Autism-related shifts in the brain's information processing hierarchy.

Abstract

Despite considerable research efforts, mechanisms of autism remain incompletely understood. Key challenges in conceptualizing and managing autism include its diverse behavioral and cognitive phenotypes, a lack of reliable biomarkers, and the absence of a framework for integration. This review proposes that alterations in sensory-transmodal brain hierarchy are a system-level mechanism of atypical information processing in autism. Hierarchies can account for diverse autism symptomatology and help explain common neurodevelopmental hallmarks, notably a shift away from socially biased information processing, and an enhanced role, autonomy, and performance of perception. A hierarchical reference frame can also subsume spatially heterogeneous neuroimaging findings and make conceptual contact with foundational theories of cortical information processing, thereby consolidating behavioral, cognitive, computational, and neural characteristics of the condition.