Atypical Predictive Processing Is Associated With Sensory Over-Responsivity in Autism.
Bar Yosef, Valerie Burgess, Megan Banchik and 3 others
In autism, brain activation to unexpected sounds and touches was higher than in typically developing controls, but group differences were minimal when a visual cue preceded the stimulus.
Within the autism group, higher sensory over-responsivity was linked to less reduction in response to expected stimuli.
Key findings
1The autistic group showed significantly greater brain activation than the typically developing group to unpredictable sensory stimuli in bilateral visual cortices, left sensorimotor cortex, and bilateral sensory association regions. In the predictable condition, the only significant group difference was a small region in the left precentral gyrus. The formal group-by-condition interaction was not significant.
2Within the autistic group, higher sensory over-responsivity scores were associated with greater activation in the right somatosensory cortex, auditory cortex, and central opercular cortex during predictable compared to unpredictable trials, indicating reduced expectancy suppression. No brain region showed a negative correlation with SOR.
3During the visual prediction cue that preceded the sensory stimulus, the typically developing group showed significantly greater activation than the autistic group in the bilateral lingual gyri and right lateral occipital cortex, regions involved in higher-order visual processing.
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What it does not show
The study measured brain activity once and correlated it with a self-report SOR score. It cannot show that predictability causes reduced sensory over-responsivity, only that the two are associated in this group. The authors note they cannot tell whether the SOR finding reflects a general difficulty with expectancy suppression or a specific difficulty mapping a visual image onto a sound or touch. These are different mechanisms and would call for different interventions. 24 of the 55 autistic participants were taking psychoactive medications (antidepressants, psychostimulants, or multiple). The authors report no significant differences between medicated and unmedicated participants, but the finding is still a correlation in a medicated sample. The stimuli were rated as mildly aversive by both groups (around 3 to 4 on a 0-to-10 scale). The findings may not extend to the more intense sensory challenges many autistic people face daily. No behavioural intervention was tested. The study shows a neural association, not that a predictability-based strategy reduced SOR in practice.
Declared interests
Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (grants R01 MH124977, R01 MH117982, R01 MH100028). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that visual cues reduce sensory over-responsivity in autism. The group-by-condition interaction was not significant, the SOR-neural link is a correlation within one group, and no behavioural intervention was tested. The subjective ratings of the stimuli did not differ between groups, so the study does not show that predictability changed how bothered participants felt.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →