Individuals with clinically relevant autistic traits tend to have an eye for detail

Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis are often described as having an eye for detail1. This observation, and the finding that individuals with ASD tend to see the trees before the forest when performing the Navon task2, has led to the proposal that ASD is characterized by a bias towards processing local image details3. However, it remains to be shown that natural image recognition in individuals with autism depends more on fine image detail. Here, we resolve this issue by showing that natural image recognition relies more on details in individuals with an above-median number of autistic traits. Furthermore, we found that reliance on details was best predicted by the presence of the most clinically relevant autistic traits. Therefore, our findings raise the possibility that a wide range of real-life abilities and difficulties associated with ASD are related to an enhanced reliance on visual details.