Monotropism of attention in autistic children

Detection of new events occurring outside the focus of attention is fundamental to adaptive functioning and is most critical when attention is focused elsewhere. The unattended novel sensory events may demand further analysis according to their task relevance and may appear important for survival. Behavioral findings reviewed in this article imply that brains of many people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are, to a certain extent, impenetrable to such unattended but potentially salient changes in the immediate sensory environment. This deficit may lead to a spectrum of unusual behaviors that are typically observed in individuals with ASD, and, being considered from different perspectives, appear as arousal regulation problems, attention re-orienting difficulties or abnormal modulation of the behavioral response to sensory events.

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