Chloe Ding¹ (), Benjamin Thompson^1,3, Andrew E. Silva^1,2; ¹University of Waterloo, ²Idaho State University, ³Centre for Eye and Vision Research

We previously observed a relationship between vision and autism quotient (AQ) scores in a group of 9-year old children born at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia (Silva et al., 2023). Both dorsal and ventral stream function were associated with AQ score in boys, but only dorsal stream function was associated with AQ score in girls. To further explore this potential association between vision, AQ score, and biological sex, we conducted an online study in adults. Our hypothesis was that the associations that we found in our cohort of 9-year-old children would be replicated in the adult population. 140 adults (101 neurotypical, 39 diagnosed with ASD, 65 female) completed an AQ questionnaire using the online platform Prolific. Of these, 87 participants completed an online motion discrimination task (dorsal stream), and 123 completed an online form discrimination task (ventral stream). In the motion task, participants indicated whether a stimulus composed of 100 dots moved left or right. In the form task, participants indicated whether a stimulus composed of 200 dots formed a circular or a rectangular Glass pattern. Coherence thresholds were assessed using a 2-down, 1-up staircase. We examined the relationship between AQ score and the two visual tasks with separate linear regressions, including terms for the interaction effect of sex. There was no effect of biological sex and no significant associations for form task thresholds. Lower autistic traits predicted better motion task performance (p = 0.041, r = 0.221). This correlation was driven by the AQ test’s “communication" subscore, (p = 0.026, r = 0.240). The associations between AQ, vision and biological sex that we observed in at-risk children were not replicated in our adult sample. However, an association between motion perception and AQ score was observed, indicating a link between visual processing and the expression of autistic traits.

Acknowledgements: NSERC Discovery Grant