Koh, H.C., Milne, E. orcid.org/0000-0003-0127-0718 and Dobkins, K. (2010) Contrast sensitivity for motion detection and direction discrimination in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and their siblings. Neuropsychologia, 48 (14). pp. 4046-4056. ISSN 0028-3932
Abstract
The magnocellular (M) pathway hypothesis proposes that impaired visual motion perception observed in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) might be mediated by atypical functioning of the subcortical M pathway, as this pathway provides the bulk of visual input to cortical motion detectors. To test this hypothesis, we measured luminance and chromatic contrast sensitivity, thought to tap M and Parvocellular (P) pathway processing, respectively. We also tested the hypothesis that motion processing is impaired in ASD using a novel paradigm that measures motion processing while controlling for detectabilty. Specifically, this paradigm compares contrast sensitivity for detection of a moving grating with contrast sensitivity for direction-of-motion discrimination of that same moving grating. Contrast sensitivities from adolescents with ASD were compared to typically-developing adolescents, and also unaffected siblings of individuals with ASD (SIBS). The results revealed significant group differences on P, but not M, pathway processing, with SIBS showing higher chromatic contrast sensitivity than both participants with ASD and TD participants. This atypicality, unique to SIBS, suggests the possible existence of a protective factor in these individuals against developing ASD. The results also revealed impairments in motion perception in both participants with ASD and SIBS, which may be an endophenotype of ASD. This impairment may be driven by impairments in motion detectors and/or by reduced input from neural areas that project to motion detectors, the latter possibility being consistent with the notion of reduced connectivity between neural areas in ASD.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2010 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Neuropsychologia. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Autism endophenotype; Motion perception; Magnocellular; Parvocellular; Visual psychophysics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2017 09:33 |
Last Modified: | 24 Mar 2018 09:04 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.10... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.10.008 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:110881 |