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A direct comparison of local-global integration in autism and other developmental disorders: implications for the central coherence hypothesis - PubMed

Comparative Study

A direct comparison of local-global integration in autism and other developmental disorders: implications for the central coherence hypothesis

Inês Bernardino et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

The weak central coherence hypothesis represents one of the current explanatory models in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Several experimental paradigms based on hierarchical figures have been used to test this controversial account. We addressed this hypothesis by testing central coherence in ASD (n = 19 with intellectual disability and n = 20 without intellectual disability), Williams syndrome (WS, n = 18), matched controls with intellectual disability (n = 20) and chronological age-matched controls (n = 20). We predicted that central coherence should be most impaired in ASD for the weak central coherence account to hold true. An alternative account includes dorsal stream dysfunction which dominates in WS. Central coherence was first measured by requiring subjects to perform local/global preference judgments using hierarchical figures under 6 different experimental settings (memory and perception tasks with 3 distinct geometries with and without local/global manipulations). We replicated these experiments under 4 additional conditions (memory/perception*local/global) in which subjects reported the correct local or global configurations. Finally, we used a visuoconstructive task to measure local/global perceptual interference. WS participants were the most impaired in central coherence whereas ASD participants showed a pattern of coherence loss found in other studies only in four task conditions favoring local analysis but it tended to disappear when matching for intellectual disability. We conclude that abnormal central coherence does not provide a comprehensive explanation of ASD deficits and is more prominent in populations, namely WS, characterized by strongly impaired dorsal stream functioning and other phenotypic traits that contrast with the autistic phenotype. Taken together these findings suggest that other mechanisms such as dorsal stream deficits (largest in WS) may underlie impaired central coherence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Illustration of the Visual Preference Tasks.

Example of the configurations used in A) visual perception preference tasks and B) visual memory preference tasks. C) Illustration of the non-inversion, local-inversion and global-inversion conditions used on visual perception preference and visual memory preference tasks to assess preference invariance to global and local rotation. Note. Figures are presented according to the real scale (not real size) and, therefore, visibility was higher in the experimental task.

Figure 2
Figure 2. Illustration of the Correct Choice Tasks.

Example of the configuration used in A) visual perception correct choice tasks and B) visual memory correct choice tasks. Note. Figures are presented according to the real scale (not real size) and, therefore, visibility was higher in the experimental task. Note that questions posed to participants were in simple Portuguese.

Figure 3
Figure 3. Stimuli used in the drawing task.

A simple geometric figure and a letter used in the drawing task.

Figure 4
Figure 4. Mean percentage of global responses for all clinical and control groups for the visual perception preference task conditions and the visual memory preference task conditions.

Given the bimodal pattern found in WS only for this task, and for sake of clarity we plot two WS subgroups, according to dominantly local or global preference (see text). WS_local  =  Williams Syndrome subgroup with local bias; WS_global  =  Williams Syndrome subgroup with global bias; ASD_ID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group with intellectual disability; ASD_noID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group without intellectual disability; C_TD  =  typically developing control group; C_ID  =  control group with intellectual disability.

Figure 5
Figure 5. Mean percentage of errors for all clinical and control groups for the visual perception and visual memory “correct choice” task conditions.

WS  =  Williams Syndrome group; ASD_ID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group with intellectual disability; ASD_noID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group without intellectual disability; C_TD  =  typically developing control group; C_ID  =  control group with intellectual disability.

Figure 6
Figure 6. Examples of drawings produced by clinical and control groups.

WS  =  Williams Syndrome group; ASD_ID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group with intellectual disability; ASD_noID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group without intellectual disability; C_TD  =  typically developing control group; C_ID  =  control group with intellectual disability.

Figure 7
Figure 7. Visuoconstructive integrative abilities.

Integration score for all groups indicating the number of subjects who were able to integrate the local elements in order to correctly reproduce the global configuration regarding the geometric hierarchical figure (Triangle) and the hierarchical letter (‘P’). WS  =  Williams Syndrome group; ASD_ID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group with intellectual disability; ASD_noID  =  Autism Spectrum Disorders group without intellectual disability; C_TD  =  typical developing control group; C_ID  =  control group with intellectual disability.

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