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. 2011 Mar;116(2):165-78.
doi: 10.1352/1944-7558-116.2.165.

Psychophysical assessment of timing in individuals with autism

Melissa J Allman  1 , Iser G DeLeon, John H Wearden
Affiliations

Psychophysical assessment of timing in individuals with autism

Melissa J Allman et al. Am J Intellect Dev Disabil. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Perception of time, in the seconds to minutes range, is not well characterized in autism. The required interval timing system (ITS) develops at the same stages during infancy as communication, social reciprocity, and other cognitive and behavioral functions. The authors used two versions of a temporal bisection procedure to study the perception of duration in individuals with autism and observed quantifiable differences and characteristic patterns in participants' timing functions. Measures of timing performance correlated with certain autism diagnostic and intelligence scores, and parents described individuals with autism as having a poor sense of time. The authors modeled the data to provide a relative assessment of ITS function in these individuals. The implications of these results for the understanding of autism are discussed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data points (empty and filled circles) and best fitting values from the model described in the text (dashed and solid lines) from participants with and without autism (respectively), in both versions of the task (upper panel: 1 vs. 4 s discrimination; lower panel: 2 vs. 8 s discrimination). Compar. = comparison group.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Derived individual values for participants with and without autism of the bisection point (upper panels) and Weber ratio (lower panels), on both versions of the task (left panels: 1 vs. 4 s; right panels: 2 vs. 8 s).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Obtained group data plotted on the same relative scale for participants with (upper panel) and without (lower panel) autism.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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