Coherent versus Component Motion Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Research on visual perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tries to reveal the underlying mechanisms of aberrant local and global processing. Global motion perception is one way to study this aspect of ASD. We used plaid motion stimuli, which can be perceived as a coherently moving pattern, requiring feature integration, or as two transparent gratings sliding over each other. If global motion detection is impaired in ASD, this would lead to a decrease of the total time that a coherent pattern is perceived. However, in contrast to other studies in the literature, our results gave no evidence of impaired global motion perception in people with ASD. A reconciliation of the different outcomes is proposed based on spatial frequency processing in ASD.

Right Temporoparietal Gray Matter Predicts Accuracy of Social Perception in the Autism Spectrum

“…In accordance with our present finding, other psychophysical data also failed to find global motion processing deficits in ASD (Bertone et al 2005;Del Viva et al 2006;de Jonge et al 2007;Sanchez-Marin and Padilla-Medina, 2008;Vandenbroucke et al 2008;Jones et al 2011). This discrepancy is in accordance with growing evidence that, while common in ASD, abnormalities in motion perception are not universal and may affect only sub-types of individuals with the condition (e.g.…”

The visual perception of motion by observers with autism spectrum disorders: A review and synthesis

“…Still others have proposed that differences in visual sensitivity to coherent motion may reflect differences in the spatial frequency content of stimuli (Vandenbroucke et al, 2007). For example, previously used luminance contrast stimuli (Bertone et al, 2003) and plaid stimuli (Vandenbroucke et al, 2007) have lower spatial frequency content than random dot patterns do.…”

“…For example, previously used luminance contrast stimuli (Bertone et al, 2003) and plaid stimuli (Vandenbroucke et al, 2007) have lower spatial frequency content than random dot patterns do. But again, studies with very similar random dot patterns (Table 1) have produced diver-Neurophysiological implications.…”

“…This latter percept requires an integration of motion signals across the component gratings-that is, global motion processes-and is strongly associated with neural activity in area MT of typical observers (Huk & Heeger, 2002). Young adults with ASD and controls demonstrated no significant differences in their perceptual interpretations of these bistable gratings (Vandenbroucke, Scholte, van Engeland, Lamme, & Kemner, 2007). Because typical observers and observers with ASD did not differ in the proportion of time they reported perceiving global plaid motion, these results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that observers with ASD default to local motion analyses more or to global motion analyses less than typical observers do.…”

Motion and pattern cortical potentials in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

“…Vandenbroucke et al (2008) [52] used two moving plaids that could be perceived either as a coherent whole or as two transparent gratings sliding over each other.…”