Thinking in pictures account of autism: Insights from behavioural and neuroimaging research in adults with autistic-like traits

This thesis examines the hypothesis that people on the broader autism continuum show a strong cognitive bias towards using visuospatial mental representations rather than verbal representations. Using behavioural and neuroimaging methodologies, experimental studies were conducted to better understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying language and visuospatial functions in non-clinical adults with low versus high levels of autistic-like traits. Overall, the findings in this thesis provide preliminary evidence that relative advantages in visuospatial over verbal abilities in individuals with high levels of autistic traits are not associated with a visual thinking bias, and are not underpinned by atypical cerebral lateralisation.