Altered oculomotor flexibility is linked to high autistic traits

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involve sensory abnormalities and motor inflexibility.
• The sensorimotor system distinguishes self-motion from external motion; disruptions can cause perceptual errors and motor learning deficits.
• Altered processing of gaze-contingent sensations may underlie motor inflexibility and sensory overload in ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test if altered processing of gaze-contingent sensations contributes to motor inflexibility and sensory overload in individuals with autistic traits.
• To investigate the relationship between autistic symptom severity and motor adaptation in a saccade task.
• To examine visual stability and saccade-induced mislocalization in relation to autistic traits.

Main Methods:

• Participants (healthy adults) performed a saccade adaptation task where a visual target was displaced during eye movements.
• Motor flexibility was assessed by measuring the degree of saccade adaptation.
• Visual stability was tested by asking participants to localize the saccade target after movement completion.

Main Results:

• Saccade adaptation magnitude decreased with increasing autistic traits.
• Participants with higher autistic traits exhibited less motor adaptation.
• Mislocalization of saccade targets occurred in both low and high autistic trait groups, but was present in high-trait individuals even without adaptation.

Conclusions:

• Higher autistic traits are linked to oculomotor inflexibility.
• This inflexibility may lead to altered processing of trans-saccadic vision.
• Altered visual processing could exacerbate perceptual overstimulation experienced in ASD.