A new approach to the study of detail perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): investigating visual feedforward, horizontal and feedback processing

Enhanced detail processing is a characteristic of ASD. However, previous studies could not yet provide a neural explanation of this trait. Since the balance between visual feedforward and feedback processing is probably essential for the character of visual perception, we conjectured that this balance is disturbed in ASD. Using a new texture discrimination task, where surface segregation was varied independently from orientation boundaries, we showed that subjects with ASD scored lower than controls, probably caused by enhanced feedback. Interestingly, performance improved in the ASD group when repeating the task two additional times, indicating a compensation for the imbalance between feedforward and feedback processing.