高功能孤独症儿童表情面孔工作记忆的损害特征

Deficit of working memory on emotional faces in children with high-functioning autism

目的了解高功能孤独症儿童表情面孔工作记忆特点,并探讨其与表情识别能力之间的关系。方法选取19例6.5~12岁高功能孤独症儿童（HFA组）及19例年龄、性别匹配的正常发育儿童（TD组）,完成表情面孔延迟样本匹配任务及表情命名任务;比较两组儿童表情面孔工作记忆水平,并进一步分析表情面孔工作记忆与表情识别的相关性。结果与TD组相比,HFA组的总体表情面孔工作记忆正确率较低（76.23%vs 87.29%,P=0.026）、反应时较长（1 488.50ms vs 1 157.40ms,P=0.001）,两组儿童高兴面孔工作记忆正确率并无明显差异（P〉0.05）。HFA组表情面孔工作记忆正确率与表情命名正确率呈正相关（P〈0.05）,TD组表情面孔工作记忆反应时与表情命名反应时呈正相关（P〈0.05）。结论高功能孤独症儿童存在特定表情面孔工作记忆能力不足;其表情识别能力受损可能与表情面孔工作记忆能力不足有关。

Objective To examine the deficit of working memory on emotional faces in children with high-functioning autism （HFA） and analyze the relationship of working memory on emotional faces and the ability of facial expression recognition. Methods Nineteen children （aged 6.5-12 years old） with HFA and nineteen typically developing （TD） children matched with age and gender were recruited. To evaluate the abilities of working memory on emotional faces and facial ex- pression recognition, all the children were required to complete the facial emotion delayed match-to-sample task and facial ex- pression naming task. Results Children in HFA group showed lower accurate rates and longer reaction times in the facial emotion delayed match-to-sample task, while comparing to TD group. But no statistical difference was showed in the accurate rates of working memory on happy faces between two groups. There was positive correlation between the accurate rates of facial emotion delayed match-to sample task and facial expression naming task in HFA group,and positive correlation was showed in the reaction times of these two tasks for TD group. Conclusions Results of this study suggest the impairments of working memory on emotional faces in children with HFA. It＇s possible that the deficit of working memory on emotional faces is one of the important factors leading to the emotion cognition deficit in children with HFA.