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Differential patterns of audiovisual integration in autistic and neurotypical adults: A mismatch negativity study

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Xiaoxiao Chen¹ (), Jarryd Osborne¹, Elia F Soto², Danielle Lynch¹, Hunter J Pyke¹, Sarah F Alamarie¹, Natalie Russo¹; ¹Syracuse University, ²Louisiana State University

Real-world perception requires integrating information across modalities, yet how brains process semantically incongruent bimodal inputs remains unclear. This study examined early multisensory processing in cognitively able autistic (n = 16; mean age = 22.56 years old) and neurotypical (n = 22, mean age = 19.78 years old) adults using EEG in a modified bimodal oddball task. Mismatch negativity (MMN), a negative-going ERP, offers a window into preattentive change detection and can reveal whether multisensory integration differences emerge at early, automatic processing stages. Participants viewed and heard meaningful animal pairings simultaneously: a standard ("meow-cat," 70%) and three deviants (10% each): meow-frog (visual deviant), ribbit-cat (auditory deviant), and ribbit-frog (audiovisual deviant yet semantically congruent). Mean amplitudes of difference waves (deviant − standard) quantified auditory, visual, and audiovisual mismatch responses, and fractional latencies characterized temporal dynamics. Both groups showed similar patterns for auditory and visual deviants. The autistic group exhibited attenuated visual MMN (mean = -0.98 uv) amplitude relative to neurotypical participants (mean = -1.44 uv). Temporal analyses indicated visual dominance (Colavita-like effect) across groups, with auditory difference waves peaking later in an N2-like window in 200 - 300 ms. Critically, neurotypical participants showed a clear audiovisual MMN, whereas autistic participants showed no reliable audiovisual MMN (t = -2.28, p = .028). Subsequent N400 analysis revealed semantic processing in neurotypical but not autistic participants, highlighting differential sensory integration mechanisms. Neurotypical adults' responses were driven by both stimulus frequency and cross-modal semantic relationships, whereas autistic participants showed sensitivity primarily to audiovisual semantic incongruence.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory