Early-Stage Vision and Perceptual Imagery in Autism Spectrum Conditions

Abstract

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are characterized by multifaceted alterations in visual perception and mental imagery. However, the interaction between early-stage visual perception and imagery has not been explored. We recruited 40 individuals with ASC and 20 neurotypical control volunteers to participate in a lateral masking task. Participants detected a luminance-contrast target pattern (Gabor patch) flanked by two collinear masks. The flanking masks inhibit target detection at small target-mask distances and facilitate target detection at intermediate target-mask distances. In the perceptual task, the masks appeared adjacent to the target. In the imagery task, participants imagined the masks immediately after seeing them. Results revealed that individuals with ASC characterized by exceptional visuoconstructional abilities (enhanced Block Design performance; n = 20) showed weaker inhibition at small target-mask distances and stronger facilitation at intermediate target-mask distances relative to the controls. Visual imagery was markedly dampened in ASC regardless of the visuoconstructional abilities. At the behavioral level, these results indicate increased facilitation via lateral connections in the primary visual cortex (V1) of individuals with ASC who exhibit exceptional visuoconstructional abilities, together with less efficient mental imagery.

Rethinking fast and slow processing in autism.

“…This could be formally tested in future research. If enhanced low-level visual processing and decision making (e.g., involving Gabor patches; Maróthi et al, 2019) is associated with higher order judgment and decision making in autism, general perceptual and cognitive accounts of autism may help to explain reasoning and decision making in autism and inform the development of clinical and educational interventions. Another possibility is that, unlike CRTs that solely require reasoning to a correct answer, cognitive bias tasks typically require participants to state a preference for an alternative.…”

Neural Decoding of Multi-Modal Imagery Behavior Focusing on Temporal Complexity

“…Mental imagery involves modality-specific regions and modalityindependent top-down inputs (38,42,(47)(48)(49)(50)71). It has a multifaceted relation to psychiatric disorders related to patient abilities, symptoms and treatments (3,(36)(37)(38)72). For this study, we used complexity analysis to examine neural oscillations that occur during mental imagery.…”

“…Mental imagery is a behavior with various modalities, such as visual, auditory, and motor, that has a multifaceted association with psychiatric disorders. For example, the mental imagery capabilities are altered in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients (36), concern-related images are repeated in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social phobia (37); negative mental imagery causes distress and strongly affects various psychiatric disorders (38). Mental imagery has also been used in psychotherapy and neurofeedback to treat psychiatric disorders (3,38).…”

Visual Search for Circumscribed Interests in Autism Is Similar to That of Neurotypical Individuals

“…There is a large literature around early visual processing in ASD (Dakin and Frith, 2005;Van der Hallen et al, 2015), with conflicting results depending on what aspect of visual processing is probed. Studies of early visual processing in ASD show enhanced visual processing for fine details, both during visual search (O'Riordan et al, 2001) and in luminance contrast (Luc et al, 2011), but also find deficits in other areas, such as binocular rivalry (Robertson et al, 2013), mental imagery (Marothi et al, 2019), and motion perception (Milne et al, 2002;Bertone et al, 2003), with some work demonstrating this deficit can be found as early as the primary visual cortex (Robertson et al, 2014).…”