Reduced multisensory facilitation in persons with autism

Collignon, Olivier; Charbonneau, Geneviève; Peters, Frédéric; Nassim, Marouane; Lassonde, Maryse; Leporé, Franco; Mottron, Laurent; Bertone, Armando

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2012.06.001

Cited by 91 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 59 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: 86%

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: 86%

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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“…Reduced audiovisual facilitation has recently been described in ASD (29,30), in conjunction with less effective neural integration (30). Altered audiovisual temporal processing has also been found (31,32).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 92%

Self-motion perception in autism is compromised by visual noise but integrated optimally across multiple senses

Zaidel

Goin-Kochel

Angelaki³

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

105

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Perceptual processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by superior low-level task performance and inferior complex-task performance. This observation has led to theories of defective integration in ASD of local parts into a global percept. Despite mixed experimental results, this notion maintains widespread influence and has also motivated recent theories of defective multisensory integration in ASD. Impaired ASD performance in tasks involving classic random dot visual motion stimuli, corrupted by noise as a means to manipulate task difficulty, is frequently interpreted to support this notion of global integration deficits. By manipulating task difficulty independently of visual stimulus noise, here we test the hypothesis that heightened sensitivity to noise, rather than integration deficits, may characterize ASD. We found that although perception of visual motion through a cloud of dots was unimpaired without noise, the addition of stimulus noise significantly affected adolescents with ASD, more than controls. Strikingly, individuals with ASD demonstrated intact multisensory (visual-vestibular) integration, even in the presence of noise. Additionally, when vestibular motion was paired with pure visual noise, individuals with ASD demonstrated a different strategy than controls, marked by reduced flexibility. This result could be simulated by using attenuated (less reliable) and inflexible (not experiencedependent) Bayesian priors in ASD. These findings question widespread theories of impaired global and multisensory integration in ASD. Rather, they implicate increased sensitivity to sensory noise and less use of prior knowledge in ASD, suggesting increased reliance on incoming sensory information.autism | multisensory integration | noise | coherence | Bayesian

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“…Altered multisensory processing, for example, in the integration of visual and auditory signals, is reported by some autism studies (73)(74)(75). However, it is unclear whether these results reflect differences in earlier unisensory representations or in the process of multisensory integration itself.…”

Section: Multisensory Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A computational perspective on autism

Rosenberg

Patterson

Angelaki

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

142

151

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Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests as a heterogeneous set of social, cognitive, motor, and perceptual symptoms. This system-wide pervasiveness suggests that, rather than narrowly impacting individual systems such as affection or vision, autism may broadly alter neural computation. Here, we propose that alterations in nonlinear, canonical computations occurring throughout the brain may underlie the behavioral characteristics of autism. One such computation, called divisive normalization, balances a neuron's net excitation with inhibition reflecting the overall activity of the neuronal population. Through neural network simulations, we investigate how alterations in divisive normalization may give rise to autism symptomatology. Our findings show that a reduction in the amount of inhibition that occurs through divisive normalization can account for perceptual consequences of autism, consistent with the hypothesis of an increased ratio of neural excitation to inhibition (E/I) in the disorder. These results thus establish a bridge between an E/I imbalance and behavioral data on autism that is currently absent. Interestingly, our findings implicate the context-dependent, neuronal milieu as a key factor in autism symptomatology, with autism reflecting a less "social" neuronal population. Through a broader discussion of perceptual data, we further examine how altered divisive normalization may contribute to a wide array of the disorder's behavioral consequences. These analyses show how a computational framework can provide insights into the neural basis of autism and facilitate the generation of falsifiable hypotheses. A computational perspective on autism may help resolve debates within the field and aid in identifying physiological pathways to target in the treatment of the disorder.A utism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is dramatically increasing in prevalence (Fig. 1). Recent data place the number of children being diagnosed with autism in the United States at 1 in 68, more than doubling in the last decade (1-4). The disorder is highly pervasive, affecting individuals at cognitive, motor, and perceptual levels. It is furthermore a "spectrum disorder," with symptoms that manifest in varying degrees across individuals. This heterogeneity presents significant challenges to establishing a comprehensive characterization of the disorder.Research investigating the genetic and molecular basis of autism implicates over 100 genes (5), many of which are involved in synaptic development and function (6-8). As such, one prominent hypothesis is that autism arises from a neurophysiological excitation-to-inhibition (E/I) imbalance (9, 10). However, the connection between an E/I imbalance and the behavioral characteristics of the disorder remains unclear. Considering the pervasive nature of autism, and the covariance of loosely related symptoms (11-14), one possibility is that an E/I imbalance widely affects neural computation, in turn giving rise to the broad behavioral symptoms recognized as autism.Here,...

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Reduced multisensory facilitation in persons with autism

Cited by 91 publications

References 59 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

Self-motion perception in autism is compromised by visual noise but integrated optimally across multiple senses

A computational perspective on autism

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