Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37599885›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2023

Cognitive control in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: a study with event-related potentials.

Laura Möde, Anna Borgolte, Erfan Ghaneirad, Mandy Roy, Christopher Sinke, Gregor R Szycik, Stefan Bleich, Daniel Wiswede

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Cognitive Profile of Autism and Intellectual Disorder in Wechsler's Scales: Meta-Analysis.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Laura MödeDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Anna BorgolteDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Erfan GhaneiradDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Mandy RoyAsklepios, Psychiatric Hospital Ochsenzoll, Hamburg, Germany.
Christopher SinkeDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Gregor R SzycikDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Stefan BleichDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Daniel WiswedeDepartment of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: Little is known about cognitive control in adults with high-functioning forms of autism spectrum disorder because previous research focused on children and adolescents. Cognitive control is crucial to monitor and readjust behavior after errors to select contextually appropriate reactions. The congruency effect and conflict adaptation are measures of cognitive control. Post-error slowing, error-related negativity and error positivity provide insight into behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of error processing. In children and adolescent with autism spectrum disorder deficits in cognitive control and error processing have been shown by changes in post-error slowing, error-related negativity and error positivity in the flanker task. Methods: We performed a modified Eriksen flanker task in 17 adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and 17 healthy controls. As behavioral measures of cognitive control and error processing, we included reaction times and error rates to calculate congruency effects, conflict adaptation, and post-error slowing. Event-related potentials namely error-related negativity and error positivity were measured to assess error-related brain activity. Results: Both groups of participants showed the expected congruency effects demonstrated by faster and more accurate responses in congruent compared to incongruent trials. Healthy controls exhibited conflict adaptation as they obtained performance benefits after incongruent trials whereas patients with autism spectrum disorder did not. The expected slowing in reaction times after errors was observed in both groups of participants. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated enhanced electrophysiological error-processing compared to healthy controls indicated by increased error-related negativity and error positivity difference amplitudes. Discussion: Our findings show that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder do not show the expected upregulation of cognitive control in response to conflicts. This finding implies that previous experiences may have a reduced influence on current behavior in these patients which possibly contributes to less flexible behavior. Nevertheless, we observed intact behavioral reactions after errors indicating that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder can flexibly adjust behavior in response to changed environmental demands when necessary. The enhancement of electrophysiological error-processing indicates that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder demonstrate an extraordinary reactivity toward errors reflecting increased performance monitoring in this subpopulation of autism spectrum disorder patients.

Indexed as

autismcognitive controlconflict adaptationERNflanker taskhigh-functioningPepost-error slowing

Identifiers

PMID37599885
PMCPMC10436303

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.