What is Central Coherence?
In 1989, Uta Frith proposed the Weak Central Coherence Theory of autism. “Central coherence” was the term given to a human being’s ability to derive overall meaning from a mass of details. A person with strong central coherence, looking at an endless expanse of trees, would see “the forest.” A person with weak central coherence would see only a whole lot of individual trees.
It was Frith’s belief that other theories might account for the core deficits of individuals with autism, but could not account for their amazing strengths. For instance, some individuals with autism have “savant” skills –a remarkable ability in areas such as music, memory, or calculation. People on the spectrum tend to excel at focusing on extreme detail, and so are able to pick out a tiny element from a mass of complex data or objects. The notion of “weak central coherence” could explain both deficits and strengths. When a task required a person to extract global meaning from many details, to get the “big picture”, people with autism would be at a major disadvantage. When picking out extreme detail from surrounding masses of information was required, people with autism would be in a position to shine. They would be good at parts, but not at wholes.