Individuals with Asperger's disorder exhibit difficulty in switching attention from a local level to a global level.
The purpose of the present study was to determine whether individuals with Asperger's disorder exhibit difficulty in switching attention from a local level to a global level. Eleven participants with Asperger's disorder and 11 age- and gender-matched healthy controls performed a level-repetition switching task using Navon-type hierarchical stimuli. In both groups, level-repetition was beneficial at both levels. Furthermore, individuals with Asperger's disorder exhibited difficulty in switching attention from a local level to a global level compared to control individuals. These findings suggested that there is a problem with the inhibitory mechanism that influences the output of enhanced local visual processing in Asperger's disorder.
Department of Neuropsychiatry and Neuropsychology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan. katagiri@las.u-toyama.ac.jp
Masatoshi
M
Katagiri
Tetsuko
T
Kasai
Yoko
Y
Kamio
Harumitsu
H
Murohashi
D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time