Vocabulary Encoding and Retention in Autism via Social Cognition (VERAS) - PROJECT SUMMARY More than 2% of the population – 5.5 million adults – have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), with the challenges that stem from it, including theory of mind (ToM) and language impairments, extending across the lifespan. While ToM difficulties – challenges in computing perspectives of others – are a hallmark of ASD, language impairments, including in vocabulary, are present in over half the population. As vocabulary size correlates with vocational independence, mental health, and quality of life, any barrier to vocabulary growth can pose as a significant inhibitor to an autistic individual’s long-term well-being. Common word learning scenarios that mandate ToM skills to resolve reference ambiguities are one such likely barrier, both in terms of the initial mapping and long- term retention, and targeting or circumventing the ToM mechanisms inhibiting this a powerful route for intervention. However, little is understood about the role that ToM plays in novel word mapping and retention in autistic individuals, and the relationship between the ToM and memory networks during word learning has not been characterized in any population. This behavioral and neurological paucity keeps us from identifying a link between ToM skills and word learning in scenarios that should invoke them; such a link would be evidence that interventions that focus on alternate vocabulary acquisition routes would address current weaknesses and strengthening the ToM network would expand access to vocabulary learning scenarios in daily life rather than only during an intervention itself. Thus, this study will focus on autistic and neurotypical adults with the goal of accomplishing two aims. Aim 1 is to investigate word learning behavior and underlying neural mechanisms in adults with autism. Here, functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) will characterize the role of the ToM network and its connections to the memory network during initial mapping, immediate retrieval, and delayed retention of novel words via pragmatic inference, which requires ToM and inferential resolution, lexical inference, which requires inferential resolution but minimal ToM, and direct mapping, which requires minimal ToM or inferential resolution, in autistic vs neurotypical adults. Aim 2 is to determine the preferred word learning context for autistic individuals. Here, we will examine accuracy and reaction time during all three of contexts of Aim 1 for mapping, retrieval, and retention. Finally, we will examine the relationship between the neural underpinnings and the preferred word learning contexts of Aim 1 & 2. Vocabulary acquisition is the only language skill to remain malleable across the lifespan; as such, interventions that target the mechanisms that support it provide opportunities for increased vocabulary expansion in both autistic children and adults, and through this, increased independence, opportunities, and quality of life. This fellowship take place at Northeastern University in Boston, a hub of neuroimaging, language, and autism research, with goals of deepening fMRI expertise, learning community-engaged research practices, and expanding interdisciplinary technical and communication skills.
