Intact Audiovisual Spatial Integration in Autism: Lessons from Brain and Behavior

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dc.contributor.advisorWallace, Mark
dc.contributor.committeeChairCascio, Carissa
dc.contributor.committeeChairPolyn, Sean
dc.creatorVassall, Sarah Gibran
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-0393-8155
dc.date.accessioned2025-09-26T11:09:10Z
dc.date.created2025-08
dc.date.issued2025-05-30
dc.date.submittedAugust 2025
dc.description.abstractIn addition to the core features of social communication impairments (SCI) and patterns of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBIs), autism is characterized by changes in sensory processing, including in the integration of information across the different sensory modalities. While there is significant evidence that audiovisual (AV) integration is altered in the temporal domain in autism—and that these differences are associated with presentation of SCI and RRBIs—very little is known about how autistic individuals integrate AV information in the domain of space. We conducted a free-response AV spatial localization task in autistic and non-autistic children aged 7-17 years with EEG collection to understand AV localization abilities, as well as how these abilities relate to SCI, RRBIs, and other clinical features of autism. While we found no group differences in AV spatial performance, an exploratory analysis revealed three clusters of autism features that were significantly predictive of performance across groups: a motor/somatosensory cluster, a sensory responsivity cluster, and a social communication cluster. Similarly, a model comparing participant performance to optimal integration as measured by maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) revealed no group differences, but rather that children more broadly may be suboptimal in their integration of spatial stimuli. Interestingly, EEG power analyses did reveal differences in how autistic and non-autistic children may be processing AV spatial information, including different patterns of posterior and anterior activity in AV conditions. From our primary studies, we suggest that while autistic children with low support needs may have similar ability to integrate AV signals in space, they may be using alternative neural mechanisms to achieve this. Other chapters discuss autism in the context of predictive coding, as well as the lack of sampling diversity in multisensory research to date. We provide suggestions for more inclusive sampling and experimental approaches and possible directions for future research.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1803/19886
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectautism
dc.subjectmultisensory
dc.subjectaudiovisual
dc.subjectspatial integration
dc.subjectEEG
dc.subjectmaximum likelihood
dc.subjectdiversity
dc.titleIntact Audiovisual Spatial Integration in Autism: Lessons from Brain and Behavior
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialtext
local.embargo.lift2026-02-01
local.embargo.terms2026-02-01
thesis.degree.disciplineNeuroscience
thesis.degree.grantorVanderbilt University Graduate School
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.namePhD
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