# Neurocognitive Mechanisms underlying Episodic Memory Functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2021 · $38,440

## Abstract

Project Summary
Children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show deficits in episodic memory, even when
they perform within the typical range in assessments of general intellectual functioning. However, no unifying
theory has been able to fully capture the nature of these deficits. Most of the currently available accounts
emphasize difficulties with complex cognitive abilities suggesting that fragmentary knowledge structures about
the self and the world may not provide sufficient foundation for children and adolescents with ASD to retain
detailed episodic memories. However, some of these memory difficulties may stem from altered visual
processing of basic features of events (e.g., information about event location). The proposed research plan
seeks to bridge the gap between the fields of episodic memory and visual processing in ASD, which are
believed to be atypical.
The proposed application is centered around testing the hypothesis that altered processing in the dorsal visual
processing stream is responsible for documented episodic retention for spatial information (Aim 1) and that the
behavioral consequences extend to temporal information, but do not extend to event features (e.g., event color
or shape) (Aim 2). The pursuit of these aims will provide the opportunity for training in functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI) techniques, experimental designs utilized in developmental cognitive neuroscience
research, atypical neuroanatomy, neural function in ASD, and potential translational applications of the
expected research findings.
Relevance for Mental Health. Adolescence is a time of significant cognitive and social change and it is
important to establish how those with ASD fare during this period since some evidence suggests that
symptoms intensify while other evidence suggests that they may subside. In this context, identifying areas of
impaired versus preserved cognitive functioning may be important to recognize aspects of vulnerability and
relative strength with implications for adaptive functioning.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10234869
- **Project number:** 1F31MH126621-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Lindsey Mooney
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $38,440
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-07-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10234869

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10234869, Neurocognitive Mechanisms underlying Episodic Memory Functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (1F31MH126621-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10234869. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*