Seeing it differently: visual processing in autism

Behrmann, Marlene; Thomas, Cibu; Humphreys, Kate

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.05.001

Cited by 406 publications

(314 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…The extrastriate body area (EBA) is involved in the exteroceptive processing of visual features related to the body during empathetic responses (Lamm and Decety, 2008). Although much attention has been devoted to general visual deficits in ASD (Behrmann, et al, 2006; Dakin and Frith, 2005; Kaiser, et al, 2010), little is known about the involvement of EBA in ASD. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially the lateral PFC (LPFC), has been associated with executive control and information integration during socio-emotional processing and is a domain-general area (Corbetta and Shulman, 2002; Levy and Wagner, 2011; Romanski, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder

Eilam‐Stock

Zhou

et al. 2015

Human Brain Mapping

100

110

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Accumulating evidence suggests that autonomic signals and their cortical representations are closely linked to emotional processes, and that related abnormalities could lead to social deficits. Although socio-emotional impairments are a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), empirical evidence directly supporting the link between autonomic, cortical, and socio-emotional abnormalities in ASD is still lacking. In this study, we examined autonomic arousal indexed by skin conductance responses (SCR), concurrent cortical responses measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging, and effective brain connectivity estimated by dynamic causal modeling, in seventeen un-medicated high-functioning adults with ASD and seventeen matched controls, while they performed an empathy-for-pain task. Compared to controls, adults with ASD showed enhanced SCR related to empathetic pain, along with increased neural activity in the anterior insular cortex, although their behavioral empathetic pain discriminability was reduced and overall SCR was decreased. ASD individuals also showed enhanced correlation between SCR and neural activities in the anterior insula. Importantly, significant group differences in effective brain connectivity were limited to greater reduction in the negative intrinsic connectivity of the anterior insular cortex in the ASD group, indicating a failure in attenuating anterior insular responses to empathetic pain. These results suggest that aberrant interoceptive precision, as indexed by abnormalities in autonomic activity and its central representations, may underlie empathy deficits in ASD.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder

Eilam‐Stock

Zhou

et al. 2015

Human Brain Mapping

100

110

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“…Several studies have found abnormal low-level perceptual capabilities in autism in the visual (Bertone et al 2005;Behrmann et al 2006) and auditory domains (Samson et al 2006). Atypical processing of low-level (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intact Spectral but Abnormal Temporal Processing of Auditory Stimuli in Autism

Groen

Orsouw

Huurne

et al. 2009

J Autism Dev Disord

107

105

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The perceptual pattern in autism has been related to either a specific localized processing deficit or a pathway-independent, complexity-specific anomaly. We examined auditory perception in autism using an auditory disembedding task that required spectral and temporal integration. 23 children with high-functioning-autism and 23 matched controls participated. Participants were presented with two-syllable words embedded in various auditory backgrounds (pink noise, moving ripple, amplitude-modulated pink noise, amplitude-modulated moving ripple) to assess speech-in-noise-reception thresholds. The gain in signal perception of pink noise with temporal dips relative to pink noise without temporal dips was smaller in children with autism (p = 0.008). Thus, the autism group was less able to integrate auditory information present in temporal dips in background sound, supporting the complexity-specific perceptual account.

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“…However, people with autism also present low-level perceptual abnormalities such as impaired motion perception and a bias toward the processing of local features at the expense of global/contextual information (see Dakin and Frith 2005;Simmons et al 2009; for reviews). The degree to which these social and perceptual deficits are related is an important question (see Behrmann et al 2006;Happé 1999;Mottron et al 2006 for varying perspectives). Undoubtedly, interactions between high-and low-level stages of cognition are subtle and complex and their contribution to autism may not be explainable by a single underlying mechanism (Happé et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief Report: Perceptual Load and the Autism Spectrum in Typically Developed Individuals

Bayliss

Kritikos

2010

J Autism Dev Disord

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A fundamental task of the cognitive system is to prioritize behaviourally relevant sensory inputs for processing at the expense of irrelevant inputs. In a study of neurotypical participants (n = 179), we utilized a brief flanker interference task while varying the perceptual load of the visual display. Typically, increasing perceptual load (i.e., with greater numbers of search items) reduces interference from a competing peripheral distractor. We show that individuals who score above average on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) show stronger interference at high perceptual load than individuals with below-average AQ scores. This is consistent with recent findings in individuals with autism spectrum conditions, and supports the idea that the cognitive style of the autistic brain is reflected in a broader phenotype across the population.

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Seeing it differently: visual processing in autism

Cited by 406 publications

References 78 publications

Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder

Autonomic and brain responses associated with empathy deficits in autism spectrum disorder

Intact Spectral but Abnormal Temporal Processing of Auditory Stimuli in Autism

Brief Report: Perceptual Load and the Autism Spectrum in Typically Developed Individuals

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