Disrupted integration of exteroceptive and interoceptive signaling in autism spectrum disorder.

Studies have shown that individuals with autism have difficulty in separating auditory and visual events in time. People with autism also weight sensory evidence originating from the external world and from their body differently. We measured simultaneity judgments regarding visual and auditory events and between visual and heartbeat events. Results suggest that while individuals with autism show unusual temporal function across the senses in a general manner, this deficit is greater when pairings bridged between the external world and the internal body.