This study investigated the pupil Old/New effect in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typical development (TD). Participants studied verbal and visual meaningful and meaningless materials in black and white on a computer screen. Pupil sizes were measured while participants performed a Remember (episodic memory with context)/Know (semantic memory, no context) recognition memory test. ASD compared to TD individuals showed significantly reduced recognition rates for all materials. Both groups showed better memory for visual compared to verbal (picture superiority effect) and meaningful compared to meaningless materials. A pupil size ratio (pupil size for test item divided by baseline) for old (studied) and new (unstudied) materials indicated larger pupils for old compared to new materials only for the TD but not the ASD group. Pupil size in response to old versus new items was positively related to recognition accuracy, confirming that the pupil Old/New effect reflects a memory phenomenon in the ASD group. In addition, this study suggests an involvement of the noradrenergic neurotransmitter system in the abnormal hippocampal functioning in ASD. Implications of these findings, as well as their underlying neurophysiology, will be discussed in relation to current theories of memory in ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 627–640. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

中文翻译：

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成人自闭症谱系障碍的认知记忆的生理标记？-学生的旧/新效果。

这项研究调查了自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和典型发育（TD）个体中小学生的旧/新效应。参与者在计算机屏幕上以黑白方式研究了语言和视觉有意义且毫无意义的材料。在参与者进行“记住”（有情境的渐进式记忆）/“了解”（语义记忆，无情境）识别记忆测试的同时，测量学生的大小。与TD个人相比，ASD显示所有材料的识别率都大大降低。与言语（图片优势）相比，两组都表现出更好的视觉记忆力，而与无意义的材料相比，则有意义。旧的（研究的）和新的（未研究的）材料的瞳孔尺寸比（测试项目的瞳孔尺寸除以基线）表明，旧材料的瞳孔尺寸比新材料的瞳孔尺寸更大，而仅TD组而不是ASD组。学生对新旧项目反应的大小与识别准确度呈正相关，证实了小学生新旧效应反映了ASD组的记忆现象。此外，这项研究表明，去甲肾上腺素能神经递质系统参与了ASD异常的海马功能。这些发现的含义及其潜在的神经生理学将与ASD的当前记忆理论进行讨论。Autism Res 2020，13：627–640。©2019国际自闭症研究会，Wiley Periodicals，Inc.