Autism

The behavioural difficulties of individuals suffering from autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are diverse and are pointing at a fundamental underlying difference in cognitive processing. Previous studies found that autistic subjects prefer – and may have a special talent for – a more detail focused approach to perception than typically developed subjects. A term that has been coined to describe the preference in ASD to ignore context is “weak central coherence”, meaning that the binding of pieces of information from different regions of the brain into a “coherent” whole is weaker. In parallel to “central coherence” exists the concept of a “global workspace” in which information from all the functionally segregated parts of the brain is integrated, a process that relies fundamentally on long-range connections and the ability of the executive part of the brain to tap into and modulate regional functional processing. This conceptual analogy together with recent findings that ASD coincides with decreased long-range connectivity, is suggestive of altered workspace formation playing a role in autism.

Schematic representation of the Global Workspace concept (after Dehaene et al. 1998). Segregated and functionally encapsulated functional “processors” are supervised and regulated by the distributed Global Workspace network establishing long-range connections.