The Theory Of Central Coherence: What It Consists Of And How It Explains Autism
At every moment we receive an unimaginable amount of stimuli from the environment that our brain is responsible for processing.
But how is it possible to deal with this enormous amount of information, integrating it almost instantly? Part of this merit goes to the theory of central coherence a concept that we are going to explore in depth in the following lines.
To talk about the theory of central coherence we must go back to 1989, which was when psychologist Uta Frith, from University College London, coined this concept. According to Frith, Our brain always looks for a line of coherence in all the stimuli it captures from the environment through all the senses, to be able to integrate and group them quickly.
In this way, all the information with which we are bombarded at every moment is given form, creating sets of stimuli that have accessed through different routes (sight, hearing, etc.) and are automatically grouped to establish the coherence that we need to be able to understand the reality that takes place around us and that we perceive at all times.
Let’s imagine for a moment how chaotic it would be if we were not able to interpret that what our sight, our hearing or our touch perceives, at a given moment, is part of the same stimulus, and we could not establish a connection between all that information. This occurs in some individuals, those affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders, and is what Dr. Frith focused her research on. We will see it in the next point.
Weak central coherence theory
What Uta Frith discovered is that People affected by autism have difficulties applying this mechanism so for these individuals what she called weak central coherence theory would apply.
That is, part of the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders could be explained because these people would not have the ability (or it would be reduced) to automatically associate perceived stimuli to adapt them to common patterns.
This phenomenon often means that people who suffer from autism tend to focus their attention on very specific details of reality and not on the whole of the elements that make it up. This has the drawbacks that we have already seen, but in return it can generate a surprising effect, and it is an unthinkable ability in other individuals to process specific details.
Let’s remember the famous scene from the movie Rain Man, in which the character played by Dustin Hoffman, a man with a type of autism, sees the waitress at the restaurant where he is drop a box of toothpicks, scattering them all over the floor. He automatically knows that there are two hundred and forty-six, which, added to the four that have not fallen, complete the two hundred and fifty that there were originally.
In this example we can clearly observe an example of the theory of weak central coherence, which instead of grouping the stimuli into sets allows the person who suffers from it to focus on very specific details, such as the number of toothpicks on the ground. , in this case. A person who did not suffer from this pathology, unless they have a highly developed capacity, would have had to count the toothpicks one by one to know the exact number there were.
Concept Review
However, subsequent studies by psychologist Francesca Happé and Uta Frith herself, in 2006, changed the original vision of the concept of the theory of weak central coherence, presented 15 years earlier. This review led to three important changes, which are reflected in three new hypotheses in this regard We are going to review each of them to find out what these proposed changes consist of.
1. Superiority in local processing
The first hypothesis refers to a supposed superiority that would be occurring in local processing (those of concrete details) as opposed to central processing. That is, the vision would change the deficit that was believed to exist in the general processing, replacing it with a superiority in the processes of local elements so the perspective of the original question would be changing.
On the other hand, the new revision of the theory of central coherence, in this case weak, affirms that people who suffer from autism are not incapable of global processing of reality, but that they are They have a cognitive bias that makes them predisposed to use local processing more frequently and therefore they tend to focus on very specific details and not on sets of stimuli.
3. Social difficulties
The third change in perspective has to do with the difficulties in social interactions that subjects who suffer from ASD usually experience, and that is that the first vision of the theory of weak central coherence put this as the cause of said problems in interaction. with peers, while what the new perspective does is present this behavior as one more characteristic of cognition within people with autism
Other visions
But that is not the only revision that central coherence theory has undergone. In 2010, Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, specialized in the study of autism, updated the vision of this concept, adapting it to the new research carried out. In this sense, the most innovative modification was relate the theory of central coherence with that of connectivity
What this theory refers to is that individuals with autism spectrum disorders would have what is known as short-range hyperconnectivity instead of long-range. What does this translate into? In which these people have more neural networks dedicated to local, nearby connections
Another concept that it introduces is that of sensory hypersensitivity, which would explain why some people with autism have such a highly developed ability to find and analyze certain stimuli visually. The example of Rain Man and the chopsticks that we saw at the beginning would fit perfectly here. By having that sensory hypersensitivity and that abundance of neuronal connections, the individual can, at a glance, tell the exact number of chopsticks there are
Baron-Cohen’s is not the only vision different from Frith’s. We would also find, for example, the works of Peter Hobson, who provides a different point of view to the theory of central coherence in relation to the social relations abilities of people who suffer from autism spectrum disorders.
According to Hobson, as a general rule, all people are born with the ability to interact with our peers in an emotional way. However, subjects with autism would be born without this capacity, which would cause them the difficulties in relating that we had already mentioned before. What would be failing is an action-reaction process in which all human interactions of an affective nature are simplified
By not having this mechanism, a chain would begin that would make it difficult for the subject, as a child, to adequately recognize the emotions and intentions of others, which would make him lack vital training to have correct social skills as an adult that allow him to relate fluently with the rest of the individuals. It must be clear that these assertions are part of Hobson’s theory, and there are other points of view that diverge from them.
In conclusion
We have already explored the origins of central coherence theory, especially what is known as weak, as well as its different revisions and other theories related and even opposed to it.
The fundamental thing is that this theory allows us to understand in more detail some of the characteristics of the behavior of individuals with autism which is tremendously useful for everyone who works or lives with people belonging to this group.
Nevertheless, It is a field in constant development, new articles are continually published about the autism spectrum disorders that this and other theories mention, so we must remain updated with the studies that are carried out each year to always be aware of the most contrasted ideas and that best explain processes as delicate and as important as the ones we have been seeing throughout this article.
