title: Investigating visual-tactile interactions over time and space in adults with autism.
abstract: It has been suggested that the sensory symptoms which affect many people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) may be related to alterations in multisensory processing. Typically, the likelihood of interactions between the senses increases when information is temporally and spatially coincident. We explored visual-tactile interactions in adults with ASC for the first time in two experiments using low-level stimuli. Both participants with ASC and matched neurotypical controls only produced crossmodal interactions to near simultaneous stimuli, suggesting that temporal modulation is unaffected in the adult population. We also provide preliminary evidence that visual-tactile interactions may occur over greater spatial distances in participants with ASC, which merits further exploration.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. daniel.poole@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7399-2499
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poole
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gowen
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Poliakoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013998:Time Perception; D055698:Touch Perception; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: Autism; Crossmodal congruency task; Multisensory; Selective attention; Spatial; Temporal; Visual–tactile interactions