Ainsworth Kirsty, Ostrolenk Alexia, Irion Catherine, Bertone Armando
Perceptual Neuroscience Laboratory for Autism and Development (PNLab), McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Perceptual Neuroscience Laboratory for Autism and Development (PNLab), McGill University, Montreal, Canada; University of Montreal Center of Excellence for Pervasive Developmental Disorders (CETEDUM), Montreal, Canada.
Cortex. 2021 Jan;134:195-206. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.09.031. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
Atypical sensory processing is now recognised as a key component of an autism diagnosis. The integration of multiple sensory inputs (multisensory integration (MSI)) is thought to be idiosyncratic in autistic individuals and may have cascading effects on the development of higher-level skills such as social communication. Multisensory facilitation was assessed using a target detection paradigm in 45 autistic and 111 neurotypical individuals, matched on age and IQ. Target stimuli were: auditory (A; 3500 Hz tone), visual (V; white disk 'flash') or audiovisual (AV; simultaneous tone and flash), and were presented on a dark background in a randomized order with varying stimulus onset delays. Reaction time (RT) was recorded via button press. In order to assess possible developmental effects, participants were divided into younger (age 14 or younger) and older (age 15 and older) groups. Redundancy gain (RG) was significantly greater in neurotypical, compared to autistic individuals. No significant effect of age or interaction was found. Race model analysis was used to compute a bound value that represented the facilitation effect provided by MSI. Our results revealed that MSI facilitation occurred (violation of the race model) in neurotypical individuals, with more efficient MSI in older participants. In both the younger and older autistic groups, we found reduced MSI facilitation (no or limited violation of the race model). Autistic participants showed reduced multisensory facilitation compared to neurotypical participants in a simple target detection task, void of social context. This remained consistent across age. Our results support evidence that autistic individuals may not integrate low-level, non-social information in a typical fashion, adding to the growing discussion around the influential effect that basic perceptual atypicalities may have on the development of higher-level, core aspects of autism.
非典型感觉加工现在被认为是自闭症诊断的一个关键组成部分。多种感觉输入的整合（多感觉整合，MSI）在自闭症个体中被认为是特异的，并且可能对诸如社会交流等高级技能的发展产生连锁反应。在45名自闭症患者和111名年龄及智商匹配的神经典型个体中，使用目标检测范式评估多感觉促进作用。目标刺激包括：听觉（A；3500赫兹音调）、视觉（V；白色圆盘“闪光”）或视听（AV；同时呈现音调与闪光），并以随机顺序在黑暗背景下呈现，刺激起始延迟各不相同。通过按键记录反应时间（RT）。为了评估可能的发育影响，参与者被分为较年轻组（14岁及以下）和较年长组（15岁及以上）。与自闭症个体相比，神经典型个体的冗余增益（RG）显著更大。未发现年龄或交互作用的显著影响。使用种族模型分析来计算一个代表MSI提供的促进作用的边界值。我们的结果显示，神经典型个体中发生了MSI促进作用（违反种族模型），年长参与者的MSI更有效。在较年轻和较年长的自闭症组中，我们发现MSI促进作用降低（未违反或有限违反种族模型）。在一个没有社会背景的简单目标检测任务中，自闭症参与者与神经典型参与者相比，多感觉促进作用降低。这在不同年龄组中保持一致。我们的结果支持了这样的证据，即自闭症个体可能无法以典型方式整合低水平的非社会信息，这也加入了围绕基本感知异常可能对自闭症高级核心方面发展产生的影响的日益激烈的讨论中。
