We are thrilled to announce that PhD student Laurina Fazioli has published her first authored paper titled “Suboptimal but intact integration of Bayesian components during perceptual decision-making in autism” in the prestigious journal Molecular Autism (Fazioli, Hadad, Denison, & Yashar, 2025).
The Research
Laurina’s research focuses on visual perception and decision-making in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her current project, supervised by Dr. Amit Yashar and Dr. Bat Sheva Hadad, investigates how autistic individuals integrate prior knowledge and sensory information when making perceptual decisions. This framework, known as Bayesian perception, is a powerful tool for understanding how the brain combines different sources of information to arrive at a conclusion.
Key Findings
Laurina’s study employed psychophysical methods and computational modeling to examine how autistic and non-autistic individuals weigh sensory evidence and prior knowledge during perceptual tasks. The findings revealed that while autistic individuals showed suboptimal performance overall, their integration of these Bayesian components remained intact. These results challenge the notion that autistic individuals entirely lack the ability to integrate information probabilistically.
Applications
Laurina’s research helps to better understand perceptual decision-making in ASD. This knowledge can inform the development of targeted interventions to improve perceptual processing in individuals with ASD.
Congratulations Laurina!
Yashar Lab 