Autistic traits and sensitivity to interference with flavour identification.

The team asked adults with no autism diagnosis to taste drinks. Some drinks had matching colour and flavour. Others had fake colour, like orange-coloured cherry soda.

Each person also filled out the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). This form measures how many autism-like traits a person shows.

Adults who scored high on the AQ made more mistakes naming the flavour when the colour lied. The wrong colour acted like static on a radio.

The higher the trait score, the harder it was to ignore the fake cue.

Bishop et al. (2022) saw the same pattern with speech. High AQ scores predicted harder-to-understand vowels in neurotypical women. Both studies show that more traits equal more sensory noise.

Lancioni et al. (2009) flips the coin. They found high AQ scores helped people solve block-design puzzles faster. One task hurts, one task helps. The difference is the kind of task: blocking out vs. zooming in.

Nisticò et al. (2023) moved the idea into diagnosed autistic adults. Visual and taste hypersensitivities predicted eating-disorder symptoms. The 2013 lab result now shows real-life stakes.

If you test feeding skills, hide the cup colour or use clear liquids. A bright red cup could mask cherry flavour for clients with high autistic traits. Strip the visual noise and you get a cleaner read on true taste preference.