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Specific Global–Local Visual Processing Abilities Mediate the Influence of Non-social Autistic-like Traits on Mental Rotation

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Abstract

Inconsistent data are available on mental rotation performance in neurotypicals with high autistic-like traits. Here, we tested whether global–local visual processing abilities mediate the influence of specific autistic-like trait domains (social skill, attention switching, attention-to-detail, communication, and imagination) on mental rotation. Neurotypical participants (N = 128) underwent an assessment of autistic-like traits, a flanker task with hierarchical stimuli, and a mental rotation task. Path analysis showed that Reaction Times on the incongruent/local condition of the flanker task mediated the relationship between attention-to-detail and mental rotation accuracy. These findings indicate that a better capacity of ignoring incongruent global information to identify local information (reduced global interference) in persons with high non-social autistic-like traits, as attention-to-detail, facilitates mental rotation performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Developmental Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Viale Ellittico 31, 81100, Caserta, Italy

    Isa Zappullo, Rosa Milo, Monica Positano, Roberta Cecere, Gennaro Raimo & Massimiliano Conson

  2. Psychometric Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy

    Vincenzo Paolo Senese

Authors
  1. Isa Zappullo
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  2. Vincenzo Paolo Senese
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  3. Rosa Milo
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  4. Monica Positano
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  5. Roberta Cecere
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  6. Gennaro Raimo
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  7. Massimiliano Conson
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Contributions

IZ: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, tasks administration, Writing - original draft, Writing - review and editing. VPS: Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology. RM: Formal analysis, Project administration. MP: Software, Project administration. RC: Software, Data curation. GR: Data curation. MC: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review and editing.

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Correspondence to Massimiliano Conson.

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All procedures performed in the present study were approved by the Local Ethics Committee and were in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki declaration.

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Zappullo, I., Senese, V.P., Milo, R. et al. Specific Global–Local Visual Processing Abilities Mediate the Influence of Non-social Autistic-like Traits on Mental Rotation. J Autism Dev Disord 53, 80–88 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05412-y

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