@article{ddd6db77bf2340f1af6626324da22f6f,
title = "Severely Attenuated Visual Feedback Processing in Children on the Autism Spectrum",
abstract = "Individuals on the autism spectrum often exhibit atypicality in their sensory perception, but the neural underpinnings of these perceptual differences remain incompletely understood. One proposed mechanism is an imbalance in higher-order feedback re-entrant inputs to early sensory cortices during sensory perception, leading to increased propensity to focus on local object features over global context. We explored this theory by measuring visual evoked potentials during contour integration as considerable work has revealed that these processes are largely driven by feedback inputs from higher-order ventral visual stream regions. We tested the hypothesis that autistic individuals would have attenuated evoked responses to illusory contours compared with neurotypical controls. Electrophysiology was acquired while 29 autistic and 31 neurotypical children (7-17 years old, inclusive of both males and females) passively viewed a random series of Kanizsa figure stimuli, each consisting of four inducers that were aligned either at random rotational angles or such that contour integration would form an illusory square. Autistic children demonstrated attenuated automatic contour integration over lateral occipital regions relative to neurotypical controls. The data are discussed in terms of the role of predictive feedback processes on perception of global stimulus features and the notion that weakened “priors” may play a role in the visual processing anomalies seen in autism.",
keywords = "autism spectrum disorder, illusory contours, object recognition, visual evoked potentials, visual feedback",
author = "Knight, {Emily J.} and Freedman, {Edward G.} and Myers, {Evan J.} and Berruti, {Alaina S.} and Oakes, {Leona A.} and Cao, {Cody Zhewei} and Sophie Molholm and Foxe, {John J.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Pilot Program with funding from the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Foundation to E.G.F. and J.J.F. Participant recruitment and phenotyping were conducted through the UR-IDDRC Human Clinical Phenotyping and Recruitment Core. Electrophysiological recordings and eye-tracking were supported by the UR-IDDRC Translational Neuroimaging and Neurophysiology Core, which is supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development center grant P50 HD103536 to J.J.F. Participant recruitment and phenotyping at Einstein College of Medicine were supported in part by the Human Clinical Phenotyping Core of the Rose F. Kennedy IDDRC, supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development center grant P50 HD105352 to S.M. E.J.K. was supported by the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Pediatrics Chair Fellow Award and through Kyle Family Fellowship support. Dr. Myers was supported by a postdoctoral training fellowship through the Center for Visual Sciences at the University of Rochester NIH T32 EY007125. The Research Subjects Review Boards of the University of Rochester and Albert Einstein College of Medicine approved all the experimental procedures. Each participant provided written informed consent in accordance with the tenets laid out in the Declaration of Helsinki. We thank Mr. Eric Nicholas for invaluable contributions to the experimental setup; Jiashu Wang for her contributions to data preprocessing; and Douwe Horsthuis for contributions to cross-site validation of the experimental setup and coordination of data collection from the Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The authors declare no competing financial interests. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Pilot Program with funding from the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Foundation to E.G.F. and J.J.F. Participant recruitment and phenotyping were conducted through the UR-IDDRC Human Clinical Phenotyping and Recruitment Core. Electrophysiological recordings and eye-tracking were supported by the UR-IDDRC Translational Neuroimaging and Neurophysiology Core, which is supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development center grant P50 HD103536 to J.J.F. Participant recruitment and phenotyping at Einstein College of Medicine were supported in part by the Human Clinical Phenotyping Core of the Rose F. Kennedy IDDRC, supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development center grant P50 HD105352 to S.M. E.J.K. was supported by the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Pediatrics Chair Fellow Award and through Kyle Family Fellowship support. Dr. Myers was supported by a postdoctoral training fellowship through the Center for Visual Sciences at the University of Rochester NIH T32 EY007125. The Research Subjects Review Boards of the University of Rochester and Albert Einstein College of Medicine approved all the experimental procedures. Each participant provided written informed consent in accordance with the tenets laid out in the Declaration of Helsinki. We thank Mr. Eric Nicholas for invaluable contributions to the experimental setup; Jiashu Wang for her contributions to data preprocessing; and Douwe Horsthuis for contributions to cross-site validation of the experimental setup and coordination of data collection from the Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2023 Knight et al.",
year = "2023",
month = mar,
day = "29",
doi = "10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1192-22.2023",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "43",
pages = "2424--2438",
journal = "Journal of Neuroscience",
issn = "0270-6474",
publisher = "Society for Neuroscience",
number = "13",
}