Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), Department of Psychology and Human Development, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, London, UK.
Department of Psychological Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 2025 Jan;38(1):e13326. doi: 10.1111/jar.13326.
Autistic people without intellectual disabilities have increased perceptual capacity: they can process more information at any given time compared to non-autistic people. We examined whether increased perceptual capacity is evident across the autistic spectrum (i.e. for autistic people with intellectual disabilities) and whether it is specific to autism, or also experienced by people with Williams Syndrome (WS).
Five autistic adults with intellectual disabilities and five adults with WS took part in accessible, qualitative interviews. Responses were analysed using thematic analysis.
Both groups expressed enjoyment of focussed attention, with autistic participants preferring multiple simultaneous inputs. Responses suggested increased perceptual capacity for autistic participants only. The sensory environment was reported to be anxiety-inducing for both groups.
This study gives preliminary evidence that increased perceptual capacity may be universal across the autistic spectrum, and specific to autism. Understanding differences in capacity offers more targeted suggestions to support sensory challenges.
非智障自闭症患者的感知能力增强：与非自闭症患者相比，他们可以在任何给定时间处理更多信息。我们研究了感知能力增强是否在自闭症谱系中明显（即对于智障自闭症患者），以及它是否是自闭症特有的，还是也被威廉姆斯综合征（WS）患者所经历。
五名智障自闭症成年人和五名 WS 成年人参加了可访问的定性访谈。使用主题分析对响应进行分析。
两组参与者都表示喜欢集中注意力，自闭症参与者更喜欢同时接受多个输入。结果表明，只有自闭症参与者的感知能力增强。两组参与者都报告说，感官环境会引起焦虑。
这项研究初步表明，感知能力增强可能在自闭症谱系中普遍存在，并且是自闭症特有的。了解能力差异可以为支持感官挑战提供更有针对性的建议。
