The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) suggests humans learn through visual and auditory sensory channels. Haptics represent a third channel within CTML and a missing component for experiential learning. The objective was to measure visual and haptic behaviors during spatial tasks. The haptic abilities test (HAT) quantifies results in…

Purpose: Restricted and repetitive behaviours are a core feature of autism diagnoses but have not been widely studied in adulthood. This study examined the rates of and associations between repetitive behaviours and sensory sensitivity in autistic and non-autistic adults; and whether repetitive behaviours described as "stimming" impacted…

Driving at an inappropriate speed is a major accident cause in the EU. Understanding the underlying sensory mechanisms can help to reduce speed and increase traffic safety. The present study investigated the effect of visuospatial stimuli on speed perception using an adaptive countermeasure to speeding based on a manipulation of optic flow. We…

We aimed to identify unique constellations of sensory phenotypes for genetic etiologies associated with diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). Caregivers reported on sensory behaviors via the Sensory Profile for 290 participants (younger than 25 years of age) with ASD and/or ID diagnoses, of which…

The present study explored the relationship between biological motion (BioM) processing, motor skills, and autistic traits within a non-clinical sample of 621 adults (18-73 years, 51.8% female). Results indicated that adults with greater autistic traits also endorsed difficulties associated with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) in…

Predictive coding theories suggest that core symptoms in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may stem from atypical mechanisms of perceptual inference (i.e., inferring the hidden causes of sensations). Specifically, there would be an imbalance in the precision or weight ascribed to sensory inputs relative to prior expectations. Using three tactile…

Educators have seen an increase in school-based programs focusing on students' social and emotional well-being. Research indicates that students who participate in such programs improve academically compared to their peers. This article focuses on the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs that was designed with a dual focus on artistic and…

This study characterizes the subcortical auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR) and cortical auditory processing (P1 and Mismatch Negativity; MMN) to speech sounds and their relationship to autistic traits and sensory features within the same group of autistic children (n = 10) matched on age and non-verbal IQ to their typically developing (TD)…

Music performance is an intensive sensorimotor task that involves the generation of mental representations of musical information that are actively accessed, maintained, and manipulated according to the demands of the performance. Internal representations and external information interact through feedback and feedforward processes that adjust the…

We explored sensory features as distinguishing characteristics of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Four groups of males (n = 36): Six with 47, XYY syndrome and ASD (XYY+ASD), six with 47, XYY syndrome and no ASD (XYY-ASD), 12 with idiopathic ASD (ASD-I) and 12 typically developing (TYP). The short sensory profile (SSP) the sensory challenge…

Interoceptive accuracy has been widely measured using the Heartbeat Tracking Test (HTT). We devised the novel paradigm of Interoception-Exteroception Synchronicity Judgement (IESJ) task to assess participants' interoceptive accuracy, exteroceptive accuracy, and the balancing score which reflected the ability to allocate attentions between…

Several studies have explored the use of iconic gestures to improve the learning of foreign vocabulary. In this quest, words for abstract concepts have been largely neglected, under the assumption that abstract concepts have poor or non-existent sensory-motor representations. Yet, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory suggests that they are grounded on…

The present paper addresses the study of non-arbitrariness in language within a deep learning framework. We present a set of experiments aimed at assessing the pervasiveness of different forms of non-arbitrary phonological patterns across a set of typologically distant languages. Different sequence-processing neural networks are trained in a set…

Sensory abnormalities (SAs) are recognized features in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and a relationship between SAs and ASD traits is also suggested in general population. Our aims were to estimate the prevalence of SAs in three different settings, and to study the association between SAs and quantitative autism traits (QAT) using the Autism…

The purpose of this study was to compare the sensory-processing patterns of preterm and term children at 6 years of age. The sensory profile (SP; W. Dunn, 1999) was used to evaluate sensory-processing patterns. We compared the section and factor SP scores of 118 preterm children with those of 158 term children at 6 years of age. Preterm children…