Processing capacity in children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders.

This study sought to investigate whether the abnormally small P3 amplitudes observed in pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) are related to differences in processing capacity. PDD children and adolescents and their control groups participated in the study. Visual probe stimuli were presented durin...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 341 - 355
Autores principales: Hoeksma MR, Kemner C, Verbaten MN, van Engeland H
Formato: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Springer Nature Jun2004
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This study sought to investigate whether the abnormally small P3 amplitudes observed in pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) are related to differences in processing capacity. PDD children and adolescents and their control groups participated in the study. Visual probe stimuli were presented during an auditory task with two levels of difficulty. Event-related potentials (ERP) were measured from 62 electrodes during task performance. All groups showed amplitude increases to auditory stimuli with increasing task load. Controls showed expected smaller P3 amplitudes to visual probes, whereas PDD subjects did not. The results suggest that autistic subjects show abnormal capacity allocation. Some of these abnormalities may dissolve over time, while others remain into adolescence.