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The Institute for the Future of Human Potential
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VOLUME LXXXII | OCT 2023

Untangling the Brain’s Perception Puzzle: How Autism Impacts Causal Inference

Our brain is like a puzzle solver, constantly processing information from the world around us. One important task it faces is integrating different sensory cues to form a coherent perception of our surroundings. This process, known as multisensory integration, helps us make sense of the world. However, the brain also needs to discern which sensory inputs are related to separate events, a challenge called the causal inference problem. The ability to solve this problem emerges as we grow and gain experience with different stimuli. For individuals on the autistic spectrum, who often have atypical experiences with sensory cues, this development may be affected. To explore this, scientists used a neurocomputational model to simulate how causal inference develops in both typically developing children and those with autism. The results showed that exposure to cross-modal cues during childhood accelerates the acquisition of causal inference abilities. Interestingly, individuals with autism who have less exposure to multisensory stimuli may reach full maturity in causal inference later than those without autism. These findings shed light on the interplay between sensory integration, developmental trajectories, and autism. The study also offers insights into the neural mechanisms underlying these processes. To learn more about this fascinating research and its implications for understanding autism, check out the full article!

In everyday life, the brain processes a multitude of stimuli from the surrounding environment, requiring the integration of information from different sensory modalities to form a coherent perception. This process, known as multisensory integration, enhances the brain’s response to redundant congruent sensory cues. However, it is equally important for the brain to segregate sensory inputs from distinct events, to interact with and correctly perceive the multisensory environment. This problem the brain must face, known as the causal inference problem, is strictly related to multisensory integration. It is widely recognized that the ability to integrate information from different senses emerges during the developmental period, as a function of our experience with multisensory stimuli. Consequently, multisensory integrative abilities are altered in individuals who have atypical experiences with cross-modal cues, such as those on the autistic spectrum. However, no research has been conducted on the developmental trajectories of causal inference and its relationship with experience thus far. Here, we used a neuro-computational model to simulate and investigate the development of causal inference in both typically developing children and those in the autistic spectrum. Our results indicate that higher exposure to cross-modal cues accelerates the acquisition of causal inference abilities, and a minimum level of experience with multisensory stimuli is required to develop fully mature behavior. We then simulated the altered developmental trajectory of causal inference in individuals with autism by assuming reduced multisensory experience during training. The results suggest that causal inference reaches complete maturity much later in these individuals compared to neurotypical individuals. Furthermore, we discuss the underlying neural mechanisms and network architecture involved in these processes, highlighting that the development of causal inference follows the evolution of the mechanisms subserving multisensory integration. Overall, this study provides a computational framework, unifying causal inference and multisensory integration, which allows us to suggest neural mechanisms and provide testable predictions about the development of such abilities in typically developed and autistic children.

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