Audiovisual Multisensory Integration in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Publication date: Available online 1 October 2018Source: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsAuthor(s): Jacob I. Feldman, Kacie Dunham, Margaret Cassidy, Mark T. Wallace, Yupeng Liu, Tiffany G. WoynaroskiAbstractAn ever-growing literature has aimed to determine how individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differ from their typically developing (TD) peers on measures of multisensory integration (MSI) and to ascertain the degree to which differences in MSI are associated with the broad range of symptoms associated with ASD. Findings, however, have been highly variable across the studies carried out to date. The present work systematically reviews and quantitatively synthesizes the large literature on audiovisual MSI in individuals with ASD to evaluate the cumulative evidence for (a) group differences between individuals with ASD and TD peers, (b) correlations between MSI and autism symptoms in individuals with ASD and (c) study level factors that may moderate findings (i.e., explain differential effects) observed across studies. To identify eligible studies, a comprehensive search strategy was employed using the ProQuest search engine, PubMed database, forwards and backwards citation searches, direct author contact, and hand-searching of select conference proceedings. A significant between-group difference in MSI was evident in the literature, with individuals with ASD demonstrating worse audiovisual integration on average across studies compared to TD controls. This eff...
Source: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research