The term “central coherence” refers to the “neurotypical” (NT, i.e., non-autistic) tendency to pull information together and process information in context, looking for the “big picture” and drawing out meaning, often at the expense of details. By contrast, “weak central coherence” refers to the tendency in ASD to attend to and remember details rather than global form or meaning. Strengths-based formulations of the autism spectrum condition (ASC) view WCC as a cognitive processing style rather than a deficit. The neural basis for WCC is unknown but it is hypothesized that local rather than long-range connections are more fully developed (Happe, 2013).
