Equal accuracy, different brains: autism study reveals distinct feedback processing

Autistic and non-autistic adults can judge simple sounds with the same accuracy, yet their brains handle the aftermath of each decision in strikingly different ways. That is the central finding of a new international study led by Prof. Merav Ahissar of the Hebrew University’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), published in JNeurosci. The research, which combined behavioral measurements with real-time recordings of electrical brain activity, suggests that the core differences associated with autism may lie not in the ability to perceive information accurately, but in how the brain evaluates experiences and uses them to guide future decisions.

The study set out to answer a deceptively simple question: what happens in the brain when it receives feedback about a mistake? Participants listened to pairs of tones and identified which was higher in pitch. After every answer, they received immediate feedback telling them whether they were correct or incorrect, while researchers recorded their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). Thirty-three autistic adults and thirty-five non-autistic adults took part in the initial experiment.

Both groups achieved similar accuracy, approximately 70 percent, on the auditory task. Given that equal performance, one might expect the underlying neural machinery to look alike as well. It did not. The researchers identified three significant differences in how the autistic and non-autistic brains responded to the same stream of feedback, difficulty and success.

The first difference concerned negative feedback. When autistic participants learned they had answered incorrectly, they showed a markedly reduced brain response measured through an electrical signal known as feedback-related negativity, or FRN. This signal, which typically spikes shortly after a person learns of an error, was blunted in the autistic group, indicating that the neural reaction to being wrong differed even though overall performance did not.

The second difference involved decision difficulty. In non-autistic participants, brain responses varied according to how difficult a particular decision had been, suggesting that the brain continuously tracks its own confidence in each choice. Autistic participants showed significantly weaker sensitivity to task difficulty, meaning their neural responses changed far less depending on how hard the decision felt.

The third difference emerged in how participants used recent experience. Non-autistic participants adjusted their subsequent decisions more strongly following easy and successful trials, apparently giving greater weight to information they could reliably trust. This adjustment was substantially weaker in autistic participants, pointing to a difference in how recent, trustworthy outcomes shape the decisions that follow. Together, the findings suggest that autism involves differences in how the brain evaluates both external feedback and its own estimates of decision reliability.

To confirm that these were not one-off effects, the researchers conducted a follow-up experiment one to two years later with 51 participants. All three differences were replicated, and each showed stability within individuals across sessions. Notably, the three measures were not significantly correlated with one another, suggesting that they reflect distinct neurocognitive processes rather than a single underlying mechanism. When the measures were combined in a machine-learning model, they distinguished between autistic and non-autistic participants with approximately 80 percent accuracy, although the researchers emphasize that the findings do not establish a diagnostic tool for autism.

“Our findings suggest that the differences associated with autism are not necessarily in the ability to perceive information accurately, but in how the brain evaluates experiences and uses them to guide future decisions,” explained Prof. Ahissar. “We identified several distinct processes that may help us understand why adapting to rapidly changing situations can be more challenging for autistic individuals.”

The study contributes to growing evidence that autism involves differences not only in sensory processing, but also in how the brain evaluates experiences and updates expectations. Importantly, the researchers stress that the findings do not suggest autistic individuals perceive information less accurately or cannot learn from feedback. Rather, they point to differences in how recent information influences subsequent decisions, a distinction that could reshape how scientists think about behavioral flexibility in autism.

By isolating three separable, stable signatures of feedback processing, the study offers new insights into the mechanisms underlying behavioral flexibility in autism and may help explain why adapting to changing environments can be more demanding for autistic individuals. The work, published on 26 October 2026 under DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0315-26.2026, potentially paves the way for a deeper understanding of how the brain learns from experience.

Subject of Research: Differences in neural feedback processing between autistic and non-autistic adults during perceptual decision-making

Article Title: Autism study finds equal accuracy but different brain responses

Article References: Autism study finds equal accuracy but different brain responses. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: autism, EEG, feedback-related negativity, perceptual decision-making, neurocognitive processes, behavioral flexibility, JNeurosci, auditory task, brain responses, Hebrew University, finds, equal