[PS-2.10] Neural adaptation underlying implicit statistical learning is slower and longer in autism

Granot , S. . ¹ , Jaffe-Dax , S. . ² & Ahissar, M. ¹

1 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2 Princeton University

Recent behavioral studies (Lieder et al. NN,2019) found that perceptual judgments of individuals with autism (ASD) rely more on earlier longer-term information than on recent statistics (<3-4 sec) compared with age and reasoning matched neurotypical individuals. Yet, the neural mechanism underlying these behavioural findings is unknown. Based on previous ERP studies with dyslexia (Jaffe-Dax et al. eLife 2017) we hypothesized that abnormal dynamics of implicit statistical learning would be associated with abnormal dynamics of cortical adaptation. We measured performance and ERP simultaneously during serial tone discrimination in 4 blocks that differed in their Inter-Trial-Intervals (1.5, 3, 6 and 9 seconds). We assessed both the dynamics of ERP adaption and that of the implicit recent memory (revealed through analysis of perceptual biases). We found that individuals with ASD had slower onset and longer duration of neural adaptation, and the dynamics of their memory had comparable temporal characteristics - kicking in slower and lasting longer. Similar differences in adaptation dynamics were found when participants were watching a silent movie. These findings suggest that individual with ASD are slower to integrate environment statistics and update their sensory priors. Yet, they retain the acquired information for longer durations compared with neurotypical individuals.