A new promising account of human brain function suggests that sensory cortices try to optimise information processing via predictions that are based on prior experiences. The brain is thus likened to a probabilistic prediction machine. There has been a growing - though inconsistent - literature to suggest that features of autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) are associated with a deficit in modelling the world through such prediction-based inference. However empirical evidence for differences in low-level sensorimotor predictions in autism is still lacking. One approach to examining predictive processing in the sensorimotor domain is in the context of self-generated (predictable) as opposed to externally-generated (less predictable) effects. We employed two complementary tasks - forcematching and intentional binding - which examine self-versus externally-generated action effects in terms of sensory attenuation and intentional binding respectively in adults with and without autism. The results show that autism was associated with normal levels of sensory attenuation of internally-generated force and with unaltered temporal attraction of voluntary actions and their outcomes. Thus, our results do not support a general deficit in predictive processing in autism.

关于人脑功能的一个新的有希望的解释表明，感觉皮层试图通过基于先前经验的预测来优化信息处理。因此，大脑就像一个概率预测机器。越来越多的（尽管不一致）的文献表明，自闭症频谱状况（ASC）的特征与通过这种基于预测的推理对世界进行建模的不足有关。但是，仍然缺乏自闭症低水平感觉运动预测差异的经验证据。在感觉运动域中检查预测性处理的一种方法是在自身产生的（可预测的）上下文中，而不是外部产生的（较难以预测的）效应。我们采用了两个互补的任务-力匹配和有意绑定-分别针对有自闭症和无自闭症的成年人在感觉衰减和有意绑定方面检查了自我与外部产生的动作效果。结果表明，自闭症与内部产生的力的正常感觉衰减水平有关，并且与自愿行动及其结果的时间吸引力没有改变。因此，我们的结果不支持自闭症预测过程的普遍缺陷。