This month the Mirage lab published a study in Molecular Autism investigating visuo-tactile integration in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Sensory atypicalities, such as a dislike of loud noises or a preference for certain textures, are common in ASD. Research from studies on visuo-auditory integration suggests these could be due to atypical sensory integration. There’s little research on visuo-tactile-proprioceptive integration in ASD but MIRAGE presents an ideal way to investigate this area!

In the study, a group of 29 children with ASD and 58 typically-developing children took part in an experiment using a supernumerary limb illusion. We found that when visual and tactile information were separated by a delay, all children bound the information together to embody a hand when the delay was small. However, the group with ASD continued to do this even when the delay was large. This temporally extended sensory binding could lead to problems binding information from related events which may affect sensitivity to sensory stimuli.

Read the full article here: Molecular Autism