title: Precise minds in uncertain worlds: predictive coding in autism.
abstract: 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).
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Sander
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van de Cruys
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Leuven Autism Research, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Kris
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Evers
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Leuven Autism Research, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van der Hallen
authors.affiliation: Leuven Autism Research, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Lien
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Eylen
authors.affiliation: Leuven Autism Research, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boets
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: de-Wit
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wagemans
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*