Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.
Leuven Autism Research (LAuRes), KU Leuven, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.
Mol Autism. 2024 Jun 3;15(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s13229-024-00604-6.
Categorization and its influence on perceptual discrimination are essential processes to organize information efficiently. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) are suggested to display enhanced discrimination on the one hand, but also to experience difficulties with generalization and ignoring irrelevant differences on the other, which underlie categorization. Studies on categorization and discrimination in ASC have mainly focused on one process at a time, however, and typically only used either behavioral or neural measures in isolation. Here, we aim to investigate the interrelationships between these perceptual processes using novel stimuli sampled from a well-controlled artificial stimulus space. In addition, we complement standard behavioral psychophysical tasks with frequency-tagging EEG (FT-EEG) to obtain a direct, non-task related neural index of discrimination and categorization.
The study was completed by 38 adults with ASC and 38 matched neurotypical (NT) individuals. First, we assessed baseline discrimination sensitivity by administering FT-EEG measures and a complementary behavioral task. Second, participants were trained to categorize the stimuli into two groups. Finally, participants again completed the neural and behavioral discrimination sensitivity measures.
Before training, NT participants immediately revealed a categorical tuning of discrimination, unlike ASC participants who showed largely similar discrimination sensitivity across the stimuli. During training, both autistic and non-autistic participants were able to categorize the stimuli into two groups. However, in the initial training phase, ASC participants were less accurate and showed more variability, as compared to their non-autistic peers. After training, ASC participants showed significantly enhanced neural and behavioral discrimination sensitivity across the category boundary. Behavioral indices of a reduced categorical processing and perception were related to the presence of more severe autistic traits. Bayesian analyses confirmed overall results.
Data-collection occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our behavioral and neural findings indicate that adults with and without ASC are able to categorize highly similar stimuli. However, while categorical tuning of discrimination sensitivity was spontaneously present in the NT group, it only emerged in the autistic group after explicit categorization training. Additionally, during training, adults with autism were slower at category learning. Finally, this multi-level approach sheds light on the mechanisms underlying sensory and information processing issues in ASC.
分类及其对感知辨别力的影响是有效组织信息的基本过程。患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASC）的个体一方面被认为具有更强的辨别力，但另一方面也难以进行概括和忽略无关差异，这是分类的基础。ASC 中的分类和辨别研究主要集中在一个过程上，然而，通常只使用行为或神经测量方法中的一种进行隔离。在这里，我们旨在使用从精心控制的人工刺激空间中采样的新型刺激物来研究这些感知过程之间的相互关系。此外，我们用频率标记脑电图（FT-EEG）补充标准行为心理物理任务，以获得直接的、与任务无关的辨别和分类的神经指标。
这项研究由 38 名 ASC 成人和 38 名匹配的神经典型（NT）个体完成。首先，我们通过进行 FT-EEG 测量和补充行为任务来评估基线辨别敏感性。其次，参与者被训练将刺激物分为两组。最后，参与者再次完成神经和行为辨别敏感性测量。
在训练之前，NT 参与者立即表现出辨别力的类别调谐，而 ASC 参与者则表现出对刺激物的辨别力基本相似。在训练过程中，自闭症和非自闭症参与者都能够将刺激物分为两组。然而，在初始训练阶段，与他们的非自闭症同龄人相比，ASC 参与者的准确性较低，变异性较大。经过训练，ASC 参与者在类别边界处表现出显著增强的神经和行为辨别敏感性。行为指标显示出的减少类别处理和感知与更严重的自闭症特征的存在有关。贝叶斯分析证实了总体结果。
数据收集是在 COVID-19 大流行期间进行的。
我们的行为和神经发现表明，患有和不患有 ASC 的成年人都能够对高度相似的刺激进行分类。然而，虽然 NT 组中存在辨别敏感性的类别调谐，但只有在进行明确的分类训练后，自闭症组才会出现这种情况。此外，在训练过程中，自闭症患者在类别学习方面较慢。最后，这种多层次的方法揭示了 ASC 中感官和信息处理问题的机制。
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