Together these predict people with autism should show enhanced perception of changes in simple change detection paradigms, including reduced change blindness. People with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have superior attention to detail and better discrimination of targets, and often notice small details that are missed by others.
People often fail to detect large changes to visual scenes following a brief interruption, an effect known as ‘change blindness’. Sensory sensitivity, specifically, plays an important role in the pattern of symptoms observed in ASD as many studies have indicated that sensory sensitivity, specifically, is strongly correlated with, and even predictive of, autistic symptoms (Baranek et al., 2006 Crane et al., 2009 Kern et al., 2006 Mayer, 2017 Robertson & Simmons, 2013 Schulz & Stevenson, 2018 Talay-Ongan & Wood, 2000 Tomchek & Dunn, 2007 Watling et al., 2001). In ASD, differences in sensory processing span all sensory modalities and encapsulate a wide range of perceptual differences (Ashwin et al., 2009 Baum et al. Studying the relationships between sensory processing and behavioural symptoms in ASD provides an optimal platform for this line of work due to the high prevalence and severity of sensory processing issues observed in this population (Rogers & Ozonoff, 2005). We hypothesize that behavioural measures are measuring sensory sensitivity, while questionnaires measures are in fact measuring sensory reactivity. Thus, while these results provide evidence supporting the contribution of sensory sensitivity to restricted interests and repetitive behaviours, these results also indicate that behavioural and questionnaire measures of sensory sensitivity are measuring two distinct constructs. Furthermore, a regression analysis suggests that while restricted interests and repetitive behaviours can be predicted based on both behavioural and self-reported sensitivity, these two predictors account for different portions of the variance in restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. Surprisingly, visual sensitivity as measured behaviourally and through self-report are unrelated. Visual sensitivity, measured both behaviourally and with questionnaires, is positively related to restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. In all, 90 typically developing participants completed a visual detection task, a questionnaire measure of sensory processing and a measure of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. In addition, commonly used questionnaire measures of sensory sensitivity were collected to determine if self-reported measures accurately reflect behavioural measures of sensory sensitivity.
Here, a more rigorous psychophysics paradigm was applied to assess sensory sensitivity and relate hypersensitivity to restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. This line of research has been conducted almost exclusively through caregiver reports of sensitivity. Recent studies have suggested that individuals who exhibit heightened sensitivity also exhibit higher rates and severity of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. The results of this study suggest that inclusion of sensory hypersensitivity in the diagnostic criteria for ASC may be warranted and that basic standardized tests of sensory thresholds may inform causal theories of ASC. Individuals with ASC have significantly better visual acuity (20:7) compared with control subjects (20:13)-acuity so superior that it lies in the region reported for birds of prey. This study investigates visual threshold in n = 15 individuals with ASC and n = 15 individuals without ASC, using a standardized optometric test, the Freiburg Visual Acuity and Contrast Test, to investigate basic low-level visual acuity. However, it remains unclear whether these abilities are specifically the result of differences in sensory thresholds (low-level processing), rather than higher-level cognitive processes. Over time, empirical evidence has supported the notion that those with ASC have superior visual abilities compared with control subjects. Anecdotal accounts of sensory hypersensitivity in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have been noted since the first reports of the condition.
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