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Individuals with Autistic-Like Traits Show Reduced Lateralization on a Greyscales Task

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Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum conditions attend less to the left side of centrally presented face stimuli compared to neurotypical individuals, suggesting a reduction in right hemisphere activation. We examined whether a similar bias exists for non-facial stimuli in a large sample of neurotypical adults rated above- or below-average on the autism spectrum quotient (AQ). Using the “greyscales” task, we found the typical leftward bias in the below-average group was significantly reduced in the above-average group. Moreover, a negative correlation between leftward bias and the social skills factor of the AQ suggested a link between atypical hemispheric activation and social difficulties in high-AQ trait individuals that extends to non-facial stimuli.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Australia Research Council Discovery Project grants to TAWV (DP120102313) and MTM (DP120104713). Funding was also provided to MCWE by The University of Western Australia.

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  1. School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Michael C. W. English, Murray T. Maybery & Troy A. W. Visser

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  1. Michael C. W. English
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Correspondence to Michael C. W. English.

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English, M.C.W., Maybery, M.T. & Visser, T.A.W. Individuals with Autistic-Like Traits Show Reduced Lateralization on a Greyscales Task. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 3390–3395 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2493-7

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