Visual orientation processing in autism spectrum disorder: No sign of enhanced early cortical function Ipek Oruc

It has been suggested that enhanced perceptual processing underlies some of the social difficulties associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While a variety of visual tasks have been reported in which individuals with ASD outperform neurotypical individuals in control groups, the precise origin of such effects within the visual pathway remains unclear. It has recently been established that visual acuity is intact yet unremarkable in ASD. This suggests that the earliest levels of retinal processing are an unlikely candidate as the source of differences. The next potential levels for divergent visual processing are those involved in processing simple aspects of visual stimuli, such as orientation and spatial frequency, considered to be functions of early visual cortex. Here we focused on the basic processing of orientation. In three experiments, we assessed three basic aspects of orientation processingdiscrimination, veridical perception, and detection-in participants with ASD in comparison to age-, gender-, and IQ-matched adults without ASD. Each experiment allowed for both qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the two groups. These provided a dense array of data indicating that participants with ASD perceive orientation of low-level stimuli in a qualitatively (as well as quantitatively) similar manner to participants without ASD in control groups, with no evidence of superior processing in detection, precision, or accuracy aspects of orientation perception. These results suggest that the source for altered perceptual abilities should be sought elsewhere, possibly in specific subgroups of people with ASD, other aspects of low-level vision such as spatial frequency, or subsequent levels of visual processing

Attention Capture by Trains and Faces in Children with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study examined involuntary capture of attention, overt attention, and stimulus valence and arousal ratings, all factors that can contribute to potential attentional biases to face and train objects in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the visual domain, faces are particularly captivating, and are thought to have a ‘special status’ in the attentional system. Research suggests that similar attentional biases may exist for other objects of expertise (e.g. birds for bird experts), providing support for the role of exposure in attention prioritization. Autistic individuals often have circumscribed interests around certain classes of objects, such as trains, that are related to vehicles and mechanical systems. This research aimed to determine whether this propensity in autistic individuals leads to stronger attention capture by trains, and perhaps weaker attention capture by faces, than what would be expected in non-autistic children. In Experiment 1, autistic children (6–14 years old) and age- and IQ-matched non-autistic children performed a visual search task where they manually indicated whether a target butterfly appeared amongst an array of face, train, and neutral distractors while their eye-movements were tracked. Autistic children were no less susceptible to attention capture by faces than non-autistic children. Overall, for both groups, trains captured attention more strongly than face stimuli and, trains had a larger effect on overt attention to the target stimuli, relative to face distractors. In Experiment 2, a new group of children (autistic and non-autistic) rated train stimuli as more interesting and exciting than the face stimuli, with no differences between groups. These results suggest that: (1) other objects (trains) can capture attention in a similar manner as faces, in both autistic and non-autistic children (2) attention capture is driven partly by voluntary attentional processes related to personal interest or affective responses to the stimuli

Negative first impression judgements of autistic children by non-autistic adults

IntroductionAlthough autism inclusion and acceptance has increased in recent years, autistic people continue to face stigmatization, exclusion, and victimization. Based on brief 10-second videos, non-autistic adults rate autistic adults less favourably than they rate non-autistic adults in terms of traits and behavioural intentions. In the current study, we extended this paradigm to investigate the first impressions of autistic and non-autistic children by non-autistic adult raters and examined the relationship between the rater's own characteristics and bias against autistic children.MethodSegments of video recorded interviews from 15 autistic and 15 non-autistic children were shown to 346 undergraduate students in audio with video, audio only, video only, transcript, or still image conditions. Participants rated each child on a series of traits and behavioural intentions toward the child, and then completed a series of questionnaires measuring their own social competence, autistic traits, quantity and quality of past experiences with autistic people, and explicit autism stigma.ResultsOverall, autistic children were rated more negatively than non-autistic children, particularly in conditions containing audio. Raters with higher social competence and explicit autism stigma rated autistic children more negatively, whereas raters with more autistic traits and more positive past experiences with autistic people rated autistic children more positively.DiscussionThese rapid negative judgments may contribute to the social exclusion experienced by autistic children. The findings indicate that certain personal characteristics may be related to more stigmatised views of autism and decreased willingness to interact with the autistic person. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the social inclusion and well-being of autistic people

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale (MSCS) for Young Adults

The current study contributes to previous work on measuring the social phenotype in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by validating a multidimensional test of social competence developed for use with individuals with and without ASD. The “Multidimensional Social Competence Scale” (MSCS) was previously validated as a parent-rating scale with youth 11–18 years with ASD without intellectual disability and typically developing adolescents of comparable age. The current study presents a validation of a self-report version of the MSCS in a non-clinical young adult population (N = 1178, males = 360, females = 817, age range = 17– 25 years). The MSCS consists of seven domains that represent social competence: social motivation, social inferencing, demonstrating empathic concern, social knowledge, verbal conversation skills, nonverbal sending skills, and emotion regulation. These domains are theorized to be indicative of the higher-order construct of social competence. A second higher-order theorization of the MSCS structure posits that 3 of these factors are indicative of social responsiveness, and the remaining 4 factors are indicative of social understanding and emotion regulation. Our findings indicated support for each of the theorized multidimensional factor structures. Reliability, optimal scoring, convergent and discriminant validity of the measure, as well as implications for future research are discussed

Electrophysiology of Inhibitory Control in the Context of Emotion Processing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an increasingly common developmental disorder that affects 1 in 59 children. Despite this high prevalence of ASD, knowledge regarding the biological basis of its associated cognitive difficulties remains scant. In this study, we aimed to identify altered neurophysiological responses underlying inhibitory control and emotion processing difficulties in ASD, together with their associations with age and various domains of cognitive and social function. This was accomplished by assessing electroencephalographic recordings during an emotional go/nogo task alongside parent rating scales of behavior. Event related potential (ERP) N200 component amplitudes were reduced in children with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) children. No group differences were found, however, for task performance, P300 amplitude or latency, or N170 amplitude or latency, suggesting that individuals with ASD may only present conflict monitoring abnormalities, as reflected by the reduced N200 component, compared to TD individuals. Consistent with previous findings, increased age correlated with improved task performance scores and reduced N200 amplitude in the TD group, indicating that as these children develop, their neural systems become more efficient. These associations were not identified in the ASD group. Results also showed significant associations between increased N200 amplitudes and improved executive control abilities and decreased autism traits in TD children only. The newly discovered findings of decreased brain activation in children with ASD, alongside differences in correlations with age compared to TD children, provide a potential neurophysiological indicator of atypical development of inhibitory control mechanisms in these individuals

Visual filtering and covert orienting in developmentally disabled persons with and without autism

A forced choice reaction time (RT) task was used to examine the relations between covert orienting (shifts in attention independent of eye movement) and filtering (the inhibition of processing of irrelevant stimuli) components of attention in persons with autism (n = 12) and developmentally disabled persons without autism (n = 20). Conditions varied with regard to the validity of the cue (related to covert orienting) and presence of distractors (related to filtering). ?'he RT/p(correct) scores of both groups were longer in the distractor-present conditions and in conditions when a cue provided incorrect information regarding the location of the subsequent target (invalid cue). The RT/p(correct) scores of persons with autism as compared to developmentally disabled persons without autism were slower overall. However the pattern of performance of persons with autism was not significantly different from that of the developmentally disabled persons without autism. These results are inconsistent with the notions of specific deficits in covert orienting and filtering among persons with autism and indicate that certain attentional difficulties may not be unique to autism. Alternatively, they may also reflect differences in the specific mechanisms assessed in different studies. Findings are discussed in terms of the specificity of visual filtering and covert orienting impairments in autism

Global and local perception in autism : the role of basic and higher-order attention

This study focused on specific conceptual, methodological and developmental issues pertinent to investigating the role of attention in global-local processing among high-functioning children with autism (average verbal mental age (MA) of 89 months and nonverbal MA of 116 months) as compared to their verbal and nonverbal MA matched peers. Two experiments were conducted to assess separately basic processing; focal attention that is drawn by the physical properties of the stimuli and higher-order processing associated with strategically directing attention in accordance with the observer's priorities within a given task. These components of attention are implicated in the typical development of global-local perceptual organization.In Experiment 1, a visual search task was used to explore the role of basic focal attention to perceptually group dots at either a long or short spatial range. In Experiment 2, a visual search and target identification task was used to assess higher-order voluntary control of attention to the global or the local level of a hierarchical geometric pattern. To assess changes in voluntary attending to a specific target level, an implicit manipulation of increased probability of the target appearing at the global or local level or equally at both levels was included.The main finding was that high-functioning children with autism and their verbal and nonverbal MA matched peers showed comparable focused attention to perceptually organize stimuli over a short or long spatial range but different higher-order attentional processing of hierarchical global-local targets. In all groups, search efficiency for long range targets decreased as a function of display size but the search for short range targets was efficient regardless of display size. Long range grouping performance involves goal-driven, focused attention that is constrained by serial inspection whereas the short range grouping performance implicates a sensory-driven, preattentive spatial-indexing mechanism. At higher levels of attentional control, high-functioning children with autism show a preference for using a local attentional strategy whereas their typically developing peers rely on a global attentional strategy to search for hierarchical global-local targets among distractors. The particular style of visual processing used to search for targets was not influenced by implicit changes in the probability of a target appearing at the local or global level. The findings support the interpretation that a perceptual disturbance in global-local processing in persons with autism may be associated with different higher-order strategy-based processing rather than an enhanced ability to integrate features

Students with autism spectrum disorder in the university context: Peer acceptance predicts intention to volunteer. Journal of autism and developmental disorders

Abstract With growing numbers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entering post-secondary institutions, strategies are needed to facilitate the social integration of these students. The goal of this study was to examine the role of various factors in university students' acceptance of, and intention to volunteer with, a peer with ASD. Both contact quantity and quality emerged as significant predictors of acceptance; however, for those who had experienced direct contact with individuals with ASD, only perceived quality emerged as significant. Moreover, acceptance played a significant role in participants' likelihood of signing up to volunteer. These findings point to the central role that positive experiences play in attitude formation for this population