Top-down and bottom-up visual information processing of non-social stimuli in high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Objective: Individuals with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) often show superior performance in simple visual tasks, despite difficulties in the perception of socially important information such as facial expression. The neural basis of visual perception abnormalities associated with HF-ASD is currently unclear. We sought to elucidate the functioning of bottom-up and top-down visual information processing in HF-ASD using event-related potentials (ERPs). Methods: Eleven adults with HF-ASD and 11 age-matched normal controls (NC) participated in this study. Visual ERPs were recorded using 128-channel EEG. The P1 and P300 were recorded in response to target stimuli. Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) potentials were obtained by subtracting responses to standard from those to deviant stimuli. Results: Behaviorally, individuals with HF-ASD showed faster target detection than NCs. However, vMMN amplitude and latency were the same between the two groups. In contrast, P1 and P300 amplitudes were significantly decreased in HF-ASD compared with NCs. In addition, P300 latency was significantly delayed in HF-ASD. Conclusions: Individuals with HF-ASD exhibit altered visual information processing. Intact bottom-up attention (vMMN) may contribute to their superior simple visual task performance in spite of abnormal low-level (P1) and top-down (P300) visual information processing.

Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN): A review and meta-analysis of studies in psychiatric and neurological disorders

“…In spite of that, a dissociation between the sensory processing, the deviance detection, and the behavioral response was observed between controls and patients with ASD. Whereas studies in other disorders reported lower amplitudes or longer latencies of the early sensory response for standard or deviant stimuli, deviance detection was either similar (Maekawa et al, 2011) or even earlier (Clery, Andersson, et al, 2013; in patients with ASD than that in controls. Such dissociation suggests 1) sensory impairment, and 2) disorganization of higher information processing in patients with ADS (Fig.…”

“…Whereas Maekawa et al (2011) did not find any vMMN difference between patients and controls, found that deviance processing is distinct in controls and the ASD patients, and in the latter group it resembles novelty detection. Gayle et al (2012) described a relationship between autistic quotient and the deviance processing of socially relevant stimuli in healthy subjects.…”

“…However, they do not have unequivocal experimental support yet (Rogers & Ozonoff, 2005), therefore vMMN studies might give contribute to the discussion. The study of high-functioning ASD adults found an intact vMMN for the onset of a windmill pattern, however, the sensory response (P1) had a lower amplitude in standard and deviant stimuli, longer P300 latency and, interestingly, faster target detection compared to controls (Maekawa et al, 2011). The authors emphasized that they used non-social stimuli and interpreted their findings as an impairment of low-level processing and top-down modulation with preserved bottom-up attentional mechanism in the adult ASD patients.…”

“…Because of missing parameters for the eCd calculation, 6 studies were not included in the meta-analysis (Clery, Andersson, et al, 2013;Iijima et al, 1995;Kremlacek et al, 2011;Maekawa et al, 2011;Tales et al, 2008), therefore we evaluated 27 studies. Considering that 25 studies in Fig.…”

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

“…Some studies have already begun to investigate MSI in ASD using neuroimaging methods (e.g., EEG, fMRI) but additional research is needed to fully understand the neural mechanisms that underlie multisensory integration in ASD (Brandwein et al 2013;Maekawa et al 2011;Magnée et al 2008).…”