Journal article

Publication year: 2014

Pages: 2713-2724

Journal: The Journal of Neuroscience

Volume number: 34

Issue number: 7

ISSN: 0270-6474

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4416-13.2014

Publisher: Society for Neuroscience

Abstract: 
Previous behavioral research suggests enhanced local visual processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here we used functional MRI and population receptive field (pRF) analysis to test whether the response selectivity of human visual cortex is atypical in individuals with high-functioning ASDs compared with neurotypical, demographically matched controls. For each voxel, we fitted a pRF model to fMRI signals measured while participants viewed flickering bar stimuli traversing the visual field. In most extra-striate regions, perifoveal pRFs were larger in the ASD group than in controls. We observed no differences in V1 or V3A. Differences in the hemodynamic response function, eye movements, or increased measurement noise could not account for these results; individuals with ASDs showed stronger, more reliable responses to visual stimulation. Interestingly, pRF sizes also correlated with individual differences in autistic traits but there were no correlations with behavioral measures of visual processing. Our findings thus suggest that visual cortex in ASDs is not characterized by sharper spatial selectivity. Instead, we speculate that visual cortical function in ASDs may be characterized by extrastriate cortical hyperexcitability or differential attentional deployment.

Harvard Citation style: Schwarzkopf, D., Anderson, E., de Haas, B., White, S. and Rees, G. (2014) Larger Extrastriate Population Receptive Fields in Autism Spectrum Disorders, The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(7), pp. 2713-2724. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4416-13.2014

APA Citation style: Schwarzkopf, D., Anderson, E., de Haas, B., White, S., & Rees, G. (2014). Larger Extrastriate Population Receptive Fields in Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Journal of Neuroscience. 34(7), 2713-2724. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4416-13.2014