A Direct Comparison of Local-Global Integration in Autism and other Developmental Disorders: Implications for the Central Coherence Hypothesis

Abstract

The weak central coherence hypothesis represents one of the current explanatory models in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Several experimental paradigms based on hierarchical figures have been used to test this controversial account. We addressed this hypothesis by testing central coherence in ASD (n = 19 with intellectual disability and n = 20 without intellectual disability), Williams syndrome (WS, n = 18), matched controls with intellectual disability (n = 20) and chronological age-matched controls (n = 20). We predicted that central coherence should be most impaired in ASD for the weak central coherence account to hold true. An alternative account includes dorsal stream dysfunction which dominates in WS. Central coherence was first measured by requiring subjects to perform local/global preference judgments using hierarchical figures under 6 different experimental settings (memory and perception tasks with 3 distinct geometries with and without local/global manipulations). We replicated these experiments under 4 additional conditions (memory/perception*local/global) in which subjects reported the correct local or global configurations. Finally, we used a visuoconstructive task to measure local/global perceptual interference. WS participants were the most impaired in central coherence whereas ASD participants showed a pattern of coherence loss found in other studies only in four task conditions favoring local analysis but it tended to disappear when matching for intellectual disability. We conclude that abnormal central coherence does not provide a comprehensive explanation of ASD deficits and is more prominent in populations, namely WS, characterized by strongly impaired dorsal stream functioning and other phenotypic traits that contrast with the autistic phenotype. Taken together these findings suggest that other mechanisms such as dorsal stream deficits (largest in WS) may underlie impaired central coherence.

Visuospatial working memory in children with autism: The effect of a semantic global organization

“…It will be also of a particular interest to use the present task in other clinical populations (e.g., children with Williams syndrome or in children with Down syndrome). Participants with Williams syndrome present performances indicating a central coherence processing of the material (Bernardino et al, 2012).…”

Central coherence in adolescents with bulimia nervosa spectrum eating disorders

“…2 Among individuals with autism disorder, data to support the validity of the central coherence construct are somewhat mixed [3][4][5] leading some researchers to explore alternative underlying mechanisms. 6 In the ED field, data suggests that central coherence is a somewhat complex, non-unitary construct.…”

Exploring different explanations for performance on a theory of mind task in Williams syndrome and autism using eye movements

“…For example, in the current study participants were asked to view the stimuli freely but they also knew they were going to answer some question about the story at the end and thus, the specific instructions given to the participant might have impacted on their looking behaviour, thus explaining differences in the gaze strategies in the current study compared to previous studies that have measured spontaneous behaviour. In addition, there is evidence that those with ASD and WS have problems with executive functioning and difficulties with integration of information (Bernardino et al 2012;Happé and Frith 2006;Pellicano 2007;Rhodes et al 2011).…”

“…Although several studies have shown evidence for a deficit to use context in WS and ASD (for a review see Bernardino et al 2012 as well as Happé and Frith 2006), studies in ASD have shown that this cannot explain performance on ToM tasks (Burnette et al 2005;Happé 1997 One reason why the current theories cannot describe the difficulties observed in ASD and WS is that they only focus on domain-specific areas of cognition to explain ToM deficits.…”