An imbalance in cortical excitation and inhibition (E/I) may underlie both social and non-social symptoms of autism spectrum conditions (ASC). Recent work suggests that an E/I imbalance may underlie some of the sensory differences that are characteristic of ASCs such as anomalous perception. Binocular rivalry dynamics are thought to reflect the balance of E/I in the brain and could serve as a behavioural biomarker for ASC. Previous studies of clinical ASC populations have found a slower rate of binocular rivalry transitions; increased duration of the mixed percept and reduced perceptual suppression. There are some mixed reports of altered rivalry dynamics in the neurotypical population with high self-reported levels of autistic traits. Therefore, we used simple grating stimuli to measure binocular rivalry dynamics in a sample of seventy-nine adults aged 18-55 years. We additionally measured the level of autistic traits with the AQ-10 and used CAPS as a measure of anomalous perception. Bayesian correlations showed that those with higher AQ scores had a slower rate of perceptual switching and a longer mixed percept duration. Significant regression models with CAPS and AQ score revealed that AQ score was a significant predictor of switch rate and mixed percept duration, whereas CAPS was not. We also report that CAPS significantly predicted perceptual suppression, whereas AQ score did not. Overall, our findings suggest that in a non-clinical population, autistic traits are a predictor of binocular rivalry dynamics and the cortical E/I imbalance thought to underlie symptoms of ASC may extend to the broader phenotype.

中文翻译：

---

与高水平的自我报告的自闭症特征相关的双眼竞争动态表明皮层兴奋和抑制不平衡。

皮质兴奋和抑制（E / I）失衡可能是自闭症谱系症状（ASC）的社会和非社会症状的基础。最近的工作表明，E / I失衡可能是ASC特有的某些感觉差异（例如异常感知）的基础。人们认为双眼竞争动态反映了大脑中E / I的平衡，并且可以作为ASC的行为生物标记。先前对临床ASC人群的研究发现，双眼竞争过渡的速度较慢。增加了混合感知的持续时间并减少了感知抑制。有一些自传性水平高的自我报告水平的神经型人群中竞争动态变化的混合报道。因此，我们使用简单的光栅刺激来测量来自79个年龄在18-55岁之间的成年人的双眼竞争动态。我们还使用AQ-10测量了自闭症特征的水平，并使用CAPS来衡量异常知觉。贝叶斯相关性显示，那些具有较高AQ分数的人的感知转换率较低，混合感知持续时间较长。具有CAPS和AQ得分的显着回归模型表明，AQ得分是转换率和混合感知持续时间的重要预测指标，而CAPS则不是。我们还报告说，CAPS可以显着预测知觉抑制，而AQ得分则不能。总体而言，我们的发现表明，在非临床人群中，