title: No evidence for impaired multisensory integration of low-level audiovisual stimuli in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: Abrupt click sounds can improve the visual processing of flashes in several ways. Here, we examined this in high functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) using three tasks: (1) a task where clicks improve sensitivity for visual temporal order (temporal ventriloquism); (2) a task where a click improves visual search (pip-and-pop), and (3) a task where a click speeds up the visual orienting to a peripheral target (clock reading). Adolescents with ASD were, compared to adolescents with typical development (TD), impaired in judgments of visual temporal order, but they were unimpaired in visual search and orienting. Importantly, in all tasks visual performance of the ASD group improved by the presence of clicks by at least equal amounts as in the TD group. This suggests that adolescents and young adults with ASD show no generalized deficit in the multisensory integration of low-level audiovisual stimuli and/or the phasic alerting by abrupt sounds.
authors.affiliation: Tilburg University, Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Electronic address: l.w.z.deboer@uvt.nl.
authors.forename: Liselotte
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: de Boer-Schellekens
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keetels
authors.forename: Mart
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eussen
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vroomen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autism spectrum disorders; Multisensory integration; Temporal ventriloquism; Visual orienting; Visual search; Visual temporal order