Figure 1.
Design and results of the Coherent Dot Motion (CDM) task.
Panel A: Schematic representation of central and peripheral condition of the CDM task used in the present study. Panel B: Graph shows mean threshold as a function of group (ASD and TD) and condition (central and peripheral CDM). Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. * represents a significant difference revealed by planned comparisons (p<.05).
Table 1.
Descriptive statistics for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) groups.
Figure 2.
Design of the attentional zooming task.
Panel A (large cue condition) and B (small cue condition) show the two types of trials in the attentional zooming task employed in Ronconi and colleagues. [30]. Panel C and D reported a schematic illustration of how the attentional gradient was computed (i.e., a measure of the zoom-in/zoom-out mechanism). The gradient effect in the large cue represents a measure of the ability to enlarge the attentional focus (zoom-out), whereas the gradient effect in the small cue represents a measure of the ability to narrow the attentional focus (zoom-in).
Figure 3.
Results of the attentional zooming task showing: A) the mean reaction times as a function of cue size, eccentricity and group; B) the mean attentional gradient for ASD and TD groups as a function of cue size (large vs. small).
Error bars represent the standard error of the mean and * indicates a significant difference revealed by planned comparisons.
Figure 4.
Partial correlation plot showing the relationship between central (Panel A) and peripheral (Panel B) CDM threshold and attentional gradient in large cue condition (i.e. zoom-out attentional index), controlled for age and performance IQ.
Values on the x-axis represent the residuals of attentional zoom-out index. Values on the y-axis represent the residuals of threshold in the central CDM task.
Figure 5.
Partial correlation plots showing the relationship between the following: A) the threshold in the central CDM task and ADOS total interaction score; B) the threshold in the peripheral CDM task and ADOS total interaction score; C) the attentional zoom-out index and ADOS total interaction score.
Values on the x-axis represent the residuals of central CDM threshold (Panel A), of peripheral CDM threshold (Panel B) and of attentional zoom-out index (Panel C). Values on the y-axis represent the residuals of ADOS total interaction score.