Subclinical schizotypal vs. autistic traits show overlapping and diametrically opposed facets in a non-clinical population

Nenadić, Igor; Meller, Tina; Evermann, Ulrika; Schmitt, Simon; Pfarr, Julia‐Katharina; Abu‐Akel, Ahmad; Grezellschak, Sarah

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2021.02.018

Cited by 23 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…One way of conceptualizing such a tradeoff relationship between ASD and SSD is by estimating the relative expression (or bias) of ASD traits and SSD positive symptoms. We contrast ASD traits and SSD positive symptoms, since only positive symptoms of SSD have been shown to have diametric relations with ASD traits [ 21 , 22 ]. In healthy individuals, we have shown that the bias score—operationalized as the standardized difference between autistic traits and positive psychotic experiences— follows a curvilinear relationship and is sensitive to variations of socio-cognitive phenotypes in a dose-dependent manner [ 23 ], as well as to genotypic variations of genetic risk factors associated with ASD and SSD [ 24 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial functioning in the balance between autism and psychosis: evidence from three populations

et al. 2022

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Functional impairment is a core feature of both autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. While diagnostically independent, they can co-occur in the same individual at both the trait and diagnostic levels. The effect of such co-occurrence is hypothesized to worsen functional impairment. The diametric model, however, suggests that the disorders are etiologically and phenotypically diametrical, representing the extreme of a unidimensional continuum of cognition and behavior. A central prediction of this model is that functional impairment would be attenuated in individuals with mixed symptom expressions or genetic liability to both disorders. We tested this hypothesis in two clinical populations and one healthy population. In individuals with chronic schizophrenia and in individuals with first episode psychosis we evaluated the combined effect of autistic traits and positive psychotic symptoms on psychosocial functioning. In healthy carriers of alleles of copy number variants (CNVs) that confer risk for both autism and schizophrenia, we also evaluated whether variation in psychosocial functioning depended on the combined risk conferred by each CNV. Relative to individuals with biased symptom/CNV risk profiles, results show that functional impairments are attenuated in individuals with relatively equal levels of positive symptoms and autistic traits—and specifically stereotypic behaviors—, and in carriers of CNVs with relatively equal risks for either disorder. However, the pattern of effects along the “balance axis” varied across the groups, with this attenuation being generally less pronounced in individuals with high-high symptom/risk profile in the schizophrenia and CNV groups, and relatively similar for low-low and high-high individuals in the first episode psychosis group. Lower levels of functional impairments in individuals with “balanced” symptom profile or genetic risks would suggest compensation across mechanisms associated with autism and schizophrenia. CNVs that confer equal risks for both disorders may provide an entry point for investigations into such compensatory mechanisms. The co-assessment of autism and schizophrenia may contribute to personalized prognosis and stratification strategies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial functioning in the balance between autism and psychosis: evidence from three populations

et al. 2022

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“…In this work, we studied the relationship between both ASD and schizotypy traits, recently demonstrated to have overlapping characteristics (Ford et al, 2018;Abu-Akel et al, 2017;Nenadić et al, 2021), and their association with cognition and behaviour probed through a gravity tracking task (Meso et al, 2020). Both ASD and Schizophrenia have been found to disrupt ocular motor function (Barnes, 2008;Johnson, Lum, Rinehard & Fielding, 2016) and questions remain about the commonality of the specific disruption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Given the number of variables measured, we could not answer all questions of interest using standard correlations and hypothesis-based statistical tests without an explosion of familywise error. Like others (Nenadić et al, 2021, Meso et al, 2020 we took a data-driven approach and identified variables of interest for a correlation-based PCA. We selected a set of 21 measures from over 200 possible measures in the multivariate experiment including the AGE, the three main clusters of the SPQ, the five sub-traits of the SATQ, and eye tracking with both saccade and RMSE measures for the G and AG condition.…”

Section: Principal Component Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Large recent studies have shown that the two conditions are related and suggested that individuals with a clinical ASD diagnosis were about 3.5 times more likely to receive a concurrent diagnosis of schizophrenia (Zheng, Zheng & Zou, 2018). Similarly, overlaps have been identified in traits of both ASD and Schizotypy in healthy undiagnosed participants across multiple cultures (Abu-Akel et al, 2017;Nenadić et al, 2021). The heterogeneity of ASD and Schizotypy traits means that the overlap can also be separated into quite distinct clusters; for example, a first encompassing negative schizotypy and poor social communication (ASD), a second encompassing positive schizotypy and attention to detail (ASD) and a third with less specific overlap (Abu-Akel et al, 2017;Nenadić et al, 2021).…”

Section: Schizotypy and Asd Trait Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further research identified consistent overlapping and diametrically opposed facets of phenotypes. With a sample of N=640, Nenadić et al (2021) used Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to study multiple psychometric measures of schizotypy and ASD in a German and separate Swiss/French population. They identified loss of function and communication deficits as phenotypes of ASD traits showing convergence with negative and disorganized features of schizotypy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cognitive-perceptual traits influence use of physics laws to enhance visual motion tracking

Cooper

Meso

2023

Preprint

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Schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can disrupt cognition and consequently behaviour. Traits of ASD and the subclinical manifestation of schizophrenia, schizotypy, have been studied in healthy populations with overlap found in trait profiles linking ASD social deficits to negative schizotypy, and ASD attention to detail to positive schizotypy. Here, we probed the relationship between sub-trait profiles, cognition and behaviour, using a predictive tracking task to measure individual eye movements under three gravity conditions. 48 healthy participants tracked an on-screen bouncing ball under familiar gravity, inverted antigravity and horizontal gravity control conditions while eye movements were recorded and dynamic performance quantified. Participants completed ASD and Schizotypy inventories generating highly correlated scores, r = 0.73. All tracked best under the gravity condition, producing anticipatory downward responses from stimulus onset under gravity which were delayed upwards under antigravity. Tracking performance was not associated with overall ASD or schizotypy trait levels. Combining measures using Principal Components Analysis (PCA), we decomposed the inventories into sub-traits unveiling interesting patterns. Positive Schizotypy was associated with ASD dimensions of rigidity, odd behaviour and face processing, and which all linked to anticipatory tracking responses under atypical antigravity. In contrast, negative schizotypy was associated with ASD dimensions of social interactions and rigidity, and to early stimulus-driven tracking under gravity. There was also substantial nonspecific overlap between ASD and Schizotypy dissociated from tracking. Our work links positive-odd traits with anticipatory tracking when physics rules are violated, and negative-social traits with the application of expected physics.

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The effectiveness of a scientific reasoning intervention for conspiracy theory beliefs

Georgiou

Delfabbro

Balzan

2023

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs have become an important policy‐relevant research area since the events of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Increasing interest has been directed towards strategies that might reduce people's susceptibility to conspiratorial beliefs. In this study, we examined whether encouraging a stronger orientation towards critical scientific appraisal of conspiratorial accounts could reduce CT acceptance. After completing baseline measures of COVID‐19 related beliefs and analytical and scientific reasoning abilities, a total of 700 adults were randomly allocated to a control or scientific reasoning manipulation. People assigned to the scientific reasoning condition were found to display significantly lower CT belief endorsement post‐intervention as compared to the control group. As well as having implications for the design of future intervention studies, the results of this study encourage a greater focus on specific reasoning skills that may be amenable to a psychoeducation approach, in order to further develop methods to prevent CT beliefs.

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Subclinical schizotypal vs. autistic traits show overlapping and diametrically opposed facets in a non-clinical population

Cited by 23 publications

References 82 publications

Psychosocial functioning in the balance between autism and psychosis: evidence from three populations

Psychosocial functioning in the balance between autism and psychosis: evidence from three populations

Cognitive-perceptual traits influence use of physics laws to enhance visual motion tracking

The effectiveness of a scientific reasoning intervention for conspiracy theory beliefs

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