Clinically relevant autistic traits predict greater reliance on detail for image recognition

TY - JOUR

T1 - Clinically relevant autistic traits predict greater reliance on detail for image recognition

AU - Alink, Arjen

AU - Charest, Ian

PY - 2020/8/28

Y1 - 2020/8/28

N2 - Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis are often described as having an eye for detail. But it remains to be shown that a detail-focused processing bias is a ubiquitous property of vision in individuals with ASD. To address this question, we investigated whether a greater number of autistic traits in neurotypical subjects is associated with an increased reliance on image details during a natural image recognition task. To this end, we use a novel reverse correlation-based method (feature diagnosticity mapping) for measuring the relative importance of low-level image features for object recognition. The main finding of this study is that image recognition in participants with an above-median number of autistic traits benefited more from the presence of high-spatial frequency image features. Furthermore, we found that this reliance-on-detail effect was best predicted by the presence of the most clinically relevant autistic traits. Therefore, our findings suggest that a greater number of autistic traits in neurotypical individuals is associated with a more detail-oriented visual information processing strategy and that this effect might generalize to a clinical ASD population.

AB - Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis are often described as having an eye for detail. But it remains to be shown that a detail-focused processing bias is a ubiquitous property of vision in individuals with ASD. To address this question, we investigated whether a greater number of autistic traits in neurotypical subjects is associated with an increased reliance on image details during a natural image recognition task. To this end, we use a novel reverse correlation-based method (feature diagnosticity mapping) for measuring the relative importance of low-level image features for object recognition. The main finding of this study is that image recognition in participants with an above-median number of autistic traits benefited more from the presence of high-spatial frequency image features. Furthermore, we found that this reliance-on-detail effect was best predicted by the presence of the most clinically relevant autistic traits. Therefore, our findings suggest that a greater number of autistic traits in neurotypical individuals is associated with a more detail-oriented visual information processing strategy and that this effect might generalize to a clinical ASD population.

KW - Adolescent

KW - Attention/physiology

KW - Autism Spectrum Disorder/psychology

KW - Autistic Disorder/psychology

KW - Cognition/physiology

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology

KW - Recognition, Psychology

KW - Vision, Ocular/physiology

KW - Visual Perception/physiology

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-70953-8

DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-70953-8

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 32859935

VL - 10

SP - 14239

JO - SCI REP-UK

JF - SCI REP-UK

SN - 2045-2322

IS - 1

ER -