The HFA-P group showed no differences in performance level or profile in comparison with the gifted BDT-matched group, apart from locally oriented perception. Neither autistic group displayed a deficit in construction of global representations. Both HFA-P and HFA-NP groups presented with diminished detrimental influence of increasing perceptual coherence compared with their BDT-matched comparison groups. Their performance was compared with that of 8 autistics without a visuospatial peak (HFA-NP), 10 typically developing individuals (TD) and 8 gifted comparison participants with a visuospatial peak (TD-P). These findings may be useful for a better understanding of some difficulties experienced by ASD in social contexts and contribute to therapeutic treatments.In order to explain the cognitive and cerebral mechanisms responsible for the visuospatial peak in autism, and to document its specificity to this condition, a group of eight high-functioning individuals with autism and a visuospatial peak (HFA-P) performed a modified block-design task (BDT subtest from Wechsler scales) at various levels of perceptual cohesiveness, as well as tasks tapping visuomotor speed, global perception, visual memory, visual search and speed of visual encoding. The analysis of the verbal reports revealed that the interpretation of the social contexts by those with ASD was not what was expected, associated with a specific focus on details. The results showed that in the group of autistic participants there was a tendency to focus on the details in both types of images. Eye-tracking technology was used to analyze how the participants looked at the images (which part of the image and for how long) and asked about what they had seen. A group of ASD and controls were asked to describe two different types of image, one showing a common social situation, the other Navon figure. This way of looking at things has been given the name “weak central coherence,” and may result in difficulties in understanding a situation or other people’s behaviors. These difficulties are commonly associated with a tendency to visually focus on specific parts of the situation (known as local processing) to the detriment of the whole situation. The findings corroborate the idea that weak central coherence may be part of the cognitive phenotype in ASD.Īutism spectrum disorder eye gaze qualitative research social cognition weak central coherence.Īutistic adults often report difficulties in interpreting social situations. Their reaction time and response duration were increased in relation to controls. Data from visual tracking by quadrants and from verbal reports suggest loss of social cues important for understanding context. A tendency to local processing, independently of the stimuli type, in the ASD participants was observed. Heatmap and fixation preferences according to the stimuli quadrants were used to investigate eye-tracking patterns. Both quantitative measures and qualitative (thematic content analysis) procedures were used to assess performance. A sample of 28 adults diagnosed with ASD Level 1 and 25 controls was submitted to a cartoon-like task with the instruction to describe social scenes and to Navon letter stimuli. In social contexts it may be expressed in difficulties to integrate social cues arising from the recognition of emotions in faces or from the environment in order to understand people's interactions. ![]() Central Coherence Weakness has been defined as a tendency for local rather than global processing that may underlie core deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
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