Global Motion Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis

Visual perception in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often debated in terms of enhanced local and impaired global perception. Deficits in global motion perception seem to support this characterization, although the evidence is inconsistent. We conducted a large meta-analysis on global motion, combining 48 articles on biological and coherent motion. Results provide evidence for a small global motion processing deficit in individuals with ASD compared to controls in both biological and coherent motion. This deficit appears to be present independent of the paradigm, task, dependent variable, age or IQ of the groups. Results indicate that individuals with ASD are less sensitive to these types of global motion, although the difference in neural mechanisms underlying this behavioral difference remains unclear.