Circumscribed interests in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A look beyond trains, planes, and clocks

Abstract

Adolescence is a unique developmental period, characterized by physical and emotional growth and significant maturation of cognitive and social skills. For individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it is also a vulnerable period as cognitive and social skills can deteriorate. Circumscribed interests (CIs), idiosyncratic areas of intense interest and focus, are a core symptom of ASD that may be associated with social development. Yet, relatively little is known about the expression of CIs in adolescents with ASD. Many studies investigating CIs have used images depicting items of special interest; however, it is not clear how images should be customized for adolescent studies. The goal of this study was to gain insight into the types of images that may be appropriate for studies of CIs in adolescents with ASD. To this end, we used a mixed methods design that included, 1) one-on-one interviews with 10 adolescents (4 with ASD and 6 TD), to identify categories of images that were High Autism Interest (‘HAI’) or High Typically Developing Interest (‘HTD’), and 2) an online survey taken by fifty-three adolescents with ASD (42 male) and 135 typically developing (TD) adolescents (55 male) who rated how much they liked 105 ‘HAI’ and ‘HTD’ images. Although we found a significant interaction between ‘HAI’ and ‘HTD’ categories and diagnosis, neither group significantly preferred one category over the other, and only one individual category ('Celebrities') showed a significant group effect, favored by TD adolescents. Males significantly preferred ‘HAI’ images relative to females, and TD adolescents significantly preferred images with social content relative to adolescents with ASD. Our findings suggest that studies investigating affective or neural responses to CI-related stimuli in adolescents should consider that stereotypical ASD interests (e.g. trains, gadgets) may not accurately represent individual adolescents with ASD, many of whom show interests that overlap with TD adolescents (e.g. video games).

Special interests and subjective wellbeing in autistic adults

“…The most frequently endorsed interest topics, including computers and games, music, nature and gardening is consistent with the Empathising‐Systemising theory of autism [Baron‐Cohen, ], which argues that autistic individuals display strength in their systemising skills, or the drive to understand and construct systems. The results also fit with recent research indicating that autistic individuals may not display interests that are as stereotypical as once described [Cho et al, ]. Interestingly, autism was also reported as one of the top special interests identified within the sample.…”

What interests young autistic children? An exploratory study of object exploration and repetitive behavior

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Reduced White Matter Fiber Density in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…We collected MRI data from 27 participants with ASD and 31 TD participants between the ages of 14 and 20 years (Table 1 ), who participated in a larger study ( Cho et al 2017 ). Exclusion criteria were contraindications to MRI and a history of neurological or psychiatric symptoms for the TD participants, though one TD participant was included who self-reported dyslexia.…”