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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.
These core symptoms manifest differently among individuals, ranging from mild to severe. The disorder's complexity extends beyond its clinical presentation, encompassing a diverse range of biological, cognitive, and sociocultural influences.

Perception

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the...

What is a Sensory System?

What is a Sensory System?

Sensory systems detect stimuli—such as light and sound waves—and transduce them into neural signals that can be interpreted by the nervous system. In addition to external stimuli detected by the senses, some sensory systems detect internal stimuli—such as the proprioceptors in muscles and tendons that send feedback about limb position.

Auditory Perception

Auditory Perception

The auditory system is essential for sound perception, utilizing various critical structures. When sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are then transmitted to the middle ear, where three tiny bones – the malleus, incus, and stapes – amplify the sound. This amplification is crucial, as it ensures that the sound vibrations are strong enough to be conveyed to the inner ear. These vibrations then reach the...

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 22, 2026

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

Sensory perception in autism.

Caroline E Robertson^1,2,3, Simon Baron-Cohen⁴

¹Harvard Society of Fellows, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA.

Nature Reviews. Neuroscience

|September 28, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Sensory processing differences are central to autism, impacting social and cognitive behaviors. Understanding these sensory traits is crucial for developing better autism models and interventions.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Computational Psychiatry

Background:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition with limited understanding of its neurobiology.
Research has historically emphasized social, communication, and cognitive challenges in ASD.
Recent diagnostic revisions highlight sensory processing as a core domain of autistic experience.

Purpose of the Study:

To review sensory processing properties in autism.
To discuss computational and neurobiological insights into autistic sensory behaviors.
To explore the implications of sensory traits for autism models and their relationship to other behavioral domains.

Main Methods:

Literature review of sensory processing in autism.
Analysis of recent computational and neurobiological research.
Synthesis of findings to connect sensory traits with other ASD characteristics.

Main Results:

Sensory processing variations are a key feature of autism spectrum disorder.
Computational and neurobiological studies offer new insights into these sensory differences.
Sensory traits significantly influence the development and validity of animal and computational models of autism.

Conclusions:

Sensory processing is a critical area for understanding autism neurobiology.
Investigating sensory traits can advance the development of more accurate autism models.
Difficulties in sensory processing are interconnected with social, communication, and cognitive aspects of autism.