Differences in global and local level information processing in autism: An fMRI investigation

Gadgil, Milind S.; Peterson, Eric; Tregellas, Jason R.; Hepburn, Susan; Rojas, Donald C.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2013.02.005

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…In autism spectrum disorders, a prototypical developmental disorder, sensory perception is often reported to be atypical. In particular, autistic participants display poor global form processing in some studies (Happé, 1996; Happé & Frith, 2006; Plaisted et al, 1999), although the existence of global perceptual deficits in autism is still open to debate (e.g., Rondan & Deruelle, 2007; Milne & Scope, 2008; Gadgil et al, 2013; Bernardino et al, 2012; Hayward et al, 2012). Establishing a developmental profile for global form processing using an objective approach like ours may provide insights into differences between perceptual skills of developmentally challenged children and those who are typically developing, as well as provide clues into the neural mechanisms involved in KIC perception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

Nayar

Franchak

Adolph

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Global visual processing is important for segmenting scenes, extracting form from background, and recognizing objects. Local processing involves attention to the local elements, contrast, and boundaries of an image at the expense of extracting a global percept. Previous work is inconclusive regarding the relative development of local and global processing. Some studies suggest that global perception is already present by 8 months of age, whereas others suggest that the ability arises in childhood and continues to develop in adolescence. We used a novel method to assess the development of global processing in 3-to 10-year-old children and an adult comparison group. We used Kanizsa illusory contours as an assay of global perception and measured responses on a touch screen while monitoring eye position with a head-mounted eye tracker. Participants were tested using a similarity match-to-sample paradigm. Using converging measures, we found a clear developmental progression with age such that the youngest children performed near chance on the illusory contour discrimination whereas 7-to 8-year-olds performed nearly perfectly, as did adults. There was clear evidence of a gradual shift from a local to a global processing strategy: Young children looked predominantly at and touched the pacman inducers of the illusory form, whereas older children and adults looked predominantly at and touched the middle of the form. These data show a prolonged developmental trajectory in appreciation of global form, with a transition from local to global visual processing between 4 and 7 years of age. KeywordsKanizsa illusory contours; perceptual development; global processing; eye tracking; global form perception Visual information about objects is often incomplete. Parts of objects can be occluded, missing, or blend seamlessly into the background, yet adults perceive the objects as complete global forms rather than a collection of disconnected local elements. In the laboratory, adults perceive holistic contours of shapes based on illusory edges that have no Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript physical luminance, color, or texture boundary. How does this global perceptual ability come about? Although some researchers have found evidence for perception of illusory figures in young infants (e.g., Bertenthal, Campos & Haith, 1980;Kavsek, 2002;Otsuka & Yamaguchi, 2003;Bulf et al., 2011), others have reported that global form perception and discrimination of illusory shapes do not reach maturity until late childhood (Abravanel, 1982;Kimchi et al., 2005;Sherf et al., 2009;Hadad, Maurer & Lewis, 2010). Here, we used a novel approach-accuracy on a match-to-sample task paired with several measures of spontaneous manual and visual behaviors-to investigate the development of illusory contour perception as an assay of global form perception in children from 3 to 10 years of age. Our objective methods and converging behavioral evidence show a clear, protracted developmental program for global visual process...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

Nayar

Franchak

Adolph

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…This view raises a possibility that such preference in ASD might be linked with atypical brain activity in brain regions related to visual information processing and its control. Indeed, previous fMRI studies have demonstrated that the SFG is critically involved in visuospatial attention and visual spatial working memory [ 63 – 66 ], and that individuals with ASD show atypical activation in the SFG while attending to local patterns in the hierarchical shape-recognition task [ 67 ]. Considering these findings, our results may suggest a possibility that local over-connectivity in the right SFG and MFG might be related to atypical visual information processing in ASD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alterations of local spontaneous brain activity and connectivity in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

et al. 2015

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BackgroundPrevious autism research has hypothesized that abnormalities of functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may vary with the spatial distance between two brain regions. Although several resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) studies have extensively examined long-range (or distant) connectivity in the adult ASD brain, short-range (or local) connectivity has been investigated in less depth. Furthermore, the possible relationship between functional connectivity and brain activity level during the resting state remains unclear.MethodsWe acquired rsfMRI data from 50 adults with high-functioning ASD and 50 matched controls to examine the properties of spontaneous brain activity using measures of local and distant connectivity together with a measure of the amplitude of brain activity, known as fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF). The two connectivity measures were calculated using a common graph-theoretic framework. We also examined the spatial overlaps between these measures and possible relationships of these disrupted functional measures with autistic traits assessed by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ).ResultsCompared to the controls, participants with ASD exhibited local over-connectivity in the right superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, accompanied by local under-connectivity in the bilateral fusiform gyri (FG) and right middle temporal gyrus (MTG). On the other hand, we did not find any significant alterations in distant connectivity. Participants with ASD also exhibited reduced fALFF in the right middle occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, and FG. Further conjunction and spatial overlap analyses confirmed that the spatial pattern of reduced fALFF substantially overlapped with that of local under-connectivity, demonstrating the co-occurrence of disrupted connectivity and spontaneous activity level in the right inferior occipital gyrus, posterior MTG (pMTG), and FG. Finally, within the ASD group, disrupted local connectivity in the right pMTG significantly correlated with the “social interaction” subscale score of the AQ.ConclusionsThese findings revealed local functional disruptions in the occipital and temporal regions, especially the right FG and pMTG, in the form of co-occurrence of spontaneous brain activity level and local connectivity, which may underline social and communicative dysfunctions in adult ASD.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13229-015-0026-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…A functional MRI study of sustained attention in autism conducted by Christakou et al (2013) found that individuals with autism had significantly reduced activation relative to healthy controls (but similar activation to an ADHD sample) in the bilateral striato-thalamic regions, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and superior parietal cortex. However, ASD individuals displayed increased precuneus activation, which was negatively correlated with DLPFC activation and became more pronounced with increased attentional demands (see also, Gadgil, Peterson, Tregellas, Hepburn, & Rojas, 2013). Overall, the literature suggests distinct attentional patterns for individuals with autism likely differ from those with typical development.…”

Section: Attention-related Structural and Functional Patterns And Autismmentioning

confidence: 97%

Auditory attention in autism spectrum disorder: An exploration of volumetric magnetic resonance imaging findings

Lalani

Duffield

Trontel

et al. 2017

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology

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Studies have shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to perform significantly below typically developing individuals on standardized measures of attention, even when controlling for IQ. The current study sought to examine within ASD whether anatomical correlates of attention performance differed between those with average to above-average IQ (AIQ group) and those with low-average to borderline ability (LIQ group) as well as in comparison to typically developing controls (TDC). Using automated volumetric analyses, we examined regional volume of classic attention areas including the superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus in ASD AIQ (n = 38) and LIQ (n = 18) individuals along with 30 TDC. Auditory attention performance was assessed using subtests of the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL) compared among the groups and then correlated with regional brain volumes. Analyses revealed group differences in attention. The three groups did not differ significantly on any auditory attention-related brain volumes; however, trends toward significant size-attention function interactions were observed. Negative correlations were found between the volume of the precuneus and auditory attention performance for the AIQ ASD group, indicating larger volume related to poorer performance. Implications for general attention functioning and dysfunctional neural connectivity in ASD are discussed.

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Differences in global and local level information processing in autism: An fMRI investigation

Cited by 16 publications

References 47 publications

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

Alterations of local spontaneous brain activity and connectivity in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

Auditory attention in autism spectrum disorder: An exploration of volumetric magnetic resonance imaging findings

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