Centre de Recherche de l'hôpital universitaire Sainte-Justine, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Cortex. 2013 Jun;49(6):1704-10. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.06.001. Epub 2012 Jun 20.
Although the literature concerning auditory and visual perceptual capabilities in the autism spectrum is growing, our understanding of multisensory integration (MSI) is rather limited. In the present study, we assessed MSI in autism by measuring whether participants benefited from an auditory cue presented in synchrony with the color change of a target during a complex visual search task. The synchronous auditory pip typically increases search efficacy (pip and pop effect), indicative of the beneficial use of sensory input from both modalities. We found that for conditions without auditory information, autistic participants were better at visual search compared to neurotypical participants. Importantly, search efficiency was increased by the presence of auditory pip for neurotypical participants only. The simultaneous occurrence of superior unimodal performance with altered audio-visual integration in autism suggests autonomous sensory processing in this population.
尽管有关自闭症谱系中听觉和视觉感知能力的文献不断增加，但我们对多感官整合（MSI）的理解还相当有限。在本研究中，我们通过测量参与者在复杂视觉搜索任务中是否受益于与目标颜色变化同步呈现的听觉提示，评估了自闭症中的 MSI。同步的听觉提示通常会提高搜索效率（pip 和 pop 效应），表明对来自两种模式的感官输入的有益利用。我们发现，在没有听觉信息的情况下，自闭症参与者的视觉搜索能力优于神经典型参与者。重要的是，只有神经典型参与者的听觉 pip 的存在才会增加搜索效率。自闭症中出现的优越的单模态表现与改变的视听整合同时发生，表明该人群存在自主的感觉处理。
