scholarly journals Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have altered visual encoding capacity

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. e3001215
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Noel ◽  
Ling-Qi Zhang ◽  
Alan A. Stocker ◽  
Dora E. Angelaki
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Perceptual Anomalies ◽  
Sensory Encoding

Perceptual anomalies in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been attributed to an imbalance in weighting incoming sensory evidence with prior knowledge when interpreting sensory information. Here, we show that sensory encoding and how it adapts to changing stimulus statistics during feedback also characteristically differs between neurotypical and ASD groups. In a visual orientation estimation task, we extracted the accuracy of sensory encoding from psychophysical data by using an information theoretic measure. Initially, sensory representations in both groups reflected the statistics of visual orientations in natural scenes, but encoding capacity was overall lower in the ASD group. Exposure to an artificial (i.e., uniform) distribution of visual orientations coupled with performance feedback altered the sensory representations of the neurotypical group toward the novel experimental statistics, while also increasing their total encoding capacity. In contrast, neither total encoding capacity nor its allocation significantly changed in the ASD group. Across both groups, the degree of adaptation was correlated with participants’ initial encoding capacity. These findings highlight substantial deficits in sensory encoding—independent from and potentially in addition to deficits in decoding—in individuals with ASD.

scholarly journals Aberrant Sensory Encoding in Patients with Autism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Noel ◽  
Ling-Qi Zhang ◽  
Alan A. Stocker ◽  
Dora E. Angelaki
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Neural Encoding ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Perceptual Anomalies ◽  
Information Theoretic Measures ◽  
Sensory Encoding

AbstractPerceptual anomalies in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been attributed to irregularities in the Bayesian interpretation (i.e., decoding) of sensory information. Here we show that how sensory information is encoded and adapts to changing stimulus statistics also characteristically differs between healthy and ASD groups. In a visual estimation task, we extracted the accuracy of sensory encoding directly from psychophysical data, bypassing the decoding stage by using information theoretic measures. Initially, sensory representations in both groups reflected the statistics of visual orientations in natural scenes, but encoding capacity was overall lower in the ASD group. Exposure to an artificial statistical distribution of visual orientations altered the sensory representations of the control group toward the novel experimental statistics, while also increasing their total encoding resources. Neither total encoding resources nor their allocation changed significantly in the ASD group. Most interestingly, across both groups the adaptive re-allocation of encoding resources was correlated with subjects’ initial encoding capacity. These findings suggest that neural encoding resources are limited in ASD, and this limitation may explain their reduced perceptual flexibility.

scholarly journals Sensory processing of children and students with autism spectrum disorder and typical development in relation to gender and age

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Ana Roknić ◽  
Sanja Vuković
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Sensory Profile ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Educational Plan ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Sensory Profiles

Introduction. Sensory processing is a neurobiological process in which a person uses their senses, sends information to an appropriate reception and processing center, and responds to environmental stimulations. Previous research has shown that sensory processing difficulties are more common among people with autism spectrum disorder than among people of the typical population. Objectives. The aim of this paper was to determine the patterns of sensory processing in subjects of the typical population and subjects with autism spectrum disorder, as well as gender and age differences in sensory profiles in these groups of subjects. Methods. Using The Child Sensory Profile 2 as the measuring instrument, the characteristics of sensory processing were examined in 120 subjects of both genders, 60 subjects with autism spectrum disorder and 60 subjects of typical development, ages three to 13 years and 11 months. Results. The obtained results show that there are differences between the two groups of respondents and that these differences occur in all nine subscales of the instrument. It was found that subjects with autismspectrumdisorder hadmore difficulty in processing sensory information compared to subjects of the typical population, especially in the domain of tactile perception. The results also show that the quality of sensory information processing in both groups of respondents improved with age. In relation to the respondents' gender, the obtained differences were significant in the domain of the total score of the instrument, in favor of the boys, but this was not observed in the measurements on all subscales. Conclusion. In accordance with the above findings, when creating an individual educational plan, it is necessary to take into account all the specifics of sensory processing of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Scanpath similarity measure reveals not only a decreased social preference, but also an increased nonsocial preference in individuals with autism

Autism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 374-386
Author(s):  
Magdalena Ewa Król ◽  
Michał Król
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder Group ◽  
Social Images

We compared scanpath similarity in response to repeated presentations of social and nonsocial images representing natural scenes in a sample of 30 participants with autism spectrum disorder and 32 matched typically developing individuals. We used scanpath similarity (calculated using ScanMatch) as a novel measure of attentional bias or preference, which constrains eye-movement patterns by directing attention to specific visual or semantic features of the image. We found that, compared with the control group, scanpath similarity of participants with autism was significantly higher in response to nonsocial images, and significantly lower in response to social images. Moreover, scanpaths of participants with autism were more similar to scanpaths of other participants with autism in response to nonsocial images, and less similar in response to social images. Finally, we also found that in response to nonsocial images, scanpath similarity of participants with autism did not decline with stimulus repetition to the same extent as in the control group, which suggests more perseverative attention in the autism spectrum disorder group. These results show a preferential fixation on certain elements of social stimuli in typically developing individuals compared with individuals with autism, and on certain elements of nonsocial stimuli in the autism spectrum disorder group, compared with the typically developing group.

SHORT SENSORY PROFILE: ADAPTATION MADE WITH THE UKRAINIAN SAMPLE OF HEALTHY CHILDREN AND CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-57
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Vakulenko
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Sensory Profile ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Psychometric Characteristics ◽  
Short Sensory Profile

The article describes and analyzes the questionnaire “Short Sensory Profile (SSP)”. The original variant of the Profile, its features and advantages in using as a diagnostic tool and as an informational material describing for parents the specifics of their children’s disorders are described. The impaired processing and integration of sensory information characteristic for healthy children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is examined. Attention is drawn that sensory features and its violations characteristic for healthy and ASD children should be researched with a Ukrainian sample. The results of SSP adaptation and validation with the sample of Ukrainian children are presented. The questionnaire was translated into Ukrainian language from the original one (English) by a professional interpreter. The adapted version passed an asymmetrical translation, which helped to preserve the meanings of used statements and comply with the requirements of language clarity and certainty. The parents of 506 children (293 healthy children and 213 children with autism spectrum disorder) took part in the questionnaire adaptation; they filled the questionnaire about their children’s sensory patterns. Children were further divided into 6 groups by age and the presence / absence of a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder. Excel 2016 was used to calculate the scores, and IBM SPSS v.23 statistical application was used to check the psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire. The SSP psychometric characteristics, such as internal consistency of the statements, retest reliability, obvious validity, validity by the criteria and constructive validity, were at high and sufficient levels. The procedure and interpretation of the study results were standardized. For this, the frequency distribution was calculated by the general indicator and additionally by age groups to determine the severity of sensory disturbances in children and adolescents. According to the results of frequency distribution, the overall distribution of scores was determined, which gave the possibility to determine the presence and severity of the violations in processing and integration of sensory information by children and adolescents.

scholarly journals Atypical visual-auditory predictive coding in autism spectrum disorder: Electrophysiological evidence from stimulus omissions

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1849-1859
Author(s):  
Thijs van Laarhoven ◽  
Jeroen J Stekelenburg ◽  
Mart LJM Eussen ◽  
Jean Vroomen
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder Group

Autism spectrum disorder is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that has been linked to a range of perceptual processing alterations, including hypo- and hyperresponsiveness to sensory stimulation. A recently proposed theory that attempts to account for these symptoms, states that autistic individuals have a decreased ability to anticipate upcoming sensory stimulation due to overly precise internal prediction models. Here, we tested this hypothesis by comparing the electrophysiological markers of prediction errors in auditory prediction by vision between a group of autistic individuals and a group of age-matched individuals with typical development. Between-group differences in prediction error signaling were assessed by comparing event-related potentials evoked by unexpected auditory omissions in a sequence of audiovisual recordings of a handclap in which the visual motion reliably predicted the onset and content of the sound. Unexpected auditory omissions induced an increased early negative omission response in the autism spectrum disorder group, indicating that violations of the prediction model produced larger prediction errors in the autism spectrum disorder group compared to the typical development group. The current results show that autistic individuals have alterations in visual-auditory predictive coding, and support the notion of impaired predictive coding as a core deficit underlying atypical sensory perception in autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract Many autistic individuals experience difficulties in processing sensory information (e.g. increased sensitivity to sound). Here we show that these difficulties may be related to an inability to process unexpected sensory stimulation. In this study, 29 older adolescents and young adults with autism and 29 age-matched individuals with typical development participated in an electroencephalography study. The electroencephalography study measured the participants’ brain activity during unexpected silences in a sequence of videos of a handclap. The results showed that the brain activity of autistic individuals during these silences was increased compared to individuals with typical development. This increased activity indicates that autistic individuals may have difficulties in processing unexpected incoming sensory information, and might explain why autistic individuals are often overwhelmed by sensory stimulation. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the different sensory perception experienced by autistic individuals.

scholarly journals Visual orientation processing in autism spectrum disorder: No sign of enhanced early cortical function

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (15) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fakhri Shafai ◽  
Kimberly Armstrong ◽  
Grace Iarocci ◽  
Ipek Oruc
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Cortical Function

scholarly journals Updating Expectations About Unexpected Object Motion in Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Achermann ◽  
Terje Falck-Ytter ◽  
Sven Bölte ◽  
Pär Nyström
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Moving Objects ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Gaze Shift ◽  
Motion Patterns ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
New Information

AbstractIn typical development, infants form predictions about future events based on incoming sensory information, which is essential for perception and goal-directed action. It has been suggested that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make predictions differently compared to neurotypical individuals. We investigated how infants who later received an ASD diagnosis and neurotypical infants react to temporarily occluded moving objects that violate initial expectations about object motion. Our results indicate that infants regardless of clinical outcome react similarly to unexpected object motion patterns, both in terms of gaze shift latencies and pupillary responses. These findings indicate that the ability to update representations about such regularities in light of new information may not differ between typically developing infants and those with later ASD.

scholarly journals Atypical and inflexible visual encoding in autism spectrum disorder

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. e3001293
Author(s):  
Emily L. Isenstein ◽  
Woon Ju Park ◽  
Duje Tadin
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Visual Encoding
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