Autistic masking is an emerging research area that focuses on understanding the conscious or unconscious suppression of natural autistic responses and adoption of alternatives across a range of domains. It is suggested that masking may relate to negative outcomes for autistic people, including late/missed diagnosis, mental health issues, burnout, and suicidality. This makes it essential to understand what masking is, and why it occurs. In this conceptual analysis, we suggest that masking is an unsurprising response to the deficit narrative and accompanying stigma that has developed around autism. We outline how classical social theory (i.e., social identity theory) can help us to understand how and why people mask by situating masking in the social context in which it develops. We draw upon the literature on stigma and marginalization to examine how masking might intersect with different aspects of identity (e.g., gender). We argue that although masking might contribute toward disparities in diagnosis, it is important that we do not impose gender norms and stereotypes by associating masking with a ''female autism phenotype.'' Finally we provide recommendations for future research, stressing the need for increased understanding of the different ways that autism may present in different people (e.g., internalizing and externalizing) and intersectionality. We suggest that masking is examined through a sociodevelopmental lens, taking into account factors that contribute toward the initial development of the mask and that drive its maintenance.

Impairments in social cognition are a key symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). People with autism have great difficulty with understanding the beliefs and desires of other people. In recent years literature has begun to examine the link between impairments in social cognition and abilities which demand the use of spatial and social skills, such as visual perspective taking (VPT). Flavell (1977) defined two levels of perspective taking: VPT level 1 is the ability to understand that other people have a different line of sight to ourselves, whereas VPT level 2 is the understanding that two people viewing the same item from different points in space may see different things. So far, literature on whether either level of VPT is impaired or intact in autism is inconsistent. Here we review studies which have examined VPT levels 1 and 2 in people with autism with a focus on their methods. We conclude the review with an evaluation of the findings into VPT in autism and give recommendations for future research which may give a clearer insight into whether perspective taking is truly impaired in autism.

Research into autistic masking has recently started to gain traction, showing that masking is related to late/missed diagnosis, and a selection of negative outcomes including burnout and suicidality in autistic people. Though masking is described as a social strategy, the application of social theory to understanding masking is sparse. In this analysis we review literature so far in light of the historical deficit focussed narrative of autism and make suggestions for how we can use social psychological theory to better understand what masking is. We discuss the role of stigma on identity expression, and how social theory can be applied to understanding which aspects of contextual identity shifts are harmful to autistic people. We also discuss issues around a gendered narrative of masking, including the exclusion of non-binary autistic people, and those whose autistic characteristics do not fit within a binary narrative. Finally, we make suggestions for future research, including the use of a multidimensional conceptualisation of masking that takes into account the role of internal and external aspects of masking, in interaction with the role of time as a developmental factor.

Background: Autistic masking is an emerging research area, and so far, research has suggested that masking has a negative effect on autistic people. Masking relates to general social practices (such as identity management) and is often driven by stigma avoidance. Many nonautistic people also experience stigma that might drive them to suppress aspects of their identity. In this study, we investigate similarities and differences in experiences of masking in autistic and nonautistic people. Methods: We conducted an online survey about experiences and views of masking in autistic people (n = 144), neurodivergent people without an autism diagnosis (n = 49), and neurotypical people (n = 45) recruited via social media. We used thematic analysis to analyze responses to open-ended items about masking, using an inductive approach, at a semantic level, with a critical realist paradigm. Results: Thematic analysis revealed that some aspects of masking are shared across autistic and nonautistic people, such as utilizing mimicry of others as a social strategy or feeling exhausted from masking. All groups reported that masking made them feel disconnected from their true sense of identity and had a negative effect on them. Other aspects of masking seemed more specific to autistic people, such as sensory suppression, and masking leading to suicidal ideation. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that many aspects of masking are experienced across different neurotypes and are likely related to outside perceptions of difference and stigma. It is likely that what we call ''autistic masking'' is similar to other forms of stigma management previously theorized. Some aspects of masking do seem more specific to the autistic neurotype (e.g., suppression of stimming) and should be explored further to provide support for autistic people recovering from the negative impact of masking.

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Personally significant and non‐significant low intensity sound stimuli were used to determine awakening latencies from sleep stages REM and 2. Latency was measured from stimulus onset to a) the sleeper's own acknowledgement of waking, and b) alpha rhythm onset. Both stimuli were presented twice, once in each sleep stage, to 8 Ss. Voluntary response latencies in REM were shorter than in stage 2 (p <.025) but no difference was found for the latency of alpha rhythm onset. The personally significant stimulus, however, caused a significantly shorter awakening latency using both criteria. The results suggest that perceptual thresholds are low in both sleep stages 2 and REM but that the ability or willingness to organize a response is greater in REM sleep.

1 Lay AbstractResearch has suggested that people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) may find it difficult to see things from different points of view (visual perspective taking). This experiment aimed to investigate why this is and whether children use different strategies in perspective taking tasks. Sixty children with and without ASC took part. Each child completed a perspective taking task in which they had to decide what a toy on a table would look like from different points of view; a mental rotation task in which they decided how a toy would look after it had been turned round; and a body matching task in which they had to match pictures of a person shown from different angles. Results showed that children with ASC performed better than typically developing children at mental rotation and at the same level in visual perspective taking and body matching. In children without autism, the ability to take another perspective was linked to how good they were at the body matching task, whereas in the ASC children perspective taking was linked to how good they were at mentally rotating objects. These results suggest that children with and without autism use different strategies when confronted with a visual perspective taking task, and are able to achieve similar levels of performance in different ways. shown from different viewpoints. Results showed that children with ASC performed better than the TD children on the mental rotation task, and at a similar level on the VPT task and body matching task. Importantly, in the typical children VPT performance was predicted by performance on the body matching task, whereas in the ASC children VPT performance was predicted by mental rotation ability. These findings suggest that differences in VPT in ASC may be explained by the use of a spatial rotation strategy rather than the embodied egocentric transformation strategy used by typical children. IntroductionWhen two travellers peer at a map from different locations, both can see the streets but it may take extra consideration to realise that 'ahead' to one viewer is 'left' to the other.Visual perspective taking (VPT) is the ability to consider another person's viewpoint on the world and is traditionally divided into level 1 VPT (can she see the object?) and level 2 VPT (what does it look like to her?) (Flavell, Everett, Croft, & Flavell, 1981). VPT2 is the process which the two map-readers must engage in to communicate effectively -it draws on both spatial skills to consider the map and social skills to consider what representations are in the other's mind. Recent research has shown that children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) perform worse than expected on a VPT2 task (Hamilton, Brindley, & Frith, 2009) compared to typically developing (TD) children. In the present paper, we explore and expand on this result with a new study which examines the strategies underlying VPT performance in typical and autistic children. There are a number of reasons to believe that people with autism may find EET difficult. Autism ...

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