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Alteration of Attentional Blink in High Functioning Autism: A Pilot Study

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Abstract

Autism is characterized by deficits in attention. However, no study has investigated the dynamics of attentional processes in autistic patients yet. The attentional blink (AB) paradigm provides information about the temporal dynamics of attention in particular about the allocation and the duration of an attentional episode. We compared 11 high functioning autistic patients with 15 control participants on a classical AB task. Autistic patients exhibited a deficit in rapidly allocated attentional resources. Further investigations such as coupling AB evaluation with neuroimaging data and/or increasing the size of groups, would allow for investigating the neurobiological substrates of these AB alterations in autistic patients.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Guillaume Chaumet, Ken Knoblauch and Marina Walker for their helpful participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lab Imagerie Fonctionnelle et Moléculaire, CNRS UMR 5231, Université de Bordeaux 2, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33000, Bordeaux, France

    Marion Amirault, Isabelle Hesling, Michèle Allard, Manuel Bouvard & Willy Mayo

  2. Département de Psychiatrie infantile, Hôpital Charles Perrens, Bordeaux, France

    Kattalin Etchegoyhen

  3. Lab. Psychologie EA 4139, Université Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France

    Sandrine Delord, Sandrine Mendizabal, Caroline Kraushaar & Manuel Bouvard

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  1. Marion Amirault
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  2. Kattalin Etchegoyhen
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  9. Willy Mayo
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Amirault, M., Etchegoyhen, K., Delord, S. et al. Alteration of Attentional Blink in High Functioning Autism: A Pilot Study. J Autism Dev Disord 39, 1522–1528 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0821-5

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