title: Early multisensory interactions affect the competition among multiple visual objects Slipped lips: onset asynchrony detection of auditory-visual language in autism. Discrimination of temporal synchrony in intermodal events by children with autism and children with developmental disabilities without autism. Audiovisual speech integration and lipreading in autism. Reduced orienting to audiovisual synchrony in infancy predicts autism diagnosis at 3 years of age The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism, Malesand Females, Scientists and Mathematicians
abstract: In dynamic cluttered environments , audition and vision may benefit from each other in determining what deserves further attention and what does not . We investigated the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for attentional guidance by audiovisual stimuli in such an environment . Event-related potentials ( ERPs ) were measured during visual search through dynamic displays consisting of line elements that r and omly changed orientation . Search accuracy improved when a target orientation change was synchronized with an auditory signal as compared to when the auditory signal was absent or synchronized with a distractor orientation change . The ERP data show that behavioral benefits were related to an early multisensory interaction over left parieto-occipital cortex ( 50 - 60 ms post-stimulus onset ) , which was followed by an early positive modulation ( 80 - 100 ms ) over occipital and temporal areas contralateral to the audiovisual event , an enhanced N2pc ( 210 - 250 ms ) , and a contralateral negative slow wave ( CNSW ) . The early multisensory interaction was correlated with behavioral search benefits , indicating that participants with a strong multisensory interaction benefited the most from the synchronized auditory signal . We suggest that an auditory signal enhances the neural response to a synchronized visual event , which increases the chances of selection in a multiple object environment BACKGROUND It has frequently been suggested that individuals with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) have deficits in auditory-visual ( AV ) sensory integration . Studies of language integration have mostly used non-word syllables presented in congruent and incongruent AV combinations and demonstrated reduced influence of visual speech in individuals with ASD . The aim of our study was to test whether adolescents with high-functioning autism are able to integrate AV information of meaningful , phrase-length language in a task of onset asynchrony detection . METHODS Participants were 25 adolescents with ASD and 25 typically developing ( TD ) controls . The stimuli were video clips of complete phrases using simple , commonly occurring words . The clips were digitally manipulated to have the video precede the corresponding audio by 0 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 12 , or 14 video frames , a range of 0 - 500ms . Participants were shown the video clips in r and om order and asked to indicate whether each clip was in-synch or not . RESULTS There were no differences between adolescents with ASD and their TD peers in accuracy of onset asynchrony detection at any slip rate . CONCLUSION These data indicate that adolescents with ASD are able to integrate auditory and visual components in a task of onset asynchrony detection using natural , phrase-length language stimuli . We propose that the meaningful nature of the language stimuli in combination with presentation in a non-distracting environment allowed adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to demonstrate preserved accuracy for bi-modal AV integration BACKGROUND This project examined the intermodal perception of temporal synchrony in 16 young children ( ages 4 to 6 years ) with autism compared to a group of children without impairments matched on adaptive age , and a group of children with other developmental disabilities matched on chronological and adaptive age . METHOD A preferential looking paradigm was used , where participants viewed non-linguistic , simple linguistic or complex linguistic events on two screens displaying identical video tracks , but one offset from the other by 3 seconds , and with the single audio track matched to only one of the displays . RESULTS As predicted , both comparison groups demonstrated significant non-r and om preferential looking to violations of temporal synchrony with linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli . However , the group with autism showed an impaired , chance level of responding , except when presented with non-linguistic stimuli . CONCLUSIONS Several explanations are offered for this apparently autism-specific , language -specific pattern of responding to temporal synchrony , and potential developmental sequelae are discussed BACKGROUND During speech perception , the ability to integrate auditory and visual information causes speech to sound louder and be more intelligible , and leads to quicker processing . This integration is important in early language development , and also continues to affect speech comprehension throughout the lifespan . Previous research shows that individuals with autism have difficulty integrating information , especially across multiple sensory domains . METHODS In the present study ,  audiovisual speech integration  was investigated in 18 adolescents with high-functioning autism and 19 well-matched adolescents with typical development using a speech in noise paradigm .  Speech reception thresholds were calculated for auditory only and audiovisual matched speech , and lipreading ability was measured . RESULTS Compared to individuals with typical development , individuals with autism showed less benefit from the addition of visual information in audiovisual speech perception . We also found that individuals with autism were significantly worse than those in the comparison group at lipreading . Hierarchical regression demonstrated that group differences in the audiovisual condition , while influenced by auditory perception and especially by lipreading , were also attributable to a unique factor , which may reflect a specific deficit in audiovisual integration . CONCLUSIONS Combined deficits in audiovisual speech integration and lipreading in individuals with autism are likely to contribute to ongoing difficulties in speech comprehension , and may also be related to delays in early language development BACKGROUND Effective multisensory processing develops in infancy and is thought to be important for the perception of unified and multimodal objects and events . Previous research suggests impaired multisensory processing in autism , but its role in the early development of the disorder is yet uncertain . Here , using a prospect i ve longitudinal design , we tested whether reduced visual attention to audiovisual synchrony is an infant marker of later-emerging autism diagnosis . METHODS We studied 10-month-old siblings of children with autism using an eye tracking task  previously used in studies of preschoolers . The task assessed the effect of manipulations of audiovisual synchrony on viewing patterns while the infants were observing point light displays of biological motion . We analyzed the gaze data recorded in infancy according to diagnostic status at 3 years of age ( DSM-5 ) . RESULTS Ten-month-old infants who later received an autism diagnosis did not orient to audiovisual synchrony expressed within biological motion . In contrast , both infants at low-risk and high-risk siblings without autism at follow-up had a strong preference for this type of information . No group differences were observed in terms of orienting to upright biological motion . CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that reduced orienting to audiovisual synchrony within biological motion is an early sign of autism . The findings support the view that poor multisensory processing could be an important antecedent marker of this neurodevelopmental condition Currently there are no brief , self-administered instruments for measuring the degree to which an adult with normal intelligence has the traits associated with the autistic spectrum . In this paper , we report on a new instrument to assess this : the Autism-Spectrum Quotient ( AQ ) . Individuals score in the range 0–50 . Four groups of subjects were assessed : Group 1 : 58 adults with Asperger syndrome ( AS ) or high-functioning autism ( HFA ) ; Group 2 : 174 r and omly selected controls . Group 3 : 840 students in Cambridge University ; and Group 4 : 16 winners of the UK Mathematics Olympiad .  The adults with AS/HFA had a mean AQ score of 35.8 ( SD = 6.5 ) , significantly higher than Group 2 controls ( M = 16.4 , SD = 6.3 ) . 80 % of the adults with AS/HFA scored 32 + , versus 2 % of controls . Among the controls , men scored slightly but significantly higher than women . No women scored extremely highly ( AQ score 34 + ) whereas 4 % of men did so . Twice as many men ( 40 % ) as women ( 21 % ) scored at intermediate levels ( AQ score 20 + ) . Among the AS/HFA group , male and female scores did not differ significantly . The students in Cambridge University did not differ from the r and omly selected control group , but scientists ( including mathematicians ) scored significantly higher than both humanities and social sciences students , confirming an earlier study that autistic conditions are associated with scientific skills . Within the sciences , mathematicians scored highest . This was replicated in Group 4 , the Mathematics Olympiad winners scoring significantly higher than the male Cambridge humanities students . 6 % of the student sample scored 327plus ; on the AQ . On interview , 11 out of 11 of these met three or more DSM-IV criteria for AS/HFA , and all were study ing sciences/mathematics , and 7 of the 11 met threshold on these criteria . Test — retest and interrater reliability of the AQ was good . The AQ is thus a valuable instrument for rapidly quantifying where any given individual is situated on the continuum from autism to normality . Its potential for screening for autism spectrum conditions in adults of normal intelligence remains to be fully explored
target: A significant between‐group difference in MSI was evident in the literature , with individuals with ASD demonstrating worse audiovisual integration on average across studies compared to TD controls .
  This effect was moderated by mean participant age , such that between‐group differences were more pronounced in younger sample s. The mean correlation between MSI and autism and related symptomatology was also significant , indicating that increased audiovisual integration in individuals with ASD is associated with better language /communication abilities and /or reduced autism symptom severity in the extant literature .
  This effect was moderated by whether the stimuli were linguistic versus non‐linguistic in nature , such that correlation magnitudes tended to be significantly greater when linguistic stimuli were utilized in the measure of MSI .
background: & NA ; An ever‐growing literature has aim ed to determine how individuals with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) differ from their typically developing ( TD ) peers on measures of multisensory integration ( MSI ) and to ascertain the degree to which differences in MSI are associated with the broad range of symptoms associated with ASD .
  Findings , however , have been highly variable across the studies carried out to date .
  The present work systematic ally review s and quantitatively synthesizes the large literature on audiovisual MSI  in individuals with ASD to evaluate the cumulative evidence for ( a ) group differences between individuals with ASD and TD peers , ( b ) correlations between MSI and autism symptoms in individuals with ASD and ( c ) study level factors that may moderate findings ( i.e. , explain differential effects ) observed across studies .