Perceptual processing links autism and synesthesia: A co-twin control study
Publication year
2021Number of pages
14 p.
Source
Cortex, 145, (2021), pp. 236-249ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Display more detailsDisplay less details
Organization
SW OZ DCC CO
Internationale Bedrijfscommunicatie
Journal title
Cortex
Volume
vol. 145
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 236
Page end
p. 249
Subject
Action, intention, and motor control; Language & CommunicationAbstract
Synesthesia occurs more commonly in individuals fulfilling criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis than in the general population. It is associated with autistic traits and autism-related perceptual processing characteristics, including a more detail-focused attentional style and altered sensory sensitivity. In addition, these characteristics correlate with the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia (consistency of grapheme-color associations) in non-synesthetes. We investigated a predominantly non-synesthetic twin sample, including individuals fulfilling criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis or other neurodevelopmental disorders (n = 65, 14-34 years, 60% female). We modelled linear relationships between the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia and autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, and visual perception, both within-twin pairs (22 pairs) where all factors shared by twins are implicitly controlled (including 50-100% genetics), and across the entire cohort. We found that the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia was associated with autistic traits within the domain of Attention to Details and with sensory hyper-, but not hypo-sensitivity. These associations were stronger within-twin pairs than across the sample. Further, twins with a higher degree of grapheme-color synesthesia were better than their co-twins at identifying fragmented images (Fragmented Pictures Test). This is the first twin study on the association between synesthesia and autism-related perceptual features and traits. The results suggest that investigating these associations within-twin pairs, implicitly adjusting for potential confounding factors shared by twins, is more sensitive than doing so in non-related individuals. Consistent with previous findings, the results suggest an association between the degree of grapheme-color synesthesia and autism-related perceptual features, while utilizing a different measure for sensory sensitivity. The novel finding of enhanced fragmented picture integration in twins with a higher degree of grapheme-color synesthesia challenges the view of a generally more detail-focused attentional style in synesthesia and might be related to enhanced memory or mental imagery in more synesthetic individuals.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [227864]
- Electronic publications [107344]
- Faculty of Arts [28767]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [28468]
- Open Access publications [76463]
Upload full text
Use your RU credentials (u/z-number and password) to log in with SURFconext to upload a file for processing by the repository team.