PDF(637 KB)
PDF(637 KB)
PDF(637 KB)
孤独症患者在不确定世界中的预期加工缺陷*
Prediction Processing Deficits in an Uncertain World for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
现实世界往往是复杂多变且充满不确定性的，娴熟的社交互动需要个体具备一定的预期加工能力以学习和适应环境变化。研究通过系统梳理预期障碍假说、贝叶斯知觉理论与预期编码理论并从条件概率估计、先验知识使用及预期误差动态调整三个层面，探讨了孤独症谱系障碍个体预期加工缺陷的理论机制及其在不同领域的实证证据。基于现有理论与实证研究的整合分析，研究指出孤独症个体的预期加工缺陷并非表现为领域普遍的预测障碍，而是具有一定的情境依赖性：在确定性环境下可基于稳定规则形成预期，但在不确定的变动环境下灵活使用和调整预期的能力受损。在此基础上以期为未来针对孤独症个体的研究提供更多的理论依据和研究思路，加深对此类特殊人群的了解。
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized by atypical brain function that significantly impacts social communication, interaction, and induces restricted or repetitive behaviors and interests. Historically, theoretical frameworks focused narrowly on isolated symptom clusters, leading to incomplete explanations and difficulties establishing correlations between these symptoms and underlying neural mechanisms. As research has advanced, more recent hypotheses suggest that abnormalities in predictive processing may play a crucial role in the core symptoms of ASD. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive review of three prominent theories of prediction processing: the predictive impairment in autism hypothesis (PIA), the Bayesian perceptual theory, and the predictive coding theory. We synthesize relevant empirical evidence from diverse methodological approaches and domains. Each theory offers unique insights into the nature of predictive deficits in individuals with ASD.
The PIA hypothesis posits that individuals with ASD exhibit domain-general predictive processing deficits due to impaired estimation of the dynamics of temporally unfolding Markov systems, which reflects failures in learning and utilizing conditional probabilities. Research testing this framework often employs probabilistic learning paradigms to determine the presence of generalized predictive impairments. While much of this research has focused on the ability to form predictions, mixed findings raise questions about the nature of predictive abilities within this population. Bayesian perceptual theory posits that individuals with ASD face difficulties in the formation and application of priors, resulting in perceptual experiences that rely more heavily on immediate sensory input and are less influenced by prior knowledge. Empirical evaluation of this account frequently involves tasks demonstrably modulated by prior knowledge, such as susceptibility to visual illusions or perceptual closure tasks. Findings consistently indicate that individuals with ASD are less likely to use priori knowledge to shape perception. However, it is crucial to clearly define and distinguish between different types of prior knowledge in order to explore core deficits in individuals with ASD in the framework of Bayesian perceptual theory. Predictive coding theory emphasizes abnormalities in processing prediction errors when sensory input violates prior expectations, impairing context-based discrimination between relevant and irrelevant errors. Consequently, research aligned with predictive coding theory has predominantly focused on examining prediction error processing dynamics rather than prediction formation itself. Specifically, studies investigate whether individuals with ASD exhibit atypical weighting of prediction errors when sensory input violates expectations, particularly in relation to situational context. Relevant findings suggest that atypical processing of prediction errors in individuals with ASD is characterized by overweighting of prediction errors, and is potentially linked to low contextual sensitivity.
Synthesizing these perspectives, we propose that predictive differences in ASD manifest in a fundamentally context-dependent manner, rather than constituting a pervasive, domain-general impairment. Individuals with ASD may demonstrate competence in generating predictions within deterministic, rule-based environments, yet exhibit significant difficulties in flexibly adjusting predictions within uncertain, ambiguous, or dynamically changing contexts. This context-dependent deficit profile may arise through at least two potentially dissociable pathways: (1) Neuromodulation Mechanisms: Directly impacting prediction precision estimation, potentially influencing how individuals with ASD process and respond to complex social information, which is inherently dynamic and probabilistic. (2) Information Extraction Challenges: Difficulties in efficiently extracting and utilizing relevant information from past experiences, which is crucial for estimating prediction precision and adjusting priors in novel or uncertain situations.
Future research could address the limitations of prediction processing theories in accounting for the pervasive core deficit in individuals with ASD via simulation of computational models. Furthermore, appropriate paradigms could be explored in the fields of sensorimotor learning and sensorimotor adaptation to test the plausibility of different prediction processing theories. Finally, the three prediction processing theories should be systematically validated by considering contextual factors and examining whether the anticipations formed by individuals with ASD can be generalized and adapted to different situational demands.
孤独症 / 预期加工 / 预期障碍假说 / 贝叶斯知觉理论 / 预期编码理论
autism spectrum disorders / prediction processing / predictive impairment in autism hypothesis / Bayesian perceptual theory / predictive coding theory
| [1] |
陈光华, 陶冠澎, 翟璐煜, 白学军. (2022). 自闭症谱系障碍的早期筛查工具. 心理科学进展, 30(4), 738-763.
基于35项实证研究, 遵循诊断准确性研究的质量评估(QUADAS-2)的循证程序对自闭症谱系早期预警特征筛查工具开展质量评估, 包括婴儿阶段(10个筛查工具, 159388人)、幼儿阶段(14项筛查工具, 11712人), 旨在为自闭症谱系风险的早期识别提供全面的理解。结果表明：幼儿阶段的筛查工具的分类准确性要高于婴儿阶段, 在婴儿阶段达到良好水平的筛查工具有M-CHAT-R/F、PDQ-1; 在幼儿阶段达到优秀水平的筛查工具有OERA、TIDOS。其中, “改良的幼儿自闭症检查表-有修订的后续随访” (M-CHAT-R/F)是目前最具潜力的自闭症谱系风险筛查工具之一。最后, 我们探讨了应用QUADAS-2评估研究质量的局限性, 强调需要规范工具的质量评估标准与进一步验证研究的必要性。
|
| [2] |
To evaluate evidence for motor impairment specificity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children completed performance-based assessment of motor functioning (Movement Assessment Battery for Children: MABC-2). Logistic regression models were used to predict group membership. In the models comparing typically developing and developmental disability (DD), all three MABC subscale scores were significantly negatively associated with having a DD. In the models comparing ADHD and ASD, catching and static balance items were associated with ASD group membership, with a 1 point decrease in performance increasing odds of ASD by 36 and 39 %, respectively. Impairments in motor skills requiring the coupling of visual and temporal feedback to guide and adjust movement appear specifically deficient in ASD.
|
| [3] |
Recent research proposes that sensorimotor difficulties, such as those experienced by many autistic people, may arise from atypicalities in prediction. Accordingly, we examined the relationship between non-clinical autistic-like traits and sensorimotor prediction in the material-weight illusion, where prior expectations derived from material cues typically bias one's perception and action. Specifically, prediction-related tendencies in perception of weight, gaze patterns, and lifting actions were probed using a combination of self-report, eye-tracking, motion-capture, and force-based measures. No prediction-related associations between autistic-like traits and sensorimotor control emerged for any of these variables. Follow-up analyses, however, revealed that greater autistic-like traits were correlated with reduced adaptation of gaze with changes in environmental uncertainty. These findings challenge proposals of gross predictive atypicalities in autistic people, but suggest that the dynamic integration of prior information and environmental statistics may be related to autistic-like traits. Further research into this relationship is warranted in autistic populations, to assist the development of future movement-based coaching methods.
|
| [4] |
|
| [5] |
Our decisions are guided by outcomes that are associated with decisions made in the past. However, the amount of influence each past outcome has on our next decision remains unclear. To ensure optimal decision-making, the weight given to decision outcomes should reflect their salience in predicting future outcomes, and this salience should be modulated by the volatility of the reward environment. We show that human subjects assess volatility in an optimal manner and adjust decision-making accordingly. This optimal estimate of volatility is reflected in the fMRI signal in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) when each trial outcome is observed. When a new piece of information is witnessed, activity levels reflect its salience for predicting future outcomes. Furthermore, variations in this ACC signal across the population predict variations in subject learning rates. Our results provide a formal account of how we weigh our different experiences in guiding our future actions.
|
| [6] |
|
| [7] |
Chronic stress is a risk factor for the development of many psychopathological conditions in humans, including major depression and anxiety disorders. There is a high degree of comorbidity of depression and anxiety. Moreover, cognitive impairments associated with frontal lobe dysfunction, including deficits in cognitive set-shifting and behavioral flexibility, are increasingly recognized as major components of depression, anxiety disorders, and other stress-related psychiatric illnesses. To begin to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the cognitive and emotional consequences of chronic stress, it is necessary to employ an animal model that exhibits similar effects. In the present study, a rat model of chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) consistently induced a cognitive impairment in extradimensional set shifting capability in an attentional set shifting test, suggesting an alteration in function of the medial prefrontal cortex. CUS also increased anxiety-like behavior on the elevated plus-maze. Further, chronic treatment both with the selective norepinephrine reuptake blocker, desipramine (7.5 mg/kg/day), and the selective serotonin reuptake blocker, escitalopram (10 mg/kg/day), beginning 1 week before CUS treatment and continuing through the behavioral testing period, prevented the CUS-induced deficit in extradimensional set-shifting. Chronic desipramine treatment also prevented the CUS-induced increase in anxiety-like behavioral reactivity on the plus-maze, but escitalopram was less effective on this measure. Thus, CUS induced both cognitive and emotional disturbances that are similar to components of major depression and anxiety disorders. These effects were prevented by chronic treatment with antidepressant drugs, consistent also with clinical evidence that relapse of depressive episodes can be prevented by antidepressant drug treatment.
|
| [8] |
Weight illusions--where one object feels heavier than an identically weighted counterpart--have been the focus of many recent scientific investigations. The most famous of these illusions is the 'size-weight illusion', where a small object feels heavier than an identically weighted, but otherwise similar-looking, larger object. There are, however, a variety of similar illusions which can be induced by varying other stimulus properties, such as surface material, temperature, colour, and even shape. Despite well over 100 years of research, there is little consensus about the mechanisms underpinning these illusions. In this review, I will first provide an overview of the weight illusions that have been described. I will then outline the dominant theories that have emerged over the past decade for why we consistently misperceive the weights of objects which vary in size, with a particular focus on the role of lifters' expectations of heaviness. Finally, I will discuss the magnitude of the various weight illusions and suggest how this largely overlooked facet of the topic might resolve some of the debates surrounding the cause of these misperceptions of heaviness.
|
| [9] |
An extensive amount of evidence has documented a diminished ability to predict and understand other people's action in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Recently, two theoretical accounts, the "Hypo-priors" and the "Aberrant precision" hypotheses, have suggested that attenuated Bayesian priors or an imbalance of the precision ascribed to sensory evidence relative to prior expectations may be responsible for the atypical perceptual experience and difficulties with action understanding in ASD. In the present study, we aimed to directly investigate whether difficulties in the appreciation of others' intentions can be accounted for by abnormal interaction between these two types of information: (i) the sensory evidence conveyed by movement kinematics, and (ii) the observer's expectations, acquired from past experience or derived from prior knowledge. To test this hypothesis, we contrasted the ability to infer Non-Social and Social intentions in adults with and without ASD, using a series of tasks in which both sensory evidence and prior expectations were manipulated. The results showed that attenuated effect of prior expectations in ASD individuals does not result from a generalized impairment in mentalizing, but one confined to social intentions. Attenuated priors in the social domain predicted the severity of clinical symptoms in the area of social interaction. Importantly, however, we found that reduced priors in the social domain could be compensated by ASD through observational learning, i.e. through deriving statistical regularities from observed behaviours. This capacity to balance reduced social expectations by learning inversely correlated with the severity of repetitive and stereotyped behaviours. Collectively, these findings suggest that adults with ASD exhibit a disturbance in the inferential mechanism that integrates sensory evidence into prior beliefs to produce accurate inferences about other people's intentions.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
|
| [10] |
Earlier work examining susceptibility to visual illusions in autism has reported discrepant findings. Some of this research suggests that global processing is affected in autism while some of this research suggests otherwise. The discrepancies may relate to compliance issues and differences in population samples in terms of symptom severity, cognitive ability, and co-morbid disorders. Equally important, most of this work tended to treat global processing as if it were a singular construct, invoking similar cognitive operations across different visual illusions. We argue that this is not a fair assumption to make given the extensive research that has classified visual illusions on the basis of their cognitive demands. With this in mind, and to overcome the many caveats associated with examining a heterogeneous disorder such as autism directly, we examined how susceptibility to various illusions relates differently to people's scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) questionnaire. We found that susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer but not to the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions decreased as a function of AQ and that the relationship between AQ and susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer illusion was different from those between AQ and susceptibility to the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions. Our findings confirm that the cognitive operations underlying global processing in the Müller-Lyer illusion are different from the other illusions and, more importantly, reveal that they might be affected in autism. Future brain mapping studies could provide additional insight into the neural underpinnings of how global processing might and might not be affected in autism.
|
| [11] |
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder and those with autistic tendencies in non-clinical groups are thought to have a perceptual style privileging local details over global integration. We used 13 illusions to investigate this perceptual style in typically developing adults with various levels of autistic traits. Illusory susceptibility was entered into a principal-component analysis. Only one factor, consisting of the Shepard's tabletops and Square-diamond illusions, was found to have reduced susceptibility as a function of autistic traits. Given that only two illusions were affected and that these illusions depend mostly on the processing of within-object relational properties, we conclude there is something distinct about autistic-like perceptual functioning but not in ways predicted by a preference of local over global elements.
|
| [12] |
|
| [13] |
|
| [14] |
Sensory information is inherently ambiguous. The brain disambiguates this information by anticipating or predicting the sensory environment based on prior knowledge. Pellicano and Burr (2012) proposed that this process may be atypical in autism and that internal assumptions, or "priors," may be underweighted or less used than in typical individuals. A robust internal assumption used by adults is the "light-from-above" prior, a bias to interpret ambiguous shading patterns as if formed by a light source located above (and slightly to the left) of the scene. We investigated whether autistic children (n=18) use this prior to the same degree as typical children of similar age and intellectual ability (n=18). Children were asked to judge the shape (concave or convex) of a shaded hexagon stimulus presented in 24 rotations. We estimated the relation between the proportion of convex judgments and stimulus orientation for each child and calculated the light source location most consistent with those judgments. Children behaved similarly to adults in this task, preferring to assume that the light source was from above left, when other interpretations were compatible with the shading evidence. Autistic and typical children used prior assumptions to the same extent to make sense of shading patterns. Future research should examine whether this prior is as adaptable (i.e., modifiable with training) in autistic children as it is in typical adults.Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|
| [15] |
|
| [16] |
In contrast to a perceptible threat that releases freezing, fleeing and fighting, abstract potential threat elicits anxiety and vigilance. The prevalent view is that the larger the animal groups the lower the individual vigilance. Vigilance is a reflection of anxiety, and here we show that anxiety is contagious in grouped social animals. In humans, anxiety frequently results in rituals that confer a sense of controllability and thereby a means to cope with anxiety. Accordingly, in mental disorders with sustained anxiety, rituals predominate the behavior and consequently reduce functionality. Finally, the adaptive value of precautionary behavior, including rituals, lies in providing individuals with the opportunity to practice defensive means safely, and thus to prepare for the eventuality of real danger. Accordingly, the prevalence of anxiety in human and animal behavior accords with the "better safe than sorry" principle.Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
| [17] |
There has been significant advancement in various aspects of scientific knowledge concerning the role of cerebellum in the etiopathogenesis of autism. In the current consensus paper, we will observe the diversity of opinions regarding the involvement of this important site in the pathology of autism. Recent emergent findings in literature related to cerebellar involvement in autism are discussed, including: cerebellar pathology, cerebellar imaging and symptom expression in autism, cerebellar genetics, cerebellar immune function, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, GABAergic and glutamatergic systems, cholinergic, dopaminergic, serotonergic, and oxytocin-related changes in autism, motor control and cognitive deficits, cerebellar coordination of movements and cognition, gene-environment interactions, therapeutics in autism, and relevant animal models of autism. Points of consensus include presence of abnormal cerebellar anatomy, abnormal neurotransmitter systems, oxidative stress, cerebellar motor and cognitive deficits, and neuroinflammation in subjects with autism. Undefined areas or areas requiring further investigation include lack of treatment options for core symptoms of autism, vermal hypoplasia, and other vermal abnormalities as a consistent feature of autism, mechanisms underlying cerebellar contributions to cognition, and unknown mechanisms underlying neuroinflammation.
|
| [18] |
Human perception has recently been characterized as statistical inference based on noisy and ambiguous sensory inputs. Moreover, suitable neural representations of uncertainty have been identified that could underlie such probabilistic computations. In this review, we argue that learning an internal model of the sensory environment is another key aspect of the same statistical inference procedure and thus perception and learning need to be treated jointly. We review evidence for statistically optimal learning in humans and animals, and re-evaluate possible neural representations of uncertainty based on their potential to support statistically optimal learning. We propose that spontaneous activity can have a functional role in such representations leading to a new, sampling-based, framework of how the cortex represents information and uncertainty.Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
| [19] |
A free-energy principle has been proposed recently that accounts for action, perception and learning. This Review looks at some key brain theories in the biological (for example, neural Darwinism) and physical (for example, information theory and optimal control theory) sciences from the free-energy perspective. Crucially, one key theme runs through each of these theories - optimization. Furthermore, if we look closely at what is optimized, the same quantity keeps emerging, namely value (expected reward, expected utility) or its complement, surprise (prediction error, expected cost). This is the quantity that is optimized under the free-energy principle, which suggests that several global brain theories might be unified within a free-energy framework.
|
| [20] |
The theory of mind account of autism has been remarkably successful in making specific predictions about the impairments in socialization, imagination and communication shown by people with autism. It cannot, however, explain either the non-triad features of autism, or earlier experimental findings of abnormal assets and deficits on non-social tasks. These unexplained aspects of autism, and the existence of autistic individuals who consistently pass false belief tasks, suggest that it may be necessary to postulate an additional cognitive abnormality. One possible abnormality-weak central coherence--is discussed, and preliminary evidence for this theory is presented.
|
| [21] |
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit superior performance in visual search compared to others. However, most studies demonstrating this advantage have employed simple, uncluttered images with fully visible targets. We compare the performance of high-functioning adults with ASD and matched controls on a naturalistic luggage screening task. Although the two groups were equally accurate in detecting targets, the ASD adults improve in their correct elimination of target-absent bags faster than controls. This feature of their behavior is extremely important for many real-world monitoring tasks that require sustained attention for long time periods. Further analyses suggest that this improvement is attributable neither to the motor speed nor to the level of intelligence of the adults with ASD. These findings may have possible implications for employment opportunities of adult individuals with ASD.
|
| [22] |
Predictive coding has been proposed as a framework to understand neural processes in neuropsychiatric disorders. We used this approach to describe mechanisms responsible for attentional abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We monitored brain dynamics of 59 children (8-15 yr old) who had ASD or ADHD or who were control participants via high-density electroencephalography. We performed analysis at the scalp and source-space levels while participants listened to standard and deviant tone sequences. Through task instructions, we manipulated top-down expectation by presenting expected and unexpected deviant sequences. Children with ASD showed reduced superior frontal cortex (FC) responses to unexpected events but increased dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation to expected events. In contrast, children with ADHD exhibited reduced cortical responses in superior FC to expected events but strong PFC activation to unexpected events. Moreover, neural abnormalities were associated with specific control mechanisms, namely, inhibitory control in ASD and set-shifting in ADHD. Based on the predictive coding account, top-down expectation abnormalities could be attributed to a disproportionate reliance (precision) allocated to prior beliefs in ASD and to sensory input in ADHD. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.
|
| [23] |
Implicit sequence learning, as measured using the sequential reaction time (SRT) task paradigm originally introduced by Nissen & Bullemer (1987), has been reported to be impaired in high-functioning individuals with autism (Mostofsky, Goldberg, Landa, & Denckla, 2000). We reasoned that increased exposure to the sequence may particularly benefit individuals with autism, especially those who are lower functioning. Seven individuals with autism participated in six training and test sessions of an eight-length SRT task (Experiment 1), and 5 performed a four-length SRT task (Experiment 2). Sequence learned was demonstrated at a group level on the eight-length sequence, and on an individual basis with the four-length sequence. These data demonstrate that individuals with autism, even those who are lower functioning, are capable of learning an implicit sequence with increased behavioral training. Implications for these findings are discussed.
|
| [24] |
Recent predictive coding accounts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) suggest that a key deficit in ASD concerns the inflexibility in modulating local prediction errors as a function of global top-down expectations. As a direct test of this central hypothesis, we used electroencephalography to investigate whether local prediction error processing was less modulated by global context (i.e., global stimulus frequency) in ASD.A group of 18 adults with ASD was compared with a group of 24 typically developed adults on a well-validated hierarchical auditory oddball task in which participants listened to short sequences of either five identical sounds (local standard) or four identical sounds and a fifth deviant sound (local deviant). The latter condition is known to generate the mismatch negativity (MMN) component, believed to reflect early sensory prediction error processing. Crucially, previous studies have shown that in blocks with a higher frequency of local deviant sequences, top-down expectations seem to attenuate the MMN. We predicted that this modulation by global context would be less pronounced in the ASD group.Both groups showed an MMN that was modulated by global context. However, this effect was smaller in the ASD group as compared with the typically developed group. In contrast, the P3b, as an electroencephalographic marker of conscious expectation processes, did not differ across groups.Our results demonstrate that people with ASD are less flexible in modulating their local predictions (reflected in MMN), thereby confirming the central hypothesis of contemporary predictive coding accounts of ASD.Copyright © 2018 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|
| [25] |
Recent theories propose that autism is characterized by an impairment in determining when to learn and when not. Here, we investigated this hypothesis by estimating learning rates (i.e. the speed with which one learns) in three different environments that differed in rule stability and uncertainty. We found that neurotypical participants with more autistic traits performed worse in a volatile environment (with unstable rules), as they chose less often for the most rewarding option. Exploratory analyses indicated that performance was specifically worse when reward rules were opposite to those initially learned for participants with more autistic traits. However, there were no differences in the adjustment of learning rates between participants with more versus less autistic traits. Together, these results suggest that performance in volatile environments is lower in participants with more autistic traits, but that this performance difference cannot be unambiguously explained by an impairment in adjusting learning rates.
|
| [26] |
|
| [27] |
Impaired predictive coding has been proposed as a framework to explain discrepancies between expectations and outcomes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that may contribute to core symptoms of the disorder. However, no eye tracking study has directly addressed this framework in the context of visual predictions of social and nonsocial stimuli. The current study used eye tracking to examine violations of learned visual associations of both social and nonsocial stimuli. Twenty-six adolescents with ASD and 18 typically developing control (TDC) adolescents completed an outcome expectation eye tracking task in which predictive cues correctly (80% of trials) or incorrectly (20% of trials) indicated the location (left or right) of forthcoming social or nonsocial stimuli. During violation trials, individuals with ASD focused their gaze relatively more often on stimuli presented on locations that violated the learned association and less often on locations that corresponded with the learned association. This finding was not moderated by stimulus type (i.e., social vs. nonsocial). Additionally, participants who looked at incorrectly predicted locations more often had significantly greater ASD symptom severity. These results are consistent with theories that characterize ASD as a disorder of prediction and have potential implications for understanding symptoms related to prediction errors in individuals with ASD. Autism Res 2019, 12: 878-883. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit impairments making predictions that may impact learning. In this study, we used eye tracking methodology and found that individuals with ASD were less likely to look at the predicted location when a visual routine was violated. This pattern was evident for both social and nonsocial images and was associated with greater ASD symptom severity. These findings provide additional support for predictive challenges in ASD.© 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
|
| [28] |
"Executive function" is an umbrella term for functions such as planning, working memory, impulse control, inhibition and mental flexibility, as well as for the initiation and monitoring of action. The primacy of executive dysfunction in autism is a topic of much debate, as are recent attempts to examine subtypes of executive function within autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders that are considered to implicate frontal lobe function. This article will review cognitive behavioural studies of planning, mental flexibility and inhibition in autism. It is concluded that more detailed research is needed to fractionate the executive system in autism by assessing a wide range of executive functions as well as their neuroanatomical correlates in the same individuals across the lifespan.
|
| [29] |
In Bayesian brain theories, hierarchically related prediction errors (PEs) play a central role for predicting sensory inputs and inferring their underlying causes, e.g., the probabilistic structure of the environment and its volatility. Notably, PEs at different hierarchical levels may be encoded by different neuromodulatory transmitters. Here, we tested this possibility in computational fMRI studies of audio-visual learning. Using a hierarchical Bayesian model, we found that low-level PEs about visual stimulus outcome were reflected by widespread activity in visual and supramodal areas but also in the midbrain. In contrast, high-level PEs about stimulus probabilities were encoded by the basal forebrain. These findings were replicated in two groups of healthy volunteers. While our fMRI measures do not reveal the exact neuron types activated in midbrain and basal forebrain, they suggest a dichotomy between neuromodulatory systems, linking dopamine to low-level PEs about stimulus outcome and acetylcholine to more abstract PEs about stimulus probabilities.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|
| [30] |
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social and communication deficits. While such deficits have been the focus of most research, recent evidence suggests that individuals with ASD may exhibit cognitive strengths in domains such as mathematics.Cognitive assessments and functional brain imaging were used to investigate mathematical abilities in 18 children with ASD and 18 age-, gender-, and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children. Multivariate classification and regression analyses were used to investigate whether brain activity patterns during numerical problem solving were significantly different between the groups and predictive of individual mathematical abilities.Children with ASD showed better numerical problem solving abilities and relied on sophisticated decomposition strategies for single-digit addition problems more frequently than TD peers. Although children with ASD engaged similar brain areas as TD children, they showed different multivariate activation patterns related to arithmetic problem complexity in ventral temporal-occipital cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and medial temporal lobe. Furthermore, multivariate activation patterns in ventral temporal-occipital cortical areas typically associated with face processing predicted individual numerical problem solving abilities in children with ASD but not in TD children.Our study suggests that superior mathematical information processing in children with ASD is characterized by a unique pattern of brain organization and that cortical regions typically involved in perceptual expertise may be utilized in novel ways in ASD. Our findings of enhanced cognitive and neural resources for mathematics have critical implications for educational, professional, and social outcomes for individuals with this lifelong disorder.Copyright © 2014 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|
| [31] |
|
| [32] |
Amygdala dysfunction has been proposed as a critical component in social impairment in autism spectrum disorders. This study was designed to investigate whether abnormal habituation characterizes amygdala dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders and whether the rate of amygdala habituation is related to social impairment.Using functional MRI, the authors measured change over time in activation of the amygdala and fusiform gyrus to neutral facial stimuli in adults with autism spectrum disorders and healthy comparison adults.The comparison group evidenced significantly greater amygdala habituation bilaterally than the autism spectrum group. There were no group differences in overall fusiform habituation. For the autism spectrum group, lower levels of habituation of the amygdala to the face stimuli were associated with more severe social impairment.These results suggest amygdala hyperarousal in autism spectrum disorders in response to socially relevant stimuli. Further, sustained amygdala arousal may contribute to the social deficits observed in autism spectrum disorders.
|
| [33] |
Although previous research has reported impairments in implicit learning in individuals with ASD, research using one implicit learning paradigm, the contextual cueing task (Chun and Jiang in Cognitive Psychol 36:28-71, 1998), shows evidence of intact ability to integrate spatial contextual information. Using an adaptation of this paradigm, we replicated earlier findings showing that contextual cueing facilitates learning in ASD. Nevertheless, we found that exposure to repeated contexts that biased attention to local rather than global displays rendered it difficult for individuals with ASD to adapt to new trials. Thus, adaptive processes that allow one to respond flexibly and rapidly to new situations appear diminished in ASD when exposed to local spatial contexts. These findings have implications for practical learning strategies used in educational settings.
|
| [34] |
This study examined the predictive reasoning abilities of typically developing (TD) infants and 2-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in an eye-tracking paradigm. Participants watched a video of a goal-directed action in which a human actor reached for and grasped one of two objects. At test, the objects switched locations. Across these events, we measured: visual anticipation of the action outcome with kinematic cues (i.e., a completed reaching behavior); goal prediction of the action outcome without kinematic cues (i.e., an incomplete reach); and latencies to generate predictions across these two tasks. Results revealed similarities in action anticipation across groups when trajectory information regarding the intended goal was present; however, when predicting the goal without kinematic cues, developmental and diagnostic differences became evident. Younger TD children generated goal-based visual predictions, whereas older TD children were not systematic in their visual predictions. In contrast to both TD groups, children with ASD generated location-based predictions, suggesting that their visual predictions may reflect visuomotor perseveration. Together, these results suggest differences in early predictive reasoning abilities. Autism Res 2018, 11: 870-882. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The current study examines the ability to generate visual predictions regarding other people's goal-directed actions, specifically reaching and grasping an object, in infants and children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Results showed no differences in abilities when movement information about a person's goal was evident; however, differences were evident across age and clinical diagnoses when relying on previous knowledge to generate a visual prediction.© 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
|
| [35] |
We used a perceptual closure task with Mooney images as stimuli to record eye-movement patterns in response to the same degraded image before and after perceptual learning in 21 adolescents and young adults with ASD and 23 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched typically developing individuals. In the control group, we observed changes in the eye-movement patterns between the first and the last presentation of the degraded stimulus, reflecting top-down optimization of eye-movement patterns, that is, a decrease in the number of fixations and interfixation distance, coupled with an increase in the duration of fixations. This effect was attenuated in individuals with autism, pointing to a decreased rate of perceptual learning. We also found that participants with autism displayed decreased scanpath stability, that is, a lower recurrence of fixation locations between different presentations of the same image, which may suggests a lower rate of perceptual learning or decreased predictability in the eye-movement patterns. These results provide evidence for decreased use of prior knowledge in perceptual decisions in autism. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1386-1398. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: We showed autistic and typically developing participants some degraded images that were difficult to recognize for the first time, but once you knew what they represent, you could see it easily. We found that the eye-movement patterns of persons with autism did not change as much after learning what the pictures represented as in the case of typically developing participants. This means that previous experiences and knowledge change the way people with autism perceive things to a smaller extent.© 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
|
| [36] |
Insistence on sameness and intolerance of change are among the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but little research has addressed how people with ASD represent and respond to environmental change. Here, behavioral and pupillometric measurements indicated that adults with ASD are less surprised than neurotypical adults when their expectations are violated, and decreased surprise is predictive of greater symptom severity. A hierarchical Bayesian model of learning suggested that in ASD, a tendency to overlearn about volatility in the face of environmental change drives a corresponding reduction in learning about probabilistically aberrant events, thus putatively rendering these events less surprising. Participant-specific modeled estimates of surprise about environmental conditions were linked to pupil size in the ASD group, thus suggesting heightened noradrenergic responsivity in line with compromised neural gain. This study offers insights into the behavioral, algorithmic and physiological mechanisms underlying responses to environmental volatility in ASD.
|
| [37] |
|
| [38] |
|
| [39] |
|
| [40] |
|
| [41] |
Motor skill deficits are present and persist in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Staples & Reid, 2010). Yet the focus of intervention is on core impairments, which are part of the diagnostic criteria for ASD, deficits in social communication skills. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the functional motor skills, of 6- to 15-year-old children with high-functioning ASD, predict success in standardized social communicative skills. It is hypothesized that children with better motor skills will have better social communicative skills. A total of 35 children with ASD between the ages of 6-15 years participated in this study. The univariate GLM (general linear model) tested the relationship of motor skills on social communicative skills holding constant age, IQ, ethnicity, gender, and clinical ASD diagnosis. Object-control motor skills significantly predicted calibrated ASD severity (p <.05). Children with weaker motor skills have greater social communicative skill deficits. How this relationship exists behaviorally, needs to be explored further.
|
| [42] |
|
| [43] |
|
| [44] |
|
| [45] |
|
| [46] |
|
| [47] |
|
| [48] |
|
| [49] |
Superior perception, peaks of ability, and savant skills are often observed in the autistic phenotype. The enhanced perceptual functioning model (Mottron et al., 2006a) emphasizes the increased role and autonomy of perceptual information processing in autistic cognition. Autistic abilities also involve enhanced pattern detection, which may develop through veridical mapping across isomorphic perceptual and non-perceptual structures (Mottron et al., 2009). In this paper, we elaborate veridical mapping as a specific mechanism which can explain the higher incidence of savant abilities, as well as other related phenomena, in autism. We contend that savant abilities such as hyperlexia, but also absolute pitch and synaesthesia, involve similar neurocognitive components, share the same structure and developmental course, and represent related ways by which the perceptual brain deals with objective structures under different conditions. Plausibly, these apparently different phenomena develop through a veridical mapping mechanism whereby perceptual information is coupled with homological data drawn from within or across isomorphic structures. The atypical neural connectivity characteristic of autism is consistent with a developmental predisposition to veridical mapping and the resulting high prevalence of savant abilities, absolute pitch, and synaesthesia in autism.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
| [50] |
We propose an "Enhanced Perceptual Functioning" model encompassing the main differences between autistic and non-autistic social and non-social perceptual processing: locally oriented visual and auditory perception, enhanced low-level discrimination, use of a more posterior network in "complex" visual tasks, enhanced perception of first order static stimuli, diminished perception of complex movement, autonomy of low-level information processing toward higher-order operations, and differential relation between perception and general intelligence. Increased perceptual expertise may be implicated in the choice of special ability in savant autistics, and in the variability of apparent presentations within PDD (autism with and without typical speech, Asperger syndrome) in non-savant autistics. The overfunctioning of brain regions typically involved in primary perceptual functions may explain the autistic perceptual endophenotype.
|
| [51] |
|
| [52] |
Imitation, which is impaired in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and critically depends on the integration of visual input with motor output, likely impacts both motor and social skill acquisition in children with ASD; however, it is unclear what brain mechanisms contribute to this impairment. Children with ASD also exhibit what appears to be an ASD-specific bias against using visual feedback during motor learning. Does the temporal congruity of intrinsic activity, or functional connectivity, between motor and visual brain regions contribute to ASD-associated deficits in imitation, motor, and social skills?We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans from 100 8- to 12-year-old children (50 ASD). Group independent component analysis was used to estimate functional connectivity between visual and motor systems. Brain-behavior relationships were assessed by regressing functional connectivity measures with social deficit severity, imitation, and gesture performance scores.We observed increased intrinsic asynchrony between visual and motor systems in children with ASD and replicated this finding in an independent sample from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange. Moreover, children with more out-of-sync intrinsic visual-motor activity displayed more severe autistic traits, while children with greater intrinsic visual-motor synchrony were better imitators.Our twice replicated findings confirm that visual-motor functional connectivity is disrupted in ASD. Furthermore, the observed temporal incongruity between visual and motor systems, which may reflect diminished integration of visual consequences with motor output, was predictive of the severity of social deficits and may contribute to impaired social-communicative skill development in children with ASD.Copyright © 2016 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|
| [53] |
Autism spectrum disorder currently lacks an explanation that bridges cognitive, computational, and neural domains. In the past 5 years, progress has been sought in this area by drawing on Bayesian probability theory to describe both social and nonsocial aspects of autism in terms of systematic differences in the processing of sensory information in the brain. The present article begins by synthesizing the existing literature in this regard, including an introduction to the topic for unfamiliar readers. The key proposal is that autism is characterized by a greater weighting of sensory information in updating probabilistic representations of the environment. Here, we unpack further how the hierarchical setting of Bayesian inference in the brain (i.e., predictive processing) adds significant depth to this approach. In particular, autism may relate to finer mechanisms involved in the context-sensitive adjustment of sensory weightings, such as in how neural representations of environmental volatility inform perception. Crucially, in light of recent sensorimotor treatments of predictive processing (i.e., active inference), hypotheses regarding atypical sensory weighting in autism have direct implications for the regulation of action and behavior. Given that core features of autism relate to how the individual interacts with and samples the world around them (e.g., reduced social responding, repetitive behaviors, motor impairments, and atypical visual sampling), the extension of Bayesian theories of autism to action will be critical for yielding insights into this condition. (PsycINFO Database Record(c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).
|
| [54] |
Recent research has begun to investigate sensory processing in relation to nonclinical variation in traits associated with the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We propose that existing accounts of autistic perception can be augmented by considering a role for individual differences in top-down expectations for the precision of sensory input, related to the processing of state-dependent levels of uncertainty. We therefore examined ASD-like traits in relation to the rubber-hand illusion: an experimental paradigm that typically elicits crossmodal integration of visual, tactile, and proprioceptive information in an unusual illusory context. Individuals with higher ASD-like traits showed reduced effects of the rubber-hand illusion on perceived arm position and reach-to-grasp movements, compared to individuals with lower ASD-like traits. These differences occurred despite both groups reporting the typical subjective experience of the illusion concerning visuotactile integration and ownership for the rubber hand. Together these results suggest that the integration of proprioceptive information with cues for arm position derived from the illusory context differs between individuals partly in relation to traits associated with ASD. We suggest that the observed differences in sensory integration can be best explained in terms of differing expectations regarding the precision of sensory estimates in contexts that suggest uncertainty. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
| [55] |
|
| [56] |
Some studies have reported a low rate of false recognition (FR) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relative to non-autistic comparison participants (CPs). This finding, however, has not always been replicated and the source of the discrepancy remains unknown. We hypothesised that poor episodic memory functions may account for this finding. We used an adapted version of the Deese, Roediger and McDermott paradigm which presents lists of words, pictures or word-picture pairs to obtain measures of performance which reflect episodic [hits and false alarms (FAs)] and semantic (FR) memory functions. Results showed a decreased rate of FR in ASD individuals with lists of words which rose above the rate seen in non-autistic CPs with lists of word-picture pairs. This increased rate of FR in ASD was accompanied by a parallel increase in hits and a decrease in FA which reached a similar level in the two groups. Poor episodic memory functions may prevent individuals with ASD from acquiring item information which in turn precludes the formation of semantic links between items. This could render them less prone to FR.
|
| [57] |
|
| [58] |
|
| [59] |
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and little is known about its neurobiology. Much of autism research has focused on the social, communication and cognitive difficulties associated with the condition. However, the recent revision of the diagnostic criteria for autism has brought another key domain of autistic experience into focus: sensory processing. Here, we review the properties of sensory processing in autism and discuss recent computational and neurobiological insights arising from attention to these behaviours. We argue that sensory traits have important implications for the development of animal and computational models of the condition. Finally, we consider how difficulties in sensory processing may relate to the other domains of behaviour that characterize autism.
|
| [60] |
To learn to deal with the unexpected is essential to adaptation to a social, therefore often unpredictable environment. Fourteen adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 15 controls underwent a decision-making task aimed at investigating the influence of either a social or a non-social environment, and its interaction with either a stable (with constant probabilities) or an unstable (with changing probabilities) context on their performance. Participants with ASD presented with difficulties in accessing underlying statistical rules in an unstable context, a deficit especially enhanced in the social environment. These results point out that the difficulties people with ASD encounter in their social life might be caused by impaired social cues processing and by the unpredictability associated with the social world.
|
| [61] |
|
| [62] |
Evidence suggests that individuals with autism may not attend to contextual information (conceptual or perceptual) when processing stimuli (Frith 1989; Shah & Frith, 1983).We investigated the role of prior knowledge and perspective cues when judging the shape of a slanted circle in individuals with and without autism. Individuals adjusted a shape on a computer screen to appear the same as a slanted circle.Participants in all groups (autistic, moderate learning difficulties, children aged 9 years and adults) exaggerated circularity. Strikingly, however, individuals with autism were unique in exaggerating circularity significantly far less when perspective cues surrounding the slanted circle were eliminated. Prior knowledge that the shape was a slanted circle provoked a strong exaggeration effect in participants without autism, but not in those with autism.Perhaps classifying the stimulus as a 'circle' was sufficient to provoke a strong exaggeration effect in those without (but not with) autism. In this domain, we show that perception in autism may be less influenced by prior knowledge, and therefore less 'top-down'.
|
| [63] |
Many of our efforts in social interactions are dedicated to learning about others. Adolescents with autism have core deficits in social learning, but a mechanistic understanding of these deficits and how they relate to neural development is lacking. The present study aimed to specify how adolescents with and without autism represent and acquire social knowledge and how these processes are implemented in neural activity.Typically developing adolescents (n = 26) and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 20) rated in the magnetic resonance scanner how much 3 peers liked a variety of items and received trial-by-trial feedback about the peers' actual preference ratings. In a separate study, we established the preferences of a new sample of adolescents (N = 99), used to examine population preference structures. Using computational models, we tested whether participants in the magnetic resonance study relied on preference structures during learning and how model predictions were implemented in brain activity.Typically developing adolescents relied on average population preferences and prediction error updating. Importantly, prediction error updating was scaled by the similarity between items. In contrast, preferences of adolescents with ASD were best described by a No-Learning model that relied only on the participant's own preferences for each item. Model predictions were encoded in neural activity. Typically developing adolescents encoded prediction errors in the putamen, and adolescents with ASD showed greater encoding of own preferences in the angular gyrus.We specified how adolescents represent and update social knowledge during learning. Our findings indicate that adolescents with ASD rely only on their own preferences when making social inferences.Copyright © 2020 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
|
| [64] |
|
| [65] |
Recent research suggests that impaired action prediction is at the core of social interaction deficits in autism spectrum condition (ASC). Here, we targeted two cognitive mechanisms that are thought to underlie the prediction of others' actions: statistical learning and efficiency considerations. We measured proactive eye movements of 10-year-old children and adults with and without ASC in anticipation of an agent's repeatedly presented action. Participants with ASC showed a generally weaker tendency to generate action predictions. Further analyses revealed that statistical learning led to systematic accurate action predictions in the control groups. Participants with ASC were impaired in their ability to use frequency information for action predictions. Our findings inform etiological models of impaired social interaction in ASC.
|
| [66] |
|
| [67] |
|
| [68] |
Motor impairments are prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder. The Serial Reaction Time Task, a well-established visuomotor sequence learning probe, has produced inconsistent behavioral findings in individuals with autism. Moreover, it remains unclear how underlying neural processes for visuomotor learning in children with autism compare to processes for typically developing children. Neural activity differences were assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a modified version of the Serial Reaction Time Task in children with and without autism. Though there was no group difference in visuomotor sequence learning, underlying patterns of neural activation significantly differed when comparing sequence (i.e., learning) to random (i.e., nonlearning) blocks. Children with autism demonstrated decreased activity in brain regions implicated in visuomotor sequence learning: superior temporal sulcus and posterior cingulate cortex. The findings implicate differences in brain mechanisms that support initial sequence learning in autism and can help explain behavioral observations of autism-associated impairments in skill development (motor, social, communicative) reliant on visuomotor integration.© The Author(s) 2015.
|
| [69] |
Decades of neurobiological research have disclosed the diverse manners in which the response properties of neurons are dynamically modulated to support adaptive cognitive functions. This neuromodulation is achieved through alterations in the biophysical properties of the neuron. However, changes in cognitive function do not arise directly from the modulation of individual neurons, but are mediated by population dynamics in mesoscopic neural ensembles. Understanding this multiscale mapping is an important but nontrivial issue. Here, we bridge these different levels of description by showing how computational models parametrically map classic neuromodulatory processes onto systems-level models of neural activity. The ensuing critical balance of systems-level activity supports perception and action, although our knowledge of this mapping remains incomplete. In this way, quantitative models that link microscale neuronal neuromodulation to systems-level brain function highlight gaps in knowledge and suggest new directions for integrating theoretical and experimental work.
|
| [70] |
|
| [71] |
|
| [72] |
Van de Cruys, S.,
Pellicano and Burr (2012) argue that a Bayesian framework can help us understand the perceptual peculiarities in autism. We agree, but we think that their assumption of uniformly flat or equivocal priors in autism is not empirically supported. Moreover, we argue that any full account has to take into consideration not only the nature of priors in autism, but also how these priors are constructed or learned. We argue that predictive coding provides a more constrained framework that very naturally explains how priors are constructed in autism leading to strong, but overfitted, and non-generalizable predictions.
|
| [73] |
There have been numerous attempts to explain the enigma of autism, but existing neurocognitive theories often provide merely a refined description of 1 cluster of symptoms. Here we argue that deficits in executive functioning, theory of mind, and central coherence can all be understood as the consequence of a core deficit in the flexibility with which people with autism spectrum disorder can process violations to their expectations. More formally we argue that the human mind processes information by making and testing predictions and that the errors resulting from violations to these predictions are given a uniform, inflexibly high weight in autism spectrum disorder. The complex, fluctuating nature of regularities in the world and the stochastic and noisy biological system through which people experience it require that, in the real world, people not only learn from their errors but also need to (meta-)learn to sometimes ignore errors. Especially when situations (e.g., social) or stimuli (e.g., faces) become too complex or dynamic, people need to tolerate a certain degree of error in order to develop a more abstract level of representation. Starting from an inability to flexibly process prediction errors, a number of seemingly core deficits become logically secondary symptoms. Moreover, an insistence on sameness or the acting out of stereotyped and repetitive behaviors can be understood as attempts to provide a reassuring sense of predictive success in a world otherwise filled with error. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
|
| [74] |
|
| [75] |
|
| [76] |
The exploits of Martina Navratilova and Roger Federer represent the pinnacle of motor learning. However, when considering the range and complexity of the processes that are involved in motor learning, even the mere mortals among us exhibit abilities that are impressive. We exercise these abilities when taking up new activities - whether it is snowboarding or ballroom dancing - but also engage in substantial motor learning on a daily basis as we adapt to changes in our environment, manipulate new objects and refine existing skills. Here we review recent research in human motor learning with an emphasis on the computational mechanisms that are involved.
|
/
| 〈 |
|
〉 |
