University of Sussex
Browse
- No file added yet -

An autistic-like profile of attention and perception in synaesthesia

Download (642.26 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 08:18 authored by Jamie WardJamie Ward, Paris Brown, Jasmine Sherwood, Julia SimnerJulia Simner
Synaesthesia and autism are two neurodevelopmental conditions that have been shown to co-occur more than expected by chance. The studies reported here test the hypothesis that increased sensory sensitivity and enhanced attention-to-detail are core cognitive features that are shared between them. In Study 1, we administer self-report measures of sensory sensitivity and autistic traits (the Autism Spectrum Quotient, AQ) to a large heterogeneous sample of synaesthetes. Both sensory sensitivity and the attention-to-detail subscale of the AQ show a “dose-like” relationship with synaesthesia: namely, more kinds of synaesthesia is related to a greater shift up the autistic spectrum. Study 2 uses two objective measures of visual perception/attention linked to autistic traits: change blindness and detection of local embedded figures. Both measures are shown here to be sensitive to the attention-to-detail subscale of the AQ, and synaesthetes outperformed controls on both tasks. Synaesthetes appear to occupy a specific cognitive niche of having autistic-like traits linked to enhanced perception and attention. Whilst these typically occur in the absence of the traditional impairments that define autism, they may carry the cost of increased vulnerability to clinical levels of autism (Odds Ratio=2.07).

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Cortex

ISSN

0010-9452

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

107

Page range

121-130

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-10-16

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-10-25

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-10-16

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC