Intact ultrafast memory consolidation in adults with autism and neurotypicals with autism traits.

Abstract

The processes of learning and memory consolidation are closely interlinked. Therefore, to uncover statistical learning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), an in-depth examination of memory consolidation is essential. Studies of the last five years have revealed that learning can take place not only during practice but also during micro (<1 min) rests between practice blocks, termed micro offline gains. The concept of micro offline gains refers to performance improvements during short rest periods interspersed with practice, rather than during practice itself. This phenomenon is crucial for the acquisition and consolidation of motor skills and has been observed across various learning contexts. Numerous studies on learning in autism have identified intact learning but there has been no investigation into this fundamental aspect of memory consolidation in autistic individuals to date. We conducted two studies with two different samples: 1) neurotypical adults with distinct levels of autistic traits (N = 166) and 2) ASD-diagnosed adults (n_ASD = 22, n_NTP = 20). Participants performed a well-established probabilistic learning task, allowing us to measure two learning processes separately in the same experimental design: statistical learning (i.e., learning probability-based regularities) and visuomotor performance (i.e., speed-up regardless of probabilities). Here we show considerable individual differences in offline (between blocks) changes during statistical learning and between-blocks improvement during visuomotor performance. However, cumulative evidence from individual studies suggests that the degree of autistic traits and ASD status are not associated with micro offline gains, suggesting that, like statistical learning, rapid memory consolidation is intact.