“FLASHES OF MEMORY” TO BENEFIT PEOPLE WITH AUTISM – NEW RESEARCH FROM AN ISRAELI TEAM

Autism is a neurological and developmental condition that affects how a person communicates, interacts socially, perceives the environment, and learns.

Autism - Israeli New Research - (IMAGE COURTESY OF FREEPIK)

According to research conducted by an Israeli team, people with autism can learn new visual skills more effectively through brief “memory flashes” rather than through long sessions of repetitive study.

According to the researchers, the key to consolidating a new skill lies in rapid reminders lasting just a few seconds, capable of activating learning mechanisms without the need for hours of practice. These “memory flashes” proved not only as effective as prolonged revision sessions, but also useful in promoting the ability to transfer what has been learned to different contexts—an ability that people with autism often find challenging.

“Traditional teaching methods are still based on the idea that the more time spent practising, the better the results,” explained Professor Nitzan Censor, lead researcher of the study at Tel Aviv University (TAU). “We identified an alternative approach that uses brief exposures to a previously learned task to strengthen and generalise acquired skills,” he added. “We know that much of learning does not occur during formal training, but afterwards, through memory consolidation processes that are activated ‘offline’, such as during sleep.”

Building on these foundations, the researchers involved 30 adults with autism, asking them to learn how to identify the direction of lines that briefly appeared on a screen. The first day was devoted to the initial learning of the task, while on the following days participants were exposed only to short visual reminders lasting just a few seconds.

Despite the limited time devoted to the activity on subsequent days, their performance improved significantly, reaching the same levels as those who had spent much more time refining the same skill.

“There is no need to practise for long periods to consolidate a skill,” Censor emphasised. “It is enough to recall it for just a few seconds for the corresponding neural network to activate and for the brain to continue processing and strengthening what has been learned. The results show that brief visual stimuli can produce learning that is just as effective as that achieved through repeated exercises. Moreover, they allow for better generalisation of skills, even in new contexts.”

Considering that people with autism often struggle to transfer knowledge to different situations, this approach could prove particularly useful.

According to the researchers, these “memory flashes” could also find applications in neurological rehabilitation, promoting the rapid regeneration of impaired brain connections, including those affected by trauma.

Luciano Bassani