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Perceptual processing links autism and synesthesia: A twin study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

J. Neufeld ,
T. Van Leeuwen ,
L. Wilsson ,
H. Norrman ,
M. Dingemanse  and
S. Bölte
J. Neufeld*
Affiliation:
Center Of Neurodevelopmental Disorders At Karolinska Institutet (kind), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
T. Van Leeuwen
Affiliation:
Donders Institute For Brain, Cognition And Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
L. Wilsson
Affiliation:
Center Of Neurodevelopmental Disorders At Karolinska Institutet (kind), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
H. Norrman
Affiliation:
Center Of Neurodevelopmental Disorders At Karolinska Institutet (kind), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
M. Dingemanse
Affiliation:
Donders Institute For Brain, Cognition And Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands Centre For Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
S. Bölte
Affiliation:
Center Of Neurodevelopmental Disorders At Karolinska Institutet (kind), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Child And Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden Curtin Autism Research Group, Essential Partner Autism Crc, School Of Occupational Therapy, Social Work And Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Synesthesia is a non-pathological condition where sensory stimuli (e.g. letters or sounds) lead to additional sensations (e.g. color). It occurs more commonly in individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) and is associated with increased autistic traits and autism-related perceptual processing characteristics, including a more detail-focused attentional style and altered sensory sensitivity. In addition, autistic traits correlate with the degree of synesthesia (consistency of color choices on an objective synesthesia test) in non-synesthetes.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate whether the degree of synesthesia for graphemes is associated with autistic traits and perceptual processing alterations within twin pairs, where all factors shared by twins (e.g. age, family background, and 50-100% genetics) are implicitly controlled for.

Methods

We investigated a predominantly non-synesthetic twin sample, enriched for ASC and other neurodevelopmental disorders (n=65, 14-34 years, 60% female), modelling the linear relationships between the degree of synesthesia and autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, and visual perception, both within-twin pairs (22 pairs) and across the entire cohort.

Results

A higher degree of synesthesia was associated with increased autistic traits only within the attention to details domain, with sensory hyper-, but not hypo-sensitivity and with being better in identifying fragmented images. These associations were stronger within-twin pairs compared to across the sample.

Conclusions

Consistent with previous findings, the results support an association between the degree of synesthesia and autistic traits and autism-related perceptual features, however restricted to specific domains. Further, the results indicate that a twin design can be more sensitive for detecting these associations.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

autism spectrum conditionsynesthesiatwin designsensory processing
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S132
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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