Atypical Multisensory Integration and the Temporal Binding Window in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Sayaka Kawakami, Shota Uono, Sadao Otsuka and 3 others
PMID 32211988WHAT IT FOUND
High-functioning adults with autism were less likely to be tricked by an audio-visual illusion than typically developing adults.
The two groups showed no difference in how they judged the timing of sounds and flashes, but the illusion result was a secondary finding.
Key findings
01Adults with ASD were less likely than typically developing adults to perceive an illusory flash when one flash was paired with two beeps.
02The two groups did not differ in the size of their temporal binding window, the time range in which sound and sight are felt to occur together.
03Within the ASD group, a narrower temporal binding window was associated with a lower tendency to perceive the illusion.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The analysis rested on 15 people with autism, and the authors say the study was underpowered, so a real difference in the temporal binding window could have been missed. Nine participants, six of them with autism, could not complete the timing task and were dropped, which may have removed the people with the most unusual timing. The finding that people with autism saw the illusion less often came from a secondary task, not the main comparison of the temporal binding window. The autism group scored lower on the performance part of the IQ test than the comparison group, a difference the authors did not adjust for. Only adults were tested, so the results say nothing about children with autism. The study measured how sound and light are combined in a laboratory task. It did not test anything a therapist treats, such as speech, swallowing or daily function.
Declared interests
The paper does not report a funding source or a conflict of interest declaration in the text supplied. Participants received a gift card worth 1000 yen per hour.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this as evidence that a multisensory test can diagnose autism or guide therapy. The primary comparison of the temporal binding window found no difference between the groups, the significant finding came from a secondary task in a sample of 15, and the study never tested any clinical outcome.