The Relation Between Autistic Traits, the Degree of Synaesthesia, and Local/Global Visual Perception.
Floor Burghoorn, Mark Dingemanse, Rob van Lier and 1 others
PMID 31522308WHAT IT FOUND
In adults without diagnoses, higher autistic traits linked to faster visual search and less illusion susceptibility, but not to global motion deficits.
Synaesthesia correlated with overall autistic traits but showed no link to local visual bias.
Key findings
01Higher scores on the Attention to Detail subscale of the Autism Spectrum Quotient were significantly correlated with faster reaction times on the Embedded Figures Task.
02Autistic traits were not associated with performance on the Motion Coherence Task, regardless of dot lifetime conditions.
03Degree of synaesthesia correlated with total autistic traits, but not with the Attention to Detail subscale, and showed no significant relation to local visual perception tasks.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (N=33 for AQ analyses, N=29 for synaesthesia analyses), reducing the power to detect subtle effects. The study used a neurotypical population with continuous measures of traits rather than clinical diagnoses, which may limit generalisability to individuals with diagnosed ASD or synaesthesia. Synaesthesia was measured only as grapheme-colour type; findings may not apply to other forms of synaesthesia. The use of a consistency test to measure synaesthesia degree in non-synaesthetes is debated, as high consistency might reflect memory or attention rather than sub-threshold synaesthetic experience.
Declared interests
Funded by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Dutch Research Council). No other conflicts of interest declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the correlation between synaesthesia and total autistic traits as evidence that synaesthesia causes or shares the specific local visual processing biases seen in autism. The study found no link between synaesthesia scores and the Attention to Detail subscale or any visual perception task, suggesting the two conditions may co-occur without sharing this specific perceptual mechanism.