@article{87a7378bd4304b52b23dd494e1b2a0f8,
title = "The development of multisensory integration in high-functioning autism: High-density electrical mapping and psychophysical measures reveal impairments in the processing of audiovisual inputs",
abstract = "Successful integration of auditory and visual inputs is crucial for both basic perceptual functions and for higher-order processes related to social cognition. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social cognition and are associated with abnormalities in sensory and perceptual processes. Several groups have reported that individuals with ASD are impaired in their ability to integrate socially relevant audiovisual (AV) information, and it has been suggested that this contributes to the higher-order social and cognitive deficits observed in ASD. However, successful integration of auditory and visual inputs also influences detection and perception of nonsocial stimuli, and integration deficits may impair earlier stages of information processing, with cascading downstream effects. To assess the integrity of basic AV integration, we recorded high-density electrophysiology from a cohort of high-functioning children with ASD (7-16 years) while they performed a simple AV reaction time task. Children with ASD showed considerably less behavioral facilitation to multisensory inputs, deficits that were paralleled by less effective neural integration. Evidence for processing differences relative to typically developing children was seen as early as 100 ms poststimulation, and topographic analysis suggested that children with ASD relied on different cortical networks during this early multisensory processing stage.",
keywords = "ERPs, auditory, electrophysiology, multimodal, visual",
author = "Brandwein, {Alice B.} and Foxe, {John J.} and Butler, {John S.} and Russo, {Natalie N.} and Altschuler, {Ted S.} and Hilary Gomes and Sophie Molholm",
note = "Funding Information: over the course of this project. We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to the children and families that have contributed their time to participate in this research. N.N.R. received additional support from a Postdoctoral Research Grant from the Fondation du Qu{\'e}bec de Recherche sur la Soci{\'e}t{\'e} et la Culture, and T.S.A. received support from a Robert Gilleece Predoctoral Fellowship through the Program in Cognitive Neuroscience at City College of New York. N.N.R. is now at Syracuse University in the Department of Psychology. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the staff at the Human Clinical Phenotyping Core (HCP) of the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) during the recruitment and clinical classification of a portion of the participants who served in this study. Funding Information: This work was primarily supported by a grant from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (MH085322 to S.M. and J.J.F.). Additional pilot support during protocol development was provided by Cure Autism Now (J.J.F.) and the Wallace Research Foundation (J.J.F. and S.M.). The Human Clinical Phenotyping Core, where the children enrolled in this study were clinically evaluated, is a facility of the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) which is funded through a center grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD P30 HD071593).",
year = "2013",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1093/cercor/bhs109",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "23",
pages = "1329--1341",
journal = "Cerebral Cortex",
issn = "1047-3211",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "6",
}