2009, 2015); learning-related changes in neural connections are likely to also be abnormal (Leblanc and Fagiolini, 2011; Oberman et al., 2015). Given that adults with ASD showed less overall ability to perform the texture discrimination task, an alternative interpretation of Harris et al.'s findings is that the observed between-group variations in generalization reflected differences in discrimination difficulty, rather than effects of stimulus repetition across training trials (see Figure 1). [...]the training regimen that led to better performance, in which Harris and colleagues interspersed “dummy trials” to reduce neural adaptation to the target, contained as many target stimulus repetitions as the less effective training condition. [...]the number of stimulus repetitions experienced during training cannot explain any between-group differences.
ISSN:1662-5145
1662-5145
DOI:10.3389/fnint.2016.00018