Effects of motor action on affective preferences in autism spectrum disorders: different influences of embodiment

In the embodied cognition framework, sensory, motor and emotional experiences are encoded along with sensorimotor cues from the context in which information was acquired. As such, representations retain an initial imprint of the manner in which information was acquired. The current study reports results indicating a lack of embodiment effects in ASD and, further, an association between embodiment differences and ASD symptomatology. The current results are consistent with an embodied account of ASD that goes beyond social experiences and could be driven by subtle deficits in sensorimotor coordination.     

Asynchrony tolerance in the perceptual organization of speech

Researchers have claimed that listeners tolerate large temporal distortion when integrating the spectral components of speech. In some estimates, perceivers resolve linguistic attributes at spectral desynchronies as great as the duration of a syllable. We obtained new measures of perceptual tolerance of auditory asynchrony, using sine-wave synthesis in order to require perceivers to resolve the speech stream dynamically. Listeners transcribed sentences in which the tone analogue of a second formant was desynchronized relative to the remaining tones of a sentence, with desynchrony ranging from a 250-msec lead to a 250-msec lag. Intelligibility declined symmetrically from 72% at synchrony to 7% at 6100 msec. This finding of narrow asynchrony tolerance indicates a time-critical feature of the auditory perceptual organization of speech     

Socio‐economic status and handedness in two large cohorts of French adults

Left‐and right‐handers have coexisted since the Palaeolithic age. Hand preference is heritable. Moreover, there is extensive evidence of an association between left‐handedness and several fitness costs. In this context, the persistence of the polymorphism is interesting. Here, we explore the associations between socio‐economic status and handedness, analysing data from two large cohorts of adult men and women. Such associations are relevant to an evolutionary approach, as the socio‐economic and the reproductive value are related. Our results partly support the hypothesis that left‐handers have a socio‐economic status advantage, countervailing the health issues. Although the models explain a small proportion of the variance observed, the frequency of left‐handedness is significantly higher: (1) among women of higher educational level; (2) among categories of higher income; and (3) among individuals who have a higher position in the company. The importance of these findings for the evolution of the polymorphism of handedness is discussed.