Individual autistic traits may affect scene-based categorical representation: evidence from an ERP study

Abstract

Contextual visual scenes facilitate semantic processing through top-down prediction, but it remains unclear how autistic traits modulate this cross-modal integration. We examined scene-word semantic integration in 30 neurotypical adults using event-related potentials (ERPs) and representational similarity analysis (RSA). Participants completed a passive scene-word congruency paradigm and were assessed for autistic traits (Autism-Spectrum Quotient; AQ), working memory and lexical proficiency. ERP analyses showed an N400 congruency effect, with incongruent spoken words eliciting greater integration costs than congruent words. Importantly, the N400 effect increased with AQ scores, indicating greater neural sensitivity to scene-category violations among individuals with elevated autistic traits. Complementary RSA showed that higher AQ scores predicted greater spatial consistency in neural response patterns across trials, independent of congruency. These findings suggest that autistic traits modulate both the temporal magnitude and spatial stability of multimodal semantic processing, highlighting the value of modelling neurodiversity as a continuous dimension.