Reduced Primacy Bias in Autism during Early Sensory Processing

Abstract

Recent theories of autism propose that a core deficit in autism would be a less contextsensitive weighting of prediction errors. There is also first support for this hypothesis on an early sensory level. However, an open question is whether this decreased context-sensitivity is caused by faster updating of one's model of the world (i.e. higher weighting of new information), proposed by predictive coding theories, or slower model updating. Here, we differentiated between these two hypotheses by investigating how first impressions shape the mismatch negativity (MMN), reflecting early sensory prediction error processing. An autism and matched control group of human adults (both n=27, 8 female) were compared on the multi-timescale MMN paradigm, in which tones were presented that were either standard (frequently occurring) or deviant (rare), and these roles reversed every block. A well-replicated observation is that the initial model (i.e. the standard and deviant sound in the first block) influences MMN amplitudes in later blocks. If autism is characterized by faster model updating, and thus a smaller primacy bias, we hypothesized (and demonstrate using a simple reinforcement learning model) that their MMN amplitudes should be less influenced by the initial context. In line with this hypothesis, we found that MMN responses in the autism group did not differ between the initial deviant and initial standard sounds as they did in the control group. These findings are consistent with the idea that autism is characterized by faster model updating during early sensory processing, as proposed by predictive coding accounts of autism.

EEG frequency tagging evidence of intact social interaction recognition in adults with autism

“…The AQ and TAS‐20 were administered to further describe our sample and, together with the SRS, to conduct exploratory correlational analyses. Note that the AQ and SRS‐A scores were comparable to other studies that included adults with and without autism (e.g., Goris et al, 2022; Nijhof, Bardi, et al, 2018; Nijhof, Dhar, et al, 2018). The experimental protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Ghent University (EC/2020/122), and written informed consent was obtained from participants before the start of the study.…”

EEG frequency tagging evidence of intact social interaction recognition in adults with autism

“…Note that the AQ and SRS-A scores were comparable to other studies that included adults with and without autism (e.g. Goris et al, 2022; Nijhof et al, 2018). The experimental protocol was approved by the local ethics committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Ghent University (EC/2020/122), and written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the start of the study.…”

Functional connectivity of the sensorimotor cerebellum in autism: associations with sensory over-responsivity

“…Previous research in neurotypical populations examined the role of the cerebellum in other aspects of sensory processing ( 85 ), such as in sensory discrimination and acquisition ( 86 , 87 ) as well as with tasks that involve biological motion ( 88 ) and pain stimuli ( 89 ). Moreover, atypicalities in multiple aspects of sensorimotor processing have been reported in autism, including differences in integration of sensory feedback (e.g., 90 , 91 ), altered activation and connectivity during motor tasks (e.g., 12 ) and atypical updating of sensory prediction models (e.g., 92 ). While SOR warrants particular attention from researchers due to its impairing nature and its developmental progression across adolescence in ASD, future research should characterize the involvement of the cerebellum in the full range of sensory processing atypicalities seen in ASD, including other sensory modulation atypicalities (i.e., sensory under-responsivity and sensory seeking).…”