Abstract
When different images are presented to the eyes, the brain is faced with ambiguity, causing perceptual bistability: visual perception continuously alternates between the monocular images, a phenomenon called binocular rivalry. Many models of rivalry suggest that its temporal dynamics depend on mutual inhibition among neurons representing competing images. These models predict that rivalry should be different in autism, which has been proposed to present an atypical ratio of excitation and inhibition [the E/I imbalance hypothesis; Rubenstein & Merzenich, 2003]. In line with this prediction, some recent studies have provided evidence for atypical binocular rivalry dynamics in autistic adults. In this study, we examined if these findings generalize to autistic children. We developed a child‐friendly binocular rivalry paradigm, which included two types of stimuli, low‐ and high‐complexity, and compared rivalry dynamics in groups of autistic and age‐ and intellectual ability‐matched typical children. Unexpectedly, the two groups of children presented the same number of perceptual transitions and the same mean phase durations (times perceiving one of the two stimuli). Yet autistic children reported mixed percepts for a shorter proportion of time (a difference which was in the opposite direction to previous adult studies), while elevated autistic symptomatology was associated with shorter mixed perception periods. Rivalry in the two groups was affected similarly by stimulus type, and consistent with previous findings. Our results suggest that rivalry dynamics are differentially affected in adults and developing autistic children and could be accounted for by hierarchical models of binocular rivalry, including both inhibition and top‐down influences. Autism Res 2017. ©2017 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research Autism Res 2017, 10: 1096–1106. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Highlights
The phenomenon of binocular rivalry offers useful insights into the neural dynamics of perception [e.g., Blake, Brascamp, & Heeger, 2014]
Experimental evidence for the involvement of inhibition in binocular rivalry has been provided by MR Spectroscopy studies, which have demonstrated a strong relationship between GABA concentration in the primary human visual cortex and rivalry dynamics [Lunghi, Emir, Morrone, & Bridge, 2015; van Loon et al, 2013]
A key index of binocular rivalry is the number of perceptual transitions, which is shown in Figure 2A for the two groups of children and the two types of stimulus
Summary
The phenomenon of binocular rivalry offers useful insights into the neural dynamics of perception [e.g., Blake, Brascamp, & Heeger, 2014]. Robertson, Kravitz, Freyberg, Baron-Cohen and Baker [2013], measuring binocular rivalry between complex visual stimuli (object images), found that autistic adults presented slower alternation rate and longer durations of mixed percepts compared to typical adults. Both of these parameters of binocular rivalry were highly predictive of clinical measures of autistic symptomatology [ADOS-G; Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 1999]. We hypothesized that these atypicalities might translate into atypical rivalry dynamics in autistic children for socially relevant stimuli
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