Superior performance on the Embedded Figures Task (EFT) has been attributed to weak central coherence in perceptual processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural basis of EFT performance in 7-12 year old ASD children and age and IQ matched controls. ASD children activated only a subset of the distributed network of regions activated in controls. In frontal cortex, control children activated left dorsolateral, medial and dorsal premotor regions whereas ASD children only activated the dorsal premotor region. In parietal and occipital cortices, activation was bilateral in control children but unilateral (left superior parietal and right occipital) in ASD children. Further, extensive bilateral ventral temporal activation was observed in control, but not ASD children. ASD children performed the EFT at the same level as controls but with reduced cortical involvement, suggesting that disembedded visual processing is accomplished parsimoniously by ASD relative to typically developing brains.Despite deficits in multiple functional domains including social interaction, language, and executive functioning, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) exhibit a notable strength, namely, superior ability to identify local features of complex visual stimuli (Happe & Frith, 2006). This perceptual superiority is most consistently reflected in faster and/or more accurate performance on the Embedded Figures Task (EFT), which requires identification of a simple shape embedded within a complex figure (Jolliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1997;Shah & Frith, 1983). An influential theoretical interpretation of this and similar findings on other visual-spatial tasks has been the proposal that individuals with ASD have a perceptual processing style that facilitates visual processing of local rather than global information, termed weak central coherence (Happe & Frith, 2006). Such an information processing style is consistent with symptoms of preoccupation with object parts and difficulty perceiving whole objects following changes in constituent parts (Happe & Frith, 2006). Regarding the EFT, the Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptNeuroimage. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 October 15. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript task draws upon the natural bias towards local visual processing in ASD, thereby yielding better performance in ASD than controls. In contrast, typically developing individuals are slower and/or less accu...