1. The Relation Between Autistic Traits, the Degree of Synaesthesia, and Local/Global Visual Perception
- Author
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Mark Dingemanse, Rob van Lier, Floor Burghoorn, Tessa M. van Leeuwen, and Language, Communication and Cognition
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Autism-spectrum quotient ,Visual perception ,genetic structures ,Autism Spectrum Disorder ,Autism ,Population ,Local/global ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,050105 experimental psychology ,Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,medicine ,Humans ,Attention ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Autistic Disorder ,education ,Synesthesia ,Original Paper ,education.field_of_study ,Optical illusion ,Action, intention, and motor control ,05 social sciences ,medicine.disease ,Language & Communication ,Autism spectrum disorder ,Synaesthesia ,Visual Perception ,Female ,Psychology ,Multimodal language and communication ,Neurotypical ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Synaesthesia is highly prevalent in autism spectrum disorder. We assessed the relation between the degree of autistic traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient, AQ) and the degree of synaesthesia in a neurotypical population, and hypothesized both are related to a local bias in visual perception. A positive correlation between total AQ scores and the degree of synaesthesia was found, extending previous studies in clinical populations. Consistent with our hypothesis, AQ-attention to detail scores were related to increased performance on an Embedded Figures Task and reduced susceptibility to visual illusions. We found no relation between autistic traits and performance on a motion coherence task, and no relation between synaesthesia and local visual perception. Possibly, this relation is reserved for supra-threshold synaesthetes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10803-019-04222-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Published
- 2020
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