Neural reinstatement of context memory in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with episodic memory impairment. However, episodic memories include a variety of contextual details, and it is difficult to solely rely on behavioral data to assess how specifically (i.e. event-specific reinstatement) an event is remembered. We applied encoding-retrieval representational similarity (ERS) analysis to EEG data to assess event-specific ERS for object-context associations in a sample of 34 adults (17 with, 17 without ASD). Participants studied objects presented alongside 2 contextual features: scene/color, and attention was directed toward one object-context relationship. At retrieval, memory was assessed for the object and both contexts. Behavioral results revealed no group differences in item or context memory performance. ERS results revealed group temporal differences in reinstatement. Results may indicate differences in both encoding (i.e. fewer perceptual details) and retrieval (i.e. ineffectively skipping through memory fragments) in ASD and should be further investigated in studies modulating the perceptual detail required for memory decisions. Results highlight the utility of ERS as a methodology used to evaluate episodic reinstatement even in the absence of behavioral differences in memory performance.