Alterations in Rapid Social Evaluations in Individuals with High Autism Traits

Becker, Casey; Caterer, Evangeline; Chouinard, Philippe A.; Laycock, Robin

doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04795-8

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Prior studies have found that quantifiable autistic traits are continuously distributed in typically developing individuals (Lazar et al, 2014;Sindermann et al, 2019) and that higher scores on the AQ questionnaire generally reflect a higher level of autistic traits (Ruzich et al, 2015). Individuals with high AQ scores (i.e., individuals with autistic traits or High-AQ individuals) exhibit social impairments similar to those exhibited by individuals with ASD (Poljac et al, 2012;Becker et al, 2021). Compared to individuals with low AQ scores (Low-AQ individuals), High-AQ individuals generally exhibit a reduced interest in social stimuli such as faces (Chita-Tegmark, 2016;Fogelson et al, 2019), eye gaze (Kliemann et al, 2010), social voices (Lepistö et al, 2005;Honisch et al, 2021), and social scenes (Chawarska et al, 2013;Chita-Tegmark, 2016;Tang J. S. Y. et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although several studies have shown that the perception of social stimuli is altered in individuals with ASD or autistic traits (Poljac et al, 2012;Chawarska et al, 2013;Robertson and Baron-Cohen, 2017;Tang J. S. Y. et al, 2019;Becker et al, 2021) these studies only used neutral social stimuli. Mental processing in individuals with ASD (Alaerts et al, 2013) or autistic traits (Azuma et al, 2015;Kerr-Gaffney et al, 2020) has been found to differ depending on the emotional valence of the stimulus, in that such individuals exhibit worse recognition of stimuli with negative rather than positive emotional valence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Altered Processing of Social Emotions in Individuals With Autistic Traits

Yang

Tao

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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Social impairment is a defining phenotypic feature of autism. The present study investigated whether individuals with autistic traits exhibit altered perceptions of social emotions. Two groups of participants (High-AQ and Low-AQ) were recruited based on their scores on the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ). Their behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by social and non-social stimuli with positive, negative, and neutral emotional valence were compared in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to view social-emotional and non-social emotional pictures. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to listen to social-emotional and non-social emotional audio recordings. More negative emotional reactions and smaller amplitudes of late ERP components (the late positive potential in Experiment 1 and the late negative component in Experiment 2) were found in the High-AQ group than in the Low-AQ group in response to the social-negative stimuli. In addition, amplitudes of these late ERP components in both experiments elicited in response to social-negative stimuli were correlated with the AQ scores of the High-AQ group. These results suggest that individuals with autistic traits have altered emotional processing of social-negative emotions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Processing of Social Emotions in Individuals With Autistic Traits

Yang

Tao

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…Growing evidence suggests that deficits in the processing of social information associated with ASD may fall on a continuum extending into the neurotypical population (Constantino and Todd, 2003;Skuse et al, 2005). Using selfreport questionnaires such as the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001), studies of neurotypical samples have found that higher endorsement of autism-spectrum traits is associated with impairments in social judgments (Ingersoll, 2010;Poljac et al, 2013;Becker et al, 2021), as well as changes to the structure and function of the superior temporal sulcus, a brain region linked to social perception (von dem Hagen et al, 2011;Nummenmaa et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peak frequency of the sensorimotor mu rhythm varies with autism-spectrum traits

et al. 2022

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by impairments in social perception and communication. Growing evidence suggests that the relationship between deficits in social perception and ASD may extend into the neurotypical population. In electroencephalography (EEG), high autism-spectrum traits in both ASD and neurotypical samples are associated with changes to the mu rhythm, an alpha-band (8–12 Hz) oscillation measured over sensorimotor cortex which typically shows reductions in spectral power during both one’s own movements and observation of others’ actions. This mu suppression is thought to reflect integration of perceptual and motor representations for understanding of others’ mental states, which may be disrupted in individuals with autism-spectrum traits. However, because spectral power is usually quantified at the group level, it has limited usefulness for characterizing individual variation in the mu rhythm, particularly with respect to autism-spectrum traits. Instead, individual peak frequency may provide a better measure of mu rhythm variability across participants. Previous developmental studies have linked ASD to slowing of individual peak frequency in the alpha band, or peak alpha frequency (PAF), predominantly associated with selective attention. Yet individual variability in the peak mu frequency (PMF) remains largely unexplored, particularly with respect to autism-spectrum traits. Here we quantified peak frequency of occipitoparietal alpha and sensorimotor mu rhythms across neurotypical individuals as a function of autism-spectrum traits. High-density 128-channel EEG data were collected from 60 participants while they completed two tasks previously reported to reliably index the sensorimotor mu rhythm: motor execution (bimanual finger tapping) and action observation (viewing of whole-body human movements). We found that individual measurement in the peak oscillatory frequency of the mu rhythm was highly reliable within participants, was not driven by resting vs. task states, and showed good correlation across action execution and observation tasks. Within our neurotypical sample, higher autism-spectrum traits were associated with slowing of the PMF, as predicted. This effect was not likely explained by volume conduction of the occipitoparietal PAF associated with attention. Together, these data support individual peak oscillatory alpha-band frequency as a correlate of autism-spectrum traits, warranting further research with larger samples and clinical populations.

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“…Prior studies have found that quantifiable autistic traits are continuously distributed in typically developing individuals [13,14] and that higher scores on the AQ questionnaire generally reflect a higher level of autistic traits [15]. Individuals with high AQ scores (i.e., individuals with autistic traits or High-AQ individuals) exhibit social impairments similar to those exhibited by individuals with ASD [16,17]. Compared to individuals with low AQ scores (Low-AQ individuals), High-AQ individuals generally exhibit a reduced interest in social stimuli such as faces [18,19], eye gaze [20], social voices [21,22], and social scenes [19,23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although several studies have shown that the perception of social stimuli is altered in individuals with ASD or autistic traits [16,17,23,25,26] these studies only used neutral social stimuli. Mental processing in individuals with ASD [27] or autistic traits [28,29] has been found to differ depending on the emotional valence of the stimulus, in that such individuals exhibit worse recognition of stimuli with negative rather than positive emotional valence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered processing of social emotions in individuals with autistic traits

Yang

Tao

et al. 2021

Preprint

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BackgroundSocial impairment is a defining phenotypic feature of autism. The present study investigated whether individuals with autistic traits exhibit altered perceptions of social emotions. MethodsTwo groups of participants (High-AQ and Low-AQ) were recruited based on their scores on the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ). Their behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERP) elicited by social and nonsocial stimuli with positive, negative, and neutral emotional valence were compared in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to view social-emotional and nonsocial-emotional pictures. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to listen to social-emotional and nonsocial-emotional audio recordings. ResultsMore negative emotional reactions and smaller amplitudes of late ERP components (the late positive potential in Experiment 1 and the late negative component in Experiment 2) were found in the High-AQ group than in the Low-AQ group in response to the social-negative stimuli. In addition, amplitudes of these late ERP components in both experiments elicited in response to social-negative stimuli were correlated with the AQ scores of the High-AQ group. LimitationsAlthough the influence of autistic traits on reactions to social or nonsocial emotional stimuli was assessed in an experimental setting, whether and how these reactions are related to real-world behavior requires further investigation. In addition, filler trials should be used to evaluate whether participants focused sufficiently on the emotional stimuli. ConclusionThese results suggest that individuals with autistic traits have altered emotional processing of social-negative emotions.

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Alterations in Rapid Social Evaluations in Individuals with High Autism Traits

Cited by 5 publications

References 76 publications

Altered Processing of Social Emotions in Individuals With Autistic Traits

Altered Processing of Social Emotions in Individuals With Autistic Traits

Peak frequency of the sensorimotor mu rhythm varies with autism-spectrum traits

Altered processing of social emotions in individuals with autistic traits

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