[Computational psychiatric approaches to autism].

Abstract

Objectives: Over the last decades studies on the field of computational neuroscience have been striving to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationship between the pathophysiological basis, the complex brain processes involved and the behavioural characteristics of a continuously expanding circle of mental and neurodevelopmental disorders, while focusing on predictive coding accounts. The purpose of this study is to uncover the different ways of creating representations of the world (priors) by people living with autism as well as the related neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms.

Methods: The study helps to understand the implications of the theory of predictive coding by reviewing the relevant scientific literature in a systematic manner. Three dominant hypotheses stand out in the current computational neuroscientific approach of autism: the sensory precision hypothesis, the weak priors hypothesis and the rigid priors hypothesis. This study analyses the relevant research findings in the context of these hypotheses. The literature review centers on the process of prior acquisition in the analyses of related findings.

Results: The analyses found several differences within the three main fields the included studies have been assigned to. The differences in the sensory precision (precision of processing) come from the special characteristics of processing perceptual information in autism. According to the weak prior hypothesis, past experiences cannot properly influence the processing of current information, the integration of relevant information thus limiting the effective use of preexisting knowledge. Finally we direct our attention to the empirical results pointing to problems of prior acquisition and updating by autistic people that could lead to unusual responses to environmental changes.

Conclusions: The study points to different developmental trajectories of predictive abilities by neurotypical and autistic populations. To better understand the developmental process of the predictive abilities, further studies are needed, comparing these differences in various ages.