ABSTRACT Synaesthesia, a mixing of the senses, is more common in individuals with autism. Here, we review the evidence for the association between synaesthesia and autism with regard to their genetic background, brain connectivity, perception, cognitive mechanisms and their contribution to exceptional talents. Currently, the overlap between synaesthesia and autism is established most convincingly at the level of alterations in sensory sensitivity and perception, with synaesthetes showing autism-like profiles of sensory sensitivity and a bias towards details in perception. Shared features may include a predominance of local over global connectivity in the brain. When autism and synaesthesia co-occur in the same individual, the chance of developing heightened cognitive and memory abilities is increased. We discuss how the same theoretical models could potentially explain both conditions. Given the evidence, we believe the phenotypical overlap between autism and synaesthesia has been established clearly enough to invite future research to confirm overlapping mechanisms.

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联觉和自闭症：重叠机制的不同发展结果？

摘要 联觉是一种感觉的混合，在自闭症患者中更为常见。在这里，我们从遗传背景、大脑连通性、感知、认知机制及其对特殊人才的贡献方面审查了联觉和自闭症之间关联的证据。目前，联觉和自闭症之间的重叠最令人信服地建立在感官敏感性和感知的改变水平上，联觉者表现出类似自闭症的感官敏感性特征和对感知细节的偏见。共享特征可能包括大脑中局部连接优于全局连接。当自闭症和联觉在同一个人中同时发生时，发展出更高的认知和记忆能力的机会就会增加。我们讨论了相同的理论模型如何潜在地解释这两种情况。鉴于证据，我们认为自闭症和联觉之间的表型重叠已经足够清楚，可以邀请未来的研究来确认重叠机制。