Proprioceptive versus visual control in autistic children.

The autistic child's presumed preference for proximal rather than distal sensory input was studied by requiring that autistic, retarded, and normal subjects adapt to a prism-induced lateral displacement of the visual field. Only autistic subjects demonstrated transfer of adaptation to the nonadapted hand, indicative of a reliance on proprioception rather than vision to accomplish adaptation. Such reliance on proprioception was explained as an alternative strategy compensating for an inability to use current visual control of reaching rather than as a preference for proximal information per se.