Motion Perception and Social Cognition in Autism: Speed Selective Impairments in Socio-Conceptual Processing?

Authors

  • Ana Maria Abreu Universidade Europeia, Laureate International Universities,
  • Joana Soares Universidade Europeia, Laureate International Universities,
  • Scania de Schonen Developmental Neurocognition Group, LPP
  • Francesca Happé MRC SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience

Keywords:

Autism spectrum disorder, Visual motion processing, Social cognition, Low level perceptual deficits, Stimuli processing speed.

Abstract

Aim: Research on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has mainly focused on the study of social behavioral deficits (e.g. imitation, eye gaze, play, etc.). These studies have emphasized the high-level impairments that lead to abnormal social interaction in ASD. However, as important as the study of social behavior in ASD, is research on lower-level processes that might contribute to the emergence and development of the atypical social behaviors that characterize this condition. Perceptual differences constitute one such factor. Here, we aim to investigate the possible influence of specific visual motion perception deficits in conceptual processing.

Materials and Methods: We compared the performance of children with ASD, with that of children with moderate to severe learning disorders (MLD) or typical development (TD) on a series of computerized tasks. These tasks assessed motion detection in non-social and socially embedded backgrounds or contexts.

Results: The results provide evidence for speed-selective impairments in processing socially embedded targets in ASD.

Conclusions: Based on these findings, we suggest that low-level perceptual deficits might play an important role in the development of social impairments.

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Published

2016-10-28

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Articles

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