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Updated: Oct 19, 2025
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Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
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People With High Autistic Traits Show Fewer Consensual Crossmodal Correspondences Between Visual Features and Tastes
Na Chen1, Katsumi Watanabe2,3, Makoto Wada1
1Department of Rehabilitation for Brain Functions, Research Institute of National Rehabilitation Center for Persons With Disabilities, Tokorozawa, Japan.
Frontiers in Psychology
|September 27, 2021
Summary
Autistic traits may alter how people form sensory associations. Individuals with higher autistic traits showed weaker links between colors/shapes and tastes, suggesting altered statistical learning.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Sensory Science
Background:
- Crossmodal correspondences link sensory inputs, like color and taste.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) involves atypical sensory processing and multisensory integration.
- The impact of autistic traits on these crossmodal associations is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how autistic traits influence visual-taste and visual-visual (shape-color) correspondences.
- To explore differences in sensory association formation in individuals with varying levels of autistic traits.
Main Methods:
- An online questionnaire survey was conducted with Japanese participants.
- Participants' autistic traits were assessed using the Autistic Quotient (AQ).
- Visual-taste and shape-color association preferences were measured.
Main Results:
- Participants demonstrated strong consensual color-taste, shape-taste, and shape-color associations.
- Higher autistic traits (AQ scores) correlated with fewer choices of consensual color-taste and shape-color associations.
- No significant association was found between autistic traits and shape-taste correspondences.
Conclusions:
- Autistic traits appear to modulate the formation of specific crossmodal correspondences, particularly those involving color.
- Findings suggest that individuals with higher autistic traits may rely more on statistical learning with reduced influence from prior knowledge.
- This highlights potential differences in sensory processing and multisensory integration related to autistic traits.
Keywords:
autistic traitscolor–taste associationcrossmodal correspondenceshape–color associationshape–taste associationMore Related Videos
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