Individuals with Autistic-like Traits Show Reduced Lateralization on a Greyscales Task

Overview

Journal J Autism Dev Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2015 Jun 11

PMID 26060048

Citations 8

Authors

Michael C W English

Murray T Maybery

Troy A W Visser

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum conditions attend less to the left side of centrally presented face stimuli compared to neurotypical individuals, suggesting a reduction in right hemisphere activation. We examined whether a similar bias exists for non-facial stimuli in a large sample of neurotypical adults rated above- or below-average on the autism spectrum quotient (AQ). Using the "greyscales" task, we found the typical leftward bias in the below-average group was significantly reduced in the above-average group. Moreover, a negative correlation between leftward bias and the social skills factor of the AQ suggested a link between atypical hemispheric activation and social difficulties in high-AQ trait individuals that extends to non-facial stimuli.

Citing Articles

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