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Jagatap A, Purokayastha S, Jain H, Sridharan D. Neurally-constrained modeling of human gaze strategies in a change blindness task. PLoS Comput Biol 2021; 17:e1009322. [PMID: 34428201 PMCID: PMC8478260 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite possessing the capacity for selective attention, we often fail to notice the obvious. We investigated participants’ (n = 39) failures to detect salient changes in a change blindness experiment. Surprisingly, change detection success varied by over two-fold across participants. These variations could not be readily explained by differences in scan paths or fixated visual features. Yet, two simple gaze metrics–mean duration of fixations and the variance of saccade amplitudes–systematically predicted change detection success. We explored the mechanistic underpinnings of these results with a neurally-constrained model based on the Bayesian framework of sequential probability ratio testing, with a posterior odds-ratio rule for shifting gaze. The model’s gaze strategies and success rates closely mimicked human data. Moreover, the model outperformed a state-of-the-art deep neural network (DeepGaze II) with predicting human gaze patterns in this change blindness task. Our mechanistic model reveals putative rational observer search strategies for change detection during change blindness, with critical real-world implications. Our brain has the remarkable capacity to pay attention, selectively, to important objects in the world around us. Yet, sometimes, we fail spectacularly to notice even the most salient events. We tested this phenomenon in the laboratory with a change-blindness experiment, by having participants freely scan and detect changes across discontinuous image pairs. Participants varied widely in their ability to detect these changes. Surprisingly, two low-level gaze metrics—fixation durations and saccade amplitudes—strongly predicted success in this task. We present a novel, computational model of eye movements, incorporating neural constraints on stimulus encoding, that links these gaze metrics with change detection success. Our model is relevant for a mechanistic understanding of human gaze strategies in dynamic visual environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akshay Jagatap
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | | | - Hritik Jain
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
- Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
- * E-mail:
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van Leeuwen TM, Neufeld J, Hughes J, Ward J. Synaesthesia and autism: Different developmental outcomes from overlapping mechanisms? Cogn Neuropsychol 2020; 37:433-449. [PMID: 32845799 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2020.1808455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Synaesthesia, a mixing of the senses, is more common in individuals with autism. Here, we review the evidence for the association between synaesthesia and autism with regard to their genetic background, brain connectivity, perception, cognitive mechanisms and their contribution to exceptional talents. Currently, the overlap between synaesthesia and autism is established most convincingly at the level of alterations in sensory sensitivity and perception, with synaesthetes showing autism-like profiles of sensory sensitivity and a bias towards details in perception. Shared features may include a predominance of local over global connectivity in the brain. When autism and synaesthesia co-occur in the same individual, the chance of developing heightened cognitive and memory abilities is increased. We discuss how the same theoretical models could potentially explain both conditions. Given the evidence, we believe the phenotypical overlap between autism and synaesthesia has been established clearly enough to invite future research to confirm overlapping mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessa M van Leeuwen
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Janina Neufeld
- Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - James Hughes
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
| | - Jamie Ward
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
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van Leeuwen TM, van Petersen E, Burghoorn F, Dingemanse M, van Lier R. Autistic traits in synaesthesia: atypical sensory sensitivity and enhanced perception of details. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 374:20190024. [PMID: 31630653 PMCID: PMC6834020 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
In synaesthetes, specific sensory stimuli (e.g. black letters) elicit additional experiences (e.g. colour). Synaesthesia is highly prevalent among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the mechanisms of this co-occurrence are not clear. We hypothesized autism and synaesthesia share atypical sensory sensitivity and perception. We assessed autistic traits, sensory sensitivity and visual perception in two synaesthete populations. In Study 1, synaesthetes (N = 79, of different types) scored higher than non-synaesthetes (N = 76) on the Attention-to-detail and Social skills subscales of the autism spectrum quotient indexing autistic traits, and on the Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire indexing sensory hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity which frequently occur in autism. Synaesthetes performed two local/global visual tasks because individuals with autism typically show a bias towards detail processing. In synaesthetes, elevated motion coherence thresholds (MCTs) suggested reduced global motion perception, and higher accuracy on an embedded figures task suggested enhanced local perception. In Study 2, sequence-space synaesthetes (N = 18) completed the same tasks. Questionnaire and embedded figures results qualitatively resembled Study 1 results, but no significant group differences with non-synaesthetes (N = 20) were obtained. Unexpectedly, sequence-space synaesthetes had reduced MCTs. Altogether, our studies suggest atypical sensory sensitivity and a bias towards detail processing are shared features of synaesthesia and ASD. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessa M. van Leeuwen
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Eline van Petersen
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Floor Burghoorn
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mark Dingemanse
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Rob van Lier
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Hochhauser M, Aran A, Grynszpan O. How Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Spontaneously Attend to Real-World Scenes: Use of a Change Blindness Paradigm. J Autism Dev Disord 2018; 48:502-510. [DOI: 10.1007/s10803-017-3343-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Ashwin C, Wheelwright S, Baron-Cohen S. Differences in change blindness to real-life scenes in adults with autism spectrum conditions. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0185120. [PMID: 29020056 PMCID: PMC5636097 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2016] [Accepted: 09/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
People often fail to detect large changes to visual scenes following a brief interruption, an effect known as ‘change blindness’. People with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have superior attention to detail and better discrimination of targets, and often notice small details that are missed by others. Together these predict people with autism should show enhanced perception of changes in simple change detection paradigms, including reduced change blindness. However, change blindness studies to date have reported mixed results in ASC, which have sometimes included no differences to controls or even enhanced change blindness. Attenuated change blindness has only been reported to date in ASC in children and adolescents, with no study reporting reduced change blindness in adults with ASC. The present study used a change blindness flicker task to investigate the detection of changes in images of everyday life in adults with ASC (n = 22) and controls (n = 22) using a simple change detection task design and full range of original scenes as stimuli. Results showed the adults with ASC had reduced change blindness compared to adult controls for changes to items of marginal interest in scenes, with no group difference for changes to items of central interest. There were no group differences in overall response latencies to correctly detect changes nor in the overall number of missed detections in the experiment. However, the ASC group showed greater missed changes for marginal interest changes of location, showing some evidence of greater change blindness as well. These findings show both reduced change blindness to marginal interest changes in ASC, based on response latencies, as well as greater change blindness to changes of location of marginal interest items, based on detection rates. The findings of reduced change blindness are consistent with clinical reports that people with ASC often notice small changes to less salient items within their environment, and are in-line with theories of enhanced local processing and greater attention to detail in ASC. The findings of lower detection rates for one of the marginal interest conditions may be related to problems in shifting attention or an overly focused attention spotlight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris Ashwin
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Sally Wheelwright
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, CLASS Clinic, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Vanmarcke S, Noens I, Steyaert J, Wagemans J. Change detection of meaningful objects in real-world scenes in adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2017; 22:728-739. [PMID: 28686039 DOI: 10.1177/1362361317702559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggested that adolescents with autism spectrum disorder are better than typically developing children in detecting local, non-social details within complex visual scenes. To better understand these differences, we used the image database by Sareen et al., containing the size and on-screen location information of all changes in the images, in a change blindness paradigm. In this task, an original and a modified real-world scene, separated by a gray blank, alternate repeatedly until observers detect the change. Our results indicated that participants with and without autism spectrum disorder performed similarly when scenes were presented upright, but that only the performance of the typically developing adolescents became worse in the inverted scene condition. In this condition, the correlation between performance and both image difficulty and change predictability was significantly weaker in autism spectrum disorder than in typically developing participants. We suggest that these findings result from a more locally biased search strategy in people with autism spectrum disorder, compared to typically developing participants, in tasks in which the rapid processing of global information does not help to improve change detection performance. Finally, although we found change location, change size, and age to influence participant performance, none of these was directly linked to the observed group-level differences.
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Magiati I, Lerh JW, Hollocks MJ, Uljarevic M, Rodgers J, McConachie H, Ozsivadjian A, South M, Van Hecke A, Hardan A, Libove R, Leekam S, Simonoff E. The measurement properties of the spence children's anxiety scale-parent version in a large international pooled sample of young people with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res 2017; 10:1629-1652. [DOI: 10.1002/aur.1809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2016] [Revised: 02/03/2017] [Accepted: 04/07/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Iliana Magiati
- Department of Psychology; National University of Singapore, 9 Arts Link; Singapore 117570
| | - Jian Wei Lerh
- Department of Psychology; National University of Singapore, 9 Arts Link; Singapore 117570
| | - Matthew J. Hollocks
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, DeCrespigny Park, Denmark Hill; London SE5 8AF UK
- Department of Clinical Psychology; Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia; Norwich UK
| | - Mirko Uljarevic
- Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre; School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University; Victoria 3086 Australia
- Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC), Long Pocket; Brisbane Queensland Australia
| | - Jacqui Rodgers
- Clinical Psychology; Ridley Building, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University; Newcastle NE1 7RU UK
| | - Helen McConachie
- Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Sir James Spence Institute, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Victoria Road; Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP UK
| | - Ann Ozsivadjian
- Evelina London Children's Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital; London UK
| | - Mikle South
- Department of Psychology; College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, Brigham Young University; Provo Utah
| | - Amy Van Hecke
- Department of Psychology; College of Arts and Sciences, Marquette University, Cramer Hall; Milwaukee Wisconsin 53201-1881
| | - Antonio Hardan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University; Stanford California 94305
| | - Robin Libove
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University; Stanford California 94305
| | - Susan Leekam
- Wales Autism Research Centre; School of Psychology, Cardiff University; Cardiff CF10 3AT UK
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Cooper RA, Plaisted-Grant KC, Baron-Cohen S, Simons JS. Eye movements reveal a dissociation between memory encoding and retrieval in adults with autism. Cognition 2016; 159:127-138. [PMID: 27939838 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.11.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2016] [Revised: 11/23/2016] [Accepted: 11/28/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit subtle deficits in recollection, which have been proposed to arise from encoding impairments, though a direct link has yet to be demonstrated. In the current study, we used eye-tracking to obtain trial-specific measures of encoding (eye movement patterns) during incidental (natural viewing) and intentional (strategic) encoding conditions in adults with ASD and typical controls. Using this approach, we tested the degree to which differences in encoding might contribute to recollection impairments, or whether group differences in memory primarily emerge at retrieval. Following encoding of scenes, participants were asked to distinguish between old and similar lure scenes and provide 'remember'/'familiar' responses. Intentional encoding increased eye movements and subsequent recollection in both groups to a similar degree, but the ASD group were impaired overall at the memory task and used recollection less frequently. In controls, eye movements at encoding predicted subsequent correct responses and subsequent recollection on a trial-by-trial basis, as expected. In contrast, despite a similar pattern of eye movements during encoding in the two groups, eye movements did not predict trial-by-trial subsequent memory in ASD. Furthermore, recollection was associated with lower similarity between encoding- and retrieval-related eye movements in the ASD group compared to the control group. The eye-tracking results therefore provide novel evidence for a dissociation between encoding and recollection-based retrieval in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rose A Cooper
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
| | | | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK
| | - Jon S Simons
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK.
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Yatziv T, Jacobson H. Understanding visual consciousness in autism spectrum disorders. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:204. [PMID: 25954180 PMCID: PMC4404836 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2014] [Accepted: 03/27/2015] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The paper focuses on the question of what the (visual) perceptual differences are between individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) individuals. We argue against the view that autistic subjects have a deficiency in the most basic form of perceptual consciousness—namely, phenomenal consciousness. Instead, we maintain, the perceptual atypicality of individuals with autism is of a more conceptual and cognitive sort—their perceptual experiences share crucial aspects with TD individuals. Our starting point is Ben Shalom’s (2005, 2009) three-level processing framework for explaining atypicality in several domains of processing among autistics, which we compare with two other tripartite models of perception—Jackendoff’s (1987) and Prinz’s (2000, 2005a, 2007) Intermediate Level Hypothesis and Lamme’s (2004, 2006, 2010) neural account of consciousness. According to these models, whereas the second level of processing is concerned with viewer-centered visual representations of basic visual properties and incorporates some early forms of integration, the third level is more cognitive and conceptual. We argue that the data suggest that the atypicality in autism is restricted mainly to the third level. More specifically, second-level integration, which is the mark of phenomenal consciousness, is typical, yet third-level integration of perceptual objects and concepts is atypical. Thus, the basic experiences of individuals with autism are likely to be similar to typical subjects’ experiences; the main difference lies in the sort of cognitive access the subjects have to their experiences. We conclude by discussing implications of the suggested analysis of experience in autism for conceptions of phenomenal consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tal Yatziv
- Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBeer-Sheva, Israel
- Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBeer-Sheva, Israel
- *Correspondence: Tal Yatziv, Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Building No. 98, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
| | - Hilla Jacobson
- Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBeer-Sheva, Israel
- Department of Brain and Cognition Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBeer-Sheva, Israel
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Hellendoorn A, Wijnroks L, Leseman PPM. Unraveling the nature of autism: finding order amid change. Front Psychol 2015; 6:359. [PMID: 25870581 PMCID: PMC4378365 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2014] [Accepted: 03/14/2015] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
In this article, we hypothesize that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are born with a deficit in invariance detection, which is a learning process whereby people and animals come to attend the relatively stable patterns or structural regularities in the changing stimulus array. This paper synthesizes a substantial body of research which suggests that a deficit in the domain-general perceptual learning process of invariant detection in ASD can lead to a cascade of consequences in different developmental domains. We will outline how this deficit in invariant detection can cause uncertainty, unpredictability, and a lack of control for individuals with ASD and how varying degrees of impairments in this learning process can account for the heterogeneity of the ASD phenotype. We also describe how differences in neural plasticity in ASD underlie the impairments in perceptual learning. The present account offers an alternative to prior theories and contributes to the challenge of understanding the developmental trajectories that result in the variety of autistic behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika Hellendoorn
- Department of Special Education, Centre for Cognitive and Motor Disabilities, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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Del Giudice M, Klimczuk AC, Traficonte DM, Maestripieri D. Autistic-like and schizotypal traits in a life history perspective: diametrical associations with impulsivity, sensation seeking, and sociosexual behavior. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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12
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Visual Search and Emotion: How Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Scan Emotional Scenes. J Autism Dev Disord 2014; 44:2871-81. [DOI: 10.1007/s10803-014-2148-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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