The hypothesis that autistics may experience a degree of stimulus overload was supported by an experiment in which visual event-related potentials and cognitive effects were recorded for five male autistic children (ages 6-14 years) and five matched controls. (DB)

Analysis of 54 autistic patients and 72 controls found no intergroup differences in startle modulation by inhibitory or facilitatory prestimulation, short-term habituation of startle amplitude, long-term habituation of startle amplitude or latency, or unmodulated startle amplitude. Differences included prolongation of unmodulated startle onset…

The matching-to-sample performances of three young adults with autism and four children (ages four to nine) without intellectual disabilities were examined in three experiments using complex sample stimuli. Results for all subjects showed that each of two redundant relevant sample elements and their respective comparison stimuli were substitutable…

This study evaluated eye-blink conditioning in 11 persons with autism (ages 11 to 22). Compared to matched controls, persons with autism learned the task faster but performed short-latency, high-amplitude conditioned responses. Results suggest this population has the ability to rapidly associate paired stimuli but may have impairments in…

The visual event-related potentials and concurrently measured fixation times of 20 nonretarded autistic children (ages 5-15) were compared with those of normal children, "externalizers," and "internalizers." Autistic children had smaller P3 waves compared to normal controls. No intergroup differences were found in…