Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by a panoply of social, communicative, and sensory anomalies. As such, a central goal of computational psychiatry is to ascribe the heterogenous phenotypes observed in ASD to a limited set of canonical computations that may have gone awry in the disord...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2022-05-01
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| Series: | eLife |
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/71866 |
| _version_ | 1828382293490663424 |
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| author | Jean-Paul Noel Sabyasachi Shivkumar Kalpana Dokka Ralf M Haefner Dora E Angelaki |
| author_facet | Jean-Paul Noel Sabyasachi Shivkumar Kalpana Dokka Ralf M Haefner Dora E Angelaki |
| author_sort | Jean-Paul Noel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by a panoply of social, communicative, and sensory anomalies. As such, a central goal of computational psychiatry is to ascribe the heterogenous phenotypes observed in ASD to a limited set of canonical computations that may have gone awry in the disorder. Here, we posit causal inference – the process of inferring a causal structure linking sensory signals to hidden world causes – as one such computation. We show that audio-visual integration is intact in ASD and in line with optimal models of cue combination, yet multisensory behavior is anomalous in ASD because this group operates under an internal model favoring integration (vs. segregation). Paradoxically, during explicit reports of common cause across spatial or temporal disparities, individuals with ASD were less and not more likely to report common cause, particularly at small cue disparities. Formal model fitting revealed differences in both the prior probability for common cause (p-common) and choice biases, which are dissociable in implicit but not explicit causal inference tasks. Together, this pattern of results suggests (i) different internal models in attributing world causes to sensory signals in ASD relative to neurotypical individuals given identical sensory cues, and (ii) the presence of an explicit compensatory mechanism in ASD, with these individuals putatively having learned to compensate for their bias to integrate in explicit reports. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:29:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6f3fba52d10e4f808359cfa90f036a1e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:29:23Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-6f3fba52d10e4f808359cfa90f036a1e2022-12-22T02:02:11ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2022-05-011110.7554/eLife.71866Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorderJean-Paul Noel0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5297-3363Sabyasachi Shivkumar1Kalpana Dokka2Ralf M Haefner3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5031-0379Dora E Angelaki4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9650-8962Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York City, United StatesBrain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, United StatesDepartment of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United StatesBrain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, United StatesCenter for Neural Science, New York University, New York City, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United StatesAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by a panoply of social, communicative, and sensory anomalies. As such, a central goal of computational psychiatry is to ascribe the heterogenous phenotypes observed in ASD to a limited set of canonical computations that may have gone awry in the disorder. Here, we posit causal inference – the process of inferring a causal structure linking sensory signals to hidden world causes – as one such computation. We show that audio-visual integration is intact in ASD and in line with optimal models of cue combination, yet multisensory behavior is anomalous in ASD because this group operates under an internal model favoring integration (vs. segregation). Paradoxically, during explicit reports of common cause across spatial or temporal disparities, individuals with ASD were less and not more likely to report common cause, particularly at small cue disparities. Formal model fitting revealed differences in both the prior probability for common cause (p-common) and choice biases, which are dissociable in implicit but not explicit causal inference tasks. Together, this pattern of results suggests (i) different internal models in attributing world causes to sensory signals in ASD relative to neurotypical individuals given identical sensory cues, and (ii) the presence of an explicit compensatory mechanism in ASD, with these individuals putatively having learned to compensate for their bias to integrate in explicit reports.https://elifesciences.org/articles/71866autisminferencemultisensoryperceptionbayesian |
| spellingShingle | Jean-Paul Noel Sabyasachi Shivkumar Kalpana Dokka Ralf M Haefner Dora E Angelaki Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder eLife autism inference multisensory perception bayesian |
| title | Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_full | Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_fullStr | Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_full_unstemmed | Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_short | Aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_sort | aberrant causal inference and presence of a compensatory mechanism in autism spectrum disorder |
| topic | autism inference multisensory perception bayesian |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/71866 |
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