Stimulus Overselectivity Four Decades Later: A Review of the Literature and Its Implications for Current Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This review of several topics related to "stimulus overselectivity" (Lovaas et al., J Abnormal Psychol 77:211-222, 1971) has three main purposes: (1) To outline the factors that may contribute to overselectivity; (2) to link the behavior-analytical notion of overselectivity to current nonbehavior-analytical research and theory; and (3) to suggest remedial strategies based on the behavior-analytical approach. While it is clear that overselectivity is not specific to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and also that not all persons with ASD exhibit overselectivity, it is prevalent in ASD and has critical implications for symptoms, treatment, research, and theory. Weak Central Coherence and Enhanced Perceptual Functioning theories are briefly considered. The research areas addressed here include theory of mind, joint attention, language development, and executive function.

Linguistically deprived children: meta-analysis of published research underlines the importance of early syntactic language use for normal brain development

“…The first-cohort participants made their decisions slowly and with effort, taking as long as nine seconds and reporting that the task was difficult. Even in neurotypical children, production of spatial terms from 14-46 months predicted their performance on nonlinguistic spatial tasks at 54 months (Pruden et al 2011). Better and faster performance in spatial tasks in individuals exposed to more complex syntactic language earlier in life is best explained by the crucial role of syntactic language in fine-tuning the frontoposterior connections between the LPFC and the posterior cortex.…”

“…When the left hemisphere is surgically removed before the age of five (to treat cancer or epilepsy), patients often attain normal cognitive functions in adulthood (using the one remaining hemisphere). Removal of the left hemisphere after the age of five often results in significant impairment of syntactic language and tasks requiring mental synthesis (Basser 1962, Boatman et al 1999, Krashen and Harshman 1972, Lenneberg 1967, Pulsifer et al 2004. The decline of plasticity after the age of 5 likely corresponds to a consolidation of asymmetry between hemispheres with one of the hemispheres (usually the left one) taking most of the control of the language function with underlying left LPFC puppeteer synchronously connected to the rest of the cortex.…”

Factors producing over-selectivity in older individuals

“…BStimulus over-selectivity^describes a phenomenon where an individual fails to attend to all available components of a single stimulus or only attends to a subset of the available stimuli present in the environment, and, thus, may restrict learning regarding the range, breadth, or number of stimuli that are important in any given situation (Dube 2009;Ploog 2010). Instances of overselective responding are found in many populations that experience some assault to their levels of cognitive function, including individuals with intellectual disabilities (Smeets et al 1985), learning disabilities (Bailey 1981;Dube and McIlvane 1999), Rett's Disorder (Fabio et al 2009), acquired brain injury (Wayland and Taplin 1982), schizophrenia (Feeney 1972), and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD; Kelly et al 2015;Leader et al 2009;Reed et al 2009;Frankel et al 1984).…”

“…Kelly et al 2015;Ploog 2010;Wilhelm and Lovaas 1976), and levels of executive function, especially as indexed by cognitive flexibility (Gard et al 2014;Reed and McCarthy 2012;Solomon et al 2011). Both of these areas are impacted by ageinduced assaults on cognitive function (Brayne et al 1995;Finucane et al 2000;Park 2000;Tales and Porter 2008;Tales et al 2011;Traykov et al 2007).…”

Tablet-Based Cognitive Exercises as an Early Parent-Administered Intervention Tool for Toddlers with Autism - Evidence from a Field Study

“…You must then mentally integrate all three pieces of information into a new mental image, a red crayon under the table, in order to take the correct action. The ability to integrate multiple cues is highly developed in individuals not afflicted by ASD well before the age of 6, but it is known to be a common challenge for children on the spectrum [20], resulting in a phenomenon called stimulus overselectivity, whereby an individual focuses on only one aspect of an object or environment while ignoring others [21][22][23]. When asked to pick up a red crayon under the table, a child with ASD may hyperattend to the cue "crayon" and ignore both its location and the fact that it should also be red, therefore picking up any available crayon.…”