Abstract
The integration of prior expectations, sensory information, and environmental volatility is proposed to be atypical in Autism Spectrum Disorder, yet few studies have tested these predictive processes in active movement tasks. To address this gap in the research, we used an immersive virtual-reality racquetball paradigm to explore how visual sampling behaviours and movement kinematics are adjusted in relation to unexpected, uncertain, and volatile changes in environmental statistics. We found that prior expectations concerning ball ‘bounciness’ affected sensorimotor control in both autistic and neurotypical participants, with all individuals using prediction-driven gaze strategies to track the virtual ball. However, autistic participants showed substantial differences in visuomotor behaviour when environmental conditions were more volatile. Specifically, uncertainty-related performance difficulties in these conditions were accompanied by atypical movement kinematics and visual sampling responses. Results support proposals that autistic people overestimate the volatility of sensory environments, and suggest that context-sensitive differences in active inference could explain a range of movement-related difficulties in autism.
Highlights
The integration of prior expectations, sensory information, and environmental volatility is proposed to be atypical in Autism Spectrum Disorder, yet few studies have tested these predictive processes in active movement tasks
Bayes-optimal performers should increase the sampling of incoming sensory information and show a reduced distinction between expected and unexpected ball tracking behaviours. As both conditions contained the same overall proportion of expected trials (66.67%), general movement and visual sampling strategies could be examined through averaging data retrieved from inbuilt VR hand- and eye-tracking technology
We examined how sensorimotor control is dynamically adjusted in autism, using a novel and immersive VR paradigm which systematically varied environmental volatility over time
Summary
The integration of prior expectations, sensory information, and environmental volatility is proposed to be atypical in Autism Spectrum Disorder, yet few studies have tested these predictive processes in active movement tasks. When performing an action like hitting a tennis ball, the brain will regulate motor responses (e.g., movement kinematics) and sampling behaviours (e.g., gaze responses) according to both incoming sensory cues and prior beliefs (e.g., about gravity, ball b ounciness[14]) Such dynamic sources of information are weighted according to their uncertainty, or precision, which is directly proportional to learning rate[15]. Various researchers have highlighted the role of impaired predictive processing in autism (see review[18]) Though conflicting in their precise explanations, most ‘simple’ Bayesian frameworks attest to an attenuated influence of prior expectations on autistic perception and action[19,20]. These inconsistent findings undermine proposals that prior expectations are generically attenuated in autism
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