Detrimental ‘’Sensitivity’’ framework misses the positive performance, role and autonomy of autistic perception

ABSTRACT

Perception in autism is associated with positive emotions and intense interests, but sensory hypersensitivity represents a limited and poorly representative aspect of what characterizes autistic perception, which is a strength. An enhanced role of perception contributes to written and oral language learning, and to higher-order intelligence. However, perceptual atypicalities are highly domain- and individual-specific, which makes it risky to elaborate general physiological models of autistic perception in the current state of knowledge and phenotype delineation.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism
• perception
• sensitivity
• Enhanced Perceptual Functioning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Chaire de recherche Marcel et Rolande Gosselin en neurosciences cognitives et autisme de l’Université de Montréal [SFMECH40].