Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, atypical communication and a restricted repertoire of interests and activities. Altered sensory and perceptual experiences are also common, and a notable perceptual difference between individuals with ASD and controls is their superior performance in visual tasks where it may be beneficial to ignore global context. This superiority may be the result of atypical integrative processing. To explore this claim we investigated visual integration in adults with ASD (diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome) using two psychophysical tasks thought to rely on integrative processing—collinear facilitation and contour integration. We measured collinear facilitation at different flanker orientation offsets and contour integration for both open and closed contours. Our results indicate that compared to matched controls, ASD participants show (i) reduced collinear facilitation, despite equivalent performance without flankers; and (ii) less benefit from closed contours in contour integration. These results indicate weaker visuospatial integration in adults with ASD and suggest that further studies using these types of paradigms would provide knowledge on how contextual processing is altered in ASD.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction as well as repetitive and restricted behavior
Collinear Facilitation We investigated collinear facilitation for the ASD and NT groups by measuring facilitation at four different flanker orientation offsets
We investigated visuospatial integration in participants with ASD by examining collinear facilitation at four flanker orientation offsets, and contour integration for open and closed contours
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction as well as repetitive and restricted behavior. The importance of sensory symptoms is highlighted by their recent inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) Alongside these sensory symptoms, instances of perceptual superiority have been reported, such as superior performance in visual search tasks where it may be beneficial to ignore global context (for reviews see Dakin and Frith, 2005; Simmons et al, 2009). Instances of perceptual superiority have been reported, such as superior performance in visual search tasks where it may be beneficial to ignore global context (for reviews see Dakin and Frith, 2005; Simmons et al, 2009) In such tasks participants locate a particular stimulus or shape hidden among other ‘‘distractor’’ stimuli that form part of a larger, global scene while behavioral measures such as reaction times or error rates are taken to indicate performance. ASD participants are often faster than neuro-typicals (NTs) at finding simple
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