Sensory Perception in Autism: What Can We Learn?

Autism is associated with sensory and cognitive abnormalities. Individuals with autism generally show normal or superior early sensory processing abilities compared to healthy controls, but deficits in complex sensory processing. In the current opinion paper, it will be argued that sensory abnormalities impact cognition by limiting the amount of signal that can be used to interpret and interact with environment. There is a growing body of literature showing that individuals with autism exhibit greater trial-to-trial variability in behavioural and cortical sensory responses. If multiple sensory signals that are highly variable are added together to process more complex sensory stimuli, then this might destabilise later perception and impair cognition. Methods to improve sensory processing have shown improvements in more general cognition. Studies that specifically investigate differences in sensory trial-to-trial variability in autism, and the potential changes in variability before and after treatment, could ascertain if trial-to-trial variability is a good mechanism to target for treatment in autism.

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects many aspects of the central nervous system, and a number of the deficits manifested in the disorder could be attributed to disruptions in functional connectivity

Altered sensory perception is a hallmark of autism and determines how autistic individuals engage with their environment. Among sensory modalities, tactile perception is particularly critical for daily functioning and social interactions. While these sensory alterations are thought to contribute to the cognitive differences observed in autism, the impact of cognitive processes —such as categorization, prior experience, and attention — on sensory perception remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the influence of top-down cognitive processes on tactile perception in the Fmr1-/y genetic mouse model of autism. We developed a translational, forepaw-based decision-making task designed to dissociate stimulus-driven tactile responses from those modulated by cognitive factors. This approach enabled us to assess multiple aspects of perceptual processing, including perceptual learning, stimulus categorization and discrimination, as well as the influence of prior experience and attention. Mice were initially trained to distinguish between high- and low-salience stimuli and were subsequently tested with a continuum of intermediate stimulus intensities. Our results revealed salience-dependent cognitive alterations that significantly influenced sensory performance. During the training phase, Fmr1-/y mice exhibited an increased choice consistency bias in low-salience trials, resulting in impaired perceptual learning. In the testing phase, Fmr1-/y mice demonstrated enhanced tactile discrimination under low-salience conditions, driven by a reduced influence of categorization during decision-making. However, increased tactile discrimination was dissociable from attention, with Fmr1-/y mice displaying attentional deficits under conditions of high cognitive load despite their enhanced tactile sensitivity. Together, our findings reveal that cognitive context critically shapes sensory phenotypes in autism. They advocate for a shift beyond traditional sensory–cognitive dichotomies to better capture the dynamic interplay between perceptual and cognitive alterations in autism.

Recent evidence suggests those with autism may be generally impaired in visual motion perception. To examine this, we investigated both coherent and biological motion processing in adolescents with autism employing both psychophysical and fMRI methods. Those with autism performed as well as matched controls during coherent motion perception but had significantly higher thresholds for biological motion perception. The autism group showed reduced posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (pSTS), parietal and frontal activity during a biological motion task while showing similar levels of activity in MT+/V5 during both coherent and biological motion trials. Activity in MT+/V5 was predictive of individual coherent motion thresholds in both groups. Activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pSTS was predictive of biological motion thresholds in control participants but not in those with autism. Notably, however, activity in DLPFC was negatively related to autism symptom severity. These results suggest that impairments in higher-order social or attentional networks may underlie visual motion deficits observed in autism.

Event Abstract Back to Event A single psychotomimetic dose of ketamine disrupts corticothalamic dynamics Paul Anderson1, 2, 3*, Terence O'Brien1, Nigel C. Jones1 and Didier Pinault2, 3 1 University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine (Royal Melbourne Hospital), Australia 2 Université de Strasbourg, Faculté de Médecine, France 3 INSERM U666, physiopathologie et psychopathologie cognitive de la schizophrénie, France Sensory and cognitive deficits are common in schizophrenia. The underlying anatomo-functional mechanisms remain elusive. There is a growing body of literature indicating the involvement of dysfunctional thalamic networks in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, including disturbances in function-related gamma frequency (30-80 Hz) oscillations. A postulated mechanism of these impairments is the reduced N-Methyl d-Aspartate receptor (NMDAr) activation at glutamatergic synapses on GABAergic interneurons. Ketamine is a non-competitive NMDAr antagonist that when administered at sub-anaesthetic doses in humans and rodents produces symptoms reminiscent of psychosis and also induces aberrant gamma oscillations in cortical and sub-cortical structures, including the thalamus. Corticothalamic and thalamocortical pathways are glutamatergic and work together during brain operations, including during cognition and sensory information processing. Corticothalamic pathways originate from layer VI and innervate simultaneously GABAergic thalamic reticular nucleus neurons and thalamocortical neurons of the dorsal thalamus. The goal of the present study was to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of the corticothalamic and thalamocortical pathways in the rat somatosensory system under physiological (vehicle) and pathological (ketamine) conditions. We conducted under light anesthesia (4) multisite cell-to-network recordings in the rat somatosensory thalamus. Its background activity was challenged by stimulation of the vibrissae. Sensory stimulation evoked a short-latency (3.3 ± 0.1 ms, n=30 from 3 animals) prethalamic response and a longer latency (9.6 ± 0.1 ms, n = 30 from 3 animals) corticothalamic response. A single injection of ketamine (2.5 mg/kg, sc) significantly increased the power of gamma oscillations (~240 % of vehicle, p < 0.001) and decreased the amplitude of the sensory-evoked corticothalamic response (vehicle condition: -0.35 ± 0.02 mV; ketamine condition: -0.26 ± 0.05 mV, p < 0.001, n = 20). In conclusion, the present results support the hypothesis that the psychotomimetic effects of ketamine are characterized by a reduction of the sensory signal-to-gamma noise ratio in corticothalamic systems. Acknowledgements Paul Anderson is supported by an Australian Rotary Health PhD scholarship Keywords: gamma oscillations, Ketamine, Schizophrenia, sensory processing, Thalamus Conference: Bernstein Conference 2012, Munich, Germany, 12 Sep - 14 Sep, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Sensory processing and perception Citation: Anderson P, O'Brien T, Jones NC and Pinault D (2012). A single psychotomimetic dose of ketamine disrupts corticothalamic dynamics. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Bernstein Conference 2012. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2012.55.00141 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 11 May 2012; Published Online: 12 Sep 2012. * Correspondence: Mr. Paul Anderson, University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine (Royal Melbourne Hospital), Melbourne, Australia, p.anderson2@student.unimelb.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Paul Anderson Terence O'Brien Nigel C Jones Didier Pinault Google Paul Anderson Terence O'Brien Nigel C Jones Didier Pinault Google Scholar Paul Anderson Terence O'Brien Nigel C Jones Didier Pinault PubMed Paul Anderson Terence O'Brien Nigel C Jones Didier Pinault Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

It is possible that people, especially those who are well-acquainted, have information about others that goes beyond their own impressions. While previous studies primarily focus on the accuracy of a perceiver's own impressions of a target, they may miss information about the perceiver's knowledge of a target's identity and reputation. The present study is based on the notion that there may be more to knowing a person than having an accurate perception of his/her personality in the traditional sense. From a practical standpoint, it might also be important to know when others' impressions of a close other, such as a friend or co-worker, differ from one's own impressions and to understand the nature of such perceptual discrepancies. In the current study, two constructs that reflect a relatively novel type of other-knowledge were investigated: knowledge of identity and knowledge of reputation. Specifically, the knowledge of others' perceptions (KOP) model is introduced and used to examine the extent to which well-acquainted friends achieve such knowledge. First, identity accuracy and reputation accuracy were examined (i.e., accurate perceptions of a target's self-views and of how others view the target, respectively). Second, identity insight and reputation insight were examined (i.e., accurate perceptions of a target's self-views and of how others view the target, above and beyond a perceiver's own impressions of the target). Finally, characteristics of the target, perceiver, and dyad were tested as potential moderators to shed light on the circumstances under which knowledge of identity and reputation are likely to occur.

From grain to malt: Tracking changes of ultra-low-gluten barley storage proteins after malting

This paper evaluates (a) student perceptions of blended learning in the context of continued professional development courses for solicitors and (b) student experience of discussion in such a blended learning course. Students in the Law Society of Ireland‟s Diploma in Employment Law partook in a blended learning course that contained face-to-face discussion and both asynchronous and synchronous online discussion as an essential feature of their learning experience. Students were asked to respond to self-completion interim and final questionnaires. The results suggest that „time poor‟ solicitors strongly approve of blended learning and their characteristics as independent, self-motivated learners mean they are well placed to fully participate in this form of learning; each method of discussion is valued by such students; the forms of such discussion, whether face-to-face, asynchronous or synchronous online discussion, can be complementary; the method of assessment has an important impact on student perceptions of the value of online discussion; and particular attention must be paid to framing synchronous discussion for it to be effective. With respect to implications for practice, the study confirms that blended learning is a valid means of course delivery in respect of continued professional development courses for solicitors and that such „time-poor‟ learners respond well to structured online discussion requiring mandatory postings.

Altered sensory processing has been linked to symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders (ADs) in youth, but few studies have examined sensory processing in clinical samples and no study has analyzed self-report data from youth meeting diagnostic criteria for OCD or ADs. This study included 86 youth with OCD, 82 youth with ADs, and 46 youth without psychiatric disorders. Participants completed the adolescent version of the Sensory Profile and scales measuring three symptom dimensions of OCD, four symptom dimensions of anxiety, and symptoms of major depression. Results showed that different forms of sensory processing difficulties (sensitivity, avoidance, low registration) were adequately captured by one broad sensory processing factor. Youth with OCD and ADs reported statistically significantly more sensory difficulties than youth without psychiatric disorders, but the two clinical groups did not differ from each other. Altered sensory processing in the clinical groups was not explained by the presence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Sensory difficulties were moderately to strongly related to all self-reported symptom dimensions, and uniquely related to the OCD dimension of symmetry/ordering and the anxiety dimensions of panic and social anxiety. Most youth in the clinical groups were classified as having difficulties with sensory processing. The present study shows that sensory processing difficulties are common in youth with OCD and ADs, not explained by co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders, and linked to a host of internalizing symptoms. More research is needed to identify whether sensory processing difficulties precede, follow, or mutually reinforce the development of OCD and ADs in youth.

Children with autism and other neurodevelopmental concerns (NDC) frequently exhibit an array of sensory processing dysfunction phenotypes, posing a significant challenge their adaptive development. Additionally, these children often encounter difficulties with self-regulation, including emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and symptoms associated with attention and hyperactivity. However, further research is required to comprehend how patterns of sensory processing differences across neurodevelopmental conditions may contribute to regulatory control problems. Adopting a transdiagnostic perspective within the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, this study examined the relationship between clusters of sensory processing phenotypes and differential patterns of self-regulation behaviors. We recruited a sample of 117 participants (8-12 years) with a diverse range of neurodevelopmental concerns including autism, ADHD, anxiety, and sensory processing differences. This study aimed to (1) establish the prevalence of self-regulation problems in a community-recruited cohort of children with diverse NDCs; (2) construct data-driven sensory processing latent subtypes; (3) investigate group differences in emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms. Results showed that 39% of NDC children met clinically concerning thresholds for emotion dysregulation, 19% for anxiety, and 62% for ADHD. Second, latent profile analysis identified five sensory processing subtypes categorized by modality: Typical Processing, Intermediate/Mixed, Sensory Over-Responsive, Sensory Seeking, and Sensory Under-Responsive. Notably, the Sensory Over-Responsive group exhibited distinctively elevated anxiety scores, while the Sensory Seeking and Sensory Under-Responsive groups showed heightened ADHD scores. Intriguingly, the Sensory Over-Responsive, Sensory Under-Responsive, and Sensory Seeking subgroups all demonstrated elevated emotion dysregulation scores, suggesting a potential shared mechanism of emotion dysregulation that might elucidate the connection between sensory processing differences and increased anxiety and ADHD behaviors in children with autism and other NDCs.

Aging has important impacts on both the function and structure of the brain, yet the interplay between these changes remains unclear. Here, we present a unified framework including both single-modal and multimodal age predictions using a large UK Biobank dataset (27,793 healthy subjects, 49 to 76 years) to identify and validate brain functional network connectivity (FNC) and gray matter volume (GMV) changes associated with aging, then propose a novel analysis method to reveal various joint aging patterns, and finally investigate the association between joint function–structure changes and cognitive declines. Multimodality outperforms single modality in the age prediction, underscoring the significance of multimodal aging-related changes. Aging primarily induces synergistic changes, with both FNC and GMV decreased in the cerebellum, frontal pole, paracingulate gyrus, and precuneus cortex, indicating consistent degeneration in motor control, sensory processing, and emotional regulation, and contradictory changes with increased FNC magnitude but decreased GMV in the occipital pole, lateral occipital cortex, and frontal pole, acting as a compensatory mechanism as one ages to preserve visual acuity, cognitive ability, and behavioral modulation. Particularly, joint changes, with both FNC and GMV decreased in the crus I cerebellum and the paracingulate gyrus, show a strong Pearson correlation with the reaction time. In summary, our study unveils diverse joint function–structure changes, providing strong evidence for understanding distinct cognitive deteriorations during aging.

Neuroscience research over the past few decades has reached a strong consensus that the amygdala plays a key role in emotion processing. However, many questions remain unanswered, especially concerning emotion perception. Based on mnemonic theories of olfactory perception and in light of the highly associative nature of olfactory cortical processing, here I propose a sensory cortical model of olfactory threat perception (i.e., sensory-cortex-based threat perception): the olfactory cortex stores threat codes as acquired associative representations (AARs) formed via aversive life experiences, thereby enabling encoding of threat cues during sensory processing. Rodent and human research in olfactory aversive conditioning was reviewed, indicating learning-induced plasticity in the amygdala and the olfactory piriform cortex. In addition, as aversive learning becomes consolidated in the amygdala, the associative olfactory (piriform) cortex may undergo (long-term) plastic changes, resulting in modified neural response patterns that underpin threat AARs. This proposal thus brings forward a sensory cortical pathway to threat processing (in addition to amygdala-based processes), potentially accounting for an alternative mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of anxiety and depression.

Olfactory systems typically process signals produced by mixtures composed of very many natural odors, some that can be elicited by single compounds. The several hundred different olfactory receptors aided by several dozen different taste receptors are sufficient to define our complex chemosensory world. However, sensory processing by selective adaptation and mixture suppression leaves only a few perceptual components recognized at any time. Thresholds determined by stochastic processes are described by functions relating stimulus detection to concentration. Relative saliences of mixture components are established by relating component recognition to concentration in the presence of background components. Mathematically distinct stochastic models of perceptual component dominance in binary mixtures were developed that accommodate prediction of an appropriate range of probabilities from 0 to 1, and include errors in identifications. Prior short-term selective adaptation to some components allows temporally emergent recognition of non-adapted mixture-suppressed components. Thus, broadly tuned receptors are neutralized or suppressed by activation of other more efficacious receptors. This ‘combinatorial’ coding is more a process of subtraction than addition, with the more intense components dominating the perception. It is in this way that complex chemosensory mixtures are reduced to manageable numbers of odor notes and taste qualities.

Despite significant advancements in understanding the biochemical, anatomical, and functional impacts of vestibular lesions, developing standardized and effective rehabilitation strategies for patients unresponsive to conventional therapies remains a challenge. Chronic vestibular disorders, characterized by permanent or recurrent imbalances and blurred vision or oscillopsia, present significant complexity in non-pharmacological management. The complex interaction between peripheral vestibular damage and its impact on the central nervous system (CNS) raises questions about neuroplasticity and vestibular compensation capacity. Although fundamental research has examined the consequences of lesions on the vestibular system, the effect of a chronic peripheral vestibular error signal (VES) on the CNS remains underexplored. The VES refers to the discrepancy between sensory expectations and perceptions of the vestibular system has been clarified through recent engineering studies. This deeper understanding of VES is crucial not only for vestibular physiology and pathology but also for designing effective measures and methods of vestibular rehabilitation, shedding light on the importance of compensation mechanisms and sensory integration. This retrospective study, targeting patients with chronic unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy unresponsive to standard treatments, sought to exclude any interference from pre-existing conditions. Participants were evaluated before and after a integrative vestibular exploratory and rehabilitation program through questionnaires, posturographic tests, and videonystagmography. The results indicate significant improvements in postural stability and quality of life, demonstrating positive modulation of the CNS and an improvement of vestibular compensation. Successful vestibular rehabilitation likely requires a multifaceted approach that incorporates the latest insights into neuroplasticity and sensory integration, tailored to the specific needs and clinical progression of each patient. Focusing on compensating for the VES and enhancing sensory-perceptual-motor integration, this approach aims not just to tailor interventions but also to reinforce coherence among the vestibular, visual, and neurological systems, thereby improving the quality of life for individuals with chronic vestibular disorders.

In this paper, I analyse the phenomenon of artification of everyday experience. Using the concept of “artification” developed in the field of Everyday Aesthetics, I define the non-artistic experience, which is co-shaped by art and related to its models of perception. As the consequence of this mechanism, I indicate the tendency to project some artistic cognitive schemas (or their elements) to the existing reality. As a result of this process, events and non-artistic views are captured in the image of art, as ”art-like”. The process of the interpenetration of the fields of art and non-art may lead in turn to the reversal of the mimetic order – when artistic creation determines the forms of examining the world to the extent that it creates the effect of “life imitating art”. This phenomenon of formalizing experience according to artistic models is illustrated by examples from the linguistics, visual arts and literature.