For example, ASD has been associated with superior performance for the embedded figures test 2, 3, 4, which involves searching for a simple shape contained by a complex figure, and faster identification of the odd-man-out in cluttered displays 5, 6, 7. An intriguing aspect of ASD is that it is also associated with superior performance for tasks that involve the processing of visual detail. Diagnostic criteria for ASD include persistent deficits in social interactions and communication and repetitive patterns of behavior 1. Similar content being viewed by othersĪutism is a developmental disorder, now referred to as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), that manifests itself in a variety of forms. 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. Furthermore, we found that this reliance-on-detail effect was best predicted by the presence of the most clinically relevant autistic traits. 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. 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. 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. But it remains to be shown that a detail-focused processing bias is a ubiquitous property of vision in individuals with ASD. Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis are often described as having an eye for detail.

Autism spectrum quotient aq test