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Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition marked by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction alongside restrictive and repetitive behaviors or interests. ASD is sometimes accompanied by intellectual impairment.
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Parallel Processing

Parallel Processing

The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...

Visual System

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Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

Visual Agnosia

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Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Comparing Eye-tracking Data of Children with High-functioning ASD, Comorbid ADHD, and of a Control Watching Social Videos

Comparing Eye-tracking Data of Children with High-functioning ASD, Comorbid ADHD, and of a Control Watching Social Videos

Published on: December 7, 2018

Global and local visual processing in autism: An objective assessment approach.

Kritika Nayar¹, Angela C Voyles², Lynne Kiorpes²

¹Autism Spectrum Disorders Research Program, the Child Study Center at New York University Langone Medical Center, New York.

Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research

|April 23, 2017

Summary

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show impaired global visual perception, not heightened local processing. Eye tracking reveals reduced attention to central elements in visual tasks, confirming global atypicalities in ASD.

Keywords:

Kanizsa illusory contours autism spectrum disorder eye tracking global visual processing local visual processing match-to-sample task

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Last Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Comparing Eye-tracking Data of Children with High-functioning ASD, Comorbid ADHD, and of a Control Watching Social Videos

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Published on: December 7, 2018

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Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Published on: April 22, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Visual Perception

Background:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by diverse neurodevelopmental differences.
Visual processing strategies, specifically global vs. local, are hypothesized to differ in ASD.
Understanding these visual processing differences can inform diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate global and local visual processing in children with ASD.
To compare visual processing strategies between children with ASD and typically developing controls.
To evaluate the utility of eye-tracking in assessing visual processing in ASD.

Main Methods:

A match-to-sample task using Kanizsa illusory contours (KIC) was administered to children with ASD and controls.
Eye gaze patterns and behavioral performance (accuracy, reaction time) were recorded.
Two conditions were used: one with local interference and one without.

Main Results:

Children with ASD exhibited lower accuracy and longer reaction times in the presence of local interference.
Eye-tracking data revealed significantly fewer fixations on KIC centers in children with ASD, indicating reduced global perception.
No differences were found between groups in fixations to local elements or touch response locations.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest impaired global visual perception in ASD, without compensatory heightened local processing.
Eye-tracking provides objective measures of global and local visual processing strategies in ASD.
These results contribute to understanding the neural underpinnings of visual perception in autism spectrum disorder.