Meta-analytic evidence of differential prefrontal and early sensory cortex activity during non-social sensory perception in autism

•We meta-analysed the fMRI literature on non-social sensory perception in autism.•We identified 52 fMRI studies comparing 891 autistic and 967 typical participants.•Typical controls show more prefrontal activity during perception tasks.•Autistic people engage the extrastriate V2 more during visual processing.