The ratio of male to female participants differed between the two groups. To ensure that the reported group effects were not

driven by gender differences, we also performed the above analyses without the female participants. For all but one test, the pattern of significant results was the same. In the case of the peripheral VEP P1, the amplitude difference between ASD and TD groups approached significance (t30 = 1.87, P = 0.072). As this trended in the predicted direction, Forskolin and the other tests replicated the main analyses, we interpret the data based on the main analyses. The current study examined visual processing of central and peripheral inputs in ASD children and adolescents. We hypothesized that their peripheral processing might be altered, as they often exhibit peculiarities in eye-fixation and eye-movement behavior, which probably influence the development of peripheral cortical visual representations. GSK2118436 cell line Under this hypothesis, processing of centrally fixated inputs should be largely unaffected, and indeed we found indistinguishable responses between TD and ASD groups for central stimulation for all stimulus types employed. This is not fully consistent with prior reports, as processing differences for central inputs have been reported (Boeschoten et al., 2007; Neumann et al., 2011). Notably, eye position is usually

not tightly controlled, as it was here. Thus, differences in cortical representation for different areas of space, or more variability in eye position in one group over the other, could partially account for these differences. In contrast to responses to centrally presented stimuli, we did uncover marked differences in visual responses to stimuli presented to peripheral

portions of the retina, a finding replicated Idelalisib datasheet across all three stimulus conditions. These peripheral differences reached significance in the timeframe of the P1, indicative of changes in early extrastriate visual areas during relatively early sensory–perceptual processing timeframes (Di Russo et al., 2002; Foxe & Simpson, 2002). The electrophysiological response in the P1 timeframe is generated by multiple visual cortical areas including V1, V2, V3 and V4 (Di Russo et al., 2002). On the other hand, the simple cortical magnification model introduced earlier is entirely based on measurements in V1. Nonetheless, work has shown a general maintenance of spatial mapping patterns across progressively higher levels of the cortical hierarchy, such that one would expect initially reorganized spatial maps to be maintained to at least some degree in later retinotopically mapped regions (Motter, 2009; Harvey & Dumoulin, 2011), although as receptive field sizes progressively increase along the hierarchy, an entirely strict one-to-one maintenance of initial mapping would seem unlikely.