TY - JOUR
T1 - Decreased coherent motion discrimination in autism spectrum disorder
T2 - the role of attentional zoom-out deficit.
AU - Ronconi, Luca
AU - Gori, Simone
AU - Ruffino, Milena
AU - Franceschini, Sandro
AU - Urbani, Barbara
AU - Molteni, Massimo
AU - Facoetti, Andrea
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with decreased coherent dot motion (CDM) performance, a task that measures magnocellular sensitivity as well as fronto-parietal attentional integration processing. In order to clarify the role of spatial attention in CDM tasks, we measured the perception of coherently moving dots displayed in the central or peripheral visual field in ASD and typically developing children. A dorsal-stream deficit in children with ASD should predict a generally poorer performance in both conditions. In our study, however, we show that in children with ASD, CDM perception was selectively impaired in the central condition. In addition, in the ASD group, CDM efficiency was correlated to the ability to zoom out the attentional focus. Importantly, autism symptoms severity was related to both the CDM and attentional zooming-out impairment. These findings suggest that a dysfunction in the attentional network might help to explain decreased CDM discrimination as well as the "core" social cognition deficits of ASD.
AB - Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with decreased coherent dot motion (CDM) performance, a task that measures magnocellular sensitivity as well as fronto-parietal attentional integration processing. In order to clarify the role of spatial attention in CDM tasks, we measured the perception of coherently moving dots displayed in the central or peripheral visual field in ASD and typically developing children. A dorsal-stream deficit in children with ASD should predict a generally poorer performance in both conditions. In our study, however, we show that in children with ASD, CDM perception was selectively impaired in the central condition. In addition, in the ASD group, CDM efficiency was correlated to the ability to zoom out the attentional focus. Importantly, autism symptoms severity was related to both the CDM and attentional zooming-out impairment. These findings suggest that a dysfunction in the attentional network might help to explain decreased CDM discrimination as well as the "core" social cognition deficits of ASD.
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M3 - Article
C2 - 23139831
AN - SCOPUS:84876451867
VL - 7
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 11
M1 - e49019
ER -