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Spatial Contrast Sensitivity in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls underwent a rigorous psychophysical assessment that measured contrast sensitivity to seven spatial frequencies (0.5–20 cycles/degree). A contrast sensitivity function (CSF) was then fitted for each participant, from which four measures were obtained: visual acuity, peak spatial frequency, peak contrast sensitivity, and contrast sensitivity at a low spatial frequency. There were no group differences on any of the four CSF measures, indicating no differential spatial frequency processing in ASD. Although it has been suggested that detail-oriented visual perception in individuals with ASD may be a result of differential sensitivities to low versus high spatial frequencies, the current study finds no evidence to support this hypothesis.

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Notes

  1. Several addition analyses were conducted to ensure that a group difference, or a lack of group difference, was not due to other uncontrolled factors. (1) Because there were more girls in the TD group (11 out of 25) than the ASD group (0 out of 10), we made sure that there were no group differences between boys and girls in our TD sample. Accordingly, for all visual measures, gender differences were insignificant (all p values >0.31), and for this reason it is justified to use a mixture of boys and girls in the TD sample. (2) Because there were more participants in the TD group (25) than the ASD group (10), we conducted an additional analysis that equated the number of participants (10 in each group, using 10 TD participants well matched to the participants with ASD). The results using 10 TD participants were the same as using all 25. (3) Two ASD and two TD participants had some colour deficiencies, however, because colour vision is not relevant to the current study (which tested only light/dark visual sensitivity), and because analyses with their data included/excluded yielded no differences in results, their data were kept in our analyses. (4) Three ASD and eight TD participants required corrective lenses and wore them during the experimental sessions. The statistical results were also no different if their data were included/excluded, so their data were kept in our analyses.

  2. Note, however, that throughout the paper we use the general term ASD to refer to all participants with an external diagnosis of Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s syndrome or PDD-NOS.

  3. For three TD participants, Performance IQ scores were outlying data points (i.e. more than two standard deviations from the group mean). Data from these participants were removed from the correlational analyses.

  4. For one participant with ASD, the ADOS total score was an outlying data point (i.e. more than two standard deviations from the group mean). Data from this participant were removed from the correlational analyses.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIH grant R01 HD052804-01A2 (KD), and a WUN Research mobility award (HCK). We would like to thank all of the families who generously participated in this study, and the schools who helped with participant recruitment. We also acknowledge Ms Beth Hannaman, the Program Manager of Resources for Students with Autism, and the Research Review committee with the Research and Reporting Department, at the San Diego Unified School District for their valuable input and assistance in participant recruitment. We would also like to thank Sarah Song for her assistance with data collection, and Katie Wagner and Hao Ye for technical advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Hwan Cui Koh & Elizabeth Milne

  2. Department of Psychology, University of California, Mail Code 0109, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0109, USA

    Karen Dobkins

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  1. Hwan Cui Koh
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  2. Elizabeth Milne
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Correspondence to Karen Dobkins.

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Koh, H.C., Milne, E. & Dobkins, K. Spatial Contrast Sensitivity in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 40, 978–987 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-0953-7

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