http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_autism.html
In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that autism affects the functioning of virtually the entire brain, not just those brain areas involved with social interactions, communication behaviours and reasoning abilities, as had been previously thought. It has been discovered that people with autism have difficulty in many other areas, including balance, movement, memory and visual perception skills, complex tasks which involve different areas of the brain working together. It is perhaps better seen, then, as a disorder in which the various parts of the brain have difficulty working together to accomplish complex (as distinct from basic) tasks.
Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses develop, connect and organize, although exactly how this occurs is not well understood, and there does not appear to be a clear unifying mechanism at either the molecular, cellular or systems level. It appears to result from developmental factors that affect many or all functional brain systems, and to disturb the timing of brain development.
One popular theory, known as executive dysfunction, hypothesizes that autistic behaviour results, at least in part, from deficits in working memory, planning, inhibition and other forms of executive function. Certainly, poor short-term memory (as opposed to long-term memory, which may actually be normal or better than normal) is a common complaint among autism sufferers, although to what extent this results from attention deficits is not clear.
Some studies have suggested that there may be selective damage to the limbic-prefrontal episodic memory system in some people with autism, especially in the self-conscious memory of personally experienced events.
Washington, DC--If children with autism can't see the forest for the trees, that may be partly because the burden of processing all those trees at once makes it harder to lock in the scene. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System have found that children with autism differ from other children in two specific memory capabilities. The research is in January's Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
There’s so much variance in autism that sometimes it’s difficult to connect with others having similar problems. Some autistic individuals have food allergies and gut problems, some have seizures, and some autistic people have more than one disorder piled onto their autism. The possible problems that can accompany autism seem infinite, and yet with all the variances on the spectrum I have not come across any mention of memory loss. I have been searching for information on memory loss in autism for quite some time, but alas, I have been unsuccessful in my quest. It occurred to me that Matt may be alone in this aspect of his autism. Is he?
Many autistics have a great memory. Matt has always had a wonderful ability to retain scientific facts and thousands of snippets from history. He can learn how to do something very quickly by recalling directions almost word for word. He has had this gift as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, his memory for people, places and events of his childhood are gone – completely gone. He has no memory of being a young child and cannot recall an instance of his life prior to the age of 10. Is this because Matt, my son, is moderate / severe on the autism spectrum? It’s not easy finding others with the same degree of autism to ask. Most autistic people I come across on my search are those on the milder side. They are articulate, in both speech and in their writing. None have ever mentioned memory loss – not one. I assume that if I actually met someone more like Matt, someone very autistic, that they would have greater difficulty in their ability to converse or write or possibly even understand my question, but I would at least attempt to ask it. I know I could be wrong, but I may never get the chance as the more severe cases are still quite rare. If this is the case, that moderate to severe autistic individuals can suffer memory loss of their childhood, then I feel it’s something I need to put out there if only to make more people aware that there is even a problem in this area.
As always if you want to email me about anything please feel free to do so at barbgadway@live.com Hopefully these websites help you to understand your love with Autism and just what is happening in their memory. HUGS!!!! Have a super blessed day all!!!!
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