| [ pseudo-word acquisition > bisensory learning > semantic fluency & category organization > morphosyntactic development ] |
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| Bisensory Learning | |
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Social and communicative impairments are core diagnostic characteristics of autism. The Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis (IRH) predicts that processing and learning of information is facilitated when redundant cues or properties are perceived during multimodal stimulation. Previous studies of the normal population have demonstrated that response times are facilitated when two sensory modalities are utilized. Very little information is available about the processing of simultaneous bisensory information in the autistic population and its potential role in language and communicative impairments. The current study will use behavioral data and fMRI technology to investigate if the bimodal facilitory effects observed in typically developing young adults can also be seen in higher functioning individuals with autism. It is anticipated that individuals with autism will demonstrate reduced facilitory effects reflected in less enhanced BOLD activation in the visual and auditory cortices than controls during the bimodal task as compared to the unimodal tasks. As parietal and frontal lobe involvement may primarily affect visuospatial attention operations, the Modality Switching portion of the task will produce stronger BOLD activation in the parietal and frontal lobes for the control group than the autistic group. |