No evidence for impaired multisensory integration of low-level audiovisual stimuli in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders

Boer-Schellekens, Liselotte de; Keetels, Mirjam; Eussen, Mart; Vroomen, Jean

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.10.005

Cited by 31 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The illusory flash-beep percept has been reported on a similar proportion of trials by participants with ASC and matched NT controls (Keane et al 2010;Van der Smagt et al 2007). Adults with ASC and NT have also produced a similar performance enhancement on a visual search task accompanied by taskirrelevant auditory information (De Boer-Schellekens et al 2013; although see Collignon et al 2013). However, a recent study has indicated that the illusory flash-beep percept is experienced less frequently in children with ASC than NT controls (Stevenson et al 2014b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…This suggests that the temporal modulation of audio-visual information may be altered in ASC. However, a study of adolescents and young adults using a number of audio-visual tasks indicated that temporal modulation was statistically indistinguishable from controls (de Boer-Schellekens et al 2013). In summary, low level audio-visual interactions appear to be altered in children with ASC, but similar when ASC and NT adults are compared.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

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Investigating Visual–Tactile Interactions over Time and Space in Adults with Autism

Poole

Gowen

Warren

et al. 2015

J Autism Dev Disord

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It has been suggested that the sensory symptoms which affect many people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) may be related to alterations in multisensory processing. Typically, the likelihood of interactions between the senses increases when information is temporally and spatially coincident. We explored visual-tactile interactions in adults with ASC for the first time in two experiments using low-level stimuli. Both participants with ASC and matched neurotypical controls only produced crossmodal interactions to near simultaneous stimuli, suggesting that temporal modulation is unaffected in the adult population. We also provide preliminary evidence that visual-tactile interactions may occur over greater spatial distances in participants with ASC, which merits further exploration.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Investigating Visual–Tactile Interactions over Time and Space in Adults with Autism

Poole

Gowen

Warren

et al. 2015

J Autism Dev Disord

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“…For any construct capturing audiovisual integration, there is thought to be a window of audiovisual asynchronies within which the dependent variable increases probabilistically, frequently referred to as the Temporal Window of Integration (TWI, Spence & Squire, 2003; van Wassenhove, Grant, & Poeppel, 2007). Recently, the effects of temporal synchrony on audiovisual integration in autism have been measured across multiple studies (de Boer-Schellekens, Eussen, & Vroomen, 2013; de Boer-Schellekens, Keetels, Eussen, & Vroomen, 2013; Foss-Feig et al, 2010; Grossman, Schneps, & Tager-Flusberg, 2009; Kwakye, Foss-Feig, Cascio, Stone, & Wallace, 2011; R. A. Stevenson et al, 2014; Woynaroski et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal synchrony and audiovisual integration of speech and object stimuli in autism

Smith

Zhang

Bennetto

2017

Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Background Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been shown to have multisensory integration deficits, which may lead to problems perceiving complex, multisensory environments. For example, understanding audiovisual speech requires integration of visual information from the lips and face with auditory information from the voice, and audiovisual speech integration deficits can lead to impaired understanding and comprehension. While there is strong evidence for an audiovisual speech integration impairment in ASD, it is unclear whether this impairment is due to low level perceptual processes that affect all types of audiovisual integration or if it is specific to speech processing. Method Here, we measure audiovisual integration of basic speech (i.e., consonant-vowel utterances) and object stimuli (i.e., a bouncing ball) in adolescents with ASD and well-matched controls. We calculate a temporal window of integration (TWI) using each individual's ability to identify which of two videos (one temporally aligned and one misaligned) matches auditory stimuli. The TWI measures tolerance for temporal asynchrony between the auditory and visual streams, and is an important feature of audiovisual perception. Results While controls showed similar tolerance of asynchrony for the simple speech and object stimuli, individuals with ASD did not. Specifically, individuals with ASD showed less tolerance of asynchrony for speech stimuli compared to object stimuli. In individuals with ASD, decreased tolerance for asynchrony in speech stimuli was associated with higher ratings of autism symptom severity. Conclusions These results suggest that audiovisual perception in ASD may vary for speech and object stimuli beyond what can be accounted for by stimulus complexity.

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“…Whereas some of these studies demonstrated unique MSI alteration when socio-communicative stimuli were used (Bebko et al 2006;Mongillo et al 2008;Stevenson et al 2014a), others discovered a more general MSI impairment across both social and non-social tasks (de Boer-Schellekens et al 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Multisensory Integration of Low-level Information in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Measuring Susceptibility to the Flash-Beep Illusion

Bao

Doobay

Mottron

et al. 2017

J Autism Dev Disord

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Previous studies have suggested audiovisual multisensory integration (MSI) may be atypical in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, much of the research having found an alteration in MSI in ASD involved sociocommunicative stimuli. The goal of the current study was to investigate MSI abilities in ASD using lowerlevel stimuli that are not socio-communicative in nature by testing susceptibility to auditory-guided visual illusions. Adolescents and adults with ASD and typicallydeveloping (TD)individuals were shown to have similar susceptibility to a fission illusion. However, the ASD group was significantly more susceptible to the fusion illusion. Results suggest that individuals with ASD demonstrate MSI on the flashbeep illusion task but that their integration of audiovisual sensory information may be less selective than for TD individuals. Various theories attempt to explain the perceptual and sensory processing differences that make up the specific cognitive architecture of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and make the link between sensory processing and the core features (i.e., socio-communicative impairments and repetitive/restricted patterns of behaviors and interests) of ASD ( . One commonality to these cognitive theories is to hypothesize atypical sensory integration in ASD, both within and across sensory modalities (i.e., sight, hearing, touch, etc.).While research on Multisensory Integration (MSI) in ASD has expanded, there remain many questions to be answered with regard to the sensory integration capabilities of individuals with ASD. Much of the information on MSI in ASD has originated from studies examining the integration of sensory stimuli that are socio-communicative in nature (i.e., speech and faces; Brandwein et al. 2013;Mongillo et al. 2008). The McGurk effect (i.e., illusory auditory perception influenced by discordant visual information) has been one frontrunner paradigm for studying MSI in TD individuals as well as in ASD (Foxe and Molholm 2009;Iarocci and McDonald 2006). While some studies have identified a diminished McGurk effect in ASD (Bebko et al. 2014;Mongillo et al. 2008;Williams et al. 2004), others have found that the effect is contingent on developmental factors (Taylor et al. 2010), socio-communicative impairments (Iarocci et al. 2010, or task-related temporal factors (Woynaroski et al. 2013).The speech-in-noise paradigm, which is based on the facilitatory effect of multisensory stimulation, has also been used to better understand multisensory integration processes in typical development as well as in ASD. Using the speech-in noise approach to compare adolescents with Abstract Previous studies have suggested audiovisual multisensory integration (MSI) may be atypical in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, much of the research having found an alteration in MSI in ASD involved sociocommunicative stimuli. The goal of the current study was to investigate MSI abilities in ASD using lower-level stimuli that are not socio-communicative in nature by testing susceptibility to au...

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No evidence for impaired multisensory integration of low-level audiovisual stimuli in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders

Cited by 31 publications

References 54 publications

Investigating Visual–Tactile Interactions over Time and Space in Adults with Autism

Investigating Visual–Tactile Interactions over Time and Space in Adults with Autism

Temporal synchrony and audiovisual integration of speech and object stimuli in autism

Multisensory Integration of Low-level Information in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Measuring Susceptibility to the Flash-Beep Illusion

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