Temporally Extended Self-awareness And Its Relationship With Theory Of Mind, Self-other Action Memory In Autism Spectrum Disorder

Temporally extended self-awareness incorporates multiple representations of past, present and future states of self. It involves awareness of one’s place and continued existence through time. Temporally extended self-awareness is a kind of higher-order self awareness.Few researches have done to explore temporally extended self-awareness in children with autism spectrum disorder. Previous results did not reach consensus because of experimental paradigm and subjects’age. The critical developing period of temporally extended self-awareness is from three to five years old. Theory of mind and self-other action memory developed quickly during this period. Although many researches supported that a close relationship between temporally extended self-awareness and theory of mind in theory, as well as temporally extended self-awareness and self-other action memory, there is not enough behavioral evidence to support this relationship in children with autism spectrum disorder so far.We explored temporally extended self-awareness in autistic children using extreme delayed self-recognition paradigm. What’s more, the relationship between temporally extended self-awareness and theory of mind was investigated, as well as the relationship between temporally extended self-awareness and self-other action memory. The study consists of two parts:(1)16children with autism spectrum disorder at58months mean mental age participated in research. A comparison group which consists of22typically developing children was settled. We explored temporally extended self-awareness in autism spectrum disorder using extreme delayed self-recognition paradigm. Results indicated that relative to typically developing children, children with autism spectrum disorder showed unattenuated performance on delayed self-recognition task. Both temporal concepts and temporal cognition of autism spectrum disorder were diminished. What’s more, children with autism spectrum disorder used fewer first personal pronouns to refer to their images than comparisons.(2)16children with autism spectrum disorder at58months mean mental age participated in research. Two comparisons were settled. One comparison consists of22typically developing children. The other consists of16children with metal retardation in order to control intelligence. Children with autism spectrum disorder and children with metal retardation were matched on verbal mental age and Raven scores. We explored theory of mind and self-other action memory in children with autism spectrum disorder using false belief task and picture card matching task respectively. Results indicated that children with autism spectrum disorder showed significant impairment in theory of mind and self-other action memory. No self-enactment effect was found. There was a correlation between temporally extended self-awareness and self-other source memory in typically developing children. Contrary to typically developing children, no correlation was found between temporally extended self-awareness and self-other source memory amongst children with autism spectrum disorder, neither between temporally extended self-awareness and theory of mind.This study not only showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had diminished temporally extended self-awareness, but also showed temporally extended self-awareness, theory of mind and self-other action memory were developing separately as a result of their impairment. This study was helpful for us to better understand the cognitive disorders of children with autism spectrum disorder. Thus, appropriate interventions can be made.