Although this model doesn’t satisfy the complete set of ASD symptomatology, it does explain some characteristics, such as the lack of flexibility, difficulties in planning and the generation of new ideas, and the presence of repetitive behaviors. As a result, researchers suggest using it as an explanatory theory of detail-focused cognitive processing.Ī complementary theory is the “executive dysfunction model”. However, this theory doesn’t explain the whole clinical picture that’s characteristic of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). They draw the individual parts in detail, one by one, instead of starting with a sketch of the global idea. These people tend to start their drawings focusing on all the details. Savant skills represent a very particular cognitive style.Įxperts have observed this in the neuropsychological evaluation of their drawing skills. This special ability to focus on details is evaluated using the task of the “masked figures” or the Cube Subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. By using this method, experts can focus on the special ability of people with ASDs to focus on details, to the detriment of their globalizing capacity of central coherence. Neuropsychological evaluation, which can ascertain whether there’s an alteration in the central coherence system, is a valuable aid to diagnosis. Instead of going from the general to the particular, they do things the other way round. They stop in order to focus on isolated parts, and, as a result, take longer to see the whole picture. This creates a clear disadvantage for them. Frith, people with ASD have difficulty interpreting situations by reading the intentions of participants from their eye movements, hand movements, and other contextual cues. Thus, their attention tends to focus on small details.Īccording to Dr. People with autism, or autism spectrum disorders, are characterized by fragmented processing. It attempts to explain the difficulty that people with ASD have in integrating information into a single coherent “whole”. This theory was formulated by Uta Frith in 1989, and Joliffe and Baron Cohen in 1999. This is why neuroscience has focused on the theory of weak central coherence. A prime example here is in people who have autism spectrum disorder or some condition affecting executive functions. However, some studies tell us that this doesn’t always occur. We don’t usually hone in on the nose, mouth, etc. For example, if we observe people’s faces, we usually observe them as part of a whole. We don’t generally notice the individual parts that make it up. In the same way, when we observe an object for the first time, we also observe its representation in a global way. Below, we’ll explain the theory of weak central coherence. We do this due to an executive function known as central coherence. Our semantic system represents it in its totality. Thus, we don’t look for it by its individual parts. When we look for an object and put all our effort into finding it, we do so by taking a global image of it as a reference. By default, we tend to process the objects around us in a global way.

Weak central coherence