In conclusion, on the basis of our combined EEG and fMRI findings, we believe that in autism during conditions of rapidly changing attentional demands, generalised arousal substitutes for dysfunctional early selective attention. This failure of early selection is reflected in a lack of inter-hemispheric differences in EEG signals that arise from secondary visual areas in inferior-lateral occipitotemporal cortex, and leaves irrelevant stimuli to be suppressed at a later stage of processing which is associated with activity in intraparietal sulcus.

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`fMRI Evidence for Generalised Arousal as a Substitute for Early Selection in Autism during Conditions of Shifting Visual Spatial Attention', Matthew Belmonte, 10 November 2001