Disrupted sensorimotor predictions in high autistic characteristics

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pome, Antonella; Zimmermann, Eckart
• 署名单位: Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-13142
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2501624122
• 发表日期: 2025-04-21
• 关键词: sensitivity; perception

摘要

Humans maintain a stable view of the world by omitting self-generated motion during rapid eye movements, or saccades. An efferent copy of the saccade motor command informs visual processing about the self-produced motion. However, efference copy information has been demonstrated to be disrupted in individuals with high autistic traits. Here, we investigated saccadic omission in participants with high vs. low autistic traits. Participants made saccades to peripheral targets and reported the location of drifting gratings that became visible during saccade execution. Sensitivity to motion was also assessed in a fixation condition, where retinal velocities matched those experienced during saccades. Our findings reveal that individuals with heightened autistic traits exhibit significantly reduced sensitivity to motion during saccades compared to those with low autistic traits, while no Autistic Quotient-dependent differences were observed in the fixation condition. These results suggest that impairments in sensorimotor processing affect the ability of individuals with high autistic traits to predict how their own movements affect the sensory input. The lack of sensorimotor integration might explain the sensory overload that autistics frequently experience.