Abstract
<p>There are many reports of differences in visual attention between individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurotypical individuals. The findings, however, are characterized by inconsistency. Part of this inconsistency is likely to reflect: (1) the use of complex tasks, that makes it difficult to establish which specific attentional functions are potentially altered, and (2) the use of measures based on reaction time that introduces a potential confound in terms of motor responses. To address these limitations, we compared attentional functions in a group of autistic adults (N = 39) and a group of matched non-autistic adults using a paradigm which makes it possible to quantify specific components of visual attention through a set of five theoretically independent parameters: (1) visual short-term memory capacity, (2) speed of visual processing, (3) the threshold of conscious perception, (4) efficiency of top–down control of attention, and (5) the spatial bias of attention. For neither parameter do we find group differences and the data were in most instances more likely under the null-hypothesis.</p>