Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and little is known about its neurobiology. Much of autism research has focused on the social, communication and cognitive difficulties associated with the condition. However, the recent revision of the diagnostic criteria for autism has brought another key domain of autistic experience into focus: sensory processing. Here, we review the properties of sensory processing in autism and discuss recent computational and neurobiological insights arising from attention to these behaviours. We argue that sensory traits have important implications for the development of animal and computational models of the condition. Finally, we consider how difficulties in sensory processing may relate to the other domains of behaviour that characterize autism.

自闭症是一种复杂的神经发育疾病，对其神经生物学知之甚少。自闭症的许多研究都集中在与疾病相关的社交，沟通和认知方面的困难。然而，自闭症诊断标准的最新修订使自闭症经验的另一个关键领域成为关注焦点：感觉处理。在这里，我们回顾了自闭症中感觉处理的性质，并讨论了由于关注这些行为而产生的最新计算和神经生物学见解。我们认为，感官特征对动物的发展和条件的计算模型具有重要的意义。最后，我们考虑在感觉处理上的困难如何与自闭症特征的其他行为领域相关。