Enhanced Metacognition in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder When Integrating Sensory Evidence and Rewards, but Not Prior Knowledge

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with complex and diverse impacts on cognition and behavior. Sensory symptoms are increasingly recognized as a core phenotype of ASD, yet the interrelation of these symptoms with cognitive processes remains poorly understood. At the intersection of perception and cognition is the process of perceptual confidence – the ability to evaluate the accuracy of one's own sensory experiences. However, few studies have explored perceptual confidence in ASD. Objective: This study aims to investigate the differences in perceptual metacognitive abilities between individuals with ASD and neurotypical (NT) controls. Using a Bayesian framework, we quantitatively assess how individuals with ASD integrate prior knowledge, sensory evidence, and reward in tasks requiring judgments of perceptual confidence. Method: Two groups of participants, ASD (n = 52) and NT (n = 93), performed an orientation categorization task, designed to evaluate each Bayesian component independently. We manipulated priors, sensory evidence, and reward by varying base rate, stimulus contrast, and a point system, respectively. Participants simultaneously reported the category orientation distribution of a Gabor stimulus and their perceptual decision confidence (four-level rating) by pressing one of eight keys. Results: Individuals with ASD showed enhanced metacognitive accuracy in experiments manipulating sensory evidence and reward, but not in the prior experiment. Furthermore, the type 2 decision criteria (i.e., probability of giving a high-confidence rating) was influenced by the manipulation of prior knowledge to the same extent between the two groups. Conclusions: Our study uncovers an important difference: enhanced metacognitive judgment abilities in individuals with ASD, specifically when integrating sensory evidence and rewards, but not in the context of prior knowledge. This reveals a key difference in how individuals with ASD reflect on and interpret their own perceptual processes.