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Global and local visual processing in autism – a co‐twin‐control study
Author(s) -
Neufeld J.,
Hagström A.,
Van't Westeinde A.,
Lundin K.,
Cauvet É.,
Willfors C.,
Isaksson J.,
Lichtenstein P.,
Bölte S.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.13120
Subject(s) - autism , psychology , visual processing , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , visual perception , gestalt psychology , cohort , autism spectrum disorder , perception , medicine , neuroscience , psychotherapist
Background Autism Spectrum Disorder ( ASD ) is associated with altered global and local visual processing. However, the nature of these alterations remains controversial, with contradictory findings and notions ranging from a reduced drive to integrate information into a coherent ‘gestalt’ (“ weak central coherence ” = WCC ) to an enhanced perceptual functioning ( EPF ) in local processing. Methods This study assessed the association between autism and global/local visual processing, using a large sample of monozygotic ( MZ ) and dizygotic ( DZ ) twins ( N = 290, 48% females, age = 8–31 years). The Fragmented Pictures Test ( FPT ) assessed global processing, whereas local processing was estimated with the Embedded Figures Test ( EFT ) and the Block Design Test ( BDT ). Autism was assessed both categorically (clinical diagnosis), and dimensionally (autistic traits). Associations between visual tasks and autism were estimated both across the cohort and within‐twin pairs where all factors shared between twins are implicitly controlled. Results Clinical diagnosis and autistic traits predicted a need for more visual information for gestalt processing in the FPT across the cohort. For clinical diagnosis, this association remained within‐pairs and at trend‐level even within MZ twin pairs alone. ASD and higher autistic traits predicted lower EFT and BDT performance across the cohort, but these associations were lost within‐pairs. Conclusions In line with the WCC account, our findings indicate an association between autism and reduced global visual processing in children, adolescents and young adults (but no evidence for EPF ). Observing a similar association within MZ twins suggests a non‐shared environmental contribution.