London – Autistic children have problems in perceiving the “number of elements of a set” (also called cardinality or numerosity), and adapt less easily to sensory information. A study recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals as much. Under the title “Children with autism spectrum disorder show reduced adaptation to number,” the University of Florence carried out the research in collaboration with the Fondazione Stella Maris Pisa and the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) in London. “In the study – explains David Burr, Professor of Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology at the University of Florence – we asked children with autism, aged between 7 and 14, to look closely at a cloud of dots. Normally, prolonged exposure to many objects makes groups presented afterwards appear less numerous (and vice versa). This phenomenon is called ‘visual adaptation to numerosity’. But autistic children – continues Burr – appeared to have a smaller adjustment to the number, when compared to children of the same age without autism. “(9Colonne)
